Animal health??

8/21/12

More sick birds at my feeder!  I was able to find out more information from the Cornell bird site http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/abtdisease.html.  The pictures they had were exactly like the finches at my feeder and it's a respiratory disease called  Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis .  The info I've found indicates that they don't know what causes it or how it's transmitted, but they recommend sanitizing the feeders with a 1:9 bleach soln as soon as you see an infected bird.  It's been moving across the US from the East Coast and although not common here, it's been seen more and more.  The poor bird's eyes get swollen and crusted over so they can't see, then they starve to death or get eaten.  Though it's illegal to do to a native species, I've started capturing and euthanizing the birds I see with it.  If the bird is sick enough for me to get close enough to throw a towel over it, it's better off with a quick death by car exhaust than a starvation death or a cat death.  So I spent an hour or so yesterday dismantling my seed feeders and cleaning them with dilute bleach, and now I'm going to stop feeding for about a week.  At least at this time of year there should be lots of natural food out there, and crowding at feeders probably isn't good if there's a sick bird about.

I went to the grocery store in NP yesterday and when I got home and opened the garage door, no dogs came dashing out.  They came running from the other side of the house, so happy to see me!  The kennel gate was wide open and I assume they spent the hour gorging off the manure/compost pile.  Neither seems to be suffering from it, though Henry's stool was a bit weird this morning.  Just what their poor GI tracts needed after the feast on Granny's  garbage, eh??

Today I left both dogs unattended and loose in the house while I went to Ace.  Nothing was chewed or shredded when I got back!!  Amazing!  Maybe Henry is growing up...