new to the list

[jan]

Howdy, I'm new to the list and am after some advice.
We recently had a galah join the family. He was handed in to the local vet clinic. No one claimed him so he is now with us.
His problem is no wing or tail feathers. We were told by the vet that he chews them off, but I have never seen a bird start on their flight feathers. I thought they usually start on their chest feathers. So we have a grounded galah, that looks like a pink chook. He's been hand reared though as he's so quiet. Still very wary of us, but does allow us to scratch his head. And dosen't bight hard. Just mouths like they do.
So I am wondering if the past owner has chopped his feathers off, or pulled them out. They do bleed if he bangs them on anything.

[vankarhi]

Has he been tested for beak and feather disease??

Oh and by the way a big WELCOME ;D

Post some pics for us to look at .............. we love pictures ;D

[farseeker]

That does sound like PBFD to me. If you have any other birds I'd keep him completely isolated from them until you have had a test done and confirmed results.

What is he banging his wings on? There's not much you can do about sides of the cage apart from trying to have as much space between perches and the cage as possible, but if he's trying to fly and knocking them on perches some people have done things like wrapped a small towel around the perch to make it softer, so they're less likely to injure themselves.

Having unprotected wing tips can be very painful for the bird. My lorikeet used to get very dry skin at times as well. If you have any aloe vera it can help with the skin a little bit.

If he does test positive to PBFD you'll have to make some decisions about whether you can care for him, and what to do with him if you can't. They do require some special care and it can be very stressful especially emotionally, but in my experience and from what I've heard from other people who have cared for PBFD birds they also tend to have a very sweet nature and love people.

Welcome to the boards, I'd love to see some piccies of your new baby. Sorry if I've seemed rather negative but when I first got Squee (my lorikeet) I had a lot of trouble finding information about what to expect as far as behaviour, illness and caring goes, and I think it's better to have some idea of what may be required if they do have PBFD than to have to research that as well as dealing with the idea if he does test positive.

[silvercloud]

Hi and welcome Jan.

[vankarhi]

Jan...........sorry if we have given you a fright with your bird. It wasnt meant to frighten you. Farseeker has had a bird who had PBFD.

I was talking to a bird breeder the other day and he told me that you can do a PBFD for around $70 through a south african company............does anyone else know about this???

[farseeker]

Yeah, definitely not meant to scare you, just to inform you of what may happen. Like I said, Squee was a rescue and I had no idea about caring for lorikeets when I first got him, let alone a bird with PBFD and it took a lot of looking around to find information that could help me. This forum was a huge help, so stick around and ask as many questions as you need to.

As far as the African company goes I think I've seen their website about but can't find it for the life of me - I'll have another hunt around but don't know how successful it will be.

If your galah does test positive to PBFD, please don't take it to mean that it can't have a happy and relatively healthy life. If he does have PBFD he has the chronic form not the acute, which means he could potentially live for many years quite happily. Birds with PBFD most often die as a result of secondary infections due to the immunosuppressant nature of the virus rather than PBFD itself, so obviously taking care with hygiene is especially important with PBFD birds (not that it isn't normally). The feather loss can be dealt with in a number of ways, and so can skin problems.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that having a bird diagnosed with PBFD is not an automatic death sentence for the bird, and they can be just as loving, playful and happy and as rewarding to have as any other pet bird - they just have a few little quirks of their own.

[jan]

so what is PBFD. Pardon my ignorance, but I've never come across it before

[Minna]

It's essentially bird AIDs, insofar as it's an immunosuppressant syndrome. It's also known as 'Beak and Feather' disease, since it causes the birds to lose their feathers and makes their beaks very brittle (from what I understand). It his cockatoos hardest. Farseeker can probably explain it a lot better than I can. But it is very contagious, so if there's the slightest possibility he might have it, separate him from your other birds until you've got him tested.

[Minna]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacine_beak_and_feather_disease

[jan]

I don't think it is PBFD. wouldn't he lose his body feathers first. He shows no sign of ill health. I've seen birds with this in the wild and they still have all their flight feathers. His body is healthy with just missing wing and tail.

[Minna]

I was under the impression they lose wing and tail feathers first ?

[farseeker]

Wing and tail feather loss is usually the first symptom, yes.

This is a photo of Squee shortly after we got him. He wasn't very cooperative but you can see that his beak still has some black, so he's quite young.



At that point he had perfect feathering on the front. He had particularly beautiful colouring, actually - he was a sweetie. There's still a little stub of his tail there too.



This one was taken maybe a year ago? Or thereabouts. It's from my phone so not great quality, but you can see the feather loss around his legs. By that point his last tail feather was gone and there was some skin clearly visible on his wings.



This was one taken about two months later, as he was bathing. The chest feathers are starting to go quite clearly in this one.



This is a very short (few seconds long) video of Squee about a month or two before he died. You can see the remaining wing feathers starting to twist and become deformed.

For the most part, Squee was an incredibly healthy bird - when he wasn't hurting his wing tips or the couple of times he got infections. Apart from the feather loss you honestly wouldn't have known that he was sick the vast majority of the time.

What kind of vet clinic did you get him from? If it wasn't an avian vet they may well not know about PBFD - there isn't much time spent training general vets to deal with birds, so many don't have much more than a very rudimentary knowledge. Regardless of whether you think he has PBFD or not I'd recommend that you get him tested for that and any other avian diseases that can lead to feather picking, just so you can rule them out.

Also, does your galah have a name yet? Or is he still too new to the ffamily?

[vankarhi]

Hey Jan what about some pics of your new family member?? ;D

Apparently you can do blood tests for about 5 of the most common diseases (I don't know exactly which ones, but am sure PBFD is one of them). The breeder I spoke to said that PBFD is not the worst disease they can get now in Australia either.

The vet nurse that trains her dogs with me and works at the vet I take my birds to (not avian but very good) said that even though Beak and Feather is contagious her vet seems to think it is not as "highly" contagious as thought. They actually know of a wildlife carer who takes in birds affected with PBFD and she has been doing this for years apparently (took in that baby lorikeet given to me with no wing or tail feathers............that I thought might have PBFD) and this carer reckons that so far none of her pet birds have contracted it.

From what I have read it does sound like the "aides" of the bird world (Thanks Minna exactly what I have said in the past ;D ) and some vets seem to think that it is mostly from close contact with other birds like when feeding babies and partners and breeding and preening etc . The vet nurse also said that her boss (the vet) seems to think the down feathers are what help to spread it too.

Not scientific facts but just another vets point of view and it make sense to to me. But then I did freak when I thought that baby lorikeet might have it and didn't want to risk spreading it to my birds.

Anyway Jan, that is enough on this..................we have no idea why your bird has no wing or tail feathers and it could very well not be PBFD at all. Sorry for worrying you.

How about posting us some pics of your lovely birdie anyway. We love pics. ;D

[jan]

I have no idea how to post photo's, I am not too clever on this machine. And my lovely little galah is called chookie, although he keeps saying hello bird, so he gets bird as well.

[vankarhi]

if you open a photobucket account. They cost nothing and you can store all your pics on there for free. Then you just click on the pic you want to post here and click on the IMG link and then press cntl and v at the same time when you are back at your post, then the link to your pic or even the Image should be in your post.

[vankarhi]

oh to open a photobucket account just go to www.photobucket.com
I think all details should be there on how to do put your pics on.

[judy]

Hi Jan and welcome along to the forum.