June 2003

There are just three topics in this newsletter though some of them are quite lengthy. You may wish to read them straight off the screen or you may prefer to download a printable version.

You will need Acrobat Reader for the printable version and, if you don't have it on your computer, you can download it free from here. Then follow this link to the downloadable version. We have appended to the newsletter some linked articles from the main website. However not all the links on the printable version will be live.

The middle way This is a discussion of different forms of bird feeding. We focus on the two extremes (in America at least) of pellets and 'all natural diets'. Then we discuss the 'middle way' between these two which is probably the most common American diet. However in Europe people feed 'natural diets' plus supplements. These appear to have significant benefits over the pellet/natural combination. Take this link to start reading.

Nutrition articles giving background information are now available on this site. We are making these available to clubs and societies to publish in their newsletters. They will not be offered to commercial magazines.

PDD is a very distressing disease. Vets are beginning to make some progress with anti-inflammatory drugs but the basic nutritional needs of these birds can still be tricky to satisfy. Take this link to read more.
 

Please remember that The Birdcare Company is always happy to help you with any health, nutrition and breeding problems you may have with your birds. Just drop us an e-mail or use our free BirdvetOnline service.

Nutrition articles giving background information

Some of our customers are very keen to understand how supplements work so this year we are publishing a series of articles giving background information about selected nutrition issues. There is no need to understand this level of detail to feed your birds well but some people seem to like to.

Many club newsletter editors are always crying out for editorial content. So we have decided to encourage clubs to publish these articles in their pages. Please contact us if you wish to do this so we can send you a version that is appropriate for your location.

These articles are located on a different section of the web site. Take this link if you want to know more about:
Understanding protein - non-breeding birds
Understanding protein - breeding birds
Understanding amino acids
Understanding calcium
Understanding bio-availability

We will be adding to these articles as the year progresses.
 

PDD

A few years ago I joined in on Jean Pattinson's PDD list to tell people about a new product we had developed to help (not cure) birds with this sad disease. Jean was happy to have our input but a small number on the group took the view that it was immoral for a company to make profits out of their poor birds plight. Strangely they seemed perfectly happy for their vets to get rich from exactly the same source!

The effect of their vociforous complaints was that we did very little to tell people about our 'Special Needs Diet'. This is a shame as it can help so many birds live a longer, more fulfilling life.

Suffice it to say that SND is a food designed to be easily absorbed even from a poorly functioning gut. It can be used at anything from 5% to 100% of the bird's diet. In addition to all the nutrients you would expect it also contains herbal ingredients selected for their ability to support the immune response. This MAY tip the balance for a few birds who seem able to defeat the virus.

Recently I had this e-mail from Janet Worsley (UK) updating us on her Moluccan cockatoo 'Georgie'. This says more than I can about what the product can and can't do:

Hi Malcolm

You may remember I wrote to you a few times previously about my Molucccan Georgie diagnosed with PDD in February regarding his illness and appropriate Birdcare parrot food products etc.

Georgie actually gave up eating everything about 6 weeks ago - you may remember we were handfeeding him 4 times a day on a mixture of Feast and Special Needs Diet, having taken him off seed completely due to PDD. So with the vet's help we decided to crop feed him twice a day to keep him alive as his condition and emotional state were good in view of the circumstances. We made this decision with a lot of consideration and deliberation concerning morals and ethics as to the dilemma of such forced feeding. We decided that whilst his health was good overall and he was not in pain we would try to keep him alive as long as his quality of life was reasonable.

He has now been crop fed twice a day since 29th March solely on your product, Special Needs Diet. After a lot of trial and error we give Georgie 8 level 5ml spoons of SND with 4 of water at midnight and 6 level 5ml spoons with 3 of water at midday. Apart from a few odd grapes, celery, apple and lychees (which are all that he will eat) this food is totally what he is surviving on since the end of March. He has gained wieght, he is now around 900 to 930 grams on average. (He weighed around 870 grams when he was first diagnosed with PDD in February). He does get sick usually once a day, sometimes twice. We now feel that as long as he is keeping most of the SND food down and is maintaining weight and condition we are going to continue with this treatment and nursing for now and not worry too much about the sickness.

He has had a few medical problems, i.e. ulceration in his nasal passage which has been helped with antibiotic medication and a little wheeziness occasionally. This ulceration may be caused by the new American NSAID drug recommended for PDD, Celebrex which Georgie has been taking since February (NSAID stands for Non Steroid Anti Imflammatory Drug), although if ulcers do occur they are usually stomach ulcers, not throat and nasal passage ones so this is very unusual apparently.

I do believe that not only has your product SND kept Georgie alive up to now, but it has also caused weight gain and improved his physical condition greatly. My new avian vet, John Chitty of Strathmore Vets in Andover has been in contact with my previous avian vet, Carl Gorman of Falkland Vets in Newbury yesterday expressing his amazement at Georgie's health and condition as we had a routine appt the day before. (I changed vets through moving house but both vets are still involved in Georgie's care).

Interestingly, Georgie's extremely swollen previously x-rayed proventricular (a typical sympton of PDD) has been re-xrayed and has fortunately reduced in size tremendously and my new vet John Chitty has copied the xrays and forwarded them to Carl Gorman for his information.

Hope you find all of this interesting in view of the circumstances and in the meantime we will carry on with all the nursing of our beloved Georgie. I will try to keep you updated with any more news.

By the way, to date my other 9 parrots (including 6 tame Moluccans) have shown no signs whatsoever of PDD.

I do hope that Birdcare have no intention of discontinuing the Special Needs Diet product as when I ordered it on 10th April I was told it was certainly not one of their best selling products!!!!

Best wishes

Janet Worsley