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| Mysterious Balance Disease | |
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One of my favorite canaries began displaying these awful symptoms. Below is a video of the bird. Although the bird can perch and eat well his movements are jerky and has problems walking.
Follow this link to an article and videos of Gouldian Finches with twirling disease: Gouldian Twirling Video Here is a video of a Twirling Gouldian:
Below are a few theories that can possibly help others with similar problems: BRAIN ANEURYSM “In my experience with canaries that had this very problem, it was attributable to being a complication that resulted from a Cerebral Aneurysm also known as a Brain Aneurysm. Many years ago when I began testing for genetic possibilities, by closely in-breeding my Glosters, it became apparent that a small percentage of a particular pairing yielded offspring with the very problem you describe. They'd show a lack of balance and even though they were on a perch they'd wobble and/or have jerky movements along with difficulty walking. They ate without issue and where, like your own canary, otherwise healthy. Or so it seemed! Some of those offspring did not show the malady until a year later and thank goodness it showed up before I used them or their siblings or either one of the parents to each other again. It seems I had double-dosed a gene that accentuated this trait in the offspring. Since "elimination" was the order of the day with these experiments with any and all sickly birds that came from these initial test matings, I had taken some live examples to the vet who opened their skulls to reveal this aneurysm. For those of you unfamiliar with what exactly an aneurysm is, let me identify it for you; it's a bulge in the blood vessel. They are rather common and affect the larger arteries throughout the body and can affect the blood vessels of the brain. If an aneurysm bleeds, in humans it causes severe headaches and a CT scan of the brain is done to find where the blood is outside the blood vessel which is known as a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. In humans an angiogram is needed to identify the exact blood vessel. And any treatment usually requires anesthesia and surgery on the neck and head. Both procedures are currently not available for our canaries. In a canary the cause of a cerebral aneurysm can be weak muscles in the blood vessels that can rupture and cause a hemorrhage over and over increasing in intensity. If this does not occur they can swell and grow to the point that they begin to apply pressure of the area surrounding the brain and cause motor skills to malfunction, so-to-speak. This problem can show up at any time with most of the breeds of canaries depending on the gene pool and the "right mix." hitting home. The remedy when in-breeding and seeing this occur in the offspring is to eliminate ALL these sickly birds before it passes on hidden until the moment it surfaces in it and it's subsequent offspring. The remedy with birds that have it is to trace the parentage and use caution in using them in a program. Birds with this problem becoming apparent with visual symptoms as you describe can live for a few more months if not longer. In most cases, eventually the aneurysm will rupture as the vessel lining continues to weaken. Check the parentage of those birds and be careful with your future pairings and the use of those birds. Any of the birds that exhibited this in the beginning of my in-breeding program were also eliminated as that too was determined to be of a genetic nature. Donald Perez
The symptoms that your bird has can be induced by their inhaling of insecticides or other toxic fumes. Somehow it affects the brain and nerves for a short while and most canaries recover while at other times, they recover to a point yet they will never fully recover and will exhibit these symptoms from then on. As we all know, canaries are very delicate and fragile with their sensitive upper and lower respiratory systems. Even minute amounts of some insecticides can cause ill effects down the road if the canary experiences constant exposure until finally it starts for no apparent reason going spastic and drops off the perch dead or flapping itself to death at the bottom of the cage. We can tell which canaries are weak for problems such as this when we grab them to trim their toenails and/or beak or to move them and when we put them in the cage again, they start to convulse or spas and make squeaky noises. Donald Perez
Three years ago, I had a Gouldian hen who had just laid her first clutch. Before the babies fledged the female abandoned the nest and was having problems perching, head twisted, and finally "spinning" on her back on the floor of her cage. Papa raised the babies, but I wanted to see if I could treat mom. The spinning would suddenly stop and the bird was motionless. Almost like a postaxial phase of a seizure. . . The vet at the Lab suggested I use Sulmet. (based on what I read Sulfa meds help) Actually a med for cattle and chickens found at feed stores. He did advise me to only dose for two days ON one day off for a total of 10 doses. I also read about the Vitamin B deficiency, but I wonder if the Vitamin B is deficient OR does it help with the added stress Anyway, on the days off meds the bird got Chemi-vit Molting Stress (higher in B than the Brooding formula) from an online source. Treating true twirling birds can prove fatal if water drinkers are not used. . .any open dish of water could be the spot where the birds stops spinning. . . I kept the bird in a smaller cage without wire bottom, spray millet in addition to a low perch. She got the regular seed mix, Chemi-vit Muss (eggfood) mixed with hulled millet and a container of dried herbs. On days off the medicated water she got fresh veggies or fruit. During the first year this bird got better to the point of perching, but had always had a problem with keeping her head upright and it seemed molting or stress made the condition worse. Today, more than 3 years have passed and when looking at my female Gould, I have to look at leg bands to pick her out. This is the first year when she has not had symptoms even though molting. Theresa
