Maintaining your bird's health with proper
nutrition, suitable environments, and mental
stimulation is vitally important. The general
health of your bird should also be a concern.
Avian medicine is advancing rapidly. It
has been recently estimated that our knowledge
of avian medicine and surgery is doubling
every five years. This means that avian
veterinarians are more equipped with cutting-edge
technology, more blood tests, better diagnostic
tools, and access to more reference material
than ever before. If your bird becomes ill,
the chances are better than ever that a
cause will be found and treatments can be
prescribed. We have advanced medically to
lengthen the pet bird's life by many years.
However, you should not wait until your
bird is ill to see your veterinarian. The
key to a long healthy life for your parrot
is regular preventative check ups.
The recommended schedule for good-health
maintenance is once annually. Regular visits
will establish normal parameters for your
bird. It is important that your veterinarian
be familiar with your bird in a state of
good health to more easily recognize problems.
An important part of an annual examination
is the physical exam. A physical will provide
your bird's body weight, a critical gauge
in measuring health status. When a bird
is sick, the body weight will decrease before
any other clinical signs appear. The physical
exam will also provide visual clues to a
trained professional that reveal subclinical
signs a bird may be trying to hide. The
physical exam is only part of the annual
check up. Blood work, bacterial cultures,
and fecal gram stains provide the necessary
information to establish normal values and
to screen for subclinical disease. The most
important part of a preventative maintenance
program is annual vaccination against polyomavirus.
Annual visits are also a good time to get
wing clips and toe nail trims.
A preventative maintenance program will
provide our pet bird with the longest, healthiest
life possible. A good program consists of
a balanced diet, a clean environment, a
roomy cage, proper handling techniques,
and proper veterinary care including annual
check ups and vaccinations.
