There are many occasions when your birds will require various medications. These may be Veterinary prescribed antibiotics, over the counter antibiotics, parasite treatments and various nutritional supplements.

We give our medications several ways – in the drinking water, mixed in soft feeds or directly via an injection or a MEDICATION TUBE.

The most efficient way of giving anything is direct administration – you know how much and when the bird received the dose. The difficulty in aviaries is that with the large numbers of birds many of us keep it is practically impossible to directly administer daily doses. Using water or feed reduces our accuracy but sometimes it is the only option.

For nutritional products, CALCIVET, D NUTRICAL, SOLUVET, TRACEMIN etc: the actual dose is not critical. The product labels give a recommended dose but provided the bird is getting “some” on a regular basis they manage quite well and you will see the results in the health of the bird. The same goes for PROBOTIC and BREEDING AID.

However when it comes to antibiotics TRIPLE C, PSITTAVET, RONIVET-S and WORMOUT GEL the actual dose is very critical. Medication failures are nearly always due to failure to consume rather than failure to act!

If you are using “in water” medications (antibiotics, wormers) you must ensure:

1 – the birds are actually drinking the medicated water. Australian parrots are notorious for being able to go without water for several days. Add about 10% orange juice to the water to improve the palatability of bitter medications!

2 – to use familiar containers for medications – birds may avoid medicine in unfamiliar containers.

3 – you do not treat in wet or foggy conditions; the birds will drink from the wire.

4 – you do not put the medicated water in the direct sunlight.

5 - to change medicated water daily – the conditions in an aviary will degrade drugs rapidly.

6 – you do not waste drug by giving large amounts of medicated water to pairs of birds.

For example, a pair of Rosellas need only be given about 50 mL of medicated water per day, this will be ample to allow for consumption, evaporation and spillage.

Following medication you should wash out containers or removed remaining food. Return medication to the refrigerator – all medication is better kept in the fridge. Make sure you have recorded what you gave and when – as we age our memory fails!!

After antibiotics it is necessary to reseed the gut with normal bacteria so a 10-day course of Probotic is indicated – remember dose rate is not critical for PROBOTIC.