Sick Male Gouldian

Question
QUESTION: Hi Megan,
Purchase a pair of Gouldians(Male/Female) one month ago. Try to keep the temp around 75' with little draft. However, the male has lost his ability/feathers to fly and is now puffed up and looks beat up.
Do you have any recommendations to rehabilitate him before matters get worse?
Thx,
Ed

ANSWER: Unfortunately birds bought from pet stores are usually sick. What they usually have is something called air sac mites. The best way to tell if he has is to listen to his breathing against your ear. If you hear clicking he has sac mites. The more the clicking, the worse the mites. This is treatable though.
www.lagygouldianfinch.com or www.ladygouldian.com both had a product called Scatt. It is excellent for dealing with air sac mites

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QUESTION: Thank you. I don't hear the clicking...however if I treat them with scatt without knowing for sure, will I harm him?
Thx,
Ed

Answer
Actually, you won't hurt the birds at all. Just follow the directions on the bottle. Scatt has another name; Ivamechtin (I doubt it's spelled like that though). It's basically a watered down version of Ivamech (again not how you spell it) that is used to treat larger animals like cattle. Pet stores sometimes use it on parrots and finches but the finches usually die. Scatt was created to treat finches without killing them. So Scatt is perfectly safe when used properly!