Diseases of Budgerigars (Shell Parrakeets) with Special Reference to French Molt

By Cessa Feyerabend

This book was written for the budgerigar fancier to help them gain an understanding of the principles underlying the successful keeping of budgerigars or shell parakeets. Both detailed and accessible, this antique text is perfect for amateurs and professionals alike, and constitutes a worthy addition to collections of ornithological literature. The chapters of this book include: Bacterial Diseases, Virus Diseases, Internal Microscopic Parasites, Diagnosis, General Treatment of Sick Birds, Sterilization, Prevention, the Hospital Cage, Fungi, External Parasites, Other Diseases, Egg Abnormalities, Sex Reversal, Dead Young in Nest, Broken Legs and Wings, Crippled Feet, et cetera. This text has been chosen for modern republication due to its significant educational value, and we are proud to republish it here complete with a new introduction on aviculture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473355873

Book preview

I GERMS (Microbes)

GERMS are also called microbes or micro-organisms because they are visible only through the microscope. The kind of germ we speak about here should not be confused with the germ which is the life-containing innermost part of seeds, capable of developing into a plant. Seed germs have nothing to do with disease-producing germs, they merely have the same name. Seed germ is discussed in the book on Nutrition.

The history of the discovery of disease-producing germs and the subsequent study of their devastating action in the human and animal body makes a most exciting chapter in the book of human knowledge. Germs were found to be the cause of the terrible epidemics of plague, cholera, etc., that wiped out populations of whole cities within a very short time. Many doctors and scientists have sacrificed their lives in an endeavor to stem such epidemics, working with these dangerous microbes in their laboratories to find a cure for the diseases they cause. Many went forth to foreign countries and worked in the midst of pestilence and death to bring help to suffering and dying people. Only too often did they themselves become victims of these dreadful diseases.

This work is still going on. People still die of infectious diseases but many remedies have been found. The tremendous role proper sanitation plays in the fight against these scourges has been recognized. Also serums, vaccines, penicillin, streptomycin, aureomycin, chloromycetin, other new antibiotics, and the sulfa drugs prove to be powerful weapons against many diseases.

A. BACTERIAL DISEASES

Among the bacteria we distinguish (1) cocci, and (2) bacilli. Three of the most common cocci are the staphylococcus (usually found in pus), the streptococcus (strep sore throat) and the pneumococcus (causing one type of pneumonia). They are all invisible to the naked eye. When smeared on a glass slide and stained, they appear as small spherical bodies under the microscope, some in pairs, some in chains, some in clusters, or in grape-like bunches (Fig. 1).

(Fig. 1) Microbes as seen under the microscope.

a—cluster of staphylococci

b—three chains of streptococci

c—bacilli

1. Cocci

a) Avian Staphylococcosis — This disease primarily attacks the joints, sometimes the skin. Birds lose their appetite, often die within a few days, sometimes live for a few weeks. Treatment with sulfa drugs or one of the new antibiotics may be tried, but often the disease progresses too rapidly for the drugs to be effective.

b) Avian Streptococcosis — This disease has also been called sleeping sickness, as the afflicted bird seems to be sleeping constantly. Diarrhea, inflamed eyes, and occasional gasping for breath are other symptoms. Treatment is usually of no avail since the disease progresses and spreads too rapidly.

These and other cocci may invade open wounds and cause local and systemic infections.

2. Bacilli

a) Coryza or Colds — Colds in birds, as in humans, offer a wide variety of symptoms. Some colds are slight, only noticeable in an occasional sneeze. Some are characterized by loose droppings. The afflicted birds may not show any signs of sickness otherwise. In more severe cases the birds will show the more typical symptoms of illness, such as ruffled feathers, dullness, weakness, loss of appetite, etc. The eyes may become inflamed, the birds cough and wheeze and often gasp for breath. Breathing may become so difficult that the bird sits with wings opened and eyes closed. In this case he will not sleep with his head turned back under his feathers. In such severe cases the cold may develop from a simple nasal discharge to a severe disease by travelling down the throat into the bronchi and air sacs, so that breathing is difficult. Complications may arise as other disease germs gain a foothold in the inflamed mucous membranes.

The most common predisposing cause of a cold is draft. Birds are singularly sensitive to any kind of draft. This is not generally realized. We sit with windows open, withstand the effects of cross-ventilation and expect our birds to do the same. Birds are constituted quite differently from human beings. A bird becomes easily chilled by drafts. When chilled, his body temperature drops and a cold is the result. A bird cannot withstand a current of cold air whether he is in motion or not. He even becomes chilled from sudden air currents of the same temperature. The air current caused by a swinging door, or cross-ventilation in summer, has often caused birds to become ill. A bird exposed to a cold air current from a ventilating system will catch cold.

Many will ask, Why is it that birds kept outdoors, exposed to wind, cold and rain, do not become ill? Outdoor conditions are natural conditions. Birds kept outdoors become hardy and accustomed to the changes of weather, which are never as sudden as those produced indoors by drafts. Birds kept outdoors will catch cold if the enclosure is not large enough to allow for plenty of exercise, or if a protected shelter has not been