Major Mitchells are not commonly affected by worms but I recently saw one dead and three very ill birds from an infection with wire worm (Capillaria). This worm is a very thin white worm that attaches to the wall of the gut and causes quite severe gut changes. Even small numbers of this worm may cause significant distress to the bird. All presented birds were down in weight and had a pale watery diarrhoea.

On the post mortem exam of the cock bird I could see these worms attached to the internal wall of a thin flaccid intestine.

In other articles I have reported this worm and described how difficult it can be to eradicate. In this instance the owner and I have decided firstly worm all his birds with WORMOUT GEL, then remove the river gravel from the bottom of the cages, then to pressure wash the whole cage down and renew the gravel.

Birds will be wormed via MEDICATION TUBE again in 14 days and retested for worm eggs in 3 weeks. It may take as long as 12 months to control the infestation.

One of the difficulties with this worm is its resistance to wormers and the importance of getting an accurate dose of wormer into the bird. In Australian desert species where water intake is highly variable, crop needling is the best option.