Friday, September 5, 1997

Are These Strawberries Keepers? #2

The idea of taking birds back to any store is quite repugnant to us, but we have done so when situations have warranted it. The jury is still out on the strawberry finches, I'm afraid. Let me explain...

We now know the reason Max, the male gold breasted waxbill, took a dislike to the two new strawberry finches. In the couple of weeks we've had the strawberry pair, both have begun to change colour. Observing this change, we can only assume that both are male.

It doesn't matter to us humans if they're both male, but it might matter to the two strawberry finches as well as to Max. The less coloured strawberry had begun to pluck the head feathers from the other, so now the plucker has been removed into one of the smaller cages. Do we exchange the male plucker for a bird we hope is a female? Do we wait for four weeks to pass then reintroduce the plucker and see what happens then? What if the two breeding coloured males fight with each other or with the gold breasted waxbill male? So many variables, so much unknown territory. All we can do really is wait it out a little longer and hope we have made the right decision.

Red Eared Waxbill Pair Added #1

Okay, okay. We couldn't help ourselves, could we? Of course we could have. All we would have had to do is keep away from the finch stores and then we wouldn't have bought any more finches. Yeah, right.

The waxbills we've kept the whole time have turned out to be little gems of birds. The two pairs of St. Helena's and rosy rumped waxbills along with the gold breasted waxbills are peaceful aviary inhabitants. They're small and almost unassuming. It's taken Chris months to notice them, but of course he's attracted to the more colourful finches such as the green singers and the red cheeked cordon bleus. I must admit that it took me awhile to really appreciate our waxbills, but after observing their snugly and cooperative natures, I've come to adore them.

We've had the red eared waxbills now for a week. They haven't actually become friends with the red ears and rosy rumps, but there is certainly no animosity between them either. Their call is sort of a raspier version of the others' calls, and it's pleasant to listen to their voices among the voices of our other finches.

These two new finches are a male/female pair and spend a lot of time in each other's company. They don't actually hog the FinchCam spotlight, but can be observed on camera quite often either sleeping, or preening themselves or each other. I consider them a good addition to our non-breeding community.

Toe Nail Emergency Treatment #1

Today was the day I decided to cut the toe nails of all our finches. The procedure, while always traumatic for everyone, went well for all the birds except for one - the female white headed nun.

I had cut one of her back toe nails too short and it began to bleed right away. I had a little tube of Stay, which had been purchased a few months ago when I accidentally cut another bird's nail a little too short. Luckily that time, the bleeding stopped without my having to use the product.

So this time with the nun, I applied the Stay thinking that ought to do it, and put her back into the aviary. About 45 minutes later, I noticed dried blood all over a couple of the perches and quickly removed her again. Catching her was simple as she was obviously weakened from the blood loss. All this time I thinking, God, what a really bad week it's been for dying with Princess Diana and Mother Teresa both gone - not our little Eleanor too.

I applied the Stay again. I held her in my hand while I watched her continue to bleed. Again and again I applied this stuff that turned out to be utterly useless! Now what to do? She'll die here in my hand if something else isn't tried - and fast. Oh, God, not today ...

And then I remembered the traumatic story (on this list) of the poor finch whose beak had been seriously injured. Many people had suggested using super glue. A quick inventory of our household offered up no super glue, so to the store my husband went. All the time Chris was gone, she lay in my hand looking at me, just looking at me. All I could do was to look back and feel as bad as anyone could feel.

It took us a few tries to get enough glue onto the tip of her toe to stop the bleeding. The blood seemed to wash the glue off, but finally, the blood stopped. I held her for a few minutes longer while the glue dried, then put her into the hospital cage.

A peek at her twenty minutes later revealed her toe again bleeding. She must have picked off the super glue, so again we went through the procedure of adding enough glue to stop the bleeding. This time, however, her eyes closed while I worked. She was still breathing, but she lay limp in my hand. For sure I thought she would be gone within moments, but we continued swabbing up the blood and adding more glue anyway. She startled for some reason and began to bite me! Real bites that hurt! Of course, I was relieved that she had risen to the occasion to bite me!

Anyway, we reasoned that she'd only pick off the super glue again, so we added some clear tape over the toe. We used household tape as it was the only thing we could think of using at the time. It's quite sticky, but in a few days we hope it will come off as she begins to bathe and pick at it. Now that I think of it, using part of a Band-Aid might have been better. With the clear tape, though, we can see whether or not the toe is infected or whatever. We'll just see how it goes.

She's in the hospital cage and she's standing okay. I think she'll be okay now that the toe isn't bleeding any more. If she makes it through the night, which I'm too afraid to predict, she'll be home free. She lost a lot of blood, though, and I'm sure she'll be weak for several days. For the next few days, I'll give her some hard boiled mashed egg to help build her strength.

