Firstly, Dr David Tabard, it's always a pleasure to see you, sir. Pleasure to see you as well, Mark. All right, we'll see if we can hold that up for the hour. Cheryl, sure, the pleasure is all ours for you because we have to check those brooches. I can't see what you've got there. Okay, it's a little bird and it's a canary.
And what is the little bird going to tell us today? Okay, we're going to be talking about shedding. These birds are now going through a molt and we need to look after them. So we'll be talking about the canary shedding today. Pet chat on 2NEWRFM. It starts now. We'll do the dog and the cat of the week in a little while. But first, as always, let's get into that topic, Cheryl. Yep, let's talk about it. Let's do it. So what happens with canaries? After the breeding season finishes and egg laying's all done, the poor little birds are absolutely exhausted. And then they go through a molt. So they actually lose all of their exoskeletons. All of their feathers come out in a canary anyway. It doesn't happen in all birds. And what happens for that? It really is tiring for their little bodies. So we've got to make sure that...
We're doing a lot more to help them. What happens with the little canaries? When they're going through the molt, the males will stop whistling. So if your bird has become quiet, it's usually because they're feeling pretty stressed and they've got to save all of their energy to get their new feathers to come through. Now, when they're shedding their feathers, it's really important to make sure that we are giving them more protein than we probably were during the summer season and the breeding season because they're going to need that protein for those new feathers to grow and to come through. So it's important that their protein is increased. Often you can do that by using boiled eggs or one of the egg mixes that you can get commercially, but only give them a small amount each day. Otherwise, they can end up with some enteritis. So it's really important that we do that.
monitor what we're feeding them. Increasing things like your green leafy vegetables is really important as well. And I love this time of year because the chickweed is out. So you can go and pick your chickweed, your thistles and feed them the thistle flowers as well. So again, this actually cuts down some of your costing when you're feeding your birds and also the less likelihood of having contaminants on the vegetables that you might be giving broccoli or something that you've purchased from the supermarket. So it's important to understand that these things sometimes don't have the chemicals on them if you're picking them from your own backyard. I actually grow my own spinach for my birds in my aviary so that I know it hasn't got any contaminants and they get some fresh and it's not really spinach. It's that.
What do they call the other one? Silverbeet. Silverbeet, yes. So that's a really good product to grow and have at home for your birds. The other thing is when they are shedding, birds usually are quite itchy. You'll notice that they'll be sort of ruffling and quite agitated. If you give them a...
bath of water every day. That will actually help to soften the new feathers that are coming through. So giving them that bath, and canaries love a bath. It's one thing that they do really like to have. So making sure that you're giving them fresh water to bathe in, but also fresh water to drink, obviously. Keeping their cage as clean as possible is really important as well. I know it's a more difficult task. I have birds inside as well as an aviary. It is really hard to keep your aviary as spotless as you'd like to, but it's really important to try to minimise any problems, particularly in this time when they're feeling so stressed. The other thing is to do just make sure that you cover them. So covering them, try to get us about 10 hours or 12 hours if you can.
of covered time so that they're able to rest a lot more because this is so tiring as these new feathers are growing. So they need to be made sure they're nice and warm because they'll have less feathers. So they need to make sure that you're covering them. I just use towels to cover mine. Yes, Cheryl, thank you for the clarification because when you said covered and they've got to be warm, I was thinking, have you got little jackets that you put on them? But you mean over the whole aviary? Or over the cage. Over the cage. So for an aviary, they often have a little bit more protection. In a cage inside, they need to make sure they're out of drafts and that they do have a covering on them. And that covering also is going to help to minimise light going into the cage because we want to try and get as many hours sleep as we can or them to be rested. And it's all to do with the...
the amount of light they get, how much shedding they're going to do. So if they're getting more shedding, instead of taking, say, 10 weeks, it could take up to 16 weeks for that molt to be completed. So the longer time. Usually a canary is about 10 weeks from the beginning of molt to the end, and that's a full molt because some birds have a second molt. And interesting, do you know that pelicans and big birds like them?
eagles and things, they don't do a complete shed like a canary. They actually shed over a period of years. So they might lose a couple of feathers in each wing. This was going to be my next question. Why is it? Because you narrowed in on the canary with this full mould. Yes. And that's fairly dramatic, as you said. It makes them quite vulnerable. But then you've got these larger predatory birds that are out in the wild.
