Health Checks
A 6 monthly or annual veterinary health check is recommended to ensure that your bird remains healthy and happy. This examination is an important part of developing your bird’s potential as a companion pet. We also recommend bringing your bird to our veterinarians immediately after purchase for a new bird check-up.
The health check of your pet bird consists of the following:
History taking.
At the beginning of the examination the assistant of our veterinarian takes a thorough history of your bird. You will be asked about any worries or symptoms, eating and drinking habits, previous diseases, the origin and the sex of the bird, its diet, cage and environment.
You could help to provide the necessary information by bringing samples of your bird’s food to the vet and taking photos of its cage and environment.
If your bird has diarrhoea or unusual droppings take a sample from these and bring it to our vet. Likewise, if your bird has abnormal behaviour, try to video this and bring the recording to the consultation.
Physical Examination.
The next step is the physical examination. This starts with the observation of the bird within its cage to notice problems with its posture, movement, breathing, and behaviour. Following the observation the weight of your bird is taken using a fine gram scale. Then the assistant gently restrains the bird using a soft towel to let our veterinarian examine it thoroughly. The vet inspects the eyes, ears, beak, nose, throat, legs, wings, feathers and skin. He/she checks the tone of the muscles and feels the belly of the bird. As a final step our veterinarian listens to the heart and lungs using a stethoscope.
Diagnostic Tests.
The physical examination is followed by different diagnostic tests. The most common tests for birds are the microscopic examination and microbiological culture of the dropping or the crop content; blood tests; radiographic imaging (X-ray) and endoscopic observation of the different organs.
The blood test has several different purposes:
The Complete Blood Count (CBC) examination looks the numbers and appearance of the cells within the blood. This test is essential to investigate your bird’s immune system and helps to detect inflammations or infections.
The Clinical Chemistry Panel examines the enzymes, electrolytes and metabolites in the blood and could help to diagnose problems with the organs (e.g. liver, kidney) of your bird.
The serological and PCR tests look at antibodies and DNA and can detect exposure to different infectious diseases (e.g. Psittacosis, PBFD)
Examination of the DNA in the blood cells can be used to determine your bird’s sex.
The radiographic imaging (X-ray) is an extremely useful tool to examine the bones, the location and size of the organs and the appearance of the air sacs.
The endoscopic examination uses a special device, an endoscope to examine the interior of a hollow organ or cavity of the body. The endoscopic examination is a minimally invasive surgical procedure (also known as “keyhole surgery”). During the examination our veterinarian anaesthetizes your bird and makes a very small (3mm) on the side of the body of the bird. Through this hole a sterile endoscope explores the body cavity of the bird. This examination is usually performed if the previous tests (blood analysis, X-ray) revealed some abnormality and our veterinarian wants to understand the exact nature of the problem. The endoscope examines the organs using magnification; moreover it allows our veterinarian to collect tiny samples for further testing.
Older Bird Health Checks
There are certain health concerns that are more common in older birds. Every old pet bird should receive a complete and thorough physical examination and health check regularly. For younger birds a yearly check-up may be enough, but older birds and birds with on-going problems will benefit from more frequent veterinary visits, perhaps as often as once in every two to six months. The examination of the older bird is similar to the general health checks.
The common problems with older birds are as follows:
- obesity
- cancers
- liver disease
- heart disease
- kidney disease and gout
- hardening of the arteries
- arthritis