What could have killed my fids? :(

[Jordan S.]

I haven't told you guys this, but at the moment, I have no budgies(I will be getting one at the end of the school year). Last year, All three of my budgies died within a 24 hour period. Sprite was dead when I came home from school, Tom and no name, appeared to be ok, but then within an hour Tom was puffed out, sitting on the cage bottom. We rushed him to the Emergency vet, wrapped in a blanket, the vet looked him over and said he was a perfect weight and had no tumors, but the fact that when he turned him on to his back, he made no effort to flip back over, was a sign he was gravely ill. We had to have him euthanized. Then I came home late at night and my last survivor, No name, the mature female English budgie who came two us 2 months ago,(hadn't thought of a name yet) was still alive and looking ok. She amazed me by flying to me and landing on my hand,then flew back to the cage, whereas two weeks ago ,she was terrified of me. I was happy that at least she survived and I decided I do everything to make sure she remains alive. Then I fed her, went to bed and the next morning, I was horrified to find her laying on the bottom on her belly, wings sprawled out. She was still alive, and I went crying to my mom that No name was also ill, so we drove her to a vet, wrapped in a blanket in a cardboard box, but she died on the trip there. :crying2:
To this day I have no idea how they died. They got out of the cage daily, fed pellets,nutriberries, and veggies(no name was a seed junkie who was still only eating nutriberries), I don't see how they all could have died that quickly. Could you guys help

[SpickyDavies]

what do you use around your home? any aerosoles, plug-ins, makeup anything that smells?
teflon? draft?

[Jordan S.]

No I kept them in the living room. We use all those cleaners in other rooms.

[critter mom]

Oh I'm so sorry. I have no idea what may have caused it but I just wanted to send my condolences

[SpickyDavies]

what about your water source?
did you purchase your birds from the same place or breeder?

it's a mystery

how were they housed

[Jordan S.]

I changed their water once a day, I purchased both Tom and Sprite from the same place. No name, no name arrived when one day I put Tom and Sprite's cage outside for some fresh air, then I came out to find no name on top of it. I don't think she had a disease though since she first of all died last, and I had had her for a few months before this happened. they were housed in an 18x20x18 cage,

[Pippin's mom]

I'm so sorry for your losses!:( It's devastating enough to lose one let alone three all at once!

It sounds to me like it was something in their enviroment. Unfortunetly even if you use chemicals in another room the smells can still spread to other rooms especially with anything sprayed. Scented candles and air fresheners are also highly toxic to our birds.

The only way to really know would have been to have your vet preform a neocropsy to determine cause of death.

[pal0m1n0]

Did you quarantine No name when she showed up, or just put her in the cage with them?

[ozzie]

Did you quarantine No name when she showed up, or just put her in the cage with them?

But even if she hadn't wouldn't No name have passed first??




I am so sorry to hear about your losses. The thing that I am assuming is something in the air or something in the food...did you feed them all somthing new? Maybe some veggies had perservatives and pesticides on them that weren't washed off - the best way to tell is to get a neocropsy done, once again I am so sorry you lost all your budgies, you are in my thoughts and prayers :(

[kevncaz]

were so sorry to hear of your loss , how devastating to lose all 3 birds in 24 hours

[keet_tweet4]

If they died that quickly it must have been something in the environment. Others have made good suggestions as to that. I'm very sorry for your losses, it must be hard to lose them all at practically the same time. :(

[Jordan S.]

But even if she hadn't wouldn't No name have passed first??




I am so sorry to hear about your losses. The thing that I am assuming is something in the air or something in the food...did you feed them all somthing new? Maybe some veggies had perservatives and pesticides on them that weren't washed off - the best way to tell is to get a neocropsy done, once again I am so sorry you lost all your budgies, you are in my thoughts and prayers :(

I gave them some beak appetit a couple days before their death.

[Jordan S.]

Did you quarantine No name when she showed up, or just put her in the cage with them?

No, I didn't know about quarantine at the time. But once again, I doubt it originated from no name because I had her for about 2 or 3 months. And she probably would have died first.

[Robin's Nest]

Oh, how devastating that must have been.:( I cannot imagine - I am so sorry.

I too would guess environmental; teflon bakeware, cookware, griddle, a self cleaning oven; those would be some of the first places I would look.

As to the order of death - no name could have been a carrier of a disease in a chronic state, that was passed to the others acutely resulting in their deaths occurring first. No name dying last would not preclude her from having introduced a pathogen into the group that she had a slightly stronger countenance and lasted a bit longer.

Nonetheless, I too would suspect environmental first, but a pathogen introduced by No Name would certainly be on my suspect list.

I am so sorry; having just lost one - I cannot imagine losing 3 like that - my heart truly goes out to you. I am so sorry for your losses.

[aka.pody]

Oh Jordan how devastating. I am so sorry for your loss. :(
Everyone had good advice.
We are looking forward to hearing about your new budgie when you get it.
But before you get it, try with all your might to figure out what the cause might have been. As mentioned, scented candles and any type of spray could have caused it.

[Goldielover]

What time of year was this? If it was summer, I'd be wondering about things like aerial spraying for mosquitoes, or possibly someone in the area having their lawns sprayed with pesticides. I heard of someone on another forum who lost quite a number of fish when their next door neighbour had their lawn sprayed on a fairly windy day. This really does sound like an environmental issue of some sort, but, if you had just started a fresh bag of food then a bad batch can't be ruled out either. This could be a long shot, but if you had any toys in the cage that weren't specifically meant for birds, or if your birds were in a repainted cage, then metal poisoning is also a possibility. Probably less of a possibility than the others due to all of them going in such a short space of time.

Anyways, if it is environmental, hope you get this sorted out before you get your new birds. Look forward to pictures when you do.

[chapala]

So sorry for your loss of all three birds, how sad! If products toxic to birds are used in another part of the house the chemicals or fumes quite likely could have reached the birds, and something like that might have killed them. Harsh cleaning products and non-stick cookware are at the top of the list. Being in another room is not always enough protection for birds' sensitive respiratory systems.

[Angelic Vampyre]

There are a few things that could have caused this. Did you manage to have a look at their poo? The vet did not try and work out what it was? There are a number of things it could have been.

As for no name not being the carrier that may not be true. I got 7 birds froma Bird auction a while back, did quarrantine put them in my avairy and three days later my young ones started dropping like flies and then others, all up I lost about 40 bird, the new 7 where the last to go and some of them even never showed signs of illness. i got one tested and found out it had megabac buthe never showed any signs just passed it onto other birds.

If I was you i would take all the cage and toys apart was/soak in detol (not sure you have it over there but look it up on the net it's great for cleaning bird cages) let everything dry, spray for mites and then get a new bird. Also if you use plastic feed containers switch them out for metal ones as the plastic and hold germs that can kill a Budgie.

Check the safe foods list (I am sure you know it) but you did not feed them anything on that? I know one person we could not work out what had killed her birds for weeks and then I looked at the food she was feeding him and yes she was giving him coffee with milk every morning as he seemed to like it and also apple seeds. So easy to do.

Good luck with you new bird. If this happens again, I would have taken both birds to the vet so that no name could have gotten checked out the first time around. We live and we learn *hugs*