Catching illness from bird

[belle2]

Hi,

I've had Shim for a month or so. My flatmate (who is anxiety prone and a major hypochondriac) is terrified of catching something from it and tries to stop his 8 yr old from touching it.
I was angry with him but I looked it up and yes, it is possible to catch all sorts of diseases from a bird.

He is only 13 weeks old and I bought him from a breeder who seemed to love his birds dearly.

Is my flatmate right and I should be concerned?

[zena]

If you are worried you should take your bird to an avian bird, just to be sure- and I think generally the bird has to have the illness to be able to spread it...

[totemando]

Hi Belle, With birds, catching anything from them is a real long shot, and the one main disease that you should only be concerned with catching from a bird is Psittacosis, there really aren't any others that they spread to humans. Psittacosis is dangerous to contract, but like I said is a real long shot, and can just as easily be contracted while mowing the lawn and from any other outdoors encounter with birds or their environment. You could get your bird screened for it, and if he is clear of the disease and you don't have him interacting with any other birds you should be fine to stay safe from the disease.

Having said that, it is still a long shot that any bird catches it and would carry the disease in the first place. I have had budgies the last 40 years and lorikeets the last 16, and have had them outdoors in close potential contact with wild birds, and by the grace of God, I have never contracted any diseases from birds. However my Auntie who has had birds longer than I, did at one stage about 12 years back contract Psittacosis from a new bird she just bought into her bird aviary. It was rather unfortunate that the doctors didn't identify it as Psittacosis right away and just passed it off as a common cold, but as she was getting worse they then made the connection that it was Psittacosis. If you catch it early it can be treated okay,

I would'nt let the concern for infectious diseases rob you of the joy of owning and keeping birds, as the likelihood of trouble is almost as much as stepping outside your front door and getting hit by a bus. You can really only protect yourself wrapped up in cotton wool to speak just so much, you also need to live a life, its all really in God's hands.

Here are some web links to check concerning Psittacosis -

ideas.health.vic.gov.au/diseases/psittacosis-facts.asp

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacosis

www.google.com.au/#q=psittacosis

[belle2]

Thank you Zena and totemando for your replies. I'm fairly relaxed about it. More worried that I'm allergic to him! Since I am an allergy prone person it is a bit hard to say whether the reaction I'm having is from him or just weather change.