Fluffed Finch

[Raven11]

Hello folks,
So I have had this little lady for less than a week, she had diarrhoea (I am assuming stress related) her feces is still quite runny but a bit firmer than before.
She sits fluffed a lot of the time, I have spent time observing her and she is eating and drinking just fine.
She chirps along with her finch friends (who also came from the same place) but sleeps more and sleeps with her head tucked up.

I don’t know if it’s due to a change of diet, i think she was only given seed prior to coming to me. I offer, grit, charcoal, iodine block, finch mix seed, millet, dried herb salad, fresh apple, kale and I tried them with a grape (peeled and de seeded) and egg food. My cuttlefish are arriving today or tomorrow and I ordered soaking seed and will be growing on some of the finch seed for more fresh greens.

She was used for breeding (I am going to go pick up the male today that she was with) I am not going to encourage any breeding as I don’t know if she laid any or a lot of clutches this year and would rather not put more stress on her maybe she is just depleted from that?

My s76 is coming and I ordered spark as per recommendation from finchbreeder in my intro post so as soon as it arrives it will be added to the water.

Should I be more concerned or give her a few more days to de stress and try the spark then s76?

P.S. I have no idea how to add an image (not tech savvy unfortunately).

https://ibb.co/h9DRRKY

[finchbreeder]

Know what you mean about not being tech savy - thats what I have a geek son for.
If they are not used to greens - these should be added sparingly - and increased gradually. Cucumber is better than Kale in the way of salad veges.
Fruit is not natural to Gouldians, so I don;t feed it. Others may have different opinions.
Are they in a similar temperature to where they were before? While they can take quite low temperatures and quite high temperatures. All changes are best done gradually.
Your idea of giving her a good rest before breeding is a good one.
Hope she perks up.

[Raven11]

Know what you mean about not being tech savy - thats what I have a geek son for.
If they are not used to greens - these should be added sparingly - and increased gradually. Cucumber is better than Kale in the way of salad veges.
Fruit is not natural to Gouldians, so I don;t feed it. Others may have different opinions.
Are they in a similar temperature to where they were before? While they can take quite low temperatures and quite high temperatures. All changes are best done gradually.
Your idea of giving her a good rest before breeding is a good one.
Hope she perks up.

Lol there’s just me unless I can rope my tech savvy brother in. I did manage to attach a photo of her yay! I have pics of their poop so maybe that will help.

I have not added any greens today apart from the herb salad which is dry, I will get some cucumbers instead and sprout some seed and grow some too.
I picked up the male yesterday and he said he keeps his above 10 so he wasn’t much help there.

I put spark in their water last night.

This is what was under her perch this morning. The seed is not in her poop it’s just where they have eaten/thrown it around.

https://ibb.co/L0FYJc8
https://ibb.co/BCyVGR1

[finchbreeder]

Not savy enough to tell anything from the pics.
Hopefully one of our Vets will look in.

[Raven11]

Update:
I treated her for cocci, not really sure I saw any change in her. But I have moved them from their quarantine cage to a larger cage by the window.

She finally took a bath yesterday, twice! Soaked herself totally then plummeted to the floor, she’s fine lol but no more dirty vent! She spent a rather soggy day in the sun preening.
She’s much more active now and flying more, eating well, drinking well. Looks like she’s going to moult. Her male companion has started his moult.

She still sleeps more and looks more fluffed to me. I wonder if she’s older and overweight which would explain a lot. She lands on a perch with quite a thud!

I have feather up coming (was delayed with Easter and as I’m in N.Ireland there are postage delays due to the new Irish Sea border).

[finchbreeder]

It is possible she has been bred heavily and just needs rebuilding.
grit, charcoal, iodine block - will all help as will nuked egg shells.

[Raven11]

Update: despite everything she passed away a week or two ago. I returned home to find her dead on the bottom of the cage, I just did check her ring which said 2020.
I just wanted to say thank you for all your suggestions and support.

It seems there is something more going on here. All my birds started to have loose droppings including some that were just urine no urates or feces, and the vet has put them on Baytril. I wonder if she had some sort of disease.. all my birds came from the same bird shed.

Anyway we have another day or so of the Baytril to go then probiotics. If no change then we will be doing more investigations.

[finchbreeder]

As they all came from the same place, unfortunately any disease will likely be carried by all. But the good side of that is that some are likely more resistant than others. Bit like us humans and this Covid virus. If her ring said 2020, and she had bred heavily, that could be why she did not make it. No reserves to fight the sickness. Hope that all goes well for you and your birds from now on.