Air sac mites in parrots
Other names: Breathing mites
Symptoms
- Clicking/wheezing with breathing
- Sneezing, tail bobbing, open-mouth breathing
- Worsens with exertion and constipation
How it spreads
Contact and from the parents; most common in canaries and Gouldian finches — important if the farm is mixed.
Diagnosis
Tracheal transillumination in a dark room sometimes; response to treatment.
Treatment
Ivermectin or moxidectin with reduced constipation.
Prevention
Separate canaries and finches from small parrots.
Treatment and doses are decided by an avian vet after an exam; Zajel does not publish doses.
Other diseases
- Giardia
- Trichomonas
- Roundworms (ascarids)
- Capillaria worms (hairworms)
- Tapeworms
- Scaly face and leg mite (Knemidocoptes)
- Red mite (bird mite)
- Coccidia and Cryptosporidium