First Aid General Guidelines:
Basic Restraint for Examination:
The easiest way to examine a patient is to wrap the patient in a towel. Place your thumb and forefinger in ring just under the chin and gently extend the head upwards while supporting the body in the towel and rest of your hand. The pressure to support the body should be just enough to confine the wings, but gentle enough to allow the ribs to expand for breathing. Bigger birds will need the second hand to support the body so someone else will have to do the exam. Extending the head helps keep the head still and prevent them from biting.
Bleeding:
Try to identify the source with minimal stressing of the patient. Place firm direct pressure over the lesion and hold for a minimum of 5 full minutes without peeking. Place a bandage only when necessary and find a veterinarian as soon as possible. Bandages that are too tight can cut off the blood supply to the extremities if placed on a limb or suffocate a patient if placed around the body. Do not pick at scabs/dried blood to look for injury if the bleeding has stopped as this may cause further bleeding. Birds do not have a large blood volume so even small amounts of blood loss can be dangerous. If the bleeding source is the tip of the beak or the toenail, styptic powder such as Kwick Stopâ can be used to stop the bleeding. The powder does not work well on and can be irritating to skin wounds.
Bite wounds:
Bird skin is very thin. If a bird is bit by another animal the skin can easily be broken and get infected. If a bird gets a small bite on the toe from another small bird, cleaning the wound and then applying a small amount of a triple antibiotic cream may be all that is necessary. Antibiotic creams work better than ointments because the ointments mat down the feathers. Never use steroid ointments such as hydrocortisone; even when applied topically they can be fatal. If the bird receives a deeper injury or evens spends time in a cats mouth but doesn’t show any easily found injuries, we recommend seeing a veterinarian and starting oral antibiotics.
Broken Blood Feather:
When feathers are newly growing they have a blood supply. If the shaft of the blood feather is broken the feather can bleed a lot. Additionally, they will often keep picking at the injury causing it to keep bleeding. If this happens the very base of the feather needs to be removed. To do this, with one hand use a pliers or hemostat and grab as close to the base of the feather as possible without grabbing the skin. Use the other hand to place pressure from both sides of the wing over the base of the feather underneath the skin. Then quickly yank out the feather and continue to apply the pressure where the feather was pulled from for at least 2 minutes without peeking.
Patient Caught on Something:
Birds are very curious creatures and not always the most graceful on land, so another problem we see are birds that get their feet, their band, or even their head stuck in cages wires, on toys, on strings or thread, and other odd things. They will often panic and break something or at least become very stressed if they feel restricted. Prevention is the best for this problem. However, if you come across your bird or another bird, wrap them in a towel and attempt to free them immediately. If they are very stressed, just give them a brief look over to make sure there is no bleeding and then place them in a dark quiet area right away. Over-handling a stressed bird leads to a dead bird. Quickly bring them to an avian veterinarian if needed. Additionally, if they are caught in string or thread and any is left around the toe or foot, then it may become severely infected and necrotic. If you are not sure if it completely removed, bring them to a veterinarian who can hold them still and look them over thoroughly with a magnifier.
Broken Wing/Leg or other major trauma:
Bird bones are very thin and lightweight because they need to fly. Additionally, many of the long bones may be pneumatic, meaning they have air instead of bone marrow to help with flight. Therefore they can easily broken by getting caught in something and panicking, falls from over trimming the wings, hitting ceiling fans and windows when flighted, improper restraint, bite wounds, etc. Unfortunately there isn’t too much you can do at home for this. Just remember a stressed bird can easily become a dead bird. Put them in a small, quiet, stable box and transport them immediately to a veterinarian as soon as possible.
Difficulty Breathing:
Difficulty breathing is extremely life threatening. Again, minimizing stress is the key to survival. Do not handle them any more than necessary. Place them in a dark, quiet, box and rush them to a veterinarian as soon as possible. There are a number of different causes to respiratory difficulty. The most common causes we see are primary respiratory infections, fluid accumulation from egg yolk peritonitis or neoplasia, and compression of air sac space by tumors or abscesses. It is recognized by increased respiratory rate and effort, and tail bobbing.
Foreign Body Ingestion/Toxin Ingestion:
Birds often eat things they aren’t supposed to eat. One of the nice things about their anatomy is that they have a crop, which is a temporary storage device in their esophagus. If you see them eat something they shouldn’t, immediately bring them in to a veterinarian. We can often sedate them and then retrieve the foreign body or flush out some of the ingested toxin.
Egg Laying Difficulty:
Some birds rarely lay eggs or lay eggs without any problem. However, egg production is a major stress to the body. It can predispose them to secondary infections, cause low calcium, and make them very weak. A normal egg is laid within 24 hours. There will often be a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs laid over a 7 to 10 day period. Some lovebirds and cockatiels will sometimes lay huge numbers of eggs. If your bird is laying eggs, make sure they are kept in a warm, humid area with easy access to food and water. Make sure they eat a good diet with plenty of calcium, not a primarily seed based diet. If they seem weak, are sleeping more, are spending a lot of time fluffed, are frequently straining with nothing coming out, or laying huge amounts of eggs, bring your bird into a veterinarian.
Sticky Mouse Traps:
Birds will occasionally be brought into our clinic for landing or getting stuck to those sticky traps for catching mice. The way to free them is to use vegetable oil to disolve the sticky material then rinsing of the oil. Remember to keep them warm and dry them thoroughly.
Oil:
If birds have their feathers matted by oil or car grease, try using dawn dish detergent mixed in warm water to get it off. Remember to keep them warm and dry them thoroughly.
Injury Prevention General Guidelines:
There are two key points to remember regarding injury prevention in birds. They are like small children, very curious, but not necessarily very wise. And they are fairly fragile creatures.
Their curiosity gets them into trouble. They like to explore everywhere, chew on things, and put all sorts of things in their mouth. Therefore, they should always be supervised when out of the cage. They should not be allowed to play with very small objects; we have seen birds for eating rubber bands, paper clips, pebbles, jewelry, etc. If allowed to roam around the house, they should have their wings trimmed; we have seen birds for flying into ceiling fans, into windows, onto the stove, etc. If the wings are trimmed, make sure they aren’t over trimmed. Only the first 6 to 8 of the primary flight feathers (the long ones) should be trimmed down to the tips of the secondary feathers (the short ones). The bird should be able to glide downwards after being trimmed, not drop like a rock or get upwards lift. We have seen birds for broken beaks, skin tears over the sternum, and skin tears under the tail base from dropping to hard. Another thing we see them for is that they will often be underfoot or nearby where they can get stepped on or hit by falling/dropped objects. Also, their love of chewing on things gets them into trouble such as consuming lead paints and foreign body ingestion.
Their fragility is shown in a few different ways. Birds have a very complex respiratory system. Therefore they are very predisposed to injury or death from fumes and aerosolized compounds. Do not spray anything around them except water; avoid perfumes, hair sprays, cigarette smoke, kitchen smoke, burnt Teflon, etc. Their small size predisposes them to toxicities such as from chewing on human medications after they just had fun ripping apart the bottle. Small amounts of avocado, chocolates, caffeine, and medications can have significant effects.
Brian Walsh, DVM
Feather and Fur Animal Clinic
Kailua, HI 96734
(808) 254-1548
