Rescue with mites

[Mel_la_fee]

I generally rehab wild mammals. I’ve done a few wild birds but none that were abandoned or abused pets. Someone brought me a quaker parrot/parrotlet recently and all parrot rescue facilities remotely close to me were full and the really good one had a waiting list. So for the time being I have to take care of this baby as best I can myself, but obviously parrots are not a specialty of mine. The closest avian specialist to me is over an hour away and prohibitively expensive. I’m still willing to take her there, but I won’t have the money for a good while and this bird is so traumatized I don’t even know how to get her into a carrier. I explained the symptoms this girl exhibits to my usual vet (who is not an avian specialist but is very good with exotics generally): restless at night, excessive preening, heavy breathing, and plucking. She suggested mites were the issue but she didn’t want to give a prescription without at least seeing the bird and again, my vet is not a specialist and I have no idea how to get this girl to her office anyway.
So, I bought a spray on Amazon, assuming if it’s widely available and well reviewed for mites it’s probably pretty safe. But every time this bird sees the bottle, she starts screaming and throwing herself against the sides of her cage. I’m guessing her previous owner used something similar but hurt her somehow- maybe spraying her in the eyes or something? I’m honestly just guessing- but in any case, the bottle frightens her and I have tried multiple times over the past two weeks but I cannot bring myself to try spraying her when she’s in an agitated state.
Now, I do have ivermectin. The .1% for cattle because I have dosed it for squirrels and other wildlife in the past, but never on birds and I know they have much more delicate systems when it comes to medications and antiparisitics. I’ve been researching my options and they are:

1. Wait until she acclimates to me and I can use gloves or food bribes to convince her into a carrier to get her to the vet- there will be some extended time here because she doesn’t trust anyone now and I can’t afford the specialist. My own vet isn’t particularly cheap either but she gives me a discount for rescues so it’ll be $500 instead of $1000 and as long as it’s just mites we’re dealing with -she can give me the prescription I need.
2. Try toweling her and spraying her even though she doesn’t let anyone close enough to properly towel her (I mean, if it’s the best option I can still try)
3. Try toweling her and dropping ivermectin on her- this makes me nervous (and again, toweling her would be a stressful experience overall).
4. Dose her water with ivermectin for a day or maybe only a few hours and hope that resolves or limits the mite issue until I get the money to see the specialist/vet.

Obviously, by the way I’ve worded it, dosing her water is my preferred method here. But if one of the other methods I’ve mentioned is legitimately better, I’ll try that instead. I’m at a point where I don’t even take in new rescues because I try to provide the best care possible to every squirrel, opossum, kitten, or raccoon that crosses my path and everything is more expensive now and I already have several non-releasables that need constant medication and strict diets. I didn’t ask for a traumatized bird to be dropped into my lap. That stated- in just a few weeks I’ve grown very attached to her. I usually raise animals to survive on their own and release them, so I’m used to getting to a point where they still rmember me but don’t want to be touched or handled and definitely don’t trust people overall. It’s my job to get them to that point so they have the best chance of making it. She isn’t a wild bird though, so my goal this time has to be to treat her and de-escalate her trauma response. And while she doesn’t like me yet, I can tell we’re making headway on the trust issue. I have a disabled squirrel in the same room and every time the squirrel gets up and starts looking for food, the parrot calls out. The squirrel is used to her schedule so I’m usually already on my way with food, but if I’m even a few minutes late, I hear squawking. As soon as I enter with food and feed the squirrel, the parrot settles back into muttering or preening. I think it’s cute. I might be anthropomorphising here, but it feels like she recognizes her co-inhabitant is hungry and is trying to alert me. That might just be in my head but it does seem to be pretty consistent.

Anyway, any advice here would be welcome. If you think dosing her with ivermectin could be safe, please dm the instructions. I’ve dosed animals that weigh less than her, but mammals metabolize medication very differently from birds so I wouldn’t want to make a mistake. I clean her cage constantly but it hasn’t seemed to help much. Also, if I should just wait, then I can do that too. It unnerves me because she might have to live with mites for another month or possibly longer but I’ll defer to any expert on the matter.
Thanks!

 

[Shezbug]

Very possibly screaming when the squirrel moves as I believe squirrels may eat birds from time to time?
I’ve observed all my birds being uneasy around any animal that is a predator.

Is there another room you could keep this bird in?

@Mizzely might have some advice for the mite treatment or know of other options for rescues that might take this little one.

 

[Mizzely]

I would definitely be sure that it's actually mites first. They would be visible near the feather shaft.



Parrots are naturally neophobic and afraid of things they don't have experience with. So reacting to the spray bottle is not necessarily a sign of trauma. A LOT of birds do not like to be sprayed.

