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Is PetSmart to Blame for Death of Vietnam Vet?
Family Suing Over Man's Rare 'Parrot Fever' Death
by MIKE VON FREMD
June 30, 2008
Is the country's largest pet store chain to blame for the death of a 63-year old father and Vietnam War veteran from Texas? His family thinks so.

Family says man dies after contact with bird bought from a pet store chain.They believe a diseased exotic bird bought at a Corpus Christi PetSmart is responsible for the death of Joe De La Garza. And now the family is suing PetSmart for not protecting the consumer against a rare disease called psittacosis, or "parrot fever."

Amanda De La Garza was one of 11 million Americans who own pet birds. On Sept. 30, 2006, she could not resist a small $85 cockatiel.

"I noticed a little bird, which I later named Peachy," says Amanda, who lived with her 63-year-old father at the time. Sixteen days after bringing Peachy into her home, her father died, and Amanda slipped into a coma.

"When the doctors were alerted that I had birds, I had different antibiotics and I began to respond."

Amanda she says was shocked to learn she had contracted a bacterial infection, called psittacosis, from her pet cockatiel.

"Psittacosis is a relatively rare disease in humans," said Dr. James Imperato at the CUNY Medical Center. "There are only about a dozen to 25 cases reported a year."

The death certificate for her father, Joe De La Garza, stated the cause of death as pneumonia, but Amanda suspected her bird was the real cause, and she had his body exhumed last year.

"If he died from this, I had to be sure," she said.

An autopsy was performed and tissue samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Amanda's attorney, Ron Franklin, says, "what the CDC determined was that Mr. De La Garza had psittacosis. Through genetic blood tests -- and the autopsy with those findings -- it was able to determine the primary cause of death."

And because of these findings, the family is now suing PetSmart, where the bird was purchased.

In a written statement PetSmart says it has great sympathy for the De La Garza family's loss but adds, "We stand behind our pets. We believe these allegations are unfounded, and we intend to vigorously defend against them."

PetSmart produced a contract signed by Amanda that released the company from any liability resulting from exposure to the pets she purchased. The company says all cockatiels receive a 14-day course of antibiotics and then a seven-day isolation period to protect people against psittacosis.

Doctors say most people recover from exposure to the disease. "The fatality rate is very minimal in the U.S. because it can be treated very efficiently," says Imperato.

Unfortunately, that was certainly not the case with Amanda's father, and she describes her pain. "I think about this every day. My father is gone, my birds are gone, but I want the public to know about this so it doesn't happen to them."

She says she will never have a pet bird in her home again.

Psittacosis is rare, but animals carry other illnesses into our homes. How can you protect yourself against diseases transmitted through pets?

Marty Becker, a veterinarian at the North Idaho Animal Hospital and syndicated columnist of "Pet Connection," has a few quick tips that may help us to avoid illnesses transmitted through pets.


Wash hands after playing with a pet
Keep your yard clean
Remember that the young and elderly are most likely to be sickened
Take pet to vet twice a year
Use parasite control products

The question is? Did the bird also die? Did the center for disease control test the bird? I wonder if this guy was in contact with other kinds of birds or visited other pet shops and carried the disease on his i.e. shoes.
The petsmarts I've visited are very clean and they do quarantee their birds.

We have no idea. Since they had both the daughter in the coma and the father dying they must have gone directly to that assumption. My guess is that the bird died and if she had other birds, they may have died as well.

Sad that it happened, but as we all know from the last petsmart fiasco, the current procedures are not adequate for pssitacosis. Things would be so much better if the breeders that these stores purchase from had an infection free flock! (or as much as you can with that many birds)

As a soon to be new cockatiel owner I'm a little concerned with the possibility of disease transmission to humans. I read on another post that this psittacosis disease is the same as the human disease called Chlamydia. I thought that Chlamydia was an STD, although I suppose there would be other ways of catching it. Also, this report says that it is a rare disease. From what I've read, Chlamydia is not that rare. So, I'm thinking this must be a different type of chlamydia and not the same as the disease that originates in humans and not from birds. Does anyone know? Could we really pick up a disease on our shoes from a pet store and then subsequently be infected that way? Will a general blood test for health usually cover this and other contagious diseases or do you usually have to specify what you want your bird tested for?