It wouldn't be good for them to lose all their feathers at once. No, absolutely. They need to be able to fly. Or go and find their food or so on. And it'd look a little weirder on them too, wouldn't it? The massive big ones just with no feathers. The fact that they only lose one or two here or there, they'd almost not even know that it was happening really. And that's what they need because they do need to be able to fly and to move quickly. And if they've got less feathers, then obviously that's not going to happen for them. The thing too with a lot of birds is if they lose a feather, say, on their left wing, they'll lose a feather on their right wing, the same identical feather, because they're symmetrical in how they actually need their feathers to come away. Otherwise they'll be circling. Yeah, they'll be on the side going around the left wing.
Turning left. Can't stop turning left. So there is a lot more preening going on as well. The birds are going to be making a lot of personal grooming efforts to try and get these new feathers through. So again, just try to feed them as much as you can to help them with their protein, their minerals and vitamins and keep their cage clean and dry and out of draft. So then they should be fine. Lots of energy. Yes. Particularly protein. Yes. Now, just one of the things, and I know this is with canaries, not all birds will do this, is that their foods can provide colour that ends up in the feathers. Yes.
So what's the fashion this year, Cheryl Shaw? Tell us. Okay, so when you've got your red factor type canaries, obviously you are going to need to feed them during this time some of the food colourant because the new feathers coming through are going to rely on that food colourant to give that nice plumage that they need. Some people feed canaries all year through that colouring and it's not advisable to do that. You really should minimise it to only the malt time. But it wouldn't make sense.
Either, because if the feathers are formed and grown, then they're already out. What's the point of giving any additional? And that's exactly it. So people just continue feeding that when they don't need to. But another interesting one that you can use is chilies. Canaries love chilies, and they get that nice coloration. So this is natural food colors expressed in the feathers. Yeah, and they really do enjoy it, and they don't have that hot taste for them. They don't have those receptors. Yes. Okay. On top of that, Cheryl, apart from all of the fantastic information you've just delivered, I was today years old when I realized you had a full bird display. Avery's? Oh, look, we've had a menagerie at our place. Yeah, why is there something you've been discovered today?
I've talked about birds before. I keep ghoulian finches and canaries. Mark was off on a junket the last time you spoke about this. And I have this thing that a happy home always has a male canary inside because they whistle. But at this time of the year, maybe our home isn't so happy. Fair enough. All right. Thanks, Cheryl. And Paul from Chisholm, you've got a question about pets up in the skies now. I'll ask you, Paul, are you about to go on holidays or is this a curiosity factor for you?
have done a bit of travel in the past with a pet that was always put into the cargo hold and contemplating travel again in the future between New South Wales and Queensland and interested that Virgin had announced that they're going to allow pets up to, I think, 10 kilos to be able to travel in a cage in the cabin itself. Now, that being the case, is the pet going to experience the same level of discomfort on descent as humans do, albeit that it's generally only 60 seconds or so? And if they are going to experience that sort of level of discomfort, is there anything you can do to mitigate that? It's a really interesting question. And as you said, it's kind of associated with the change in altitude. But of course, our cabin pressures are held at a certain level.
The interesting part is that we've had, as you mentioned, Paul, we've had pets allowed to travel in the cargo hold. And my limited understanding is that the cargo hold is sealed and pressurised, but at a much less variable, more variable, I should say, as in the pressure would change more dramatically than it would inside the cabin. So that's, as I said, a very limited experience. The other thing associated with the pressure in the inner ear is that the pressure can equalise through the eustachian tube. I'm just wondering whether the degree of things like upper airway inflammation or ear disease that might occur, and obviously people get colds and things like that, or indeed probably the anatomy of the eustachian tube may vary such that it's a lot easier for a dog to equalize their inner ear. But having said all that, I couldn't give you a definitive answer. So I think I'm probably going to take this on notice and look into it for you, and I might be able to mention it next week when we're back on the show. Yeah, it's a good question.
