How to Treat a Sick Parrot

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Madeline Franco and we're here to talk about birds. Specifically, in this segment we're going to talk about how to recognize a sick bird, and how to treat a sick bird. Generally speaking, they are flock animals and as such they try to conceal illness for as long as they can because, in flocks and animals that travel in flocks, a sick or injured bird is often the one that's the most threatened by predators. And, they are subject to predators If however your bird has lost or gained a significant amount of weight, or if their fecal matter is not well defined. If it is very liquidly, if the separation between the urates, (which is the white part) and the solids and theres no clear distinction, or if the urates are yellow. That is probably and indication that you need to see a vet. Not every vet specializes in Avian medicine and, its very useful to find one that does.You can ask your vet who takes care of your dog or cat if you have one, if he specializes or deals with Avian medicine or if he doesn't, he might recommend someone who does. There are in many towns though, vets who take care of Avians and exotics. This little girl here was not sick so much as she was mutilating her leg and in order to get her to stop doing that, I've put a collar on her, I made her this collar. Mutilating and plucking is somewhat common among birds if they're not kept busy and occupied and engaged. For some reason she decided she wanted to cause damage to her leg and she was doing so. But, because we thought there might be underlying infection, the vet put her on an antibiotic and we used topical ointments to help her with her leg. And now, approximately six weeks after we started treatment, she is getting a whole lot better. There are a number of ailments that can strike your bird. Be aware of this, there are several that are considered dread diseases among Avians. You always want to check with your vet if there is any irregular behavior with your bird. Also a bird that stays at the bottom of his cage and fluffs out his feathers and generally doesn't look quite well. That is a bird that you want to take to the vet. One of the problems with birds, because their bodies are so tiny. They often will get ill, they stop eating, they stop drinking and they can dehydrate. And theres not a whole lot of tolerance for them to be dehydrated. You can lose a bird relatively quickly by they time you discover that its sick. So, pay attention to your bird and follow your veterinarians advice to take care of them and, they can really bounce back pretty well. This little girl as done a great job."