How to treat scale

[maureen_g]

I have just bought a second hand aviary which included finches. Several of the finches - Painted and Gouldian - have scale on their face or legs. I am treating this with daily dab-on liquid but wonder if it's safe to use Ivermectin instead as it would be less stressful than having to capture the birds each day. The unwell birds are segregated from the healthy ones.

[Trilobite]

Try using a light oil like parafin or vegetable oil. Make sure legs and beak are covered (but dont drown the birds) using a cotton bud, then followup with something like ivermection or s76 (same thing really). It migth take 1-2 rounds of both to get birds back to some sense of health - but with a good diet they should rebound really well.

[Craig52]

You need to treat all the birds,not just the ones with the visual scale,if one bird has it,they will all have it. Craig

[Canary]

Ivermectin will work.

You will have to treat all birds to get rid of scale, or otherwise it can continue to spread amongst the birds that currently appear healthy and not affected.

[maureen_g]

Thanks all for responding! I have bought Avimec for budgies - should be arriving today. Do I just put a drop on the bird's body? I will treat all of them. Today is the fourth day of treating with the dab on stuff. The bird I am still worried about is the Gouldian hen. She has barely any feathers on her face and around her eye is still a bit swollen. She has a hole in the side of her face which might be her ear? Other than that she is eating and moving around fine. I am tempted to put a little paw paw ointment on her face but might be a bit sticky but I am concerned she might have a secondary infection. She is rubbing her beak/face on the perch a lot. Jeez!!! I'm going to have to toughen up!! Find it very stressful catching the birds to treat them

[Craig52]

Hi Maureen,i wouldn't worry too much about that gouldian,there are some gouldians that lose all their head feathers for some unknown reason and if your gouldian hasn't moulted out yet(but should have by now)the new feathers will grow back,other wise they wont till the end of the year.So don't freak out. Craig

[Trilobite]

maureen, dont panic too much, often the symtoms of scale infestation ( scaly legs and beak) will take time to disappear as the skin has to grow underneath the dead stuff and the dead stuff needs to slough off - eg a blood nail on a human finger. As such after the treatment the body will start making feathers and normal skin again - it wont happen over night but will happen, yes the hole in the side of the head is the "ear". I wouldnt put topical ointment on it at this stage - let the ivermectin or equivilant do its work.

[finchbreeder]

Just did the Ivomec 5 days on 15 days off 2 days on treatment. Due to weather. And it cleared up the scaley legs on my recently aquired canarys, along with the airsac cough of my existing canarys. But to be on the safe side all of the birds had the pleasure of drinking the treated water. The Black headed Gouldian cock looked real crook at the end of the 5 days and drank like he was dying of thirst on the first "off" day. The little rat. Usually use a 50/50 mix of cooking oil and detol to treat scaly legs on canarys.
LML

[maureen_g]

Oh gosh!!! Do you put something in their water to treat the scaly mite? I have my Ivomectin dab-on but am very nervous about using it in case I kill all the birds. However I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just do it!! How often do I have to treat the birds with this?

[Canary]

There are many different Ivomectin based products available.Some are applied externally - as in drops on back or under the wing on skin, drops direct to their beak, or added to water to drink.

It is best to follow the manufacturers directons.