Sour Crop Wheezing and Gape worms

[jstovall]

Could somebody please tell me if I am going in the right direction. My RT killed his first squirrel the other day so I allowed him to crop up. Overnight there was large mutes and everything seemed fine. 24 hours later his crop was still extended. 36 hours after cropping up, his breath smelt of Sour Crop. He regurgitated the crop shortly after sunrise. I placed him on the weathering so I could monitor him. He roused did small black mutes and preened, but refused small tidbits from the glove. His weight was 90g above flying weight so I knew he had plenty of energy for overnight. By the afternoon he ate readily off the glove. This morning I go into the mews to pick him up and I can hear a slight wheezing in his breathing. I take him to the vet and as I suspected he said asper. The vet gave him a shot of Baytryl, took a blood sample,a culture from his trachea , a fecal sample, and prescribed Ketoconazole for asper and also gave me 9 0.5 mg injections of Baytryl for the next 9 days. The Vet calledls 2 hours later with the results of he fecal exam and says he has gape worms, and to stop the asper medicine, but continue with the Baytryl. He prescribes Fenbendazole (panacur) for the gape worms. He did not have a strong appetite this evening after all the medications he received. He is still above flying weight, and I am feeding him high energy food to maintain or hopefully gain weight at this point. Could just gape worms have caused all of these symptoms, or is it a combo of sour crop and gape worms or god forbid asper. If anybody has had any similar problems or advice could you please let me know.

[Falcon Boy]

All i have to suggest is to keep his weight pretty high just incase of a sudden drop. Not sure about the medical stuff sorry

[Jay]

I have never heard of Gape worms, but I bet its the same as Capillaria. Which is a worm that embeds itself into the throat and mouth walls. Capillaria can make a bird regurgitate some food. Also can cut the apatite and the bird will flick food sometimes. Also will usually result in rapid weight loss. It is usually easily treated but is notorious for coming back. The birds pick it up by eating worms or eating other animals that have eaten earth worms.

The throwing up of food might be a coincidence. Sometimes if the bird eats a huge meal and can't digest everything before it goes sour they will throw up the sour part.

[Jay]

Ok I just looked it up Gape Worm is the same as Capillaria.

It is easily treated. Mine was with three oral doses of a medication. I can't remember the name of it but the vet should have it. I payed $6 for the treatment. Flicking food, loss of apatite, and weight loss are signs of it. Also regurgitation is possible. The wheezing I would defiantly have looked into though.

[jstovall]

Thanks for the help. He is still wheezing this morning, but it hasn't worsened or got any better. The vet seemed to think that that is from the worm infestation in his throat. I have treated him with the fenbendazole for the worms. He is holding weight, and his appetite is up this morning. I am giving him small meals frequently so he won't store a lot in his crop. Has anyone heard, because I have, about baytryl causing a loss of appetite. I would hate to kill him through starvation with an antibiotic that he doesn't need. The vet said to run the full course of injections, and that it is very safe. Talking to other falconer's they have told me that they have had birds die of starvation when treating an infection with Baytryl. It was either die of infection or starvation in there cases.

[jstovall]

I forgot to add something. Incidentally I treated him 2 weeks ago with Ivermectin for worms. This is what I have always done. According to the Vet Ivermectin is not effective on this type of worm. Hence the need for fecal samples to be taken to the vet soon after trapping for a fecal float test. Trust me $350 dollars on vet bills and drugs, would of been a lot easier if I had only did a fecal exam before it got this critical. This is a small price to pay for a healthy bird.

[Weasel]

I have had two birds that where posotive for Gape worms. They will go away shortly with the meds.... In the mean time, I would do as my vet always tells me....."Fly that bird!"

[shokokuphoenix]

I am having the exact same situation with my 3 1/2 year old tiercel redtail, Arizona. Here's the full story so that others can learn from my expensive experience.

On Sunday, August 20th we were out flying Arizona. He was at flight weight, 785g (which is only 25g below trap weight FYI) and he had been flying very strong and catching rabbits for several weeks by this point. Now, admittedly it was 80 degrees out that morning and he had been hard pounding himself into the dirt over and over again trying to smash rabbits, but when he flew back up into the trees we could see his panel (the flat area of feathers between the legs in the front of a hawk) obviously moving up and down with each breath. I dismissed it as odd but likely since he was working hard and it was hot. He took two voles and I traded him for tidbits for each one at the first spot, so we left it and went to another one. His response to the glove was very unusual, almost as if he was coming to it more out of conditioning rather than hunger as he was very slow to eat the tidbits.

