Sickness Transmission to Our Birds.

[goalerjones]

After reading what happened to Wharfrat and their birds, it challenges what I thought I knew about what I can give to my bird illness-wise.

Can anyone tell me definitively what we can transmit to our babies and what we cannot?

 

[ShellyBorg]

This is such a isolated incident. Most of the time if we practice good hygiene and stay away from close contact when we are sick, our pets are safe.

 

[MikeyTN]

It baffled me quite a bit too....I know they can catch some stuffs, it make me more cautious when I'm sick now....My partner is sick right now and we're being very cautious after I told my partner what happened....Part of the reason why we have hand disinfectant all over the house....

 

[Mayden]

I would say it's a fairly isolated incident. We cannot pass along many bacteria and viruses to our birds simply because what thrives in our bodies, will not thrive in theirs.

We have a body temp of approx 37degrees C (it's 37.6 or something) whereas birds have a body temp of between 40-43 C. So basically, the virsus and bacteria that attack our bodies cannot handle the temperatures in a birds, they cannot spread and multiply, etc. So they'll die off. There are so many other factors, but INTERNAL temperature is definitely one of the biggest ones.

We recently spoke to our vet about mites, about potentially our bunnies passing them to our birds if there was a mite problem. We were reassured, again for temperature reasons, that the mites on our buns would dislike our birds overall bodies, for temp etc, and so wouldn't go for our birds. Same applies for bacteria and viruses.

So although there are some zoonotic illnesses that we can pass between birds and humans (avian flu, obviously being the most well known) there are actually not that many and so there's no need to go into panic mode. If you KNOW you have a zoonotic illness (and some that are 'zoonotic' can only be passed between say, human and pig, not bird, so you'd have to check specifics) then obviously, stay well away from your bird, potentially ask for someone else to care for them, or ensure that a vet is somewhat on standby knowing what you have and what would be needed to treat.

If you get sick, I'd just say limit your contact with you bird/bird area, if you have a partner who isn't sick, ask him/her to take over until you're better, but most importantly PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE.

I could maybe (with some others help) conduct a list of which illnesses to look out for?

Strep itself is not usually a zoonotic illness, but there are different strains and types if strep that are. So although Wharfrat probably knew he had strep, he probably didn't realise that he might possibly have the strain that could infect his birdies - as most people wouldn't. Who get's themselves tested to know the extract strain you have? So it's important to just be vigilant, but if you've just got the sniffles, don't panic too much, just be aware.

 

[Echo]

Mayden, thank you for this post, I think it would be useful to have a list of sicknesses that we can infect our birds with. For my part, I was under the impression that only certain bacteria can be potentially transmitting to our birds, but I really don't know which.

What happened to Wharfrat also frightened me. It went from human to birds, then from birds to birds. Didn't seem to have jumped back to human as the breeder didn't get sick.
I would be interested to find out exactly what type of bacteria they found when the vet did blood work on the birds and put them on what antibiotics for it....

 

[Mayden]

Mayden, thank you for this post, I think it would be useful to have a list of sicknesses that we can infect our birds with. For my part, I was under the impression that only certain bacteria can be potentially transmitting to our birds, but I really don't know which.

What happened to Wharfrat also frightened me. It went from human to birds, then from birds to birds. Didn't seem to have jumped back to human as the breeder didn't get sick.
I would be interested to find out exactly what type of bacteria they found when the vet did blood work on the birds and put them on what antibiotics for it....

Medicine, bacteria, viruses, transmission are all very complex, but generally quite straightforward too. They need a strict specific environment to survive, Andrew put it quite well, for most of our bacteria/virus' it's like putting a person on mars and expecting them to survive - it's hostile, unfamilar and we just wouldn't cope, we might have one 'bacteria' on that planet, but we can't reproduce and survive, so it quickly becomes ineffective and dies off. I imagine the breeder was in good health herself and 'held off' the illness.

If anyone has any specific questions, I might be able to help answer them, I've studied this pretty intensely and with both of us having chronic illnesses we tend to be pretty up on this stuff.

