Many canary diseases have pronounced symptoms, thanks to which health problems can be identified in the initial stages and complications can be prevented. Most often, canaries have problems with feathers, paws, gastrointestinal tract. In this article we will tell you how to recognize a particular disease and how to cure a sick bird.
Feather cyst
Development of the disease
Sometimes canary feathers are too soft to pierce the skin. Because of this, they curl up inside the tubes - the feather bases. At these places, the bird's skin begins to rise, forming a feather cyst.
This happens if the canary’s body develops a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. Poor living conditions can also cause problems with the formation of feathers in birds: dry air, heat, dim lighting.
As the walls of the cyst grow, they increase in size, inflaming the tissue around them. A cheesy liquid gradually accumulates inside the tube. The feather may escape, breaking through the inflamed cyst and forming an abscess. The curdled liquid flows out and after some time dries, forming a crust.
Bird behavior
The canary is worried about boils. Trying to get rid of the itch, she begins to peck at them. The bird can also peck at an unruptured cyst. In any case, this leads to bleeding. If you don't take care of the canary, it will die from loss of blood.
Treatment methods
Feather cysts can be removed surgically, so take your canary to the vet at the first sign of symptoms. An experienced doctor will open, clean and treat the wounds with antibiotics. For wounds that are too large, the veterinarian will apply stitches. You will have to process them according to his recommendations.
To prevent the canary from pecking at the wounds, put a medical collar on it.
Diversify your bird's diet with minerals and vitamins. Remember that liquid vitamin complexes are given to birds only after a year. Provide the bird the necessary conditions contents described in the article.
Weak feather disease
Weak feather disease occurs due to a lack of sulfur in the canary's body. As a result, the bird's feathers may become split. If they are severely damaged, the canary will stop flying, which will have a bad effect on its physical condition. If this happens during flights, the bird runs the risk of injury and even crashing.
To restore the structure of the feathers, give the canary flammable sulfur. Mix it with soaked grains at the rate of one gram of combustible sulfur per kilogram of grain.
Sudden loss of feathers
At any time of the year, a canary can go bald. Mostly feathers fall out on the head, capturing the area at the back of the head. There are several reasons for the occurrence of the disease: the appearance of a deficiency of vitamins and minerals, hormonal imbalance, and the decline of reproductive function. Chicks often suffer from this disease.
Typically, a bird's feathers grow back after molting. But preventative methods won't hurt. Strengthen the main food with vitamins and minerals, sprouted grains, herbs, and branches of fruit trees. Add to drinking water calcium chloride: one milligram of the drug per fifty milliliters of water. Lubricate bald areas with fish oil.
Gamasid mites (red bird mites)
What are ticks capable of?
If ticks climb into the nest, they will fall on the female hatching eggs or warming the chicks. She may run away from the nest in panic, which can affect the development of the embryos. And hatched chicks risk dying without maternal warmth.
Getting rid of pests
To get rid of gamas ticks, place a container with river sand mixed with wood ash. You can smear the outside of the cage with Disinsectal once a day. After three to four days, the pests should disappear.
Mallophagosis
How it all happens
Mallophagosis is a skin disease of canaries caused by down-eater mites. They can get to the bird from an infected individual, through untreated poultry equipment and other items brought from the street. Canaries kept in outdoor enclosures run the risk of picking up ticks from birds flying by or chickens living nearby.
Suffering from the activity of the down-eaters, the canary becomes noticeably nervous, constantly itches, and moves from paw to paw. Often the bird refuses to eat, which is why it quickly loses weight. Without treatment, the canary may die from exhaustion.
Getting rid of pests
If you have several birds, at the first sign of mites, remove the cage containing the sick bird to another room. Periodically check healthy canaries for fluff eaters.
You can rid a bird of ticks using special preparations: “Frontline”, “Arpalit”. There is an alternative way. Try to help the bird with dry reeds, which are used as a perch. Make slits on it in several places and install it in the cage, after removing other perches. When the pests are satisfied, they will hide in the cuts of the reeds.
Remove the perch, cut in half, shake out the down-eaters onto Blank sheet paper and wrap them. The resulting lump of paper, as well as the fallen feathers, must be burned. Repeat the procedure until the reeds are empty.
