hi, my name is madeline franco and we're hereto talk about birds. specifically, in this segment we're going to talk about how to recognizea sick bird, and how to treat a sick bird. generally speaking, they are flock animalsand as such they try to conceal illness for as long as they can because, in flocks andanimals that travel in flocks, a sick or injured bird is often the one that's the most threatenedby predators. and, they are subject to predators if however your bird has lost or gained asignificant amount of weight, or if their fecal matter is not well defined. if it isvery liquidly, if the separation between the urates, (which is the white part) and thesolids and theres no clear distinction, or if the urates are yellow. that is probablyand indication that you need to see a vet.
not every vet specializes in avian medicineand, its very useful to find one that does.you can ask your vet who takes care of your dogor 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 careof avians and exotics. this little girl here was not sick so much as she was mutilatingher leg and in order to get her to stop doing that, i've put a collar on her, i made herthis collar. mutilating and plucking is somewhat common among birds if they're not kept busyand occupied and engaged. for some reason she decided she wanted to cause damage toher 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 wholelot 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 tocheck with your vet if there is any irregular behavior with your bird. also a bird thatstays at the bottom of his cage and fluffs out his feathers and generally doesn't lookquite well. that is a bird that you want to take to the vet. one of the problems withbirds, because their bodies are so tiny. they often will get ill, they stop eating, theystop drinking and they can dehydrate. and theres not a whole lot of tolerance for themto be dehydrated. you can lose a bird relatively
quickly by they time you discover that itssick. so, pay attention to your bird and follow your veterinarians advice to take care ofthem and, they can really bounce back pretty well. this little girl as done a great job.