I just don't want people to panic thinking that the common cold is going to harm their birds, it won't, it cannot survive in our birds bodies. But no matter what you get, like I said, practising good hygiene is so important because than at least you're in the good habit of doing so in case you do have something that can be passed between yourself and the birds.

 

[Echo]

I really don't think people are going to panic, just be more aware.

 

[Mayden]

I really don't think people are going to panic, just be more aware.

Hope so, never hurts to be more vigilant.

 

[Pajarita]

Actually, they can't 'catch' a cold from us. The most common bacteria that people 'pass on' to birds is e.coli but common hygiene would take care of it. I am not saying a bird cannot get sick with the same bacteria as a human would but, usually, birds get bacterial or fungal infections when their immune system is depressed. My birds hardly ever get a bacterial and have never had a single case of fungal infection in the more than 20 years I've been keeping them.

 

[WharfRat]

No he did not know he had strep. No one did. It was not until he became unresponsive in the home and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and they did a swab did i know he had strep. He was delirious and hallucinating and septic. He never knew.

He is sometimes aware now. Like he was last night, and he cried several hours during this moment of clarity to know he made his birds ill, especially raerae who was his baby.

Scott never knew, and the next time he gets a moment of clarity, i will have to tell him again what happened to our birds when he asks where they are. He does not retain the knowledge. So this tragedy is repeated in the telling several times

deb

i would say it's a fairly isolated incident. We cannot pass along many bacteria and viruses to our birds simply because what thrives in our bodies, will not thrive in theirs.

We have a body temp of approx 37degrees c (it's 37.6 or something) whereas birds have a body temp of between 40-43 c. So basically, the virsus and bacteria that attack our bodies cannot handle the temperatures in a birds, they cannot spread and multiply, etc. So they'll die off. There are so many other factors, but internal temperature is definitely one of the biggest ones.

We recently spoke to our vet about mites, about potentially our bunnies passing them to our birds if there was a mite problem. We were reassured, again for temperature reasons, that the mites on our buns would dislike our birds overall bodies, for temp etc, and so wouldn't go for our birds. Same applies for bacteria and viruses.

So although there are some zoonotic illnesses that we can pass between birds and humans (avian flu, obviously being the most well known) there are actually not that many and so there's no need to go into panic mode. If you know you have a zoonotic illness (and some that are 'zoonotic' can only be passed between say, human and pig, not bird, so you'd have to check specifics) then obviously, stay well away from your bird, potentially ask for someone else to care for them, or ensure that a vet is somewhat on standby knowing what you have and what would be needed to treat.

If you get sick, i'd just say limit your contact with you bird/bird area, if you have a partner who isn't sick, ask him/her to take over until you're better, but most importantly practice good hygiene.

I could maybe (with some others help) conduct a list of which illnesses to look out for?

Strep itself is not usually a zoonotic illness, but there are different strains and types if strep that are. So although wharfrat probably knew he had strep, he probably didn't realise that he might possibly have the strain that could infect his birdies - as most people wouldn't. Who get's themselves tested to know the extract strain you have? So it's important to just be vigilant, but if you've just got the sniffles, don't panic too much, just be aware.

 

[Gizmomania]

Did he have Vancomycin resistant Strep, or Enterococcus Faecalis?

 

[brianlinkles]

I posted quite awhile ago about what happened to my daughters cockatiels. I posted that we woke up to find one had died during the night and the other one was very sick and ended up dying later that day. I was asked if anyone in the house had been sick and I told the breeder that my daughters had horrible colds and then strep throat. One of the daughters had the cockatiels living in her room. I was told that this is probably what killed the birds. I began to think that this couldn't be the case since I had so many people telling me when I posted this that it was impossible. I then asked my vet and he also said that this is what probably killed the birds. I think that we have to be very vigilant about our hygiene. My daughters are very good about washing hands or using antibacterial before handling the birds, I guess that something slipped by. I think that we don't know everything that can harm our birds so please be cautious. It is so sad that wharfrat had this horrible thing happen to him. He didn't even know he was sick until he was so, so sick. I know how much he loved his birds especially Rae Rae. I am so terribly sorry about this.