U of Alberta - 2012 / Chase & Radisson

[Elaine L]

Gordon, the biologist, has been having the two sick chicks treated at a facility near Edmonton, and right now, it looks like they caught the Frounce in time, and the chicks are improving.  Now, we are worried about the remaining chick in the nestbox, as he has been treated twice this weekend for mites/bugs, and the nestbox has being cleaned out and the gravel replaced.  The parents are now very wary of coming into the nestbox with food.  We have not seen a feeding since yesterday, but we realize we could have missed it.  Still, we have had many people keeping an eye on this site, and it it worrisome that no one has seen a feeding.   If anyone on the Manitoba Forum sees a feeding, could they please report.

[lilamy1979]

We have not had this problem in a long while. Gord said, all it takes is one bird with this . Not Radissons , or Chases fault. Lots of food and you will see the stashes on ledges.But it was not being retained

here is link to slideshow.

am posting a slideshow. have a few more of chick, but I want to get permission to post Jeans picture with it

here is link

when I get permission i will post Jean with our fairly good chick, I hope

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x135/fullbrandt/2012%20falcons/?action=view&current=f39fed04.pbw

Thank you for posting pics of what is going on with the chicks. Those pics with them were sad to look at that I have to skip through most of them. I am glad that they are being taken care of and I hope that they can heal quickly. So sad to hear about the one that had the growth in his throat. I hope that the meds were giving to him in time.

[Kinderchick]

So sorry to hear of all of the health issues of your chicks, Elaine & bev. Hopefully, with removing them from the nestbox, medical intervention and feeding them, they will slowly begin to heal.

[bev.]

I keep going back and looking at all our screen shots and every time the chicks had full crops. They did not look as bad in shots as they did when removed. this is why it was such a shock. I knew something was not quite right but all feedings were so good. The parents are great providers.

Of course if we had known that bigger one was male , but we figured , it was so much bigger and feet were so much bigger , that it was female.

can't keep beating myself up about this.  Just happy that they are where they should be right now.

will have to keep clsoe watch on this young one

[birdcamfan]

Yikes, sorry to hear this. Hoping for these little ones as they struggle to heal.

[bcbird]

Thank you, Bev, for the pictures.  The ones of the chicks are hard to look at.  I'm sorry.

[RCF]

 Thanks bev

[bev.]

We have not had this problem in a long while. Gord said, all it takes is one bird with this . Not Radissons , or Chases fault. Lots of food and you will see the stashes on ledges.But it was not being retained

here is link to slideshow.

am posting a slideshow. have a few more of chick, but I want to get permission to post Jeans picture with it

here is link

when I get permission i will post Jean with our fairly good chick, I hope

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x135/fullbrandt/2012%20falcons/?action=view&current=f39fed04.pbw

[bev.]

WEll I am back and Peter will download the few pictures i got shortly. I was so upset to see them that I forgot to take a lot of pictures

I must tell you that I am still in shock. I should have stayed with my instinct and had them pulled last weekend.

I did not  like the way their fluff look. It was not fluffy.   Gord said this is because , they usually poop out of the box but if their energy is low they poop inside and thus on each other. this was evident. I have tears as I write this. But we thought that since one chick was so much bigger it was female. But it was the size the other 2 should have been . the other 2 were half the weight , they should be.  the food coming in was great but they were pooping it out.

We could see all their stashes from the roof. Chase di dnot know quite what to do. he went over to College Plaza and stayed there but then came back cacking at us. Radisson does not trust us and sat at Maz. She was still cacking long after we left  :egg11:  :egg11: .

  So this is the scoop. I talked to Gord on the phone a bit ago. The 2 chicks removed were emaciated and covered with blood sucking mites and flat flies. Both had Frounce, Trichomonas gallinae. It grows as a canker in the throat and eventually kills the birds. in the past this was almost fatal but with the newer antiflalgelllate  drugs , it can be cured. Our wonderful falcon breeder , is treating the birds now. Gord checked the healthy chick and he did not have any throat cankers but we will have to watch him.

Now , although Gord starts a week of holidays today, he is going up to the box tomorrow and cleaning it out and dusting it and putting in new gravel . He will also give the chick a dose of the medicine, in case, and dust him . so RAdissson will be upset again but it will be for the good of the chick
so needless to say , I will stay with my gut from now on.

Weber

the chick there is as healthy as these were sick. The both sites will be fledging at the same time so I will be busy.

I am going to try and get some donations  to help Phil with feeding these chicks of ours as Gord has now put 4 with him. Phil will have a few of the female peregrines feed them. thank God for Phil.

Peter will download the few pictures I got of Clinical and I will post in a bit

[MayShowers]

So glad to hear that Gord thinks there is a good chance of recovery and they were retrieved in time.

[Elaine L]

I forgot to mention that Gordon is taking out this nestbox sometime in the next two weeks, and will be replacing it.  If the chick that is presently there does well, he likely will no longer be using the nestbox in two weeks, as he will be out and about, preparing to fledge.

[Elaine L]

Hi, Tracy, I  just heard from Bev.  The chicks have frounce/Trichimonas.  Gordon is treating them, and there is a good chance of recovery.  And I think you are right about winter here:  we used to get really cold winters, -30 below for days at a time, but with climate change we no longer get the really cold weather.  Also, as an aside, this is why we now have a problem here in Alberta with the mountain pine beetle.  So, the upshot of all this is that as we no longer get really cold winters, and we have not dealt with this before, we don't know where this will lead us.  Of course, the weather may not be the problem, or the only problem, but I think you are right, considering that we have had dirty nest boxes in the past, without problems.

[The Peregrine Chick]

This is interesting, Radisson has had good success in the past, so it's interesting that her chicks are in such trouble this year.  Not that she can really do anything about the flies/mites.  It's also interesting that Gord had to retrieve another pair of chicks recently with the same kinds of difficulties - was last winter warmer/wetter than usual that the nestsites wouldn't have gotten a good cold freeze?  Not sure if that's what helps out our nests or not but we don't/haven't have these problems here (and knock on wood we don't start).

[RCF]

I thought that at least one of them looked a little strange on the cam and the size difference was dramatic.  I hope they pull through the poor little things. 

[dupre501]

So sorry to hear such news

I hope that all goes well and Gordon is able to help the two sicker ones. My heartfelt wishes go out that this will end well for all.