Thank you very much, ma'am. No worries. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. The Pet Chat team are here. They're looking sharp. Well, David's almost getting ready. Come on, mate. I'm trying to give you a... I'm ready. Ready? Cheryl's here as well. And Cheryl, we're going to bounce this next one back to you, I think. Okay. All right. G'day, Marguerite, to Charlestown. Now, you were listening to Cheryl's discussion on canaries and eggs, and you've got a question in that vein, Marguerite. What's going on? Yes, yes, I do. I just wanted to know what part or can I give oil of the boiled eggs...
To the bird. To the coloured bird. Yep, no problem. She can give all of it, but most people just use the yolk. That's where most of the protein is found, so it's up to you, but you can use the whole lot. Only give about, say, about a quarter of a teaspoon at a time because you don't want it to go rancid in the cage and just freshen that up each day, and they'll really love it. Oh, thank you very much for your time. That's okay. Enjoy your canaries. All right, best of luck with that, Marguerite. Sometimes it's just a very simple, this is what we do, guys, isn't it? Yeah, easy. Now, David, I know you've got a couple of topics that you were racing in to talk about this afternoon as well. I'm always prepared, Mark, as you know.
So I've got to go back a couple of weeks, though, because I was in just before and after Easter. And, of course, that's a time where we're always worried about our pets getting access to our chocolates. And other people as well, I've got to say, getting access to our chocolates. Different reasons, though. No, no, the main reason is the same, is less chocolates for me. But, of course, our pets can suffer from chocolate toxicity, so we talked about that. But one of the things that I mentioned in the chocolate poisoning...
episode is talking about seizures and the stimulant effects that pets can present, particularly if they have a lot of either the dark chocolate or cooking chocolate, can end up with developing tremors and seizures. But there's a whole spectrum of other conditions that can also cause seizures. And we think about epilepsy as a kind of a diagnosis or almost a synonym for seizures. If a pet has a seizure, it's epilepsy. But it's actually a distinct disease, a genetic condition, something that we see.
in younger dogs so probably from about the age of two up to say five for the onset of seizure disorders and i should just backtrack a little bit so a seizure compared to say a tremor but a seizure is where we've actually got our abnormal electrical activity uncoordinated across parts of the brain. And so predominantly the outside of the brain is what we call the motor cortex. And so obviously that controls motion, it controls muscles and so on. And if that is irregularly and uncoordinated stimulation of that area, you will get spasming over the whole body, but it could just be localized to one area. So it could also just show up as one leg kind of spasming and that's it. A lot of those, unfortunately, if you think of a short circuit electrical system, that short circuit can then spread to other areas. So sometimes if a dog is going to have a seizure, they may start off with a spasm in one part.
Maybe it's a leg, maybe it's an eyelid twitch, and then next thing you know, the whole body, they're collapsed. They lose control of their bowel and bladder, and they're convulsing. And that is obviously the very distressing scenario that people who witness seizures can be confronted with. But apart from the inherited form, canine idiopathic epilepsy, there are also, as well as chocolate, other things that can cause seizures. So we've got to think of...
Some infections, and I guess classically, although it's much less frequent, distemper is a disease we vaccinate dogs for, but can also, when it occurs, can cause neurological symptoms, including seizures. I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who has just been working on a house sitting, actually, or property sitting up in the far northwest and far north Queensland, and I asked him if he'd seen distemper. in his travels and um he said yes unfortunately it is still around and there are pockets of it that we see in places like western new south wales as well so um there's a couple of other infectious diseases i guess the other things i would think of is um neoplasia where we actually get a tumor in the brain and the mechanism there is that the tumor is growing and it's pressing on parts of the brain that then trigger abnormal electrical activity so all of those things are to say is that whatever that cause is you can't really work that out just based on oh your dog has a seizure um you know Tumours occur in older dogs, sure, distemper will have some other notable features such as nasal disease. But seizures in themselves just tend to present the same way because it's really just the same mechanism of how the seizure is created. And what we have to do is then work through...
