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Hello to all of you bird lovers!

I often have to mix up medications for my mutation gouldians and canaries.

As you probably know, when preparing even the smallest amount of medication, 1/8 th teaspoon, I usually have to add 2 cups of water. This makes alot of medication for such small birds.

I know it is best to mix up fresh medication daily, however, when I am left with so much "extra" I usually store it in glass bottles and refrigerate it. Then I use this remainder mixture for the duration of the dosage.

I do this with all of the following meds:

Trimeth/Sulfa
Rodanisole
Doxycycline
Erythromycin
Amoxicillin

I also do this with their vitamin powder added to water.

The longest I will give to them stored and refrigerated is 1 week. After that if there is any left I will throw it out.

I was wondering if any of you do the same? Or should I not do this and mix everything fresh, and just throw out the rest.

Curious to hear what others do.

Regards,
Bluebird

I might suggest some possibilities:
1. Calibrate your measurements in terms of "drops" , or milliliters, so you can get a dilution for less than 2 cups. 1/8 tsp is fairly inaccurate, and it still is a guess as to how much the birds will be consuming.
2. I'm sure that you clean the waterers and change the medication in the morning and in the evening.
3. You might consider using bottled water, filtered water, or distilled water.

I would think that storage in the refrigerator would be reasonable.

Thanks for the reply alhee:

In regards to point 1: I can measure drops with liquid medications, such as Ivermectin, but practically every other medication I use is in powder form. I will follow the instructions as closely as possible, such as leveling or heaping a teaspoon, and I measure the water exactly with a pyrex measuring cup.

In regards to point 2: Yes I do indeed change out the water silos twice daily morning and evening, always submerging both spout and bottles in water and clorox mixture and scrubbing with bottle brush, then rinsing thoroughly.

In regards to point 3: Yes I only use steam distilled bottled water for all birds.

As alhee stated, I'd also try to mix it in smaller amounts. I know that the premixed meds my vet has given me expire after 7-10 days but I guess it could vary with each med.

I have to be nosey and ask why you need to 'often' give these meds to your birds?

Well blue mutation goulds are fragile birds and have numerous health issues as I found out after getting them. They are extremely susceptible to illness because of weak genetics. They are also highly sensitive to humidity. The canaries I have only had to give an anti fungal (prescribed by a vet). I picked up a female lady gouldian as well that had acquired cochlosoma because she had been housed with bengalese and has since infected 2 of my otherwise healthy goulds. Once infected it is difficult if not impossible to eradicate because they have no evolutionary immunity to the disease. They remain infected for life, and have to be given regular doses of rodanisole. The blue mutations need regular "cleansing" with doxycycline as well as Trimeth/Sulfa for coccidiosis.

I'm currently medicating my cherry headed conure, who's 150-160 grams. I have to mix up her meds and then give them orally via syringe. My vet said to store the meds in the fridge and after about a month I can just toss them out...

However, my meds are 4 parts corn oil, to 1 part flax seed oil (for the kidneys - I use 4cc corn ; 1 cc flax), and 1 childrens aspirin tablet crushed into powder, mixed with 30cc's water (I guess corn oil can thicken the blood, so the aspirin is the help thin the blood).

You can ask your vet what is the optimum storage time meds can be kept in kept in the fridge, before a new batch needs to be made.

Bluebird, your info about blue mutations is very helpful (though I do empathize w' your situation). We had purchased a blue gouldian a while back and the poor little guy just never seemed to thrive. Finally lost him after several months. Didn't do a necropsy, but it's helpful to know that they are generally fragile. Think I'll stick w' my normals & yellows from here out.

Thanks again and good luck w' your flock,
Pat

There are many mutations out there that are happily thriving... but some of the problems with mutations could be due to inbreeding, trying to reproduce the mutation, thus creating bad genes... I don't really know much about finches but I've heard similar thoughts about mutations in parrotlets... yet there are plenty of people who have mutation parrotlets without issues.

I'm sure with proper/careful line-breeding, the genetics of the mutations can be made stronger, so long as they are not predisposed to have problems.

Yes can you imagine starting out into the world of bird ownership with your first 2 birds being blue mutation goulds! Boy did I have a rough initiation.

I had a friend who had canaries and then got Lady Gouldians. I fell in love with his gouldians and started to learn about them. I love bluebirds, but obviously can't have one of those, then he told me about a pair of Blue goulds male/female for sale near my home.

When I got them I knew practically nill about birds. Thankfully I immediately got some books about Gouldians by Dr. Bob Marshall and just in time as they both became ill from a draft (had cage placed wrong). Luckily I got them medication just in time and they both have survived and thrived to this day 3 years later! The male has done alot better healthwise than the female, and I soon had to seperate them because they would breed constantly. Now the female lives with another female mutation gould, and the male with a normal male gould and they visit the females every so often.

My friend eventually abandoned all of his beautiful birds, selling 6 beautiful gouldians, and giving me 6 canaries. He just did not have the time to take care of them, and I found myself going to his house daily to look after his flock of birds, as well as mine. They are time consuming, if you really want
to give them excellent care.

So hence the story of the medication questions. I am so attached to my birds now, that I can't let them go, and have accepted the routine of giving them all sorts of different meds as problems arise.