What did I learn from this? whenever I plan to cut toe nails, bring out the hospital cage, the Stay, and the super glue in case of an accident. if there is an accident, treat the bird until the bleeding has stopped, then put it into the hospital cage. Keep an eye on the bird to make sure the bleeding has fully stopped for a few hours (or days, in this case) before reintroducing the bird back into the community.

RIGHT: The back of one of the rosy rumped waxbills

Sunday, September 7, 1997

Toe Nail Emergency Treatment #2

Eleanor did make it through the first night, but had not eaten or drank anything since the accident. I followed a suggestions of putting water in a shallow dish on the floor next to her (she had gone to the cage floor during the early morning). Some of the water spilled and, thankfully, she stepped on the wet paper, then drank some of the water that had puddled. Soon she was standing in the water container and drinking from it, too. I also observed her drinking water on another occasion, but had not seen her eat the first morning after the accident.

Late in the morning, she moved from the floor back up to the perch close to the heat source in the cage. She'd also moved from perch to perch. Spray millet, that delectable treat, had been placed very near the main perch so all she had to do is reach over and eat some. Boiled mashed egg, her normal seed and cucumber had also been placed within easy reach. The water has obviously helped enormously so far.

In the afternoon, while I was adding food to our toe-injured nun's hospital cage, she flew out and over to the aviary, trying to get back in. After returning her to the hospital, I wondered about the benefits of her being in her "home" environment, then decided to let go back home.

A day has passed since Eleanor's reintroduction into the community, and while she's sleeping quite a bit, she has been seen eating, drinking as well as grooming herself and flying a few (very few) laps around the aviary. Her spirits have definitely improved since going back home.

I've been thinking of how I will deal with a similar situation in the future and have decided upon the following course of action:

• have hospital cage, super glue, cotton swabs and clean towel ready just in case should another accident occur place the towel on my lap, place the bird in the towel and carefully wrap the bird. This would free both of my hands to quickly get glue onto the swab.
• expose the injured foot while the rest of the bird is held in the towel, taking care not to smother the bird. What I lacked previously was enough hands to hold toe steady while I applied the glue and pressure. I most often work with the birds when everyone is away, so that no one is trying to help but is actually standing in my way (sometimes typical behaviour of husbands, bless 'em).
• keep pressure on the toe with the gluey swab for two minutes or so. Carefully pull away the swab so as not to tear away the glue from the toe.
• place a small amount of clear sticky tape over the toe keeping the bottom end of the tape open to allow air for speedier healing and to prevent the bird from picking off the glue and reinjuring itself.

The thought of cauterizing a finch's toe, as had been suggested by a few folks from the Finch-lovers List, does not appeal to me at all. During a time of stress, the last thing I want to be doing is to be working with something that might burn a small bird in places other than its toe should the bird jerk unexpectedly. Cauterizing sounds like a pretty good choice of treatment, though, but it's just not for me.

Friday, September 12, 1997

Owl Finch Female Found Dead

For a long time, Trixie, our remaining female owl finch, had been less active than the other community residents. Chris commented on her lethargy back in June or July. I'd noticed her quiet behaviour before then, and often observed her fluffed and wanting to snuggle with the other birds, most often the society finches.

As I write this entry into The Diaries, I wonder how people reading it will react angrily when they understand that all I did was observe her but took no action to find the cause of her lethargy. I made a decision not to seek vet care for her. What? No vet care? Am I a monster, or neglectful or cheap or what? In the grand scheme of things, I'm none of these things, yet probably all of them at the same time. More than anything, however, is that I don't believe the vets here know much about finches. I'd be wasting my time and money as well as subjecting the bird to unnecessary stress just to find out that the vet couldn't find anything wrong. I'd been down that road a few months ago when the other female owl finch died.

Trixie and all of our other finches are well fed, have a great place to live, are offered adequate light. Their lives, while not perfect, are pretty good. My question is why did two female owl finches purchased from the same place both die within months of each other? I cannot say for sure, but I'm going to guess that perhaps they were genetically weaker than our other birds for some reason.

Or, they might have been suffering from some type of congenital condition. What could a vet have done about either of these things, especially if they know squat about finches in the first place?

None of our other finches are displaying any type of lethargy, save for the old white headed nun male. His condition has neither improved nor worsened. If there was an outbreak of some type of disease, many if not all our finches would be displaying symptoms. Of course, we're quite sad about Trixie's passing, especially Theresa who held the bird for such a long time before we buried her. How stark the little black and white birds' body looked in Theresa's hand as she gently stroked the feathers of its wings, head and breast. In holding the stiff little body, there was no satisfaction for Theresa, who desires to snuggle every creature possible. We will continue carefully observing all our finches in order to detect possible illness in other birds. The possibility does exist that something is killing our birds, so continued vigilance is certainly required on our part as responsible finchkeepers.