Lubricate the canary's bald areas with a solution of two grams of salicylic acid and one hundred grams of twenty-five percent vodka. When caring for a patient, follow sanitary standards - treat your hands with a chloramine solution. Otherwise, you may infect healthy birds. Treat the cage and internal equipment with Disinsectal. Rinse it thoroughly in warm water.
Knemidocoptosis
What are ticks capable of?
In advanced cases, the canary may lose its plumage. If the phalanges of the fingers are damaged, inflammation of the joints will begin. The bird's legs may fail. If you don't pay attention to this, the death of the canary will be on your conscience.
Treatment of the disease
To avoid such complications, carefully monitor the canary's behavior and conduct regular inspections. If you notice scabies mites in time and start treatment, the disease will go away quickly and without consequences.
The bird should be treated with boron Vaseline, applying it to the affected areas. The medicine blocks the tunnel openings, preventing scabies mites from breathing. Smear the canary every three to four days. You can also use dimethyldiphenylene disulfide.
While treatment is ongoing, add liquid vitamin complexes to the bird’s drinking water. Clean the cage and internal equipment daily with boiling water or steam.
Pododermatitis
Development of the disease
Pododermatitis is an inflammation of the footpads of canaries. The causes of the disease can be bruises during flights, impaired blood supply to the paws, constant friction of the paws on poles of the same diameter, a sedentary lifestyle, and a lack of vitamin A. First, calluses appear on the fingers, which crack over time.
The development of the disease is facilitated by unsanitary conditions, humidity above seventy percent, temperature above twenty-five degrees. Due to non-compliance with the rules for keeping canaries, ulcers and fistulas appear on the pads of their paws. Without treatment, they begin to fester. When neglected, the bird dies from blood loss, exhaustion or infection.
Bird's reaction
The fact that the canary has developed pododermatitis is indicated by its depressed state and refusal to eat. The bird carefully steps on its paw or moves from paw to paw, sometimes squeaking in pain. If the pain intensifies, the canary begins to pull the damaged paw towards the body. There may be bloody prints where she sat. The paws sometimes swell.
Treatment and prevention
To help the canary, remove the sand from the cage tray, otherwise grains of sand will get into the wounds. Replace it with clean writing paper. Treat the wounds with Chlorhexidine or iodine. Three times a day, smear the affected areas of the paws with Levomekol. Hyoxyzone ointment will help with swelling of the paws.
If the wounds are too deep, wrap all the perches with twine, lubricating it with Levomekol in advance. “Iruksovetin” will save you from purulent fistulas and ulcers. Soda baths help a lot: one and a half teaspoons of soda per two hundred milliliters of forty-degree water. Soak the canary's paws in them for no more than ten minutes, five to six times a day.
After treating with soda, be sure to smear the wounds with Levomekol. If the bird squeaks in pain, Dioxidin-Novocaine mixture will help.
At the same time as treatment, add foods rich in vitamin A to the canary’s diet:
- fish fat;
- chicken egg yolk;
- cottage cheese;
- vegetables: carrots, beets, pumpkin, tomatoes;
- fruits: apricots, melon;
- seaweed;
- berries: wild garlic, viburnum.
After the canary's paw pad skin has recovered, place perches of different diameters with uneven surfaces in the cage. You can use tree branches that have been pre-treated with boiling water. Let your bird walk around the room as often as possible to maintain good physical condition.
Abnormal curvature
Sometimes a canary will experience sudden crookedness of its paws or toes. Unfortunately, scientists have not fully studied this anomaly. But they suggest that it is associated with the canary’s sedentary lifestyle, monotonous or poor-quality diet, injuries or cuts, and inflammation of the joints.
It is extremely difficult to return crooked paws or toes to their normal position. Using splints and adhesive tape, fix the twisted limbs in a natural position for several weeks. However, results may not be expected. In extreme cases, you can contact a surgeon to perform surgery on your canary to straighten its paws or toes. But keep in mind that the bird may not survive the anesthesia.
Diarrhea
First type of diarrhea
Diarrhea is frequent, liquid droppings. In canaries it comes in two types: ordinary and calcareous.
