Hi, I am Suzanne with Featherheads and we have been talking about how to care for your bird. We are going to now talking about when you may need a veterinarian. If you have any doubt that your bird is sick, you need a veterinarian. But there are number of things that you can do on an everyday basis, to monitor when your bird may be getting ill.
Typically parrots are creatures, they never want to let know when they are sick so typically you don’t know that they are sick until they are very sick. Once a parrot starts to show symptoms of illness, it maybe very seriously ill.
One of the things you can do on a regular basis is weigh the bird. On a matured bird, perhaps once a week is enough. Any change in weight of 10% requires a veterinarian to examine the bird.
Another thing you want to look at on a daily basis is the bird’s droppings. One of the things we teach you early on about birding is, all the droppings should be consistent. The only thing consistent is they are not consistent. And let me explain what I mean by that, the birds droppings are divided into three parts: There is a fecal matter which is typically either green or brown, it’s tubular shape. Then there are the urates, which are kind of a pasty white and they are around the fecal matter and then is the clear liquid which is typically they refer to it as the urine.
These are usually three separate parts. If a bird has this all mixed together, you may have diarrhea. Birds rarely have diarrhea, but if they do, they definitely need a veterinarian very quickly. They’re in danger of dehydrating.
One of the things you want to remember though, if you just fed a bunch of fruit or a colored food that may affect your birds dropping. So be familiar with your birds dropping. If you see a serious change and it’s coupled with some other things, you probably need a veterinarian.
Another thing which you may want to monitor is change in behavior. If the bird’s favorite game he as no interest in for a day or two, that maybe an early warning sign than something is wrong. You need to have a vet check it out. If they have given up eating, you definitely need to get them to the veterinarian. There’s probably a problem that needs to be addressed.
Unfortunately with birds, usually the only way to tell that what’s going on is to take a blood draw. That gives you the — CBC will give you the most comprehensive analysis of what the problem may be. Obviously, this requires a veterinarian.
We have been talking about when you need a vet? Next, we’re going to talk about emergency care for your bird before you get to the vet.
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