Monday, January 18, 2010

Update on Canary Nare Problem

Remember this pic and post from December 10th, 2009?

This photo was sent in by a blogger who requested your input on this problem. She has been working with a vet and has given the bird a full round of Baytril with no apparent change. She has since soften it a bit and taken off some of it. It seems keratin-like in consistency to her. (Click on photo for enlargement.)

I personally had never seen this problem. I have looked at my vet books and saw some similar problems in other birds. These were causes by such things as dietary deficiency of vitamin A to various kinds of infections such as Hemophilus or Mycoplasma to mites.

See December 10th post for the blogger comments received...


Gwen's Story:

"I noticed the problem in June or July, at first it was a small cone shape on his nare, brown and fleshy, it grew slowly over the summer. When I had him vet checked it was still sorta close to his face, supple and brown, fleshy moved like a little elephant trunk when I touched it, vet didn't know just what it was and had never seen anything like it and felt no treatment was the way, she said wait and see.....I started using an antibiotic ointment coating it a couple times a week, thinking it might have something to do with the mite that is so common with canary feet ( I had seen pics of parakeets with bad scaly faces) The ointment had no effect and the horn was still growing and had started drying out, turning somewhat white, and hardening. The bird was shaking his head a lot, as it had to look around this thing. Not sure how long I used the ointment with no result.

In November, I called another vet just to see what the office visit would be and they said it sounded like mites or bacterial infection, it was then I decided to try the Baytril, I ran the Baytril for 14 days, and continued with the ointment once a week, hoping to soften and remove the long hard growth as by this time that thing was at least 1/2 inch long and making both of us crazy. Baytril went from 11/8-11/21.

On December 1st, I was doing the ointment and checking to see if it was softening my nail went right through and I got half of the growth to come off, I tossed it in the trash....should have looked at it closely, it had the keratin like quality, seemed stringy and powdery I managed to get more of it off of him that day too in small chunks, I continued with the ointment for a few more weeks after that, but have stopped that now too. as the weeks go by I am seeing improvement, very slow to go away, his nare is still not normal but is so much better,"

Gwen, your bird has improved a great deal and I hope he continues to improve. It really takes persistence and you have stuck with trying to help him.

I would treat him with ivomec (ivermectin) just to be sure it is not mite related. To treat for mites: Use .5 cc (ml) ivomec 1% injection solution for treatment and control of internal and external parasites in cattle and swine (do not use ivomec plus solution) in 8 ounces of water. Mix well. Use as the only water for 24 hours and repeat treatment after 10 days. On the day of the treatment do not offer bathes or feed any extra besides its regular seed mix.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda, I do have some ivermectin but it is old I would say I have had it for atleast 6 years, does that stuff expire like other medications ? Frisky is doing great, still slow to get all the growth off but it is not reforming and I am still hopeful, his legs and feet look pretty good I will try to get them in the next picture I take, will consider the Ivermectin and let you know
Thanx, Gwen

Linda Hogan said...

Hi Gwen,

The expiration should be printed on the bottle. Recently, I decided to use some ivomec and it was expired by several years. Not knowing its effectiveness, I went an purchased a new one.