Knowing What You’re Treating For
Members of the parrot family are susceptible to diseases caused by viruses, rickettsia, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, and mites. Since medications available to you or to your vet range from broad-spectrum medications to substances very specific in their action, it is important to know the organism causing the disease. Without this knowledge you may neat with a medication that is totally ineffective against that particular organism. Parents of young children frequently wonder why the doctor will not give their sick child a “shot” to cure his sore throat or other ailment. The reason, of course, is that if the doctor suspects a virus as the cause of the condition he knows that the various wonder drugs will be useless as they do not affect viruses. We are Faced with the same problem in treating a parrot. The lest solution is to make use of ti diagnostic laboratory that can test fluid from the parrot’s nostrils as well as his blood and droppings. lasing modern techniques, the laboratory can advise you or your veterinarian which disease causing organisms are present in the sample you have supplied.
Bacteria absorb stains in different fashions. Some bacteria absorb a stain called Gram’s stain while others do not. Those that do absorb it are referred to as Gram-positive, while those that do not are called Gram-negative. This one I)it of knowledge might be sufficient to suggest to you or your vet that you use an antibiotic which is specific for the appropriate bacteria. For example. Chloromycetin acts upon mat, Gram-negative bacteria. Thus, you would not use it if the lab reported the source of disease as a Gram-positive bacteria. Your choice might Men be Ampicillin (a newer and more effective member of the penicillin family) which acts upon a wide range of Gram-positive bacteria (as well as others). If both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria are present or if the lab is in clot. or if you
have no laboratory facilities available, you or your yet might wish to try a broad-spectrum antibiotic such as Chlortetracycline, which is effective against a wide range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms. If the lab reports a viral condition, then the major value in using an antibiotic would be to fight off the secondary bacterial agents of infection, which may thrive because of the bird’s weakened condition.
Other antibiotic possibilities which you can discuss with your vet are the sulfur drugs which are still considered quite useful.
As you can see, proper treatment of your parrot should ideally be left to a veterinarian who can diagnose ailments and identify organisms for has a lab available to him Where correct identification can be made). Since most medications are extremely potent you must use care to follow proper dosages. well as length of treatment. If at all possible, my to get professional help rather then medicating your parrot yourself.