Many good questions, some of which I can answer, or at least begin to. First, Psittacosis, parrot fever, and Chlamydia are names of the same zoonotic disease, and it is not the same Chlamydia that is a human STD. It can be transmitted by inhaling (or ingesting) wet or dried mucous secretions from an infected bird. That means stuff the bird is sneezing out or what's in her mouth. The high number of avian cases and low number of human cases indicates it is not easily transmitted to humans. But when humans do get infected, it looks so much like the flu that it's often misdiagnosed, mistreated, and it progresses to pneumonia, which can be fatal, especially in someone with a weakened immune system. This includes children, with immature immune systems 'til about age 10.

It is always advisable to have every new bird examined by an avian vet. A well-bird check should include bloodwork to detect a number of indicators of health problems, and additional blood testing should be done for specific diseases, including Psittacosis. When the new owner of a parrot who cost at least $200-300 takes her new bird for a well-bird exam, the vet routinely asks if she wants testing for various diseases done. But on the relatively rare occasion that the new owner of an $85 cockatiel takes her bird for a well-bird exam, even good avian vets are often slower to ask about disease testing because it can easily push the cost of the exam to $200-$300. But it should always be done. The risk to humans is too great. Many cockatiels are carriers of the disease without showing any symptoms.

The safest way to buy a cockatiel IMO is from a small breeder with an excellent reputation. Not someone who just began breeding 3 years ago, but someone with a track record and an avian vet you can talk with about illnesses in the aviary. Buying from a company like PetCo, Petsmart, or Petland is just ignorance, I feel. Unfortunately, too many of us knew little or nothing about birds until after we brought our first bird home. Thank goodness for chats such as this where we can share information.

Thanks for the great info Bluesbird. I am expecting to have a big vet bill the first time, but I want to make sure we have a healthy bird when we bring him (Baby Raisin) home. We still don't know when that will be, but are anxiously waiting for him to be weaned!

Wasn't anyone concerned with this statement?
"The company says all cockatiels receive a 14-day course of antibiotics and then a seven-day isolation period to protect people against psittacosis."

They are just treating every bird for it, whether they've got it or not, which is absolutely MARVELOUS for their immune systems, and perfectly wonderful if they've got any other sort of disease that doesn't respond to that particular antibiotic. Long-term antibiotic use (14 days is too long, esp when you don't know that the bird's ill) along with an alarming lack of responsibility. Where the heck are they getting their birds that they feel they need to treat for random diseases? Notice there was absolutely no mention of testing the birds for any diseases, a far more prudent tact, IMHO. Particularly after such a drastic treatment to new birds - where's the testing to make sure what they were treating for is no longer there (if it was even there in the first place?) ?! Heck, a simple gram stain would go a long way in preventing a lot of PetStupid's disgustingly ill avians. That costs me about $15 at my avian vet.

IMHO, Petstupid is going to settle out of court on this one.

Here's where their birds come from: http://www.companionparrot.com/Kaytee%2 ... 0Birds.htm Treatment for 14 days is woefully inadequate for Psittacosis: "Doxycycline may be given either through the drinking water or by weekly injection for 6 weeks. Treatment through the drinking water is for 45 days" per Mike Owen, known around the world for his avian expertise: http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/psittico.htm .

t is a sad story all around.Doesn't petsmart have a vet on premise (Branfield vet clinic)? (I'm not sure if I am spelling the name correctly but it is something like that)
I agree, gram stains would tell the story whether the birds have some kind of problems (even a simple yeast infection could be detected)

Yes, they do have a vet on premisis, but they have been well known to say that an animal is healthy and it isn't. They are on the payroll of petsmart, so I would always take another vet's word for it. If the birds were medicated even once before tests were done, they wouldn't be reliable either.