ABOVE and BELOW: Left, St. Helena's waxbill; right, rosy rumped waxbill.

Monday, September 29, 1997

Toe Nail Emergency Treatment #3

A week after Eleanor was reintroduced to the aviary due to her toe nail cutting accident, I removed the tape that had protected the injured toe. Under ordinary circumstances, the task would have still been difficult, but with dull scissors, it was nearly impossible. After unsuccessfully struggling to sharpen the scissors, I used an artist's Exacto knife, which eventually did free her toe from the tape. Of course, I didn't want to re-injure Eleanor while getting off the tape either, so I was doubly careful of my actions.

While for the first few days she appeared to be quite weak from the blood loss, she's gained her strength back completely now

Owl Finch Male Observed All Fluffed Up #1

In less than a week after the last female owl finch was found dead, I noticed our remaining male owl fluffed and often sitting near the side wall light. When I first observed his behaviour, the thought that he, too, was sick instantly came to mind. For two days, I observed him. For those two days his condition remained the same, so off to the vet he went.

I don't have much faith in vets when it comes to finches. The birds are so small and afraid, so it's hard for anyone to get a good look at them. On the one hand I thought we were just wasting our time taking Ed to the vet; on the other hand, however, I about thought how bad I'd feel if another of our owl finches died. It would have made all three owls that we'd purchased in December of 1996 that would have died.

So many thoughts ran through my mind as to the cause of their illness(es). None of our other finches had been sick, just the three owls that we'd bought from our most regular bird supplier. Did they all come to our care sick? (Could be.) Did they have some type of owl finch disease? (Not very likely.) How come they died so far apart if they were all sick when were go them so long ago? I had no answers to any of these questions, and I doubted that the vet would either. But to fail to take Ed to the vet would be unconscionable, so off Chris, Theresa and I and the sick finch went.

The vet didn't have a clue as to what was wrong, but due to my urging, did prescribe an antibiotic that was to be given once daily in his water. During treatment he was segregated in the hospital cage which was wrapped in two towels and equipped with a thermometer to accurately measure the temperature. At night the light was turned off and a heating pad beneath the small was turned up to medium. Along with his usual food, boiled, finely mashed egg was given to him daily to help him build his strength.

By the end of treatment, which lasted one full week, I noticed that he was calling more than he had, and that he was singing again too. Did he look that much better? Not really, and his body felt just as thin as he had when I first caught him for his vet visit. But, treatment was over and by the look of his extra activity in the small cage, it looked like he would be better off in the company of the other finches.

As of this writing, he does seem to be doing much better. He's not fluffed anymore and rarely seeks the heat from the wall light. I remember that the first few days he was back in the aviary, though, he spent a lot of time eating from every imaginable food source. Now, however, he seems to almost back to normal, except that he's missing his mate.

I feel sad that we lost two finches due to our ignorance and due to the perceived ignorance of the vets to which we've taken our birds. The last vet said we knew almost as much as she did, though admittedly she had been away from the field for awhile and was not an avian vet.

What did I learn from this? Continue to use vets even though they don't know much about finches. I also know that I have enough knowledge to press for treatment of some kind even if the vet doesn't know what's wrong exactly. For Ed, the antibiotic treatment worked, even though we have no idea what was wrong with him. I'm just glad he's alive.

Are These Strawberries Keepers? #3

In a word, no. One strawberry male began plucking the other and the gold breasted waxbill male didn't like them and neither did the red cheeked cordon bleu pair and on and on and on, so I packed the pair up and traded them in. I miss the strawberries' lovely song, but our new birds' behaviour makes up for the loss.

African Silverbills Added #1

Of all the finches at the bird store that were available, that were also in somewhat good condition and were considered good candidates for getting along with existing community members, I chose a pair of African silverbills.

After a brief quarantine the two new birds were introduced to the community. It's my practice to carefully observe all new birds to make sure their health is as good as it first appeared as well as to make sure everyone gets along okay.

At first, however, the two white headed nuns, particularly the male, chased the two silverbills away. Come to think of it, the spice finches didn't like them much either, so we watched everyone's behaviour quite closely. After being chased away a few times by the previously mentioned two finch pairs , we noticed that the silverbills were beginning to hold their ground. They did so with dignity and poise, and within a few days were seen to be snuggling with the spice finches.

After a few days, too, we discovered that we had a male-female pair. The male has a warbling song. His mating dance, observed close up on BTV, is one where he hops up an down on the perch, sometimes with a blade of grass, while singing. Mating has also been observed, though we are not encouraging it by adding nests of nesting materials.

There is no question that the African silverbills belong in the aviary. They have turned out to be quite wonderful additions.