Is this mites? How can I treat it?!

[crof]

I apologise in advance because I know that this is going to be a long post with a lot of questions because I am freaking out a little bit! So if anyone has had any experience with this problem or experience with any of the products I mention then please help me out. If you can answer any or all of my questions I will be forever grateful.

So this is the situation. My budgie is beginning to get a crusty beak & cere but feet seem clear. While I know that the obvious answer is 'take it to a vet' please understand that due to this COVID-19 stuff I am apprehensive to do so as I live with someone who is in the 'high risk group' of catching it. Anyway, with that in mind, here are the questions I hope you can help me with.

1) Is this mites (like knemidokoptes)?

2) Could it be anything else?

3) How serious is it? How quickly does it get worse?

4) Can it be passed to my other budgie who shares a cage with it? (I assume the answer is yes but it is showing no signs)

5) While doing my research into it, it seems that vets usually use a treatment called Ivermectin. I found this which contains Ivermectin. Has anybody ever used it?

www.beaphar.com/en-gb/product/beaphar-anti-parasite-spot-on-small-canary-budgie

6) Will it do any harm to try this treatment? (it says that it can be used prophylactically so I assume it should be ok?)

7) I also found this spray. It doesn't seem to contain ivermectin and spraying my budgie doesn't seem like a very good idea. However, if it needs to be done then it needs to be done. Has anybody ever used it? Will it do any harm?

www.northernparrots.com/beaphar-bird-insecticidal-spray-150ml-prod564214/

8) If I do try any of these treatments, will the crust just fall off itself? If not, how will I know if the treatment has been successful?

Thanks once again for any help that you are able to give me. I am terrified to try the treatment myself as grabbing and chasing my budgies around isn't something I planned on doing after trying to build trust and getting nowhere fast!

P.S. I have posted pics of both budgies so that you can see one seems to be fine while one does not.

[Hezz]

This is almost certainly a case of scaly face caused by scaly mites, Knemidokoptes pilae. By the look of this, the bird has had it for some time and yes, all birds will need to be treated. Ivermectin 0.1% is the treatment of choice, one drop on the back of the neck of all birds, once a week for three weeks. It is not an emergency, but the sooner they are treated the less impact the mites will have on the birds' health. As you will need to be giving multiple doses, in my opinion you are better off getting something like this: Same treatment but will buy you enough to give both birds the three weeks of tretment that they will need.
www.thebirdloftshop.com/product/ivermectin-0-1-anti-mite-drops-small-ornamental-birds-10ml/#:~:text=Ivermectin%200.1%25%20Anti%20Mite%20Drops%20for%20Small%20Ornamental%20Birds%20%E2%80%93%2010ml,-%C2%A315.69&text=PHARMAQ%20Ivermectin%20Drops%200.1%25%20Cage,(e.g.%20mice%20and%20hamsters).

Sprays are useless, don't waste your money.

If you don't have anyone to help you give the treatment, you can blow on the feathers at the back of the neck to expose the skin to the drop. The drop must go onto the skin, not the feathers. The "crust" isn't actually a crust but rather the sign of tracks that the mites have made under the surface of the cere and beak. As the mites are killed off the tracks will just seem to disappear and the beak,cere will get back its normal smooth appearance. If you can get someone to help you give the treatment, have them hold the birds if you are concerned about wreaking any trust you might have built up. Another possible solution is to wear a face mask so the budgies don't associate you so much with the treatment.

[crof]

Thank you so much for your response Hezz. It has put my mind at rest knowing that it should be treatable at home. I have bought the one you recommended and also bought the Beaphar one in a panic before you were able to respond haha. I just hope it arrives ASAP!

One more question though.... how long will it take for the mites 'tracks' that you talk about to disappear? Should they be gone by the end of the 3rd/4th week?

[Hezz]

As I said, it isn't an emergency and your birds' health is not going to be greatly affected in the short time it takes the treatment to get to you. You will see improvement in the three weeks of treatment.

I've borrowed these images of Marianne Marlow's rescued budgie, Lemon. Lemon was found by another member outside with a bad case of scaly face. He was initially treated with an Ivermectin injection which does work faster than the spot-on, but you can see the difference in his little face over the three weeks between the photos. I think in the last photo he still had one more dose to go. Just to give you some idea of how the treatment helps clean up their faces.

