# Aquadox/ Doxycyline treatment?



## Lucy's Flock (Nov 6, 2012)

I talked to an Avian Vet about diseases in birds and he recommended to me that before I take my tiel into my bedroom, to do a 3 week quarantine and give her a daily dose of Aquadox/ Doxycyline to get rid of diseases such as Psitaccossis and the like. Is this a method practiced my members here?


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## birdsoo (Jul 4, 2012)

It depends. In some countries, conclusive testing for psittacosis on pet birds isnt done or is not available in every part of the country. So some people go for such a treatment for possible diseases during quarantine but I am not sure if it is such a good idea. Quarantine is recommended for a few reasons and one of them is to see if the bird has a disease while keeping everyone else safe. If the bird has a disease or a problem that requires something else, or has symptoms/secondary infections, such antibiotic use can either cause more damage or mask the actual problem.

Where do you live? Is psittacosis a common problem there that an avian vet recommends doxy just like that???


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

so, theyre asking you to quarantine the bird before moving to your bedroom. do you have other birds?  if you only have one bird, then i am not sure why you would have to quarantine


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It sounds like he wants a preventative treatment done but as birdsoo said the issue with this is that if the bird is sick, this will mask whatever it was that was making them sick. It may cure it or it may make it worse. I wouldn't give anything during this period and keep an eye on the bird instead.


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## Lucy's Flock (Nov 6, 2012)

He recommended doxycycline because I told him I wasn't sure if my bird was sick or not, so he told me to give the bird doxycycline to be sure to cure any the diseases the bird has.


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## Lucy's Flock (Nov 6, 2012)

I could ask the shop owner to keep an eye on the bird while I'm gone to see if she presents any symptoms of diseases then treat it accordingly


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

thing is, doxycycline doesnt treat everything. there are bacterial infections, viruses, fungal infections... and they all require different kinds of medications. even different kinds of bacterial infections require different antibiotics. 


so unless your bird is sick and has been tested positive for psittacosis, i would not treat the bird as a preventative. i would also find a new vet, this one sounds like he may be out for money


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Also, if your bird doesn't have psittacosis now and develops the disease later, then the doxycycline may not be as effective of a treatment any more. 

I don't think you should treat a bird who isn't exhibiting any symptoms of disease. 

With Allie, we treated her for psittacosis without testing first..BUT she was incredibly thin and was sneezing more than I was comfortable with. Plus, Texas had an outbreak of the disease 6 years ago so it may be more common around here than other areas.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I told him I wasn't sure if my bird was sick or not


Does she have any symptoms? If she does, please tell us about them. If she doesn't have symptoms, there's no point in worrying about it and no reason to give her medications. When medicine is taken unnecessarily, it can cause problems in the body, for example messing up the bacterial flora in the gut.


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## Lucy's Flock (Nov 6, 2012)

I talked to the vet over the phone so I guess he wasn't sure what I was trying to ask of him. This is my first time trying out this vet. The bird seems healthy, she's super active and loves to play with the tiel with her in the cage. She also likes to eat a lot


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

In that case you're better off to not give her medicine. Medicine won't cure a bird that isn't sick, and it's not worth the stress to the bird and the expense.


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## Lucy's Flock (Nov 6, 2012)

Thank you, everyone, for clearing it up for me. I'm sure the vet was just mistaken.


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