Aussie Finch Forum

From my experience most cases of air sac mite turn up in over crowded indoor cages/aviaries.
Over the years I have kept a reasonably large collection of Finches including many Gouldians.
Very few birds have shown any sign of being infected when outside but cases have turned up in birds kept in my bird room.
I think it is because of the ultra dry conditions and the old cause of many ailments, stress.
I have been able to get Scatt and that has cleaned up the problem rapidly. Dose and re dose 10days later.
Also remember that all perches should be cleaned and use a disinfectant as well as dirty perches will hold
the mites/eggs ready to re infect. Apart from the normal signs watch an infected bird and you will see it will
frequently wipe it's beak on the perch.
In a balanced outside aviary the need to medicate anything is greatly reduced.

All these comments are great.

In the old days breeders would just cull sick birds. This served 2 purposes: 1) It stopped the spread of disease 2) It ensured that only the strongest birds and those best adapted to your aviaries survived to hopefully breed.

There is a lot of merit with this approach so long as birds are easily replaced (ethical considerations apart). It is hard to do if you have rare or expensive species or a bird exhibiting a new mutation.

I am happy to treat any affected birds as EOrix has suggested, but any birds which subsequently relapse I would remove from the collection.

I still use the old days approach to some extent. I treat the health of my birds by what is best for the whole flock. All birds receive routine preventative drenching, baycox, etc. & then if any sick bird doesn't respond to initial treatment and lingers in an off-colour state it is dispatched with humanely for the "greater good".
I wouldn't do this for air sac mite though as I've usually found ASM to be easily & effectively treated (& prevented) with the moxydectin/ivomectin type wormers.

Tiaris wrote:I still use the old days approach to some extent. I treat the health of my birds by what is best for the whole flock. All birds receive routine preventative drenching, baycox, etc. & then if any sick bird doesn't respond to initial treatment and lingers in an off-colour state it is dispatched with humanely for the "greater good".
I wouldn't do this for air sac mite though as I've usually found ASM to be easily & effectively treated (& prevented) with the moxydectin/ivomectin type wormers.

Back when I was a kid breeding budgies any sick were treated and sold to pet shop

Never kept treated birds for breeding