Finch suddenly dead without warning - other finch now sleeping a lot

[BirdNut]

The title explains it pretty well; I woke up this morning to find that one of my zebra finches died, leaving me with just one finch. I noticed how unusually quiet it was this morning without their usual 'beep-beeps', and singing. One was missing, so I removed the nest, and in there was the deceased finch, contorted in an odd position with his tail straight up and his head swung back. He hadn't gotten tangled up in any nest material, because it was easy to roll him out of the nest for examination, and he hadn't shown any signs of illness just yesterday.

The sudden death itself is concerning, of course; but what I'm really worried about is that my other finch seems rather sluggish, and is sleeping a lot. It's only 9:26 in the morning and he's asleep. He had a nice meal this morning despite this, and hopped around and flew to and fro like a normal finch, but after about five minutes of watching him behave normally, he promptly went to his perch and went to sleep.

 

[chicken grandma]

I have 7 zebra finches but have not lost one yet.

I did have my parakeet get a bacteria. I don't know how he got it but what I had to do was to hold him twice a day in my hand and put one drop of an antibiotic called 'Baytril' on his tongue. He did not like it, but after 24 hours, he was better and I continued the antibiotic for 5 days.

I also got a probiotic called Benebac from the vet. So morning and night, I gave him the drop of antibiotic and in the mid day, I gave him a tiny rice sized drop of Benebac. It worked.
The vet said the Benebac was like when we eat yogurt while we are taking an antibiotic, to keep the good bacteria in the gut. If we give our bird too much antibiotic or give it to them for too long, we wipe out the good bacteria in their gut and we can make them even sicker.

My parakeets symptoms were that he was shaky, fluffy and sleepy. His droppings looked pretty normal. I hope this helps you! God bless!

 

[rsepiphyte]

How is your finch doing today? When you pick him up is he going lite, can you feel his breastbone? Does it feel sharp and protruding? Has his stool changed in color or consistency and is he eating and drinking? Ruth