B vitamin deficiency can cause similar symptoms in humans - don't know that I've seen or heard tell of a bird with B vit deficiency though. Someone also mentioned imidazole poisoning (emtryl) which can also cause similar symptoms and -- surprisingly enough -- if you get b vits into the bird at the onset of symptoms, it protects the liver and minimizes the neuromuscular toxic affects until the poison is cleared from the system. When my one family of Goulds got poisoned from Ronidazole, they stared. They were very still and quite. Then the youngest male started falling backwards off the perch. This progressed to flying upside down - wings on the cage paper and flapping for all he was worth while on his back. Classic behavior for this type of posioning. Furthermore, I've seen paramyxo present similarly - as was also mentioned. AGY will cause neuromuscular problems. I've had this happen too unfortunately. Birds will fly backwards. Stare at lights. Fall off perches and generally behave as though they are drunk. Kind of wander aimlessly. I went through a really rough Xmas/New Years a few years back with five Gould hens all sick with mega - what a mess. They all got through it and two have gone on to breed for me. I called them my Drunken Gouldians because that is how they behaved. It took several days of ampho B treatment before that really aberrant behavior subsided. However, they did NOT present like that Parisian Frill. Not even close. That PF has much more uncoordinated and jerky movements. AGY is more like a drunk, sloppy uncoordinated movements but not really spastic like that canary. Finally, it’s quite possible that this bird DOES in fact have a genetic lesion that has resulted in the neuromuscular problems. Plenty of mutations can result in neuromuscular disease. Shame -he's an otherwise lovely bird. Christine
However, assuming it is an _expression of the same condition, while there seems to be a lot of controversy about Twirling on the Internet, it is pretty well defined in at least one veterinary medical text. Agnes Rupley's Avian Practice book devotes several pages to it and she confirms what I have always suspected (based on working on writing software that detects balance and hearing disorders and working with audiologists and ENTs on a daily basis). That is that Twirling is the result of a problem with the vestibular (balance) system of a bird. It is not so confusing if you think of it as a symptom and not a condition in its own right, and you equate it to dizziness. Dizziness in humans can be caused by a lot of different things (including toxins/drugs, ear infections, tumors, head trauma, viruses, etc). These same things, among others, can cause twirling in birds. I personally suspect that a Twirling bird is just dizzy - although I've never been a bird, particularly one suffering from Twirling, so I guess I will never be able to prove that theory. While the symptom is identical for all causes, the causes themselves, and their related prognoses and treatment options, are drastically different. That is why there is so much conflicting information on the Internet - what works in one case may have no effect for another. If the cause is exposure to a toxin or a medication, then removing the exposure may cure the problem once the toxin is out of the system (assuming that the substance did not do any permanent damage and the Twirling was just a side effect). Rupley has described this as occurring with a specific type of antibiotic. If the cause is head trauma, there is little I know of that one can do, although there may be the possibility that the damage will heal or partially heal with time. If the cause is a virus, nothing I know of will cure it. If the cause is bacterial or yeast related - like an ear infection - an antibiotic like Vetisulid (this has worked for me in one bird) or Nystatin might cure it. In the case of an ear infection, if the damage is too severe, even if the infection is resolved, the ear may not be able to hear. (Also, because damage to the ear will take time to heal, it often takes time before results can be seen - in my bird it was 2 weeks before a slight improvement and closer to 6 weeks before no symptoms remained). I have also seen Twirling in a bird with advanced Avian Gastric Yeast. Rob Marshall has also reported this in his book. While Rupley's book does not mention this, it does mention Proventricular Dilatation Syndrome (or Disease - I forget). Since Avian Gastric Yeast also affects the proventriculus, perhaps there is a connection between this organ and twirling symptoms, although I admit to not understanding what that is. Regarding the vitamin deficiency, I haven't seen any proof of this - just suspicions, and I don't know of anyone who has cured twirling by adding a supplement, although it couldn't hurt. Rupley's book focusses more on vitamin E/selenium deficiency, but she does mention thiamine deficiency briefly (B1). Vonda OTHER There are various diseases that display the same symptoms that I know of. An inner ear infection can cause a head tilt and lack of balance. These animals tend to twist their head in the same direction, often run in circles, or try to lean against solid objects to help stay upright, and the symptoms may resolve after antibiotics depending on how the ear heals. This usually shows up suddenly. The vitamin B deficiencies often have depth/space perception and difficulty with placing their limbs where they want, and often roll over a lot. I've seen reptiles get better quite quickly after B12 shots. Cerebellar ataxia is often first noticed with very young animals and results in spastic movement all the time. This is a development problem with the brain, and will never get better, and is easier to trace genetically than the other more polygenic problems. Calcium deficiencies also lead to spastic muscle movement and can crop up with animals that are laying or molting. I'm sure there are more problems that lead to similar symptoms---but I've found that sometime you can figure out which one of the above might be the problem with some history on the animal and looking for a head tilt. Olga |
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