What other parts of their system? So first of all, from an emergency point of view, I'm going to make sure we've got control of the seizure and try and stop the seizures with medication. And in some of those cases, we will also need to anaestise the patient to control the airway. So they may have vomited, they may have have fluid in the back of their throat, we'll need to control the airway. And then we would often keep them on an anti-epileptic medication. And that might be through an infusion, an intravenous infusion for a period of time until things stabilise. A lot of these patients, if they don't show up with any of these other diseases that I was talking about, we may well diagnose them with epilepsy.
as an inherited condition, in which case they will be on medication for life. So we'll have them on some antiepileptics. And about 70% of patients will be controlled with a single medication and possibly the majority of the remainder will be controlled with two or more medications. We often will do things like CT or MRI to find out if there are other causes, as I mentioned. So unfortunately, those patients then, if they're on medication for the rest of their life, yes, they do have to be taking it all the time.
We need to do some monitoring, regular blood testing to make sure the medication is in the therapeutic zone and not causing any side effects. And having said that, they can go on and live very high quality, good quality lives pretty much to the extent, you know, in length that they would otherwise have even without the disease. But it's a very common condition that we see. And let's just, first of all, keep the chocolates away. Make sure your pets are vaccinated for distemper and regular vet checks to make sure their general health is optimised. Milk, white or dark for you, David?
Well, I like that. Is he gets a guess? Yeah, all of the above. All right. All of the above. All right, lots in that. Again, there's always going to be more chocolate, some more gear on the table. Pet chat for the next couple of minutes at 280RFM 103.7. Cheryl Shaw is here along with Dr David Tambert and you as well, Jill, from East Maitland. You're a four-year-old. What's going on with your dog there, Jill?
Well, I've only had her for a couple of months and I don't think she's been house trained at all. But I only just discovered yesterday that she's been weeing on my spare bed. And I didn't know until, you know, it was too late. But obviously I've washed everything. But what I want to know is, is there anything I can do once I put the covers and everything back on the bed? Is there anything I can spray on it, like cayenne pepper or something like that?
So what sort of breed dog are you talking about, Jill? She's a foxy. Foxy? Yeah, she has had one litter of puppies and she's due to be de-sexed next week. Oh, okay. Yeah, and I need to know what to do in the meantime. She just doesn't seem to have any idea. I put a wee mat down for her. She doesn't seem to have any idea of where to do it or when to do it. Okay. And you've only had her for a short while. Do you have any other animals? No, I don't. No, I've had her for a couple of months, but I think she was mainly an outside dog when the other people had her. Yeah.
You mentioned a couple of things. First of all, can you keep the door to that room shut? Well, I've done that as a temporary measure, but I don't want to leave it shut all the time. Yeah, sure. But obviously, if she has localised and decided that's a pretty cool place to just go and toilet, we're trying to adjust her behaviours and move her back outside. Now, you mentioned that previously, you think that she lived outside a lot? I think so. Her original owner died and she's been sort of passed from...
one family member to another family member and she said it rather a disoriented lifestyle the last couple of years. Oh, that's no good. So, you know, I think I asked them where did she sleep and they said outside in a kennel. So, yeah, things have been very disrupted for her in her life. And I'm just wondering whether, like your very early comment that you mentioned was, don't think she's been house trained. And it sounds like with the disruption of moving between carers that that probably hasn't been helped either because nothing's been stable for her. Yeah.
