Any Suggestions?

[Chrysocome 0]

Hi guys! I'm sorry I've been away for so long. I've barely had any time to even lurk around here! Busy busy busy as always with uni and study.

 

Now, I have to write an essay for my small animals primary medicine rotation. I can do it in the form of an information sheet for owners or a detailed investigative logarithm for veterinarians. This is for Small Animal Primaries (as in dog and cat type of clinics) so it should be a common sort of topic and the treatment should be readily available (as in, no epic specialist surgeries or expensive tests).

 

So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a topic - what common disease or symptom should I write about? I am so stuck because there's just so many things I could write on! I would really like it to be avian. It would be nice to branch out a bit more from the common diseases I know of budgies, since I've learnt so much about them already (most of it from here ) but if anyone has a burning desire to know about a common disease I may oblige. It needs to be 2-3 pages long so nothing as quick as scaley face but also not as long and exhausting as an investigation on vomiting or diarrhoea.

 

My first thought was egg binding but I sort of already know a lot about it from doing an non-uni assignment on it earlier in the year, and would like to learn something new.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited October 10, 2008 by Chrysocome

[**KAZ** 0]

Canker

Psittacosis

Megabacteria

[Neat 0]

I like those Kaz - There is always the debatable French Moult

And enteritis

[renee 0]

Parasites!

 

Lice, Mites, Worms. Treatment for birds and surroundings plus prevention. Natural versus chemical solutions.

[Angelic Vampyre 0]

Parasites!

 

Lice, Mites, Worms. Treatment for birds and surroundings plus prevention. Natural versus chemical solutions.

 

I like that idea, also Cankers as I still get confused about that one.

 

The other thing that I saw was a dot sheet. hard to explain but basically you have the common issues/illness along the top and then down the side you have symptoms and then you tick the boxes which apply 9 times out of 10 (did that make any sense at all?)

[Chrysocome 0]

Thanks guys for those suggestions - they are great, I promise I will do them at some point and pop them up here for you.

 

However, it came upon me last night that there is a topic that is very important for birds, and close to my heart. That is: behaviour problems in psittacine birds. As you know it leads to the neglect, abuse, abandonment and even euthanasia of parrots and their smaller cousins because the owners couldn't handle them. I'm going to write it for small animal (dog and cat) vets because I think it is important that all vets should be advocates for avian health, not just bird vets. (Then I'm going to print it and pass it to all my friends). It just too common a problem and causes unncessary grief and stress for humans and birds.

I will be covering budgies, although not as drastic as a feather plucking cockatoo, they too can bite and scream and as we all know, try to mate with everything including the owner's head. I know we aren't allowed to discuss management of non-budgies so when I'm done you can pm me if you want to see it.

 

But I agree on some of those - French moult is indeed very confusing and hard to research so I will do that in my spare time. I also really like the parasite treatment idea. Thanks again all - I was so stuck but you got my thoughts rolling. I will research those topics mentioned here, organise it into something legible and post it here when I am done. I can't promise it will be very soon, but it is all part of my ongoing education so it will happen eventually.

 

I know I ask for help a lot but I think it is important to have the opinions of breeders and pet owners - anyone know any really good websites about this topic? PM me or post just budgies since we aren't allowed to talk about others. I know we have some bird rescue people here and a lot of you know a lot about training and enrichment.

 

I'm going to try and cover: biting, screaming, plucking, mating behaviour, night fright, egg laying. If there are any other major ones let me know.

 

Thanks again.

Edited October 12, 2008 by Chrysocome

[Sailorwolf 0]

Hepatic lipidosis

Especially in obese birds. I am 78% sure one of my birds has this. It is a very common problem, but not many people know about it.

[Neat 0]

Deficiencies - Vitamin and Mineral These are neglect as they then lead to illnesses