Proper Quarantine

[born2fly]

I would like to know what the best practices are, things to watch out for, lenght of quarantine, etc.

I am sure this would be useful to other people


PS. Not that I am getting another bird or anything

[Kathleen]

The general consensus is newly obtained birds should be quarantined for 30 days, or a month. This is an arbitrary number. It's very possible that the bird in quarantine is perfectly healthy, but it's also possible they have a fatal condition which will kill your entire flock. Getting birds from the same place (breeder, store, rescue, etc), and getting your birds from a reliable and trusted source both most likely will greatly reduce the chance that something will go terribly wrong. Some people take a risk and nothing happens. But I've heard about/read about horror stories of a bird not being quarantined and of the terrible results.....

[lzver]

30 - 60 days is recommended according to my vet.

I'm adopting a little Meyer's parrot tomorrow and she'll be quarantined up in my bedroom. She has a vet appointment booked for next weekend, but I'm not concerned. She's coming from an owner that takes very good care of her birds. I'll be quarantining for closer to 30 days. I may cut it short by a week or so because I know her complete history and she's only had the one owner I'm getting her from.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Here are some things we learned while doing Scotty's quarantine: It is preferable if the bird can be in a separate room, especially if you have one with independent ventilation -- but if you can't accommodate that, making sure the cages are at least far enough apart that a sneeze is unlikely to carry is better than nothing (from our vet). Wash hands between birds, and change your shirt if there is any chance poop, feather dust, etc. may have gotten on your clothes. Where practical, handle your existing flock first, then the new bird. Keep stuff completely separate, or disinfect it thoroughly between birds. (E.g. dishes, just soap and water isn't enough if they are shared.) We also kept food sources completely separate, or always handled them (fresh foods) first thing in the day before handling the new bird at all.

As for what to watch for, any signs of ill health. This is a good time period for a first checkup, too, if you haven't done that already before bringing the new one home.

[ptuga72]

We learned (the hard way) that quarantine is not just to prevent the spread of disease. Quarantine can be instrumental in acclimating your existing flock to a new member. Our foster birds passed the customary 6 weeks waaaay before we got them (they also have had extensive vet care) and we were confident that they did not carry any disease. We put them right in the bird room, and it did not go well. We are having to "re-quarantine" by taking Jake (the one who screams allllllllll day at them) into our room until we can properly re-introduce them.

[birdvet]

We recommend 45 days but sometimes 30 depending on the source of the bird. There are so many disease that affect birds that we know so little about that an ideal quarantine period would be about 6 months to 1 year but that's ridiculous . Tests that we do are: Chlamydia PCR, PBFD PCR, Polyoma Virus PCR (especially in younger birds), a faecal test and culture to rule out salmonella and yersinia, standard health check which includes physical exam, crop wash, faecal smear, faecal wet prep, faecal float, full blood panel, and radiographs. Of course, I'm a realist and working at a wildlife hospital and zoo we can do all this. I recommend to pet owners as a bare minimum to get the health check, chlamydia test, PBFD, Polyoma, Borna virus of course if your country has the disease, and a white cell count if possible

[Michael]

I'm no vet, but I suspect that a gradual ease out of quarantine is important to accustom the new (and old) parrots to the microbial environment. This may not necessarily be a straight out illness but they need to develop immunity/resistance do the microbes of the other birds and living space.

I think 30 days should be absolute quarantine as previously mentioned. Then after 30 days, you should take about 2 weeks to introduce the parrots slowly. The worst thing to do is after 30 days to stick the parrots right together. Instead start bringing the cages within sight and then closer to each other. Take turns holding each parrot outside the other's cage. Take turns putting the parrots on the same trees/stands. Stop washing hands between parrots, etc. This way they can slowly get each other's germs and get used to each other's presence rather than all at once.

When both of your parrots are flighted, unless you can keep them in separate rooms, all bets are off. I couldn't keep them apart more than about two weeks as they started landing on each other's cages.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I'm no vet, but I suspect that a gradual ease out of quarantine is important to accustom the new (and old) parrots to the microbial environment. This may not necessarily be a straight out illness but they need to develop immunity/resistance do the microbes of the other birds and living space.

IMO gradual introduction is more of a social issue than a microbiological one.

I don't think you cane really toe-dip with exposure to viruses and bacteria, at least when we are talking about normal populations of things found in a healthy clean environment. I also suspect, although I don't know for sure, that the normal flora of a healthy bird only varies a tiny bit from one to the next, it's not like introducing a whole independant population of stuff, more the same stuff with a few small variations. We don't worry too much about picking up new "normal" flora from people we meet, and the quarantine period hopefully allows for the detection of non-normal populations. Once they have been in "sneezing" proximity, and you've stopped washing hands and changing clothes between birds, they are going to be pretty thoroughly cross exposed. There is probably some exposure even with a separate room in a normal dwelling... there is a fair amount of air exchange.

[Michael]

What I mean is that doing this gradually must be better. Let's say being exposed to 10% new mircobes per day across 10 days rather than all at once. Getting bombarded with all the variations at once could make the parrot sick whereas spreading it out gives it a chance to fight and become immune to each one without getting sick. I'm speculating here as I don't have enough background to know much about this. But regardless, quarantine and slow introduction can't hurt.

The gradual social introduction is of course very important. However, I am more familiar and aware of this so I am less concerned. I can use training to control this as well. The microbial integration is invisible and we are unaware of it. It may not happen at all or may be significant. The new bird may have a weaker immune system from the stress of transition and young age. So while it may not harm an older bird being introduced, the younger one may be more affected. You see my concern? I wonder if anyone knows greater details about this.

[notscaredtodance]

GCC is right. For one, there's no real way to introduce a bird to 10% of bacteria with another bird. It's pretty much all or none. If a bird has immunity to something, it will fight off as much bacteria as it needs to. (Assuming that the numbers aren't off the chart. ) If the bird does not have immunity, it will get sick.

Quarantine isn't to let the bird build up immunity, but to observe a bird for any signs of sickness. (And 30 days really isn't enough to check for a LOT of things. Like bird vet said. 1 year would be better.)

I'm not a fan of quarantine because so many people do it wrong, handling birds without showering/washing clothes/ even washing hands. They'll keep birds in the same room or in rooms with the same air system. When you do it wrong, it's pretty pointless. And bird breeding has come a long way, and many contageous diseases are less of a threat than they were 30 years ago.

If there's one vaccine I'd recommend getting, it's the polyoma vaccine, especially if you have a younger bird, which most of us do. I got my bird vaccinated when I started volunteering at the avian vet.