Aussie Finch Forum

My black headed female gouldian finch(Ebony) past away about a week ago.

The poor thing had infected eyes and a few days before i noticed she had a cross over beak. I brought her to the vet and he thought she had mites but he rekons he checked her and she didnt have any and he said she had a sinus infection as there were some yellow gunk on both sides of her beak and gave her a drop of medicine for that and the next morning she passed away

Ever since I purchased her about 2 months ago she had been making this tsk tsk tsk noise like she is trying to clear out her throat.
She was always quite tired during the day whereas the other birds were wide awake. I bought her along with a red headed male from the same cage from a breeder and both her and the male were very close. Now i have noticed that the male has his back to the other two birds in my cage most of the time and his tail goes up and down constantly when he is standing still on the perch. Is this normal? As my other two gouldians dont do this. I have been keeping a close eye on all three of them ever since she passed away as i am conerned that they may come down with the same thing the black headed female had. The red headed male seems to get along with the other two( female & male goudian who are close) but im just concerned about him.

Does anyone have any ideas about his behaviour? Or is he just missing his female friend?

Any feedback or comments are appreciated.

Cheers

Chez

the "tsk tsk tsk" noise could have been the sinus infection, or it could have been air sac mites... one of my gouldians was making that noise for a while before i treated them all with moxidectin plus. no other ideas on what else it could be, sorry.

Treat the other birds with a broad spectrum antibiotic they would have been exposed.after that give them a worm out and clean and disinfect cage. Prevention is better than a cure.

Yep, what Buzz said.
so sorry, it's so sad when our favourites die

spanna wrote:the "tsk tsk tsk" noise could have been the sinus infection, or it could have been air sac mites... one of my gouldians was making that noise for a while before i treated them all with moxidectin plus. no other ideas on what else it could be, sorry.

Thanks for your advice. Im still new to all of this whats moxidectin plus and can you get it from a pet shop?
The vet that I took Ebony to didnt seem to know much about gouldians so I'll be going to someone else next time.

Cheers
Chez

Jayburd wrote:Yep, what Buzz said.
so sorry, it's so sad when our favourites die

Thanks Jayburd. It was very sad cause Ebony and whitey the other male in the bird cage were really close.
Ive just got to keep an eye out on the others. Do you know if Gouldians mate for life?

Cheers

Chez

Buzzard-1 wrote:Treat the other birds with a broad spectrum antibiotic they would have been exposed.after that give them a worm out and clean and disinfect cage. Prevention is better than a cure.

Thanks Buzzard- can you get this broad spectrum antibiotic from a pet store? I am fairly new to this whats a worm out?

Cheers for all your advice!

Chez

moxidectin or moxidectin plus can be ordered over the net (from a pidgeon health site i think) or you should be able to get some from a vet, same with the antibiotic. bird shops often do have general treatments, but if you can talk to a bird vet it can be very helpful.

try here viewtopic.php?f=40&t=815 to find a vet near you...

gouldians will take another mate. They just need a bit of time to get used to each other

Thanks Spanna-great idea!
I will make contact with a bird vet.

Cheers

Chez