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Disease Testing

3K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  catalinadee 
#1 ·
So I finally did it, we'll Friday lol. I sent off Jack's blood, feathers, and swab for testing. I was sad having to quick him, my husband felt I was more traumatized than Jack. But still I don't like to do that kind of stuff, and he held his little foot up for like two days :(. Anyway I ordered the DNA bank since "he" is not microchipped nor banded, and I wanted some form of ID in case we went overseas. Not sure if it'll do any good but it was only 15 bucks. I also got the new bird testing which tested Pachecos, PBFD, Polyoma, chlamydia, and of course sexing. I call him He, but I don't really know, I just suspect lol. I also got the Borna virus. Are there any other things I should have tested for? I got him from an older couple, in less than ideal conditions, and has come a long way. I went thru avian biotech. I'm excited to see what sex he really is! And nervous if he has some disease :(. I find out Monday or Tuesday!


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#3 ·
I have never intentionally clipped a nail short, but have accidentally when clipping nails. My tiel does nôt seem to even feel it as her quick runs right to the tip go her nail and can get nicked by just clipping the sharp tip off. She gets VERY mad at me for toweling her to stop the bleeding tho. My conure on the other hand will hold up her little foot and curl her toes into a fist that she cuddles next to her body, so you know it is sore... Luckily in all my years of bird ownership I have only accidentally quicked a bird 3 times... And yes each time was more traumatic for me than the bird! Some day I would like to DNA my conure so I know for sure girl or boy... Right now I call her a girl! Can't wait for your results!!
 
#6 ·
Oh my that's how he held his foot up lol! Luckily I had my husband pluck the feathers I don't think I could have done it. He held Jack for me while I clipped a nail short and did the blood draw. I'm really glad I did this, I no longer have to hope that I was right about his sex, and so far he's healthy;).
 
#7 ·
How often should I do disease testing? How often should I take him in to the vet.. I called the practice of the local avian vet and the front desk said that people bring them in when their sick :/. I got his name from the avian vet association. I do take him out somedays if that has any effect on how often I should do testing or vet checks. Here's a pic of my lil man.
 

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#11 ·
Well, yes, of course, they charge you for it so the more often you bring the bird, the more money they make. Car places also say you should change the oil every 3,000 miles but experts say that every 5,000 miles is more than enough.

I would also go broke in no time at all if all my birds, dogs and cats had annuals. It's like Daisy says, once you know that they are well and you learn to observe them and to recognize symptoms, once a year is not really necessary. Now, if we are talking about an old animal or one with health issues, that's a different story (I have two dogs, one cat and two birds that see the vet every six months)
 
#10 ·
If I vet checked every single one of my birds once a year, I'd be on the streets :rolleyes: You need to learn how to health check, that way you can do it daily and spot any signs. Without doing blood work, you can do just as much as a vet can really, or almost as much. It's great you've had the disease testing done. The most I would say you should do it is test a new bird BEFORE having them anywhere near him. Now you know he's in the all clear, you don't want to have somebody else bringing anything in if you do have another bird

Congratulations though! It's nice to see everything come back okay. I haven't had much luck myself
 
#12 ·
We do like to take him out to pet stores...mainly to buy him food or if I need to run to works once in a while as I work at a pet store. He sits on me in his flightsuit and lanyard, which he seems to enjoy( the adventure not suit lol). I think it interests him to share the adventure with me than actually to interact with anything. Not even another GCC interests him in the least, he just sits there and looks around lol. Show him some 100% juice or granny apple he's scuttling down my shirt for it!
I have 4 dogs.. Two are my keeper dogs one is 10yrs, has all sorts of ailments, but doesn't know how to read the vet textbooks, and the other is 5. These two see the vet twice a year or in my older one more lol. I have two puppies for conformation show, and they go when needed lol. I have fish and Jack.. So taking Jack in for yearly check ups isn't a big deal since the price is not bad at the avian vet. But as y'all say, I can do a lot of testing myself. He seems very healthy and unfortunately I've had my share of sick birds, so I keep an eye on him. I just wanna make sure I take him in often enough.. I know one should take their dog in like twice a year, but wasn't sure about birds;).
 
#14 ·
A full vet check on any new bird is a must. This to me would just be a A.V. check over including a gram stain.
I only go with blood works if I feel there could be a problem. And I base this on my ability to read a birds condition myself first. Then discuss with the vet.
Jack the SC2 I adopted out cost $480 without blood works to have him worked over.
I could not see doing that every year with my 9 birds.
learning to read a birds condition is not that hard if you only have a few birds.

I must admit I am having a full blood test done on Dexter at the moment, but that is because I do want to eliminate all possible reasons why he is still having feather problems on one wing. I am almost certain it is not a viral thing. I still pick follicle damage.
 
#15 ·
If you are actually taking the bird out to such places where it may come across ill birds, such as in pet shops etc then I would opt to disease test yearly as a minimum.
As well as keeping a close eye for any changes and diong regular health checks.

I disease test all new comers into my flock and do sporodic testing on a selection of my flock.
 
#16 ·
I've had 2 major psittacosis outbreaks in my aviary and home. The first time I lost all but 2 of my aviary cockatiels, a whole flock gone. My Indian ringneck parakeet caught it then too and she also passed away. When I moved into my new home, a flock of black cheeked lovebirds and my hand raised budgie had it too and I lost all but 2 of the lovies as well. It is super super common. I've also had scares with all sorts of other diseases and it hasn't been very nice. I've had unusual and sad necropsy results too. My orange winged Amazon (he's my avatar) had an impacted crop full of grit. I never fed him grit, but the mass of homes he had before me probably died. This led to very sudden starvation. Recently, we found out the most likely reason all of our companion parrots dropped like flies. We'd been having a gas leak from the boiler next to our bird room upstairs for months and hadn't even know about it. We have it fixed now. It also explains why the cockatoo downstairs was okay. Either way, I've had awful luck with birds so it's nice to see others having it okay :)
 
#18 ·
Didn't stop people blaming it on me though did it :(? Not you! Don't worry, but people involved etc. I spoke to solicitors and everybody I needed to back me up too. I've been accused of some very horrible things which I can't say here

Apparently it had been leaking for a very long time and we were very lucky to have had our annual check, goodness knows what could have happened and thankfully I never got any more companion parrots because of this. My aviary birds are all very happy
 
#20 ·
Thank you :)

I'm so sorry you've had to go through such awful stuff too :( Losing our companion animals is absolutely horrific, no matter how gentle or tragic they go, it always hurts

It sounds like fate to me. It's so nice to have a story like that to tell
 
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