HolisticBird and HolisticBirds

Calculating herb doseages for birds

This leads me to wonder--how much valerian is safe in a bird.

I think there is a need to be very cautious administering herbs and other therapeutic substances to birds. When treating animals I work on a weight basis. First I assume the "average" adult human will weigh 60 kg, then give a proportion of the MINIMUM THERAPEUTIC adult human dose according to the weight of the animal. This works very well with dogs and cats, but determining the amount to give my canary for example is very difficult.

At one stage I wanted to give a HIGH DOSE of Vitamin E to a 397 g hawk I had in care - the dose worked out to be 2 i.u./day (based on 500 i.u. for an adult human). It was virtually impossible to give 1/250 th of a capsule, and the powder wasn't much better to work with. In the end (because it is a fat soluble vitamin that is stored in the body AND I felt it was really important that the bird had the Vitamin E) I opted for a weekly dose of 10 i.u. on his food.

Giving herbs can be just as difficult. I prefer to use the tinctures and again give a proportion of the adult human dose according to weight. With the tinctures work on 1 mL = 20 drops. So if the adult human dose is 3 ml/day (60 drops), it would require 1 drop for a 1 kg bird. For a smaller bird (say 100 g) you would need 1/10 drop. This could be given by adding 1 drop of tincture to 9 drops of water and giving 1 drop of this solution so that the bird received 1/10 drop of the original tincture.

This is one reason why homeopathics are an excellent choice for birds. Homeopathics are energy medicines and theoretically an elephant and a mouse get the same dose (usually 5 - 10 drops of liquid) but a smaller dose will still contain the energy of the substance, so that even if the bird is given only 1 drop the remedy will still be effective (assuming it is the correct remedy of course). The trick with homeopathics is carefully matching the animal's "symptom picture" to that of the remedy.

Of course some herbs (such as dandelion) are very safe and can be fed fresh without having to worry too much about quantities, but others are potentially toxic in overdose (remember they are medicines) and need to be used with caution.

I'm not trying to turn anyone off giving herbs to their birds - just be aware of doses and safety margins.

I would think that the other issue is... is the human dose, no matter how downscaled, still correct for all species?

This is a valid point, Pat. This is why I use the MINIMUM THERAPEUTIC DOSE (which is usually half the maximum therapeutic dose - sometimes 1/3 or 1/4). This gives me a 100% margin for error. Below the minimum therapeutic dose, the remedy may be ineffective; above the maximum therapeutic dose it could well be toxic. I have used this method for calculating dosages for dogs, cats, horses, birds, etc. for years without any problems.

Hope this helps.

Carole Bryant (Naturopath)

Administering Herbs

You can't accurately dose a bird with medicine or anything else by putting it in the water. The reason is because you don't know exactly how much the bird drinks. It could drink a lot and get a large dose or drink a little and get a small dose. The large dose might be too much. The small dose might not be enough to be effective.

Another reason that putting vitamins or medication in water is a bad idea is that the taste might prevent the bird from drinking as much as it should or altogether. The third reason why you shouldn't medicate or give vitamins in water is that some components begin to degrade and lose their effectiveness once they are moistened. The water soluable vitamins, for example begin to dissipate and lose potency within 15 minutes after they have been placed in water and are exposed to light.

The best way to dose meds or herbs is directly by mouth. (beak) First establish a correct dose. Then administer by eye dropper for an adult or in the formula for a baby. Some things like vitamins or herbs, if the dosage isn't critical, can be sprinkled on food that the bird is sure to eat entirely.

When I had wild-caught macaws with a yeast infection, I had to give them a vet prescribed drug twice a day. Aside from the fact that it drug was supposed to be dissolved in vinegar and then administered orally, they were too big and dangerous for me to handle alone. What I did with them was cut grapes in half and press the sliced side into the drug, which I had ground to a powder with my mortar and pestle. It took about three grapes (6 halves) per bird to get all of the powder pressed into the halves. Then I offered them to the birds one half at a time and watched to make sure each bird ate its half before giving them the next. It was easier both on me and on the birds. The only grapes they got were the medicated grapes. If they hadn't liked grapes, I would have used another food that they would kill for.

I've never used Caprylic acid on my birds. What I use for yeast is garlic. The dosage that I use is one capsule per 50cc of handfeeding formula. If the bird is large enough to take all 50cc then it gets a capsule worth. If it takes 25 cc then it gets half a capsule worth. etc. This works well for babies. From that example I would estimate that a 400 gram bird would get dosed with a capsule of garlic twice a day.

Glycerine and Alcohol based extracts

I'm just curious. I'm not even sure what I am asking. But why would GSE or any other herb, etc. be in a base at all? Is it a vehicle to help absorption? Or a bacteria deterrent/preservative?

The alcohol or glycerin is used as a solvent in the manufacturing process (to extract the active ingredients from the herb). So grapefruit seed extract is grapefruit seed (probably crushed) that has been soaked in a specific strength of alcohol (this varies from about 20 - 65%) for a specific length of time to extract the maximum amount of medicinally active substance from the seed. Glycerin is used in a similar way. Most commonly glycerin extracts are used by those people who cannot or should not have alcohol (children, alcoholics, someone who is allergic to alcohol, etc.). However, glycerin is not generally as effective at extracting the active substances from most herbs so isn't as readily available as alcohol based extracts/tinctures. The alcohol/glycerin also acts as a preservative for the medicinally active substances that have been extracted.

Carole Bryant (Naturopath)