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We live in a duplex. We have new neighbors moving in, and we were greeting upon coming home by a strong smell of bleach. It is coming from that side of duplex. I looked out our back window, and they've got their back door completely off and a bunch of construction things out back.

Is there anything we can do to minimize the smell for our birds?

TIA!

Barb and the flock

How horrible First, can you set a fan in your birds' room to keep their air circulating? Don't aim it at them, but moving the air will help dilute any concentrations, "toxic clouds." Do you have air conditioning? If so, now's the time to use it. Hoping very much that your birds are okay.

The AC is always on in the summer (crazy hot and humid Kansas). I did move a fan into their room to circulate the air. I've got a slight headache, so I know the birds have to be smelling this, too with their sensitive respiratory systems. I wish they'd given us a little warning so we could've removed the birds from the house for the day.

They seem to be doing okay, but I don't know what symptoms to look for... I've honestly never dealt with this before!

I think they may be done with whatever they're doing for the evening (I started smelling varnish a while ago), and hopefully they won't continue this weekend.

I wish you'd gotten to talk with them about their weekend plan. I was assuming they'd be gone 'til Monday. If they return in the morning and are varnishing or doing anything that produces toxic odors, I hope you're able to get the birds out of there fast. Do you have family or a friend who could give emergency shelter or a vet who could board them?

Unfortunately the symptoms are usually hard to spot, being internal, but the damage can be severe and irreversible. Please call your avian vet if the office is still open and get what information you can. If you need help finding a good avian vet, just tell us where you live and maybe we can help.

Wow, that's aweful......Do these people know that you have birds??? I would have gotten them out of there asap if it was me. I have a problem here everytime I clean the bathroom, you can always smell the bleach smell, and I need to use the bleach products because nothing else is as effective cleaning around the tub area.......it is getting old and we need to get a new tub and surrounding so this won't be a problem anymore! but anyway, I know the smell gets into the house, and I do all I can, open windows and keep the bathroom door shut with open window and fans going and all that. The smell never really gets into the living room where the birds are, but it gets into the kitchen which is right next to the living room! and I don't want to take any chances.....sometimes I just clean small areas at a time so it won't end up smelling, and if I want to do a thorough cleaning and go crazy! I can bring all birds outside on a nice day and clean away!!! and just wait til the smell is gone, which it always seems to disappear fairly quickly, within a half hour or so at longest.
This is one of the reasons it's not always great being in an apartment or sharing a house, two family or duplex. I'm glad that we live in our own home and don't have to worry about what other people will do that can harm my birds.

I went over and talked to the neighbors. They are done. I told them we have birds and to please let us know of any future projects that might produce any fumes of any sort so we can make plans to move the birds.

I wish I'd seen these replies before I headed back out to work. Should I still contact our vet?