Sunday, July 11, 2010

This Weeks Breeder Reports, Questions and Tips

Please use this post for unrelated questions, breeder reports and tips.

Tips
This German roller weaning age chick fails to grip with its back toe on the right leg. Standing or perching it will not open up the back claw. This is often commonly called "slip claw".

The left leg is normal but the right back toe is frozen forward.

To fix this problem, I taped the back toe in proper position with paper tape. I will change the tape weekly and each time mold it more in a semi-circular normal position.

Photos by Robbie Hogan, my grandson from Arizona. This is Robbie's 15th birthday today!!


Questions

Monday

1.With the end of the breeding season now upon us how do you get hens to stop laying,nesting and get them to start moulting ?

Friday

Richard's Roost said...
Gwen wrote
Hi Linda, I have very recently bought my first color fed canary
she is beautiful, a rich salmon color, I bought some coloring agent locally called pastochemi R
I cannot read the forien language on the box, at any rate she will not eat it...she picks around and leaves it in the dish, she decided to nest, I am very surprised I thought she would molt, her trip out of the pet store was very stressful as I am her second buyer, she has what I am gona call a sneeze/cough she goes psst psst psst, I had her on baytril, but when I put that in the water my birds drink very little, it smells very bitter I am sure it doesn't taste good, so when she went to laying I changed back to plain water as I think a hen needs lots of water to make eggs, she laid only one egg, I do have a male in with her so I am letting her sit.
Guess I need to know what that psst psst psst is all about, I had a bird a few years back that did that a lot throughout his life, I had him to the vet and used baytril but never got it cleared up for him, he lived a long life
he was my very first canary, my vet did not seem to concerned about this as he was bright eyed and ate and sang thru it all. I am concerned about this hen, the psst psst psst, and I am not liking the look in her eye, do you have any suggestions? as soon as I know if her egg is fertile or not I need to treat this, I tried boosting her beneficial bacteria 1st
I have also tried a product called tonic and bitters, no change....
any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated

Blogger Linda Hogan said...

Gwen

I am not familiar with that coloring agent. I use Bogena.

I would treat her and try to get her healthy and not stress her with breeding. Baytril is a good antibiotic but with numerous infectious agents that cause respiratory problems, it may or may not work. It is worth a try..

De-stress the bird and try petamine and do not try to breed it. Baytril might work.

The eye problems may be due to Mycoplasma and if so they will not respond to many antibiotics, may require tylosin.

Antibiotic eye drops can often clear it up too. I find that even if I get it cleared up, stress of breeding will usually bring on more eye problems for the "cured" bird.

July 17, 2010 10:13 AM

Delete

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda
With the end of the breeding season now upon us how do you get hens to stop laying,nesting and get them to start moulting ?

Anonymous said...

I had to deal with slip claw once, had a single hatchling and I didnt even notice it till the bird left the nest, thank goodness I had your book at that time, I made thin strips of tape and did it just like the book said, and it took along time but I still have that bird and his foot is normal. think it may have taken an extra long time because I was late to start the treatment, the bird would get the tape off about once a week so made it easy to see how we were progressing, Thank You Linda, for all the great tips and information

Gwen

Linda Hogan said...

Most birds have definitely decided that breeding season is over and are dropping long feathers. Seeing long feathers generally means the molt is coming in about a month.

Some hens in particular just won't give up laying eggs and sitting on their nests!

As soon as I have all the chicks eating on their own, I immediately in one day turn off all artificial lights. The only light in the aviary is what comes through the sky lights and double window and door on the south and one double window on the west. It is not dark but pretty much like any room in the house during the day time when no lights are on. Shortening of day length is a natural message to stop breeding and start molting and the only difference is I do it suddenly so their can be no doubt. If that doesn't work, I put black satin sheets over the windows...

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda, I have very recently bought my first color fed canary
she is beautiful, a rich salmon color, I bought some coloring agent locally called pastochemi R
I cannot read the forien language on the box, at any rate she will not eat it...she picks around and leaves it in the dish, she decided to nest, I am very surprised I thought she would molt, her trip out of the pet store was very stressful as I am her second buyer, she has what I am gona call a sneeze/cough she goes psst psst psst, I had her on baytril, but when I put that in the water my birds drink very little, it smells very bitter I am sure it doesnt taste good, so when she went to laying I changed back to plain water as I think a hen needs lots of water to make eggs, she laid only one egg, I do have a male in with her so I am letting her sit.
Guess I need to know what that psst psst psst is all about, I had a bird a few years back that did that alot throughout his life, I had him to the vet and used baytril but never got it cleared up for him, he lived a long life
he was my very first canary, my vet did not seem to concerned about this as he was bright eyed and ate and sang thru it all. I am concerned about this hen, the psst psst psst, and I am not liking the look in her eye, do you have any suggestions? as soon as I know if her egg is fertile or not I need to treat this, I tried boosting her benifical bacteria 1st
I have also tried a product called tonic and bitters, no change....
any suggestions you have would be greatly apprieciated

Thanx Linda

Gwen

Anonymous said...

Has anyone tried using split bands instead of tape? I tried super gluing the toe back and literally became one with the bird :)

Linda Hogan said...

Gwen

I am not familiar with that coloring agent. I use Bogena.

I would treat her and try to get her healthy and not stress her with breeding. Baytril is a good antibiotic but with numerous infectious agents that cause respiratory problems, it may or may not work. It is worth a try..

De-stress the bird and try petamine and do not try to breed it. Baytril might work.

The eye problems may be due to Mycoplasma and if so they will not respond to many antibiotics, may require tylosin.

Antibiotic eye drops can often clear it up too. I find that even if I get it cleared up, stress of breeding will usually bring on more eye problems for the "cured" bird.

Anonymous said...

Linda
The lady saying her new hen had a sneeze/cough/psst-psst noise - I don't antibiotics or tylan will cure that - Sounds like lung mites.
She needs ivermectin or Scatt and treat at least twice for that.
One of my softbills had problems for 2 months and I took it to the vet, lung mites. I never even dreamed it was lung mites, usually I think of finches and canaries with that problem. Within 3 days after the first treatment, much improved, but I have had to treat again at 14 days.
Deb