Friday March 16th, after 3 days of sickness which seemed to affect her nervous system, my wonderful budgie Pippin died on the way to the vet in Albuquerque (she had already visited the vet twice before, the last time when I noticed her new symptoms). She was a fighter, and even that morning had forced herself up on a perch even though she had terrible balance. The night before had been hard, with much pain, so I called the vet to get another appointment, and headed up there in the middle of the day. My wonderful birdsitter Peggy decided to come along as well, and I am so grateful for that - Pippin had a number of seizures on the way, screamed and had a very hard time, so if I had been alone, I would probably have ended up in an accident. When we were half way, suddenly a tangible calm filled the car, and there was peace, and I immediately realised that that was it. She had died. My perfect little bird, not even 6 years old.
I had already searched the online literature for potential causes and cures to her sickness, and with this new information of symptoms, I continued to search. Two perfectly healthy birds dead in less than 1.5 months, it just did not seem normal. Pippin's neurological symptoms - twisted body, erratic head movements, seizures - seemed to point towards poisoning of sorts. But by what?
A few days later, I ran into the cleaning lady at the guesthouse where I have been staying for 6 months, and I got the thought to ask her if the guesthouse apartments had ever been treated indoors with pesticides at some point. Imagine my astonishment, when she told me that they spray indoors with pesticides every month! She knew I had birds (and she has had birds herself), and yet, she let a company come and treat the apartment once a month, without letting me know? I was devestated, and went to my work place to talk with the people in charge and ask why I had never been notified or asked whether this was ok (NO! Birds and pesticides don't mix at all. People and pesticides don't mix well either.!).
Apparently I was supposed to be notified, but that had not taken place for years. I also asked to know the name of the substance, and the dates when they had sprayed.
The substance is called bifenthrin, and in my research, I found a lot of disturbing information about it. Here is a list of some of the things I found:
- -Excessive exposure to Bifenthrin (poisoning) can cause headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive salivation, fatigue (of which I've experienced all except excessive salivation)
- Bifenthrin is suspected to be an endocrine disruptor (i.e interferes with the systems that produce hormones in the body)
- It is classified as a class C carcinogen, i.e. it has shown to be carcinogenic on mice, and thus is possibly a carcinogenic substance towards humans.
- Because of this, Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemikalieinspektionen) withdrew Bifenthrin already in 1992 in Sweden. The European Union banned it in 2009, and it has since then been withdrawn from all pesticides used in the EU countries.
- It has been shown in tests to be cytotoxic (affecting cells)
I think it is quite clear what killed the birds - with this information, all their strange symptoms suddenly make sense. I don't think I can prove that my symptoms are caused by the pesticide, but it lies close at hand, especially after 6 months of exposure, of a substance that stays active up to 8 months, with monthly exposure boosts...
This was the report… I have a lot of feelings and opinions about this… Which I aim to express in a future post. So, stay tuned...