My Quaker and Hahns Macaw hated squirrels and would scream anytime they saw one out the window.

My closet avian vet is 3.5 hours away. However, you may be able to find a vet that has experience with birds closer that the specialist. All bird vets in my experience are expensive.

There are some online vets that may be able to give you dosing information. I've never personally had a bird with mites and I would be uncomfortable suggesting an amount myself.

 

[Mel_la_fee]

Very possibly screaming when the squirrel moves as I believe squirrels may eat birds from time to time?
I’ve observed all my birds being uneasy around any animal that is a predator.

Is there another room you could keep this bird in?

@Mizzely might have some advice for the mite treatment or know of other options for rescues that might take this little one.

The squirrel is disabled and no, they don’t eat birds anyway. I mean, I guess it would depend on what country you’re in and what type of squirrel as well as if the bird was a hatchling…but this is a full-grown quaker. She is far more likely to injure the squirrel rather than the other way around. They are in different cages on opposite sides of the room anyway and she doesn’t scream every time the squirrel moves- if that were the case she’d be squawking all the time. It’s only at the squirrel’s feeding time. Otherwise she makes clicks and coos and generally seems curious as to what the squirrel is doing. Definitely no fear there. Like I said, she seems to have picked up on the schedule and ‘goes off’ only if I’m running late. I considered putting her in another room initially, but I live with my brother and in any other room you can hear him being up in the middle of the night. In the room she’s in now it’s just the two of them, it’s quiet, and I have black-out curtains so she can go to bed at a reasonable time.

 

[Shezbug]

The squirrel is disabled and no, they don’t eat birds anyway. I mean, I guess it would depend on what country you’re in and what type of squirrel as well as if the bird was a hatchling…but this is a full-grown quaker. She is far more likely to injure the squirrel rather than the other way around. They are in different cages on opposite sides of the room anyway and she doesn’t scream every time the squirrel moves- if that were the case she’d be squawking all the time. It’s only at the squirrel’s feeding time. Otherwise she makes clicks and coos and generally seems curious as to what the squirrel is doing. Definitely no fear there. Like I said, she seems to have picked up on the schedule and ‘goes off’ only if I’m running late. I considered putting her in another room initially, but I live with my brother and in any other room you can hear him being up in the middle of the night. In the room she’s in now it’s just the two of them, it’s quiet, and I have black-out curtains so she can go to bed at a reasonable time.

Oh ok, sorry, I am not actually familiar with squirrels (we do not have them) I was just going off the few things I did read when I did a quick google search.

If you believe she has mites then it really is best to do what you need to sooner rather than later, if that means catching, crating and vetting then so be it. You really do not want your home infested with mites and you do not want her to become sick with them.

Heavy breathing and plucking make me feel like you really need to have this bird checked up by an avian vet asap.

 

[Mel_la_fee]

I would definitely be sure that it's actually mites first. They would be visible near the feather shaft.

Parrots are naturally neophobic and afraid of things they don't have experience with. So reacting to the spray bottle is not necessarily a sign of trauma. A LOT of birds do not like to be sprayed.

That’s very interesting. But good to know it might not be trauma after all. Not that that makes it much easier to handle her!

My Quaker and Hahns Macaw hated squirrels and would scream anytime they saw one out the window.

I wondered if it was a good idea to put them in the same room myself, but from the first day she’s been generally curious and/or ambivalent about the squirrel. Or even the many squirrels and other birds right outside the window (I put wild feed out on the bannister so she sees them constantly and so far the worst thing is that she imitates the blue jays- which are not particularly lovely sounding birds). She’s only ever been really agitated when a feral cat walked by the window (I immediately went out and chased it away- both for her and because of the other things I feed out there) and then when I bring out that fricking spray bottle. Even though she doesn’t like to be handled, she doesn’t even squawk at me that way- she just gets defensive and ‘bitey’. But generally I’d say she’s pretty calm and talkative. That spray though- I swear she loses her mind every time she sees it. It’s such a reaction compared to how she is the rest of the time that I was sure the bottle had something to do with it.

I dunno. I haven’t had her long so it’s possible she’ll get to where I can handle her soon and get her into a carrier. I just hate to think there’s something I could be doing even sooner. I know her previous owner kept her in an outdoor enclosure so I’m pretty sure she’ll have to be treated for parasites at some point regardless.

 

[Mel_la_fee]

Heavy breathing and plucking make me feel like you really need to have this bird checked up by an avian vet asap.

Yeah- that seems to be the only option. Her cage is very large though, so trapping her is going to be a real struggle.