The first type of diarrhea begins due to a cold, poor-quality, expired or sour food. With ordinary diarrhea, the droppings have liquid form brown or green.
To help the canary, warm it with a twenty-five-watt incandescent lamp placed two feet from the cage.
Throw away all old and lost food, remove vegetables, herbs, sprouted grains, and fruits from the menu. Give your bird a new mixture of millet, oats, canary seed and flaxseed. Also give low-fat cottage cheese, rice porridge with the addition of crushed white crackers.
During ordinary diarrhea, the canary can only drink boiled water with the addition of potassium permanganate. The solution should turn out to be a light pink color. Biomycin is also suitable - crush the tablet and add a few grains to the water. Feed the bird with decoctions of rice, oats, and chamomile.
If the canary's condition does not improve after three to four days, contact your veterinarian for advice.
Second type of diarrhea
The cause of calcareous diarrhea is microbes that can kill the bird even with proper treatment. With such diarrhea, the canary can sit for a long time at the bottom of the cage with a shaggy appearance. Calcareous diarrhea manifests itself in the form of a white mucus-like liquid stretching from the cloaca.
Treat the cage and internal equipment with carbolic acid. Warm the bird by attaching a heating pad to the bottom of the cage on the inside.
The diet of a weakened bird should consist of small grains of millet and canary seed. Give her a decoction of rice or oats, with the addition of charcoal. Be sure to give the canary an antibiotic - dissolve a quarter of a Synthomycin tablet in water and drop it into its beak using a syringe without a needle.
Constipation
Constipation is a difficulty in passing excrement or blockage of the intestines in different areas. Obese canaries often suffer from constipation. Also, causes of constipation can be worms, poor-quality food, high fat content in the poultry menu, inflammation of the intestines, malfunction of the liver or kidneys.
Due to internal discomfort, the canary puffs up, sits motionless, hiding its head under its wing, refuses food, puffs itself up, and squints. She is tormented by endless attempts to empty her intestines.
As a treatment, replace the grain mixture with herbs, fruits, sprouted grains, vegetables, eggs, and rice porridge. Increase the amount of flaxseed and canary seed. Using a syringe without a needle, first drop three drops of vegetable oil into the canary's cloaca. If that doesn't help, try adding three drops of castor oil.
If the result is positive, alternate vegetable and castor oil for the first two to three days, instilling them once a day. Then drip only vegetable oil once a day until the canary gets better.
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Owners of songbirds such as canaries, in the process of keeping their feathered friend (you can read more about how to care for a canary at home) are faced with the phenomenon of molting. And, very often, it is the molting period of canaries that raises a number of questions for owners. How to care for a canary during the molting period? What should I feed her? Why does the canary stop singing during the moult and does not sing after it?
Today we invite you to take a closer look at the mechanisms of such a physiological phenomenon in the life of birds as molting, learn the features of molting and how to properly care for the bird at this time...
Types of molting in canaries
Despite the fact that canaries must molt once a year - this is periodic moulting, juvenile moults also occur in young birds. And, if periodic molting occurs annually after the nesting process, and it is not affected by the age of the bird, since this process triggers the functioning mechanisms of the endocrine glands and the nervous system, then juvenile molting has completely different mechanisms that explain its nature. Thus, such a moult occurs in canaries only once in their life, and it represents a complete change of the plumage of a young bird to that of an adult.
As a rule, juvenile molting begins a few months after the young bird begins to lead an independent lifestyle, and ends by the time the canary reaches full puberty.
However, sometimes the juvenile molting process can be delayed due to a lack of nutrients in the bird's diet or due to poor diet. If the owners of a canary notice that the juvenile moult should have started, but it does not come, they should pay more attention to the issues of keeping the bird and its feeding.
As for the features of caring for a young bird during this period, canaries need increased attention and care, since they are experiencing molting for the first time in their lives, and in the absence of proper care, they may even die.
How does molting occur in canaries?
Molting in canaries begins with the bird shedding large feathers from its tail, then the flight feathers, feathers from the back, chest, belly are replaced, and finally the plumage on the head is changed. As a rule, if the canary owner follows the recommendations regarding keeping the bird, then the bird’s molting is less painful, although this process in itself is quite unpleasant. Proof of this is the fact that the canary even stops singing during molting. When the old feather is completely replaced by a new one, the molt is considered complete.
