Association of Avian Veterinarians

Mortality from WaterAuthor(s): Roy DavisSource: Journal of the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), p. 8Published by: Association of Avian VeterinariansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30133237 .

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IN MY EXPERIENCE...

Psittacine Pediatric "Support" One of the more challenging areas

of avian medicine is pediatrics. It's obvious that diagnosis and therapy can sometimes be difficult in patients that may weigh only 10 grams and be only 3 days old. In addition, the cause of the illness may often be multifactorial, involving nutrition, sanitation, and infectious agents. The result of these difficulties is that we often have to "shotgun" a whole spectrum of therapeutic agents to save the chick. Basic support of the patient appears to be as successful in achieving a positive response, as is the use of specific medications.

One of the most successful suppor- tive measures that I employ is the "crop bra" (see AAV TODAY 2(2):91). The reason for this is that crop stasis occurs frequently in chicks, and unless non-parenteral nutrition can reach the chick, continual weight loss will occur and the chick will fade beyond reach of even the most powerful medications. Crop bras can come in a variety of fashions (see Fig. 1, 2), but my favorite is the "cross your heart" style made of Foam Wrap (Kendall Comp. Veterinary Products) and VetWrap (3M). The Foam Wrap helps cushion the Vet- Wrap so that bruising and edema of the wings does not occur, and it also aids in conforming to the crop without adding too much pressure to the chick's thorax. The bra can then be easily tightened and loosened as necessary. The benefit of this form of crop support is that chicks can still be fed a full volume of food, crop emp- tying times will decrease, and the chick will receive the nutrition it needs while recovering.

Other forms of pediatric support can be very important as well. Fre- quent manual massaging of the crop will assist crop motility and cause crop emptying times to decrease. Subcutaneous fluids substantially af- fect the attitude of a chick and crop function, as most ill chicks are

8 JAAV

Fig. 1. Palm Cockatoo (26 days old) with "Roman Toga" style crop bra made of Foam Wrap and VetWrap.

Fig. 2. Crop bra of Scotch Wrap and cloth diapers (the "English Tweed" look) on a 60-day-old Moluccan Cockatoo.

dehydrated. Even 1 day old chicks can receive 5% of their body weight twice a day. The medial and lateral thigh skin folds are popular locations because a lot of fluid can easily and quickly be given. These sites are also preferred because the chance of punc- turing internal organs in a squirming chick is lessened than with other ap-

proaches. Until a crop can process the necessary volume of normal hand feeding formula, the nutritional value of smaller volumes can be increased

by adding supplements, such as Nutrical, Gevral and enzymatic pro- ducts, such as PancrezymeTM (Daniels Pharmaceuticals, Inc) and Pro- zymeTM(Prozyme Products, Ltd.).

The combination of a crop bra, crop massaging, replacement fluids, and nutritional supplements provides a strong base on which to build the therapeutic plan. - Kim L. Joyner, DVM, Avicultural Breeding and Research Center, Lox- ahatchee, Florida

Mortality from Water When we moved our aviaries to

another city in Florida, we im- mediately experienced 100% mortali- ty of babies between 2 and 10 days of age; all those over 10 days surviv- ed. We had some difficulty coming up with a diagnosis, but we finally considered the salt in the water

softening system. As soon as bottled water was used, the losses stopped. - Roy Davis, R & L Exotic Birds, Daytona, Florida

Stress-affected Feathers Advise owners of young birds

under treament, particularly if they are actively growing feathers, that stress lines may appear and feather growth may be altered due to the il- Iness, stress and/or medication. Theories on why these stress lines ap- pear seem to point an interruption in nutrients to the feather follicle, either from dietary insufficiencies, altered systemic nutrition, or local nutrient transport interruption in the follicle itself. Client alarm at a few irregular feathers is then minimized and their observations on healthy, proper feather growth and replacement can be valuable aids in monitoring recovery. - Cathy Johnson, DVM, Seattle, Washington

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