Difficult Question about ABV

[aquagreen]

Hello everyone,

I am here to ask a difficult question about avian borna virus. I have done extensive reading on it and would like to have the input of other educated bird owners. Here is my situation:

In late May our Nanday Conure vomited and died suddenly. I was aware of borna virus and PDD and so I was extremely alarmed. We brought him for necropsy. The bird, as it turned out, had died from swallowing a piece of his toy which perforated his intestine, causing an infection and his resulting death with no outward symptoms that we caught in time. My husband was DEVASTATED. The bird was "his," though of course we both loved him dearly.

During necropsy I had testing done for abv and pdd. The bird was pdd negative, but it was determined that at some point in his life he may have been exposed to abv. We have another bird, so I became very concerned for her. I have yet to have her tested for abv.

Since I have done enough reading at this point to know that abv does not conclusively lead 100% of the time to pdd and that some birds live with abv symptom-free for years if not their lifetime, and also that very little is known about the abv/pdd connection, I question the value of testing for abv. I feel a positive result could lead me to obsess needlessly over something I cannot change, but only try to manage.

In the meantime my husband is distraught over the idea that since my bird was potentially exposed to abv, he can NEVER have another bird so long as she is in our household. He loves her very much but he misses his bird and the special bond they had. Of course there is no question of getting rid of her, so that's not where this is headed; my question is ultimately...is it impossible to add another bird to our flock? Do we forever forgo adding another bird to our household because of a disease so little is known about? Even if my bird is 100% healthy there is no sure guarantee another bird entering the house wouldn't have abv and give it to her. And if we managed to conclude my bird is abv free but then we purchase a baby and quarantine it and conclude it carries abv, what do we do then? Get rid of the baby? Who is apt to buy a baby they know, with full disclosure obviously, has abv? How would we realistically keep two birds but quarantined and separate? I can't imagine that and have no interest in going crazy trying to prevent cross-contamination without two separate air spaces in which to keep the birds. That sounds like an exercise in OCD.

Also, do I bring a potentially healthy baby bird into our household and risk exposing it to my bird who could have abv? And then again, there is no saying what would happen to a baby even if it was exposed to abv since no one truly knows the outcome of this disease. (This sounds horrible and cruel but I'm sorry, it is true.)

So to knowledgeable, responsible bird owners: how do you personally deal with all the uncertainty of this disease? Does it rule how you manage your flock? Or at the end of the day do you do your best by your pets, enjoy them, and not worry about the things that not even the doctors can explain to us? Or do you say better safe than sorry and let this horrible disease cast a shadow on your life, practically robbing the fun out of bird ownership? (It's an awful thing, to think you have the best of all worlds with a pet bird and then to learn about this disease, learning more and more only to know that no one can really give you an answer to any of your questions.)

And please don't attack me as being irresponsible. I am only trying to have a mature, educated discussion on this topic, which, granted, is an absolutely horrible one. All we want at the end of the day is to love our pets and keep them as healthy as possible. Input please?

[Pajarita]

Why would anybody think you are irresponsible? If anything, I think you are VERY responsible... but I also think you are driving yourself crazy unnecessarily.

I've rescued parrots since 1992, have handled about 400 birds and have never had a single bird with PDD. This is because it's not as common as people think it is but it's also because when you get an older bird, chances are the bird is either healthy or an asymptomatic carrier as most fatal diseases would kill a young bird, especially PDD.

Now, if the bird is healthy, there are no worries and, if the bird is an asymptomatic carrier, there is a danger (carriers can shed the organisms when under stress) BUT this danger can be greatly diminish and even eliminated through good husbandry. This implies not only quarantine but also keeping the birds stress-free -and this is the one that is not that easy to accomplish because captivity stresses out birds something terrible. A bad diet, clipping, caging for too many hours, loneliness, depression, bad light quality, human light schedule instead of a solar one are all stressors to captive companion birds. But, on the other hand, they are also all problems that can be solved with work, money, ingenuity and knowledge.

So, my advice to you would be to adopt an older bird from a reputable rescue and have the bird tested before it comes to your house and, once there, do everything necessary to keep them stress-free.

[aquagreen]

Pajarita,

Thank you for the response. You're right; all my reading about abv and pdd has made me paranoid indeed. My main concern has been with how much paranoia is necessary. So I appreciated you answering me. My fear in being attacked as irresponsible comes from seeing people on the net jump down each other's throats with little or no provocation, haha. And I recognize that this could understandably be a sensitive topic among parrot owners.

So you feel that the possibility of an older bird catching abv or pdd at a rescue center is lessened in that they have likely been exposed earlier and not "come down" with it?

I will take all this into consideration. I still feel that I have a lot of thinking to do on this subject. Thanks.

[pollyparrot]

I would like to add that about 3 years ago I was feeling similarly obsessed over PDD. My hand-fed Meyers of 20 years had died (not of PDD) and in my search for a bird to adopt I came across a rescue facility run out of a private home. While they were well intentioned, I became very concerned they likely had lost some birds in the past to PDD yet were not at all well informed about this disease. I ended up adopting a wonderful senegal someone had left with my vet but I know the feeling of being so frightened that I didn't know if I could risk bringing home to my timneh a bird from a source like that rescue facility. Fortunately destiny had my little sene waiting for me.

Do folks realize that Dr. Pepperberg lost another grey? I happened to go on the alexfoundation site and was horrified to learn that Griffin, AKA Wart, died of PDD earlier this year!!!!!