Stargazing & Vit

I see there have been several posts on the Canary LIST regarding this disease, and thought that perhaps I should add something from my own experience. A few years ago, I purchased a Lady Gouldian Finch that developed this 'stargazing' syndrome. I felt simply awful for the bird. It did learn to eat in this state, but I have absolutely no idea HOW it managed to do so. I used to put an additional dish of food in for him, once the others had all gathered and settled around the communal dish. He quickly became one of my favorites despite his condition. I became so interested in this crippling disease, that I decided to search out any information I could find regarding its nature and cause, which I also found was classified as a bacterial disease.

I'm not sure if anyone posted a definition for 'star-gazing', so I'll begin with one.

Star-gazing refers to any neurologic disorder that is characterized by mental dullness, abnormal posture, and an inability to move forward in a normal fashion. It is more commonly seen in snakes, believe it or not. In birds it is characterized by a severely twisted cervical/ neck position, creating a "starward gaze." - thus we see how the name originated; it has also been called 'wryneck' and 'twirling'.

This bacterial meningitis or encephalitis usually results from blood infection or bacterial emboli from an abscess elsewhere in the body. The prognosis varies with the specific cause, but it is generally not good. Systemic antibiotics that can cross the blood-brain barrier (e.g. ceftazidime, metronidazole, penicillin's, etc) are used in cases of bacterial infection. Prednisolone acetate at 1 mg/kg, IM, one dose, has been recommended for inflammation associated with these infections. Because lesions may resolve slowly, an early response to therapy is rarely seen, and good supportive care (e.g., fluids and nutrient supplementation) is essential.

Being someone who has always been highly interested in the medical field, I decided to experiment with the use of the B Complex vitamins with my sick bird. To my surprise, after a while, I observed that he was improving, but he never recovered to become a "normal" bird. This little guy lived for 7 more years after the improvement, and just recently again went over the edge again, and regressed back into his "star-gazing" mode. Just recently he went downhill quite rapidly and he died about 4 months ago. I don't know everything about medicine, but I do have a desire to seek out knowledge so I chose to research the Vitamin B deficiencies; I had read that a lack of Vitamin B can cause epilepsy, vertigo, fits, giddiness, and mental symptoms. This is what I found out:

The vitamins of the B complex are a range of different organic compounds which vary considerably from each other in their composition; the only common factor being that they have all been isolated from yeast.

The functions of most B vitamins are known: they are important constituents of enzyme systems in the body which control all the chemical changes of the metabolism.

Symptoms
I found that vitamin B deficiency is the most common cause of deficiency diseases in cage birds. As regards signs and symptoms, Vitamin B deficiency is also most striking. Early signs of this disease are easily overlooked or misinterpreted, since fanciers don't know a lot about the origin of fits and seizures. Initially the bird is lethargic and suffers from weakness of the legs. You may see it resting on the perch, or the bottom of the cage, taking the weight off its legs. Jumps from perch to perch are undertaken reluctantly and clumsily. When sitting, the bird tends to fall over, either backward or head first, and struggles to maintain balance by flapping its wings. Take-off is reasonably successful, but when the bird has landed, it staggers to the seed and water cups as though drunk.

The disturbances of balance grows progressively worse, the head is rotated, and one day the first 'fit' occurs. The bird tries to hold on to the perch with its claws while hanging head downward and beating with the wings. Eventually it crash-lands on the bottom of the cage, where it somersaults a few times and at last-keeping its balance by holding the wings spread out and resting them on the cage bottom-sits still, exhausted. After a rest the bird may be able to hop back onto the perch as though perfectly healthy. These attacks repeat themselves at diminishing intervals and may continue over a period of many months until death occurs. Any excitement can easily trigger an attack even by feeding the bird and cleaning its cage.

This is how my Gouldian Finch suffered his first attack; I believe the last fatal attack was caused when the lights went off before he had found his perch. He always took the lowest perch, but in a panic, he would just knock himself out looking for it.

Paralysis of the legs is not uncommon in birds between seven and nine weeks of age. this disease, with spasms of the toes in the absence of a deformity, is caused by vitamin B1 (riboflavin) deficiency.

Intestinal inflammation can also be connected with vitamin B deficiency.
Years ago, Goulds that were imported from Japan, were suffering from enteritis but were actually cured by the administration of vitamin B12 (cobalamin). The fits and seizures caused by a deficiency of vitamins of the B group can affect all groups of birds. The high incidence of this deficiency disease in caged birds is largely due to the fact that these vitamins are readily destroyed in the food. Treatment should start as early as possible and will then, as a rule, be successful. Disturbances of the equilibrium and early fits quickly clear up when high doses of vitamins of the B complex are given. If your bird has been suffering for months, it is too late for a complete cure, as was the case for me, although an improvement may still be achieved. At this late stage the extremely sensitive nervous tissue can no longer regenerate itself sufficiently.

I hope some of this was of interest to you, and I hope if any of you see any of these symptoms in your birds, don't run for the antibiotics so quickly next time. You may just want to take a check on your vitamins in your birds diet. Diet requirements vary throughout the year for our little gems, and we can unintentionally fail our birds. We may be feeding close to the same diet all year round, and by doing so, we can produce vitamin deficiencies in our birds. We must learn to give them what they need, when they need it, and when they need that "extra boost" of certain vitamins. I truly think this would eliminate the need for so much overuse of antibiotics and other drugs and medications.