Female Gouldian Finch seems very ill all of a sudden

Is your finch sick or not well? Find out why.
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Pulse
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I woke up in the morning and found my female gouldian near the bottom of the cage with her wings slightly down. Her mouth is hanging open and her tail is fanning out. The worst symptom has to be that she isn't eating or drinking anything. I feel these could be the signs of egg binding since she has been laying eggs very frequently but after a while, she seemed to move around much better. It could be an injury of some kind, after all, the finches do play rough quite often. If it is egg binding, I cannot rule it out since I do not own Calcium Plus or any similar product. I cannot find a suitable one in my country (UAE) so the best I can do atm is wait.

She went to her nest box just now and I am hoping she comes out healthy and better. I will take her to a vet but there are no avian vets in my area, I am reaching here with a general animal vet but its better than waiting. If she is egg bound, what can I do without any calcium based treatments? Am I pretty much screwed at this point?
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finchbreeder
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Do you have a hospital cage? Or a small cage you can cover with a towel and put a light close too? Warmth overnight is usually a help. If you have access to eggshells and sunlight that should meet her needs. If she is not taking the eggshell then do you have a canary that can show her how? Good luck.
LML
LML
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Pulse
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I feed her eggshells daily and the light I provided mimics sunlight. I have a hospital cage but she was panicking and looked far worse in it. At the moment, I cannot even remove her from the cage since she is hiding inside a nest box. She hasn't eaten anything the whole day and it is almost past her sleep time. Also, she usually eats egg shells a lot. I guess the best I can do for now is to just wait and see what happens.
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vettepilot_6
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Pulse wrote: 04 Apr 2018, 23:22 I feed her eggshells daily and the light I provided mimics sunlight. I have a hospital cage but she was panicking and looked far worse in it. At the moment, I cannot even remove her from the cage since she is hiding inside a nest box. She hasn't eaten anything the whole day and it is almost past her sleep time. Also, she usually eats egg shells a lot. I guess the best I can do for now is to just wait and see what happens.
You asked what can be done. ..as finchbreeder suggested heat is first for any sick finch regardless if it seems worse in hospital cage...it would settle down once you weren't there and it was quiet. .if she is in nestbox struggling to lay it maybe too late... 😐
The Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long after the Sweetness of Cut Price is Forgotten
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BrettB
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The hospital cage needs to be completely covered, a towel is usually adequate.
When it is dark the finches usually settle quickly. Seed , water and warmth are all that are required in most instances.
Being the UAE the warmth may not be an issue, depends on the current temperatures in your cages particularly at night.
Also a hospital cage allows you to observe the bird more closely, and if it is infectious to prevent spread to the rest of your birds.

Good luck
Brett
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are ." Anais Nin
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Halfinch
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I had a similar thing with a Gouldian Hen a few weeks ago. This particular Hen does seem to get some aggressive attention from one of the Cock birds.
I put her in a hospital cage with some antibiotic in the water and millet spray. After 2 days She seemed better so I released her back into the aviary.
So far so good.
Halfinch
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Pulse
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Halfinch wrote: 05 Apr 2018, 19:02 I had a similar thing with a Gouldian Hen a few weeks ago. This particular Hen does seem to get some aggressive attention from one of the Cock birds.
I put her in a hospital cage with some antibiotic in the water and millet spray. After 2 days She seemed better so I released her back into the aviary.
So far so good.
Halfinch
I would try that but it turns out, she is not egg bound. If she was, I am betting she would have died by now. But another serious problem. She literally isn't eating or drinking anything! I have to remove her from the cage with my hands (She doesn't even resist like the other finches) and feed her using a syringe. Even then she doesn't eat properly but a little enters her mouth. Also, she is extremely lethargic. I haven't seen her fly or move about at all and she spends the majority of her time in the nest now. How can I feed her if she is unwilling to even eat? Any why?! I did put her into a hospital cage but she is still not eating.
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Pulse
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BrettB wrote: 05 Apr 2018, 09:48 The hospital cage needs to be completely covered, a towel is usually adequate.
When it is dark the finches usually settle quickly. Seed , water and warmth are all that are required in most instances.
Being the UAE the warmth may not be an issue, depends on the current temperatures in your cages particularly at night.
Also a hospital cage allows you to observe the bird more closely, and if it is infectious to prevent spread to the rest of your birds.

Good luck
Brett
I am providing her heat using a sunlight mimicking light and for the first time, she ate! I observed some strange behavior. In the aviary, she couldn't maintain balance on the perches and was unable to fly at all. She could only jump from perch to perch. She kept bobbing her tail and going into the defecating position over and over. Also, she tries to stretch out her wings but I don't think she is able to. She only does it part way and she does it far more frequently. I am suspecting injured wings or some sort of injury but I am not sure. What do you make of these symptoms?
Edit: I also observed that she cannot go down from a perch even if it is very close to the ground. She keeps leaning downwards, showing that she wishes to go down but she can't for some unknown reason. Maybe it will hurt somewhere if she were to go down? I am not sure.
Last edited by Pulse on 05 Apr 2018, 22:15, edited 1 time in total.
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vettepilot_6
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If you hold her to your ear..does she make a clicking noise? If she does it is probably air sack mite...and if she that far along meds may kill mites and her as well. ...
The Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long after the Sweetness of Cut Price is Forgotten
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Pulse
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vettepilot_6 wrote: 05 Apr 2018, 21:54 If you hold her to your ear..does she make a clicking noise? If she does it is probably air sack mite...and if she that far along meds may kill mites and her as well. ...
I actually lost another female a year ago due to that. She hasn't exactly shown the symptoms since I can hear her chirping. No clicking sound I can hear at the moment. I suspect it is some sort of stomach or vent infection. I am currently giving her antibiotics in the water but she hasn't taken a sip so far. One thing I can say is that she is starting to look exactly like the finch that died due to air sac mites. Bald patches and looking somewhat weak. Hopefully, it is not air sac mites but I do have SCATT so do you think I should use it?
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