Sick Pet Bird Care

This article is specifically directed to pet bird owners and is intended to be used as a basic guide on how to properly care for a sick or injured bird. Please always follow your veterinarian's advice and do not use this article as a way to avoid your hands in a veterinary examination. The main idea of ​​this article is to minimize any and all pressures on the bird recovering.

1. Warm up: Sick birds sit with their frayed feathers trying to keep the heat. The effort to maintain heat puts an extra burden on already exhausted birds. Your veterinarian will determine if your bird needs to be admitted, but if home care is acceptable, I recommend you create a tent to keep your aircraft warm. Natural bird temperature is much higher than our temperature anywhere from 103F-106F. Therefore, what we feel warm can often be lukewarm to them and this is especially true for sick birds. A simple way to provide heat is to cover half of the cage with a blanket and place the heat lamp on the other side as a source of heat. In general, we keep our sick birds at temperatures ranging from 85 to 95 Fahrenheit. This will vary greatly with individual birds so it is important to monitor your pet to make sure you are providing the correct temperature and of course ask your veterinarian for advice. The very warm bird will have very neat feathers tightly held on the body, will keep its wings (shoulders) slightly away from its body and may be panting. If you see any of these signs, your aircraft is very warm and the environmental temperature should be reduced accordingly. For warmth at night I recommend using red light. Sick birds, just like patients, need rest, and if kept under bright lights all night, they will be deprived of sleep. Also, during the day it is important to provide light so that they can be encouraged to eat and can be monitored. I would not recommend using heating pads because it is very difficult to regulate the temperature. If the bird does not sit and sits directly on the pillow, it can easily become overheated or burn. In my experience, the birds that are raised on the heating pad become dried and again exposed to burns.

2. Stress: Dehydrated birds should remain in a stress-free state. Often what seems natural to us can cause tension in our friends feathers. I suggest taking a closer look at your bird's environment with a critical eye to identifying factors that may be stressful. Some common species include flying in the middle of traffic at home without the opportunity to rest, cigarette smoke or aerosols in the bird environment, lack of dark / night time at night, other pets, young children, and lots of visual stimuli (cage directly in front of window ), Competition from fellow crates, a lot of handling, malnutrition and extreme temperatures (such as birds that are kept in kitchens). I recommend leaving the sick birds in the cage and allowing them to relax quietly. Think of this as a rest in bed for your pet! A lot of handling can press the bird and will require the birds to use extra calories. If the bird is present with other birds, it is usually best to remove the bird into one cage. Some birds can become very stressful when separated from the colony, so you should ask your veterinarian for advice on how to place your pet. However, removal of birds from the group in general will reduce competition pressure on nutrition and allows for easy management and better monitoring. Of course, if there is a suspicion of infection, the pet must be moved to an isolation cage and at least a separate room - preferably a separate house without other birds.

3. Nutrition: If your doctor makes nutritional recommendations, it is not the time to implement the change. Changes in the type of diet will cause tremendous pressure on your aircraft and should begin when the bird recovers. Always discuss how and when changes are made in your diet with your doctor. In general, I recommend that all the foods that are preferred to birds during the disease because many sick birds become anorexia and can be lost due to hunger. If your bird is usually a seed, but does not eat right now, try putting millet in the cage that most birds enjoy. The important thing to remember is that it took several months for the bird to become malnourished and could not be corrected within a day or a week. Slow changes are necessary for the diseased bird. If you are unable to get your pet to eat, you should be admitted to the hospital for angina and additional care. Birds have a high metabolic rate and can die quickly. Therefore, you should always assume that a white bird that stops eating is suffering from a serious illness, and there is certainly a risk of death. Finally, if your child is raised manually and does not eat because of the illness, you can often return it to manual feeding during the recovery period. You should use a good combination of hand culture. Mix the formulas with hot water according to the directions of the bag and display them on the bird. Do not force the birds to eat. Pet owners should not be forced to feed birds. The bird can easily exude (inhale the food) and the development of pneumonia and strong nutrition causes tremendous stress to your bird. Return to manual feeding is only a use for those birds that willingly accept the nutrition of the syringe. Also, if manual feeding, the formulas should be properly heated (follow the prescription bag and veterinarian's advice) to avoid food burns from a very hot formula and to freeze the crops from a formula that feeds at a very cold temperature.

4. MEDICATING: METHODS: 1. Injections, 2. In water or food, 3. Topical, 4. I prefer mouth not to treat in pet water or food. The drugs given in this way often cause a change in taste and can lead to reduced intake of food and water. Also, when the medicine is placed in the food or water it is very difficult to determine how much medication the pet has already taken. Thus, in my opinion the best ways are injections and oral. Topical medicine is often not used for pets and will cause oily feathers.

Before taking your plane home, you should explain how to handle the bird appropriately by your doctor or technician. In short, the patient should be placed in a vertical position and the syringe containing the medicine should be gently inserted from the left side of the mouth and from the angle to the right side. Most birds will try to bite the syringe that allows it to be easily inserted into the oral cavity. Slowly lower the piston on the syringe to distribute the medicine on the lower part of the beak. If the pet is struggling during treatment, stop for a few moments and then try again. You should inform your veterinarian if you are unable to treat your pets. The medicine can be mixed with a flavoring agent (FlavorX), which helps to reduce some resistance. From time to time, depending on the cause of the treatment, your doctor may be able to give a long-acting injection instead of oral medication but this use is limited and therefore not available for each pet.

5. Follow-up examination: Once the disease is detected in your pet, it is transferred to your veterinarian for physical examination and diagnosis including laboratory tests. Unfortunately, many people will see that their pets are improving and do not realize that the follow-up exam is necessary. I have always suggested re-examining the patient at different intervals depending on the state of debility. The re-examination allows your doctor to evaluate the patient's response to treatment and the owner's compliance with the instructions. Often in the context of a strange pet treatment the treatment should be changed to some extent to ensure the best response. This recycling is also used as a means to promote the changes needed for the bird to remain healthy. In addition, the laboratory values ​​can be re-examined to ensure that the patient really recovers and not only feel well again to resume hiding any weakness. I can not emphasize the importance of this follow-up enough, it is extremely important to the health of your bird.

Most importantly, follow your veterinarian's advice and ask questions to make sure you understand exactly what is required of you to get your pet back to health.