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Canary can't grow feathers right, just huge blackheads and curly feathers- Sad Update Post #7

lancerguy

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Hello all, I have exhausted all possible avenues to try and figure out what is wrong with one of my canaries. The canary is a red agate canary. She lives in an indoor aviary with a crested canary and 4 gouldian finches. The other birds are all healthy, have excellent feather production and color. We got them all 2 years ago so age is approximately the same on all of them. We have no avian vets in our area but there are a few that are 2-3 hours away. I called EVERY vet in a 3 hour radius to see if they would see her. Some requested pictures, but they all declined to see her.

I'm hoping someone can give me some insight into what her issue is and how to remedy it or if we need to have her put down.

For diet, they have free access to Kaylor enriched seed mix (We mix canary and finch seed together) and they have daily access to fresh fruits and veggies, egg food, and millet strands. They have drinking and bath water. During moulting season we use Nekton BIO for their feather production.

So, the issue is that she has several spots where her feathers won't grow in correctly. The follicles are HUGE (like 1mm wide holes) and the feathers that come out of them look like giant blackheads. If we let the feathers grow, they grow curled and matte up into big balls. When we pull them out of the follicles they come right out with no resistance and leave gaping holes in her skin. She has 'pockets' of these on her sides (under wings) and on the back of her neck. She also has keratin masses on the tips of her 'shoulder area (like the top corner of wing closest to her face) These keratin masses are black and incredibly hard. When we excise them with tweezers she tends to bleed. Many times these keratin masses can be identified as the black base part of a dysfunctional feather, as described above.

I really hope someone has experience with this type of issue and can guide me in the correct direction. We have been pulling these out and excising the masses for a few months now but she does not seem to be improving. Not sure if it is hereditary or a lack of nutrients or what?
 

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finchly

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These look like feather cyst to me. Do you agree?

if you’re mixing canary and finch food, its too fatty for her. Do you give any vitamins or supplements?

Also, the agates are a specially bred type of bird, this could just be from mixing intensive / non intensive feathers or plain old inbreeding.

Normally a vet should operate to prevent them from recurring.
 

lancerguy

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These look like feather cyst to me. Do you agree?

if you’re mixing canary and finch food, its too fatty for her. Do you give any vitamins or supplements?

Also, the agates are a specially bred type of bird, this could just be from mixing intensive / non intensive feathers or plain old inbreeding.

Normally a vet should operate to prevent them from recurring.
Yes unfortunately I agree they look like feather cysts.

I have not thought to give her additional vitamins other than nekton during the molt as the other (crested) canary has good feather production. What would you recommend for vitamins? Do you think I could split the canary and finch food and they'd prefer theirs?
 

finchly

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all I can tell you is my canaries greatly prefer their own food. My finches don't care, they eat anything!

during molt, a good product to use is Feather Fast, by Morning Bird. The rest of the year I use Nekton-S. Also read up on feather cysts, I've never had them in my own birds, there's probably a lot of information available.

EDIT: I re-read and see that you're using Nekton Bio. Try the feather fast...but I have a feeling this is a condition not solved with vitamins.
 

lancerguy

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Thanks for your input finchly! I am going to take her out of the aviary and put her in her own cage so we can more easily try some vitamins and diet changes. Unfortunately I do not think it will solve the issue either but with no avian vet within 3 hours I don't have a lot of options so I'm definitely willing to try it out.

I have scoured the internet for information and watched every single video on Youtube about feather cysts as well. What I've read is there is no way to prevent them from recurring without surgically removing the follicle. The follicle always regrows a feather when the feather is removed. She has so many areas of these I don't think that would be a viable option even if we did somehow manage to get to a vet somewhere several hours away.

Anyway, thanks so much for the input!
 

expressmailtome

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If you tell us the general area of where you live someone may know of a veterinarian that is close by that is experienced with birds even if they are not avian certified.
 

lancerguy

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Just wanted to follow up on this since we now have a vet that sees birds. We took her in to be looked at and the vet thinks it's a genetic issue. They aren't quite 'feather cysts' yet because we have been tending to them every couple of weeks BUT they are deformed / defective feather follicles and there is no cure since there are so many on her body and she seems to get more over time. The vet said it would probably just continue to progress until she died from a secondary infection due to us plucking them OR from a cyst forming.

The vet felt like she was in paid based on her limited movement (she never moves) but other than that she was healthy. We decided to have her put to sleep since she was in constant pain and there wasn't really anything we could do other than stress her every couple of weeks by removing her and plucking.

Just wanted to post so anyone else with something similar has the feedback I received from the vet.
 

Destiny

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Thank you for sharing this information and I am very sorry for your loss.

Facing that kind of no-win situation is one of the hardest parts of owning animals. For what it is worth, it sounds like you made the right choice. I have been there and I feel for you.
 

expressmailtome

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I am sorry for your loss.
 

Sparkles99

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I’m sorry to hear about this. It’s a no win situation.
 

camelotshadow

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So sorry, but the condition did look painful. :sadhug:

You did what you could do to help & least now she is free of it.

Fly free lil angel.

:sorrow:
 

sunnysmom

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I am very sorry for your loss.
 

finchly

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I'm just seeing this. I'm really sorry. Sometimes - it's out of our control. FWIW I think you made the best decision.
 
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