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Monday 31 October 2016

Emergency Bird Incubator

Follow these easy steps to make an emergency brooder for your birds.


Stress seems to be a common reason most birds fall prey to illnesses. Most animals and people have the viruses and bacteria in their bodies that can make them sick if they become too prolific. Stress lowers the resistance of the animal or person, and if the animal or person becomes chilled, the body fights the chill and doesn't keep innocuous organisms in line. The organisms build quickly, resulting in sickness. Whether illness or accident, an emergency incubator can increase the chances of your pet's survival. By raising the surrounding temperature, the bird's body can focus on fighting the organisms, not just sustaining its body temperature.

Another use for the emergency incubator is for new chicks that are being hand-fed. The temperature under the hen is about 100 Fahrenheit. Your 70-Fahrenheit house is too cold for these naked little birds. To expose them to cooler temperatures increases the stress level on their bodies. Increase the temperature around them by placing them in an emergency incubator.

I first used my emergency incubator when I hatched duck eggs in my classroom. The new ducks hatched in a 101-Fahrenheit temperature that I brought down to 95 Fahrenheit for the first few days, then to 90 Fahrenheit for the first week. I gradually lowered the temperature until it was about room temperature.

Another time, my oldest parakeet seemed to be well in the morning, but later that day when I went past the cage, she was lying on the floor on her back, feet up in the air, apparently dead. When I reached in to pick her up, she was still warm and living. I quickly put her in the emergency incubator at 90 Fahrenheit. A few hours later, she was sitting up. By the next day, she was jumping around trying to get out. I did keep her in for four days, then reduced the temperature slowly one day before putting her back in her cage. She lived another three years before she died old and happy.

Directions for Making an Emergency Incubator


Materials needed:

String of indoor working Christmas tree lights.

White Styrofoam cooler

Clear plastic top from a corsage or salad container

Piece of hardware cloth (wire)

Food tray from TV dinner that fits the bottom of the cooler.

Thermometer

Duct tape

You will need a pencil and a utility knife or a small kitchen knife.

1. Put the food tray on the bottom of the cooler to hold water for moisture in your incubator.

2. Cut the hardware cloth (wire) to fit just above the food tray. Make the cut just a fraction larger than the opening. You can slightly bend it to get it in place, and then the end wires dig into the foam to hold it in place.

3. Take one side of the clear plastic corsage holder (once I also used a coffee cake container), and place it on the outside of the cooler 1 inch above your wire. Trace around the plastic. Use your utility knife or kitchen knife to cut a 1/4 inch inside your drawn line.

Now when you put the plastic in the inside and push it through the hole, that extra 1/4 inch will hold it in place. Use your duct tape on the inside to seal for drafts and to secure onto the cooler. You now have a window to watch your bird.

4. Place a thermometer inside across from the window.

5. Invert the top of the cooler and cut three holes large enough to get a Christmas light through. Put a light down in each hole but not touching anything. Use duct tape to hold in place. Remember that foam melts, so do not let it touch. It could start a fire. Cut an extra hole in the top for venting and cover with duct tape. If your incubator gets too warm, loosen a bulb or open the vent hole. If it is too cool, add another light.

I keep my burned out bulbs and put them in all the sockets that are not being used in the incubator. Empty sockets could cause shocks. Otherwise you have to loosen the bulbs so they are not on.

Heart Diseases in Birds

If heart problem were not congenital, there are several dietary possibilities.


Cardiomyopathy has been associated with thyroid diseases, anemia, malnutrition, metabolic disorders, parasitic infections, pancreatitis, toxemias and neoplasia. That is quite a list! So if the diet has insufficient levels of iodine (thyroid consequences), poor iron and protein content (anemia), poor available nutrients for absorption and any combination of deficiencies or excesses, then cardiac and many other problems are more likely to become clinically apparent. 
Therefore, it is prudent as a breeder to use diets that have a clinical record as being healthful and productive. Avian nutrition has learned much of this from poultry researchers, and today's diets, if fed appropriately, make nutritional cardiomyopathies very unlikely. In birds, the right atrioventricular valve thickens with an increase in workload.
This increase in demand predisposes the bird to right atrioventricular valvular insufficiency that results in a murmur. Perhaps it took your bird a while to develop these changes before the murmur could be heard. Parasitic infections can be responsible for anemias, and, again, these conditions must be severe enough to result in clinical signs. Anemias produce murmurs in rare cases, but it is due to a decreased viscosity in the blood flow that blows away the normal hemodynamic flow pattern. Again this produces a murmur just like a weak or sloppy valve. Pancreatitis can be due to many things. The most common one in pet bird practice is heavy metal toxicity. This is probably going to be diagnosed with more and more frequency in aviaries. I have seen this problem in aviaries and it will be found if veterinarians and breeders run the appropriate tests.

Infectious disease can cause myriad heart and general systemic problems. Bird hearts (chickens) have been researched extensively for the effects of viral, bacterial and fungal infections. Many cardiovascular malformations can be easily experimentally induced. Intraventricular septal defects are common in avian hearts and result in right sides heart failure, which then results in AV valve disease (murmurs).

I will list here some common cause of heart lesion in birds:

PERICARDITIS (Inflammation of the sack around the heart)
Listeria (bacteria)
E. coli septicemia
Chlamydia
Salmonella
Reovirus
Concurrent respiratory disease 

CARDIOMEGALY (heart enlargement)
Polyomavirus (better vaccinate)
Hemochromatosis (iron storage disease)
Salmonella
Pasteurella
 
MYOCARDITIS (Inflammation of the heart muscle itself)
Listeria
E. coli septicemia
Pastuerella
Chlamydia
Polyomavirus
Avian serositis virus
Sarcocystis
Proventricular dilatation disease
Selenium and vitamin E deficiencies 

HYDROPERICARDIUM (Fluid accumulation in the sack around the heart)
Polyomavirus
Reovirus
Furazolidone toxicity
Genectics 

As you can see, the list is long. The diagnostics would include an electrocardiogram, blood cultures, pericardial fluid culture, ultrasound, complete blood count, cardiac imaging via angiography and endoscopy to examine the pericardium and epicardium, if possible. It is commendable to the veterinary profession that the examining veterinarian performed a physical examination and recommended return of the bird. It is commendable that the store refunded the money, and it will be commendable and good for your reputation and continued success when you replace the bird.

Anytime I recommend a breeder to a client, I tell the client that I cannot guarantee they will not buy a sick bird but that I can guarantee the breeders I recommend will stand by their baby. If the bird is sick, the breeder will replace it or refund their money. As long as the breeder I am referring to continues these practices, they get our referrals. Today, with the Internet, I refer to people literally all over the world, and nothing substitutes for a reputation of honesty.