Feeding Intestines and Worms

[jstovall]

Does anyone know if your bird could get worms by eating infected intestines? If so should you avoid feeding them any part of the intestines? I have read that some people do and some people don't.

[frootdog]

Not likely as most worms are species specific.

[Austin]

Don't ever allow your bird to eat the intestines of animals if you can help it. Try to open the prey and pull the stomach matter out and give it a good toss away from the bird. You just never know what that caught prey had just ate for it's last meal so get rid of the stomach and intestines. Most birds I've had would not eat them anyway. I let the hawk eat the liver and heart, she does not like the lungs. Every year I worm my hawks in the spring after the season and in late summer before the season, just something I do>

[jstovall]

Well the reason why I posted that question was because my RT had just cropped up on intestines. It was his first kill with me so I did not want to stop him from eating what he wanted. Three days later he is sick. I don't think it was from that squirrel, but could somebody please tell me if I am going in the right direction. My RT killed his first squirrel the other day so I allowed him to crop up. Overnight there was large mutes and everything seemed fine. 24 hours later his crop was still extended. 36 hours after cropping up, his breath smelt of Sour Crop. He regurgitated the crop shortly after sunrise. I placed him on the weathering so I could monitor him. He roused did small black mutes and preened, but refused small tidbits from the glove. Would you want to eat if you just puked rotten meat? His weight was 90g above flying weight so I knew he had plenty of energy for overnight. By that afternoon he ate readily off the glove. This morning I go into the mews to pick him up and I can hear a slight wheezing in his breathing. I take him to the vet and as I suspected he said asper. The vet gave him a shot of Baytryl, took a blood sample,a culture from his trachea , a fecal sample, and prescribed Ketoconazole for asper and also gave me 9 0.5 mg injections of Baytryl for the next 9 days. The Vet called 2 hours later with the results of he fecal exam and says he has gape worms, and to stop the asper medicine, but continue with the Baytryl. He prescribes Fenbendazole (panacur) for the gape worms. He did not have a strong appetite this evening after all the medications he received. He is still above flying weight, and I am feeding him high energy food to maintain or hopefully gain weight at this point. Could just gape worms have caused all of these symptoms, or is it a combo of sour crop and gape worms or god forbid asper. If anybody has had any similar problems or advice could you please let me know.

[Austin]

Panacur is what I use to worm my birds both spring and late summer. I give a small amount no more than the very tip of a teaspoon and I place it in the food by splitting open a small piece and placing the powder inside. I worm for five days, and then repeat the worming in 18 to 20 days to get all the larvia. This product will also kill capalarria worms( crop worms). Sometimes birds will get sour crop if they have fed up and the temp. outside is warm, it seems they can not digest the food quickly enough. One eight teaspoon of baking soda in five tablespoons of water, use a sringe with a long narrow hose which fits over the sringe end, put this down the throat pass the windpipe hole and apply a small amount of water at a time until the five tablespoons are injected into the crop. Repeat this the next day if necessary, in most cases it is not necessary the next day. I always let my birds fed up, a lot of falconers do not. I watch my bird and when she is part fed up I take up the prey and don't allow her to completely crop up. After a new bird has learnd to trust you then it is a good idea to move in and slowly remove the intestines,If you want your bird to continue hunting then it would be good to start the calling off process. Read some materials on this proceedure it seems very simple but with some birds it is not..

[jstovall]

He is doing a lot better now, just slight wheezing after 20-30 jump ups. At least this has ruled out asper. Does anyone know if this can cause long term damage to the lungs. Incidentaly I had wormed him with Ivermectin after I trapped him which, according to the vet, does not kill gape worms. I think a fecal sample right after trapping is a must.

[frootdog]

First of all feeding the intestines was not the cause. In general feeding the intestines has no ill effect. I let Goose eat them all the time if she chooses. The likely cause of the sour crop is generaly a bird gets too low and the intestinal tract slows or shuts down and then a large amount od food is taken in and the intestines can't process it before it rots in the crop. Then that causes a nasty bacterial infection. I wuld also use great caution self medicating without consulting a vet as Austin suggested. We have serious problems w/ antibiotic resistant bacterial infections in the US due to over and mis use of antibiotics. The same theory hols true for antiparasitic drugs. If used to much they will eventually become ineffective. Pay the few dollars every 6 - 12 months and have a fecal done instead of worming for no reason. Your birds resp. problems are also likely from the low condition. I would evaluate your birds wieght vs. feeling the keel. If needed have the vet recheck the bird.

[jobbyjob]

MOST worms are species specific?! No that is so completely inaccurate I have to remedy the situation. A human can as easily get worms from a fish carrying flatworm eggs, as a dog can from a piece of meat carrying the same eggs. Parasites have made a living, living off of others. All good pathogens have a carrier, the more general the carrier the better for them (before anyone gets picky, I do know that there is a difference between parasites and bacteria/viruses). But seriously MOST parasites are adaptable and have many hosts, if they didn't they would be extremely easy to erradicate. I mean look at every formidable desease we have seen in the last six years......species specific?.....stop talking when you know you dont know what you are saying.

[frootdog]

hey there job
Stop talking if I don't know what I'm saying. I think that may be flaming. I happen to be a vet tech and I DO know what I'm talking about. Yes MOST not all intestinal parasites are species specific. When you take into account all the parasites out there then only a handfull of those are able to be passed from species to species especially without an intermediate host.