Crusty faced Gouldian.

[Pooky]

I have a white breasted Gouldian male which has lost all its feathers on one side of its face due to rubbing its face on the perch. The effected area looks sort of crusty, dry and alittle lumpy. The bird is in an avairy with another 3 or 4 pairs of Gouldians who are all nesting and showing no signs of this problem at all. This bird was also nesting with its mate until this occured.
I took the bird out and placed it in a warm enviroment and gave it a dose of Cydectin for five days. After that I placed the bird back in the avairy but I found it was acting isolated again in a corner on its own a little fluffed up and not involved with its mate nesting at all, as before. The bird seems to be very happy in the hospital cage in my laundry eating as normal and enjoys the food I offer it. When I placed it back in the avairy it acted as though it wasn't interested in anything that was going on...I have not seen any other birds pecking at it or causing it any problem.
Its condition doesn't seem to be any worse but it doesn't seem any better either.
Does anyone have any suggestions.
Trudy...

[GregH]

I can't say without seeing the bird. Certainly there are mites that burrow into the skin around the face especielly in budgies and the Cydectin should fix that up. Another possibility is fungus. I have a Gouldian hen that had a "crusty/flaky" growth on her beak and the skin where it attaches to the mandible. I treated it every two days for a month with an antimycotic nail lacquer containing Amorolfine and she recovered. I;ve still got plenty but as you know I'm in the Philippines so it'll be cheaper to go to your local Amcal and get some. Better still take it to the vet and get a scraping to look for mites or fungus under teh microscope and treat it appropriately.

[Pooky]

I can't say without seeing the bird. Certainly there are mites that burrow into the skin around the face especielly in budgies and the Cydectin should fix that up. Another possibility is fungus. I have a Gouldian hen that had a "crusty/flaky" growth on her beak and the skin where it attaches to the mandible. I treated it every two days for a month with an antimycotic nail lacquer containing Amorolfine and she recovered. I;ve still got plenty but as you know I'm in the Philippines so it'll be cheaper to go to your local Amcal and get some. Better still take it to the vet and get a scraping to look for mites or fungus under teh microscope and treat it appropriately.

Thanks Greg that sounds like it could be a possibility. I am going to give it another week and if there is no change I will give your suggestion a try. Do you think I need to take it to a avarian Vet or do you thing a regular vet would do? The Avarian Vet is a long way away from here.

Trudy.

[GregH]

Hi Trudy. The vet here did have to rely on microscopic examination to decide if it was mites or fungus so unless you are completely familiar with the conditions I'd say you'll have to get the test done but it probably won't need a specialist avian veterinarian as thery are very different beasts when viewed. If you have a microscope slides, cover-slips, glycerol and a razor blade perhaps you could do it? I actually did the scraping for the vet as they were only used to poultry and a gouldian was a little on the small side for them and she was afraid of damaging it. A word of caution along those lines. While the beak looks hard and dead like fingernail that part is very thin so don't dig too deeply or it will bleed.

[Pooky]

Thankyou Greg with your very helpfull info.
Trudy