Lemon soon after he was found.


Lemon either two or three weeks later.

[crof]

I posted a few weeks ago asking for advice on how to help with this and due to COVID-19 I couldn't get to a vet. So anyway.... here is my experience.

So I have had 2 budgies for around 4 months now. I noticed my green budgie, Kusa, had some crustiness (a lot) around her cere. The white one, Yuki, seemed fine. I was advised to treat both as they shared a cage.

Apparently it is a type of microscopic mite called knemidokoptes pilae and it can be treated with something called Ivermectin. These are the only birds I have ever owned so I can only assume that they caught this infection before I bought them. So, anyway, I bought the Ivermectin (which you can see in the link at the bottom) and the instructions state to use 1 drop, behind the neck, between the shoulder blades of the budgie, once a week for 3 weeks. I was also advised to treat both birds as it can be used prophylactically anyway. So here is my experience.

Week/treatment 1:
I emptied their cage before I cleaned it while leaving them inside. Even with them in a bare cage, it was practically impossible for me to try and catch them. After 15 minutes of both me and the birds getting stressed out, Kusa made an escape. I let them out often so I just left her and focussed on Yuki. I got Yuki pretty quickly after that. He nibbled on me a little bit and I don't care what anyone says... IT IS SORE! Haha! Anyway, the first drop rolled off and then I was more careful and put 2/3 drops on him just to make sure it was definitely on the skin.

After another 3 hours, Kusa flew home and then I was able to start the process again. Thankfully it only took a few minutes this time.

(P.S. I assume that the reason for putting it on the back of their neck is so they can't ingest it. I was scared that they would preen each other and ingest it but I didn't know what else to do! They also looked like they had been drowned because their feathers were flat haha! It was funny.)

Week/treatment 2:
Apparently in ALDI they give you little net bags to put your vegetables in. So my sister, being the awesome person that she is, thought of my troubles and got me one of the net bags. So this time I did the same and emptied the cage but used the net bag to chase them around while inside the cage. It worked SOOOOO much better/quicker. I caught Kusa first, gave her the treatment and it was pretty smooth. I also caught Yuki pretty quickly but he wasn't too happy about it and managed to draw blood from me while I was treating him. Again, I used 2/3 drops. It seemed pretty traumatic for him because when I let him go he flew to a table nearby me and seemed confused. He wandered around for 5 seconds on the table before regaining his composure and flying to his normal position (next to Kusa on the curtain rail).

(P.S. it looks like there is absolutely no improvement with the crustiness.)

Week/treatment 3:
Same story. Emptied cage, used the net bag thing, got Yuki. He was biting away but never drew blood this time. Maybe I was holding him differently? I only managed to get one drop that was definitely on his skin before he escaped my grasp haha.
Next I got Kusa. Again, pretty easily in comparison to the first time. I still needed to chase them both around the cage for a few mins though. I also had my niece with me who was able to help and when I gave Kusa her treatment my niece was able to dab a little olive oil on the crusty cere of Kusa with a cotton bud. I had read that this may help so I thought I would give it a try.

(P.S. Again..... it seems like there is absolutely no improvement with the crustiness)

So now I am currently in week 4. I was told that the Ivermectin should do 1 bird for 3 doses. I did 2 birds for 3 doses with more than 1 drop and some went to waste (rolling off feathers etc) and I still have some left over. I was considering doing a 4th treatment because I had this left over stuff but then I thought 'I'm not a vet and this stuff is technically poison...' (it's a poison that doesn't harm the budgie but gets into their bloodstream, the mites suck the poisoned blood and then die). So I decided to just stick to the instructed 3 doses. So if you are considering buying it, it goes further than you would expect.

So this is Kusa in week 4. I think I see a slight improvement but I will be watching very closely. Hopefully I will have more better quality pics of a fully healed budgie soon!

I hope this helps!

Ivermectin link:

www.vetpharmacy.co.uk/small-animals-birds-flea-lice-mite-worm-control/pharmaq/ivermectin-drops-0-1-10ml-pd-960.html

[crof]

Here is a link to an update. It seemed like a whole new topic so I decided to start a new thread rather than just post the results here. Thank you again for all your help.

Edit: Merged with existing thread by moderator.

[Hezz]

Original photo.

Now:



Even though this last photo is of poor quality, the difference in the bird is still obvious.