Avian veterinarians stress preventative health maintenance to insure the wellness and longevity of our pet birds. Many times owners are reluctant to spend money on their pet with the premise that their bird is not exposed to other birds, i.e. they do not take their bird to fairs or shows or even to bird club meetings and they assume that their bird is not in any danger of being ill because of this relatively isolated lifestyle. When we do find a sick pet bird that bacterial disease has make ill, the most common question is; "How in the world did my bird ever get exposed to these nasty bacterial?" The answer is in having a knowledge of bacteria and what they are and where they are. Bacterial are single celled organisms so tiny that thousands of bacterial can fit into a space the size of a pin head.

Bacteria are basically of two types; beneficial and harmful (potentially disease causing). Most people do not realize that bacteria are everywhere, they inhabit our mouths, skin, intestinal tracts, food, refrigerators, kitchen tables, silverware and dishwashers. Just about everything exposed to air has bacteria present. "Normal flora" is a term used in microbiology to describe those bacteria that are a normal, healthy, necessary part of the microbic population within a given animal's particular organ system. Without these normal flora, the animal would not be healthy. The normal flora in a human's mouth contain many bacteria that are harmful and potentially disease causing to our pet birds. Food that is perishable such as fruits and vegetable are very likely to grow large numbers of disease causing bacteria if left in the cage at room temperature for long periods of time. Baby food formula mixed in the morning and refrigerated throughout the day and repeated and fed that evening is a wonderful place for bacterial overgrowth to occur, many baby birds are made sick with this practice. Refrigeration slows bacterial growth, it does not stop it! Fresh foods from the grocery are bacteria laden since they have been handled by humans and possibly contaminated by other mammal wastes during storage and shipping. Mice and other vermin can carry bacteria to your food sources.

Water sources are an enigma of their own. Pseudomonas bacteria is a potential threat to all of our birds on a constant basis. This bacterial loves to grow in your water faucet, particularly if your water lines are PVC pipe instead of copper. Chlorination does not eliminate all bacteria; it is designed to keep bacterial counts in a low enough range to be fit for consumption by humans, not birds! I have cultured several aviaries with a Pseudomonas problem strictly due to filthy food and water sources. Water bowls should be above perch level to prevent contamination by fecal material which increases recontamination to your bird and the feces provides organic material in the water bowl for the bacteria to grow.

Running your tap water for 3-5 minutes before filling water bowls helps flush these bacteria from the faucet instead of filling your bird's water bowl with them. Water bottles for birds are an excellent way to prevent contamination with food and fecal material. Changing, washing and disinfecting water bowls often, even twice a day for those Amazons that choose to make "tea" in their water bowls, on a daily basis helps keep down the load of bacteria. Vitamins in the water are a sore spot with me, they provide necessary nutrients in the water bowl for bacterial growth to occur. If you have to use vitamins in the water, change and disinfect that water bowl every day.

So you see, you feed your pet bird bacteria every day, it is impossible to do otherwise! Those sweet kisses Cecil (my Amazon) gives my at night are laced with my normal flora which can be disease producing to my precious pet. So Cecil gets a gram stain probably every 3-4 months. Gram stains differentiate between gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Gram positives are the good guys and gram negatives the bad guys when our birds are concerned. If the gram negative ratio is above 20% then a culture and sensitivity are done. This tells me what bacteria are present and the exact best antibiotics with which to treat this bacteria.

Bird can carry bacteria infections for years and still appear healthy. Many people look at me with disbelief when I make this statement. Look at it historically, dogs and cats have been domesticated since before Egyptian times; they do not consider the human to be a predator or a threat. Many of our pet birds are just two generations out of the Amazon jungle, hand fed or not there is still a lot of genetic programming in their computer that says; "Look and act healthy, because if you act sick, something or someone is going to get you!"

While laboratory work does not always identify the sick bird, it does much more and comes much closer than a physical examination. So when you see your veterinarian, have the extras done that screen for subclinical bacterial infections that if addressed early can be cleared instead of waiting for your bird to look sick when it may be too late for anyone to save his or her life.

Questions should be directed to our office, 502-245-7863