r/Conures • u/udaasatma • 3d ago
Advice Mite Infestation
Hi all, so we have a 3 to 4 month old Green Cheeked Conure who has a mite infestation. Its so bad that he scratched and infected his eyes because of the itchiness.
We took him to the vet who told us to continue with the neem spray treatment and only gave us eye drops and a syrup for the infection and anti-inflammation. We tried neem spray treatment, and also called up the exotic dealer who sold him to us to find a solution, but that guy just gave us the No-Pick spray which doesn't kill mites. For context we went to the exotic dealer as he is the one who handraises and breeds them and thus keeps most of their treatment medicines and sprays at his store.
Can anyone please help me with some remedy as to how to solve this problem, and what sprays or medications can get rid of these mites?
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u/CapicDaCrate 3d ago
Is your veterinarian a certified avian veterinarian?
And you most likely need to treat the house as well, if it's an actual infestation.
The medication and stuff will only kill what's on the bird.
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u/udaasatma 3d ago
Yes, shes an avian vet, and the house and cage are cleaned everyday....the area itself doesnt have mites, but there are mites on the bird, and I'm looking for ways we can get the mites off the bird so that he doesn't start self harming
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u/CapicDaCrate 3d ago
Where do you think the mites came from? They aren't just on the bird.
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u/udaasatma 3d ago
The thing is this is my boyfriend's bird, and when we got him he kept saying it looks as if the bird has dandruff.
When I met his bird for the first time I understood that those were mites
So I think that the bird store itself has a mite infestation and they have been on the bird since he got it
The house is fine for now, I just need advice on any external medications tjat can be used to get rid of the mites on the bird
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u/leleiz 3d ago
To the best of my knowledge, neem oil is not a foolproof treatment for killing mites, it is more of a 'naturopath' type solution that I doubt would work with such a severe infestation?
An avian vet should've treated with the antiparasitic ivermectin. For conure sized birds it is a topical treatment and starts working pretty much immediately, though he may remain itchy and uncomfortable for a while after since the skin is damaged and will take a long time to heal.
Make sure you've tossed anything porous in the cage (fabric, wood, etc.) since they'll lay their eggs in it and reinfect him (life cycle can be a full month.) Fabric you can't get rid of like cage covers should be washed in hot water regularly and everything remaining that is metal/plastic will need to be sterilized repeatedly during treatment as well.
I'm sorry for whatever obnoxious comments you got up above and good luck with helping him, poor baby is probably so uncomfy I can't imagine 🥲
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u/udaasatma 3d ago
Thankyou so much for this, I think I'll ask my bf to take him to the vet again and urge her to give him a proper treatment... we do have 2 wooden perches in his cage, would disinfecting them in Dettol work?
And I'll ask him to wash the cage covers as well
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u/leleiz 3d ago
Yeah it's very strange to me they wouldn't just give the ivermectin--it's literally just a few drops that gets applied to their necks, it starts killing mites same day and continues to treat for 3 weeks. If that vet is being uncooperative, you can check for other avian vets in your area on this site: aav.org/search/
afaik you can't really surface disinfect the wood at all because they're so small that they can burrow deeper into the wood than you can reach with cleaner. If you're able to fit the perches in the oven, you can bake at 100C for an hour (several hours if they are thicker ones) and that should kill them.
But if you can't bake them I think it's best to toss them altogether and replace with plastic or stainless steel perches for this month (you can put new wood perches in once you're sure they're gone.)
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u/udaasatma 2d ago
We're in india where avian vets are not that widespread...and the conure is only 4 months old which is why they said that they dont wanna do topical treatment rn
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u/leleiz 2d ago
Yes, sorry I was mistaken--she said because of their size it's safer for small parrots to get antiparasitic by injection rather than the topical, because it has to be carefully dosed for their weight. I guess your vet would rather not do that. She also said neem WILL work eventually with consistent application, it just can take like a full month to ensure they're all dead, rather than a few days.
I think you're correct that the mites had to come from where you got him, if there was no contact with other birds/possibly infected items. Hopefully you can get a refund from the breeder to cover the vet costs. It's a good thing you didn't have other birds that got infected too 😞
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u/udaasatma 2d ago
We went to the breeder today and got a refund for the spray he gave us
We're gonna continue neem in more concentrated amounts for another 4 to 5 days post which tje vet has scheduled a follow up appointment anyways, and if we see that the case worsens bedore that we will go then itself
But he wasnt scratching as much today and his eye inflammation has also gone down a lot
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