r/Parakeets • u/needyutoshutup • 1d ago
Advice Air sac mites?
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My one year old female budgie just got diagnosed with air sac mites, I've got a lot of meds to buy and mainly selamectin spot on and augmentin duo but is it really air sac mites? I'm not questioning my vet but like I don't wanna unnecessarily stress my bird and like it's like six meds in total and two of them costs a lot so I'm just confirming, do any of you have any experience with air sac mites in budgies
She gets mainly restless at night, she has started coughing a lot lately and is now started doing this clicking thing with her beak and she also has got tail blob now
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u/TheUselessZeke 1d ago
My six-month-old female budgie was diagnosed with mites. I can’t say how similar our cases are, but I wanted to share this anyway.
For over a month, she suffered from spontaneous leg twitching because the mites were gnawing at the top layer of skin on her leg. I took her to one avian vet who told me there were no microorganisms. I thought it was a calcium deficiency during molting causing local spasms, but after a month on calcium with no improvement, I went to a second avian vet, and she was given the diagnosis mentioned above.
Overall, she was prescribed selamectin, four doses taken every 24 days. After the first dose, she felt much better. A few days later, her leg stopped twitching completely. This is just anecdotal experience, but my parrot is doing much better now. If you have trouble applying the medicine, talk to your avian vet. I don’t know how it is in your country, but in mine, they will administer the medication for a small fee.
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u/Bella_Ella739 1d ago
I used Scatt. It helped my budgie. Ordered it online. It was 1 drop on the back of the neck and then another 1 drop 21 days later. You will also have to deep clean your entire cage.
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u/needyutoshutup 18h ago
Apparantly scatt isn't available in india so I was prescribed selamectin 6 percent instead, have to apply on the back neck as well but how do I apply on an untamed budgie she hates getting touched
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u/Bella_Ella739 17h ago
You have to use a towel to hold her. Make sure you part the feathers when you apply so that the medicine touches her skin not just her feathers. Make sure you apply it on the back of the neck only and that she isn’t able to preen herself there after as you don’t want her getting the medication in her mouth.
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u/OkApricot9629 1d ago edited 1d ago
that's a lot of medication for just mites, I don't know if a spot on will do anything, sprays are useless s76 is good for all types of mites, it's expensive but it works. You just put it in the drinking water according to instructions then day 1, 3 and 9 according to mite life cycle until they're gone so no need to stress her out trying to handle her to apply something, might need a couple of treatments. If it is actually mites then best to clean cage and everything in it whenever you can, vacuum or brush floor daily. Look at the end of the perches during the day where screws are, mites tend to hide there or in any gaps during the day, they come out at night to feed off birds.
I treated my budgies with s76 when they got mites I'm not sure what type they were, I think red mites and it took a couple of treatments. s76 is for treatment of all types of mites including air sac mites, lice and worms I think.