Hi folks. I tried posting this on another thread but got no response. I'll try here.
My Illiger's macaw began sounding very hoarse around a couple of months ago. His voice was distinctly affected, and I saw him sneeze up a bit of a colored discharge. There was no other sign of illness, weakness, or lethargy. He hates his travel cage, and the nearest avian vet is quite a distance away, but off we went. The vet prescribed karidox, a kind of antibiotic, once a day. You will probably have heard of it as a general antibiotic.
My bird isn't caged. He free-flies in a large room. He is also very wary of syringes and any kind of medication that might come out of them. However at dusk, he flies up to the curtain rail to sleep. I devised a routine. I placed a step ladder next to the window. Late each evening, when he was fast asleep, I would sneak in to his room, slip up the ladder, and in his drowsy state, he would accept "a wee scoosh" (a short squirt) of the required dose into his opened beak.
This went on for two months, and his voice didn't seem to improve. I found a much nearer general vet who was prepared to work on my bird under the direction of her colleague in the avian vets, thus saving the long journey, and stress on the bird. She performed a throat swab and sent it away to a laboratory for analysis. The result showed that the bird had an infection of Pasteurella. However, this was apparently sensitive to Karidox. The vet prescribed some more of the same strength, and advised to simply continue for another month, after which, if there was no improvement, we would have to return to the avian vet for further investigation.
The vet also suggested using F10 in a nebuliser. As my bird hates being contained in a small space, where a nebuliser spray would be most effective, I had to think of a way to get the spray close enough to my bird to have any effect. He loves coming into the shower with me. I decided to put a "lid" on the shower compartment, making it a kind of waterproof chamber. I take a chair in there, sit with the bird without turning on the shower, and allow the nebuliser spray to fill up the chamber. I am hoping the exposure to the F10 combined with the Karidox antibiotics will overcome his nasal/throat infection.
There isn't much information out there in the net about Pasteurella. It seems most prevalent after a bird has been bitten or injured by a cat or dog. My bird hasn't been anywhere near a cat or a dog. Does anyone have experience of this bacteria? On the positive side, there was no sign of fungal or secondary infections, but I don't want to be complacent. Thanks.
My Illiger's macaw began sounding very hoarse around a couple of months ago. His voice was distinctly affected, and I saw him sneeze up a bit of a colored discharge. There was no other sign of illness, weakness, or lethargy. He hates his travel cage, and the nearest avian vet is quite a distance away, but off we went. The vet prescribed karidox, a kind of antibiotic, once a day. You will probably have heard of it as a general antibiotic.
My bird isn't caged. He free-flies in a large room. He is also very wary of syringes and any kind of medication that might come out of them. However at dusk, he flies up to the curtain rail to sleep. I devised a routine. I placed a step ladder next to the window. Late each evening, when he was fast asleep, I would sneak in to his room, slip up the ladder, and in his drowsy state, he would accept "a wee scoosh" (a short squirt) of the required dose into his opened beak.
This went on for two months, and his voice didn't seem to improve. I found a much nearer general vet who was prepared to work on my bird under the direction of her colleague in the avian vets, thus saving the long journey, and stress on the bird. She performed a throat swab and sent it away to a laboratory for analysis. The result showed that the bird had an infection of Pasteurella. However, this was apparently sensitive to Karidox. The vet prescribed some more of the same strength, and advised to simply continue for another month, after which, if there was no improvement, we would have to return to the avian vet for further investigation.
The vet also suggested using F10 in a nebuliser. As my bird hates being contained in a small space, where a nebuliser spray would be most effective, I had to think of a way to get the spray close enough to my bird to have any effect. He loves coming into the shower with me. I decided to put a "lid" on the shower compartment, making it a kind of waterproof chamber. I take a chair in there, sit with the bird without turning on the shower, and allow the nebuliser spray to fill up the chamber. I am hoping the exposure to the F10 combined with the Karidox antibiotics will overcome his nasal/throat infection.
There isn't much information out there in the net about Pasteurella. It seems most prevalent after a bird has been bitten or injured by a cat or dog. My bird hasn't been anywhere near a cat or a dog. Does anyone have experience of this bacteria? On the positive side, there was no sign of fungal or secondary infections, but I don't want to be complacent. Thanks.
Of course you remember that ML...