Should I be concerned? - Page 1

I don't know what's up with this, but my dogs keep finding dead birds around the yard.....Not birds they killed, just....dead birds. I have no clue how long they've been dead for, or what killed the birds.....but Auggie has picked two of them up just today, and I know there have been more.  I had to make him drop one because he had no intentions of letting go (he was trying to swallow it) .  They're not baby birds either. Aside from that, yesterday Little Dude got two moles.....I don't know if he found them dead, but he just got them from nowhere it seemed.  I haven't seen any fresh mole tracks in a long time, but he got two.....One he.....um.....ate....in a couple of seconds it seemed, the other I got to him quick enough to get him to drop it.  We've been having rabbits in the yard too, but they're still alive.....as of now lol.  I swear though, the other night I got home from town.  Little Dude was still in the car with me, and he spotted two rabbits.... I opened the door and he booked it after them.  I seriously, seriously am not exaggerating when I say this, there is fencing laying down on the ground from the garden we use to have. It's just laying down now, kind of springy though (some of it's rolled up) so it's about 4 feet high.....and it's stretching about 8 feet in length......he cleared it like it was nothing, his body was over my head in height and he landed on the other side of it.  I'm not sure I "want" him to know what he's capable of doing, that was crazy.   Anyway, back to the birds......Do regular birds carry any type of disease or anything?

Could be West Nile Virus.

Ah, not cool.  Can a dog "get that" from coming in contact with the birds? I mean I know very little about West Nile, how it's transferred, what animals can get it, etc.   I just know it's from mosquitos.

I found 3 dead black birds in my downspouts last week. No nests, just 3 dead birds. Like they died on the roof and the rain washed them into the downspouts, weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Birds carry all kinds of nasties so watch how you handle them.

Not your dog, but you can. Susceptible people like the elderly are most at risk, and some have even died. It is spread by infected mosquito's. It is here to stay. If it is just hitting your area, yes, you will see lots of dead birds. I've seen plenty of blackbirds in the deaththroes. After a while, less and less; must be some kind of survival of the fittest. It is useless using poisons to rid us of mosquito's in an attempt to combat WNV, that is a dangerous, not to mention, impossible idea.

IMHO

GSD, yeah, I wasn't about to touch the bird lol, I just scooped it with the shovel and tossed it out into the field.

I'd be concerned, just because you don't know what they've died from. Could be West Nile type virus, or could be a new type of virus. It seems like every year there's a new virus or flu epidemic, could be the start of something. Have you contacted anyone about them? Maybe Animal Control in your area would know more information of the dead birds.

What kind of birds?

What others said, I'd be contacting Animal Control, Health Department (maybe???) or even vet's offices, see if any owners reported/brought in dogs/cats that were acting funny and possibly reporting that their pets ate dead animals before hand...Ya never know.

Your climate is warmer than mine, GSDGuy, though I'm not very far north of you, I expect I might be seeing some "fishy" things in the next month or two as it starts warming up.