At the next spot, I threw him into a low tree. Again his breathing seemed heavier than usual, but his flight was not labored. By this point it was 85 degrees, windy and around 12pm. No problem for Arizona, he is a seasoned, trustworthy little bird. Well, we started working the field and we flushed a few cottontails for him... this time he takes no notice of them and starts looking 'flighty' (we all know the look of a bird as they begin nervously looking for a 'place to bate' too. Same look).

I garnish the glove and call him. This is a bird who will fly a half a mile to the glove before you raise it. No response and I mean ZERO response. I get nervous, and for the first time in 3 years I have to throw out the lure for him. It takes ten full minutes of tossing, swinging, dragging and shouting for him to half-heartedly catch the lure... and then NOT eat the garnish.

By this point I absolutely KNOW something is wrong. No healthy hawk ignores freshly caught food. I even picked it up with my fingers and bonked it against his lips to entice him to eat. Nothing.

I was out with several other falconers that day, and the consensus was amongst them that he was just fat, maybe there was a hag bird nearby, it was too warm, something was spooking him. I knew better because I knew Arizona NEVER acted that way.

The very next day I took him to the vet. He totally seemed normal (mutes, breath, stamina, etc) until he was worked for exercise (then the panting began), but something still seemed off. He seemed nervous, tight feathered and VERY uninterested in food. His usual sweet, curious little personality was just not there.

Anyways, my vet checked him, took a CBC (complete blood-cell count), a ran a fecal and a pair of x-rays. She also immediately put him on oxygen and kept him overnight for observation.

The initial results were that he had Syngamus, aka, gapeworms (from the fecal) and that it was inflaming his trachea and had actually given him a touch of pneumonia in his right lung. No asper, but his airsacs seemed 'hazy', which is possibly a bacterial infection. PS: The CBC came back the next day - no bacterial infection. His white cell count was well within normal parameters.

We started him on Panacur for the worms, Claforan for any possible bacterial infections (as a prevenative), Itraconazole (as an anti-asper prevenative and in case the 'hazy' airsacs were asper or pre-asper lesions) and an anti-inflammatory (whos name escapes me) for the pneumonia. He requires shots twice a day and oral meds twice a day.

A week later, he still pants heavily. I call the vet back and they put him on Fluconazole to be nebulized for 15 minutes, twice a day, for ten days. PS: Ever nebulized a hawk? It's a hoot. You build an airtight box out of a storage bin, pop a perch in it and drill a hole for the nebulizer's little cistern full of medicine to fit inside.

Anyways, one month later, his condition is stabilized but he still seems to get out of breath too easily. I have not flown him in a month and have let his weight drift up to 830g. Seems like he should be fine... right?

Wrong. Sept. 30th I bring him back into the Dr's office. She does another x-ray... yup, this time it is for sure the dreaded asper keeping my bird down. My doc says not to worry though because its a very, very light case and it is centralized in his upper respiratory system. His airsacs are nice and clear, the worms are gone, and so is the pneumonia... but all of this combined KO'ed his immune system and he got asper. My vet calls Dr. Pat Redig of the University of Minnesota and he has her put him on Terbinafine, the latest and greatest asper drug they've got, for 1x per day for 60 days.

NOW he is getting better. ^_^o

Ever want to know how much something like this costs to get fixed in your bird? Try $972.00. And we have a recheck in November. YAY!

And what have I learned during all of this? Your first guess is always right....

...and hawk diseases always break the bank.

Wishing everyone a good, disease-free hawking season! - Wendy

[RobDeegan]

Ahhhh, Guinness.
Do you know what is a 7-course meal in Ireland?............
.............

A six-pack and a potato.

[Master Yarak]

Wendy,
Major Kudos, It took you being intuitive and perceptive. your actions saved your bird. I could not find anywhere in your post about how he contracted it. If you know the cause please share it with us. If you don't know the cause find out now and let us know. Glad to hear he is going to make it.
Yarak

[m4tt]

what does sour crop smell of? rotting meat? someone explain more onto it?

[jfneumann57]

Matt it's explained in most falconry books. Open one up.

[m4tt]

i did... it explained what it is, how to treat it, but not what it smells like.

[Jay]

Its basically rotting meat that seems to burn your nose. Think of it as a mix of vomit and rotting meat all in one, kinda hard to explain. Last year when my bird had the gape worm and regurgitated its food I ended up puking when I cleaned it up from the smell.

[harrishawker]

Its like Rat Intestines when you gut them with a hint of Gorgonzola.

Washed down with a nice Shiraz.......MMMMMM