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Tuesday 21 June 2011

Cockatiel babies - Yeast problems

According to the vets I've talked to, about 80% of babies who are sick cockatiel have some degree of yeast, bacteria or a problem with both. These statistics are high, however I have found that it can be dramatically reduced to almost nil. Having raised several thousand cockatiel babies since 1994, I discovered some of the contributing causes of yeast infection in my herd and I would like to share my observations and solutions to tackle this problem without being charged the lives of many babies.

The yeast is growing and the # 1 cause digestive problems resulting in the death of baby cockatiels. Yeast has also been the main reason many breeders and fans out of cockatiels breeding, as it was difficult to deal with frustration and anguish of losing babies.

I have no answers about why the cockatiel chicks tend to be more prone than other species of yeast. Some speculation has occurred regarding the differences in size and shape of a crop of cockatoos in comparison with other species of chicken as a contributing factor. But cockatiel species such as chickens are more susceptible to stress and changing conditions, such as management, diet, climate, bonding (bonded against slavery), the environment nestbox, etc "stress "can lead to yeast as a" major "problem, which is followed quickly with a" secondary "bacterial infection, if the yeast is not recognized and corrected. Once the causes of stress for the chick are resolved, cockatiel chicks are very hardy and resistant to infection by fungi and bacteria.

What is yeast?
The following is an explanation to better understand what is already in the body" why ", is not harmful. I'm using the yeast of the word but often also hear called yeast infection or candidiasis.

Yeast, bacteria, as they are inside and all live animals. It is in us and around us. The body has learned to cope / adapt to it, and the immune system has developed a system of defense and amour to what is exposed on a daily basis, both internally and externally. The yeast organism is considered a normal environment and normal inhabitant of the digestive tract of birds. In most birds medical reference books listed in yeast fungal diseases. The causative agent is Candida albicans, an opportunistic yeast that can cause a variety of problems associated with avian digestive tract, crop in adults, and disorders of crops with babies. In most cases, a bird can live a lifetime without causing a yeast resident life-threatening problem.

When situations present a form of stress, the system can respond with a weakened immune system or an alteration of the normal bacterial flora, so in turn, can create an overgrowth of yeast. It is this "proliferation" of yeast that can quickly become life threatening, as it overcomes the good bacteria in the body. Once this happens it becomes a friendly (good) to a pathogen (harmful) in the body, which quickly can become systemic (whole body) if not recognized and treated. In other words: what is good and beneficial normally can work against bird when something triggers a surprise / overgrowth.

A veterinarian can perform a Gram stain or culture to see if there budding yeast in the stool or crops. A Gram stain can be done while in the vet's office and the results are available quickly in a short period of time. The diagnosis and treatment can be started from this. A culture is a diagnosis more intense, and often sent to a lab. If you looked at the report of the culture that will be very surprised by the amount of bacteria that include, in addition to yeast! What the veterinarian determines in the report are the levels above normal for the particular species of bird that are grown. Most reports of culture also has another section that lists drugs recommended that a bird is sensitive (in force) and resistant (ineffective) to. You may request copies of the reports of the culture. I found the culture reports are very informative learning tool in the study of various bacteria in poultry. I used the reports of research and study of each agency to learn how to recognize symptoms and how to correct or treat. I will also make notes on each individual report, such as age, visible symptoms, treatment effectiveness and outcomes, and if does not work,. "Why" Often our efforts and veterans of the prescribed treatments do not simply because the problem was so advanced that became systemic, meaning it has spread throughout the body / organs through the bloodstream. In other words, recognized the symptoms too late. "Too late" is something that can be changed. Unfortunately, experience is the best teacher. Sometimes it takes several deaths before they learn to detect a visible problem in development.

The following information is from my personal observations raise several thousand cockatiel babies in the nest 16 years. Over the years I've found different courses to treat only the parents, the flock of treating all the birds before their creation, only for the yeast to raise his ugly head and cause problems and losses in the nest. In the mid '90 's was a common practice for veterinarians recommend treatment or clutch entire herd, when there were problems with fungi. In retrospect, this was only a temporary solution to a continuing problem. In the research I had learned that yeast, like bacteria develop resistance continues with "preventive or prophylactic" treatments. When this happens, treatment / medication you normally work is less effective, so a stronger medication / treatment must be used. Preventive treatments only compounds the dilemma of yeast, rather than resolving it.

 It was through the observation that nothing I learned that contribute to stress the girl was the stimulus to induce an overgrowth of yeast. Stress is anything that can directly or indirectly cause an internal change or a lowered immune response to the girl. Once I heard this I also realized that the yeast was specific 'to' baby on the clutch instead of the entire clutch. It also was not communicable between clutch mates. And it was rare for the baby to contract directly with the leaven of the parents. Therefore, only the girl with the problem needs to be treated well or cause stress to the girl in particular solved.
 

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