So look, we always talk about the training and particularly when we say about house training, you know, it's always going to be best in the younger age, but that doesn't mean you can't be effective with training, even with older dogs, adult dogs. You may find there's going to be some changes associated with de-sexing her, at least from the perspective of obviously she's got to go into hospital and there's disruption and there's post-operative care. But nevertheless, I think I would always just, first of all, retreat to the general principles that we use even with puppies, making sure that she's outside. first thing in the morning, last thing at night, after every meal, and just regular access and possibly even making sure she gets outside frequently.
to allow her to go to the toilet there rather than just simply adopting, well, the nearest bed looks okay. Yes, it does. Thank goodness it's not my bed. Well, one of the concerns may be is that particularly if you shut off one room, she could move to the other room. I don't think she will because she sleeps on my bed, so I don't think she would do it there. No, okay. So it's going to be a pretty disruptive time, but I think you need to just be taking those basic steps. It's more about you determining the behaviour that you want to see from her and giving her the opportunity to show that behaviour rather than I'm going to...
put a spray on this area. That may work in some circumstances, but a lot of pets, if they are convinced that that's the right place for them to go to the toilet, they just won't care. Yeah, fair enough. And particularly on something like bedding. Yes. So yeah, go back to the basics, plenty of opportunities. Also feeding and letting them have water outside so that access to the outside and going to the toilet is part of that.
As well. All right. Best of luck with everything there, Jill. And I guess at the moment, it's not her bed, but again, with that change, it could. That's a little bit of a worry. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of changes going on. All right. Well, Lisa, let's be ultra positive. It's not your bed. It's not mine. It's not yours either, Cheryl. And the chocolate's still safe. Best of luck with everything there, Jill. A bit of a journey for you. Now, in the meanwhile, we'll wrap up with our dog and cat of the week. Who gets the honours of reading this? David, we're going to start with Finley, the six-month-old tabby cat. What a joy he looks like. Poor old Finley. He looks like one of my cats.
From years ago. Well, there actually is a bonus. There's a double up photo of Finlay. There's an action pose. Yeah. And he looks more fierce. Yeah. He's got to protect you. Go for it. So I like this comment because Finlay sounds like a very active little mischief maker, but particularly likes watching mustard dogs on TV. I'm not sure what Finlay gets out of watching mustard dogs on TV. Well, we all like different things on the TV, David, don't we? Sure. Yeah. Mustard dogs, bit of this, bit of that. Suits most households, although just to note that he hasn't been around kids yet. So as always with pets, we need to make sure if you've got kids in the house.
How do we assess, you know, are they going to fit in? Because the goal with all of the pets that we talk about, Mark, is that they're rehomed. And we know that people who want to take on a pet are always trying to do their very best. But is it the right fit? Yeah, for sure. And what if I don't like mustard dogs to the show? I'm in a bit of trouble with Finley. Get online and buy another television, Mark. All right. Another TV, another room, Finley can do his thing. We also have a couple of dogs to wrap up with, Javo and Nico. And they're kind of bonded besties. I love this story because I always think when you look at cats and their breeding...
They're like the most regal looking creatures, right? Just domestic shorthairs. And dogs are always like a mishmash of everything. And you get this just, and you know I'm talking about my dogs, right, Cheryl? Like crossbreeds come out however they look, but these two, they look like they could be twins. Let's scroll back up. I'll tell you what, they could. And again, a nice little shot in the park, doesn't it? Yeah. So Java and Nico, probably larger sized dogs though. So just again, cautious about, sorry, they are litter mates. Yeah. Sister and brother. Yeah.
Close to twins. Close to twins. Close. Six-month-old Bull Arabs. What can we expect from you, David? Yeah, large dogs, energetic. Particularly, we're thinking about now housing and containing them in a yard. So again, we talked just about with cats and kids, but it's the same with big dogs. A lot of these big dogs, when you've got energetic kids who, mind you, need to learn how to look after their dogs as well. So that could probably...
put them in a good place if they've got an environment where they're going to get plenty of exercise but have a secure yard. I think that's going to be the critical thing. All right, a nice place to start there. Sure, you've got 20 seconds. Do you want to add to the dog discussion there? I'm not for big dogs together from one litter. No, well, I think I've proven that, except mine were small dogs. Yeah. All right, something to consider there. As always, Cheryl Shaw, thank you for that. Thank you. Appreciate it. And Dr David Tabard, always a pleasure. Thank you very much, Mark. All right, Pet Chat back next week.