Causes of frequent molting in canaries
If you notice that your canary molts more than once a year as an adult, then perhaps the reason for such a malfunction in her body is that you are overfeeding her and the bird is suffering from obesity. Experts say that birds may begin molting processes when there is excess fat. This also often happens if the canary's diet contains a lot of hemp or seeds. Also, the reason for changing a feather outside the “schedule” can be a change from the usual poultry food to a new one, even if the new food is better than the previous one.
In a way, canaries are conservative birds who get very used to their surroundings and the slightest changes can cause them a nervous breakdown and stress.
Also, experts note that mechanical factors can also trigger molting mechanisms in canaries. Thus, as a result of experiments, it was proven that in the case when a canary loses many large feathers from the wings or from the tail, its body starts the process of changing feathers in order to renew the plumage and restore the lost feathers.
Caring for a canary during molting
One of the most crucial periods in the life of a bird, as we wrote above, is precisely the period of change of plumage. Therefore, it is very important to properly care for the bird during this period. Considering that in most cases, seasonal molting begins in July and can last into the months of August and September, it is very important to pay sufficient attention to the lighting of the room in which the birds are kept. During this period, canaries need sufficient sunlight, therefore, it is recommended to place canaries in cages that can be placed on a balcony, terrace or just outside the window. However, it is important to remember that the birds are not directly under sun rays, since they can die from heat and sunstroke.
By the way, many songbird owners wonder how they know when their bird is starting to molt? Not only a change of feathers, but also a refusal to sing are signs that the canary has begun molting.
During this period, it is recommended to handle the canaries as little as possible and not to disturb them in the cage. Because, as a result of fright, the canary can throw itself onto the cage bars and injure the bases of the soft new feathers. In this case, the stumps of the new feathers may even begin to bleed, and it is recommended to remove them, since a new feather will not grow from the damaged stump anyway.
Canary nutrition during molting
Also, a lot of attention should be paid to the diet of canaries. During this period, their food should be especially nutritious and rich. The water in the drinking bowl also needs to be changed more often. You can add fresh grass to the food. So, if you have a large cage or aviary containing several birds, you can place a container of water in it, in which you will place fresh birch or linden branches. In a separate feeder you can put crushed coal with ash, clay, crushed shells, salt, rotten deciduous trees.
At this time, you can increase the frequency of feeding and portion sizes, since your bird will definitely not suffer from obesity during the molting period. It is recommended to give more soft food.
Vitamins for canaries during molting
In order for the new plumage to grow faster and the replacement of the old plumage to be less painful, canaries should also be given vitamins and other useful substances. Special attention It is worth paying attention to phosphorus lime, iron oxide, proteins, sulfur and chlorine. Fortunately, most of these components can be found in the grain mixture - its portions should be increased, and the egg feed should be alternated with vegetables, fruits and herbs.
In order for you to get the necessary iron oxide, place a piece of rusty iron in the canary's drinking bowl.
If you suddenly notice that your bird’s molting is dragging on or new feathers are not growing on its head and neck, you should review your feathered pet’s diet and increase the content of vitamin elements in it. You may even need to give your canary a multivitamin tablet - it is better to consult your veterinarian about this.
Features of the diet of colored canaries during the molting period
Cannibalism
This abnormal behavior can be caused by eating feathers that have been plucked with blood. Therefore, canaries with bleeding wounds on the skin should be placed in a separate cage until complete recovery.
Broken or plucked feathers must be removed immediately so that the bird does not become addicted to eating them.
A special type of cannibalism is the killing of chicks in the nest box by one of the parents. The reason for this, many experts say, is the desire of adult birds to reproduce. However, if we are talking about young couples, most likely the reason for this behavior is their lack of experience.
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From the book of Nutria author Nesterova Daria VladimirovnaCannibalism The reasons for cannibalism in nutria can be different. Often, females eat cubs that are stillborn, which can be explained by the reflex of eating the placenta. If animals kill healthy offspring, the reason for this is inadequate feeding.
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