Chrysocome

Oh Kaz, you reminded me of the skit we were writing throughout the whole prac, for our theoretical vet show (it's our current obsession). It would be about a vet... who had lost his watch! So it goes through all the possible places he could have put it... taking it off for the shower... putting on gloves to do pathology... washing hands, asking all the other vets etc etc and we keep going over and over it again trying to unravel the story. Then after a while... Dun.. Dun.. DUN! Sudden images of the horse's back end. Vet: Oh. ---- Later on: Arguing with friends, they manage to conclude it was definitely a brown horse! So we see him approaching a horse... he's carrying a big box of rectal gloves. Then we zoom out and zoom out and see the twenty or so brown horses Oh, and the watch is sitting on the bedside table. Hehehe. Okay, it's funnier in my head : Oh and the best part is - half an hour after the rectal prac was over, one of my friends who had been writing this with me - had really lost her watch!

Maese, just as I was having second thoughts about having said that, and sneakily trying to reword it :(Laughing out loud): But I mean, it's all warm and squishy, I imagine it would be the best thing on a cold winter's morning.... okay I'll stop being gross I love chocolate so much, I try not to remember the smell, but man, it's deep in my memory, I can smell it even now, ew! I've never come across marble chocolate again so far, I'm hoping I'll still be able to handle it

Maesie - Thanks. Oh dear, in First year, horses just terrified me so much, I'd be full of adrenaline around them. That first time... I'd try something, she'd move suddenly and I jumped, she jumped because I jumped, and I jumped again! I had to get control of that reflex fast - my mates thought it was hilarious Feathers - South Africa excites me soo much. There' s a photo of one of the students with a big raptor. I can just imagine seeing a secretary bird or a big vulture or something! Or an ostrich! I've seen an ostrich farm here in Victoria, I couldn't believe how massive they were. Here I am thinking that emus are big and scary... Missy - Gotta love the 'vralls. They are like our uniform. Unbearably hot sometimes though! Kaz - Just for you! Remember, you asked for it! Change to links if you see fit. My 'concentration' face. (Aka vaguely disgusted, vaguely intrigued, strangely enjoying it ) No comment Libby - The above might have answered your question I forget sometimes that some people have never seen me before! Elly - Did I ever tell you about the time a dog had eaten a bar of marble chocolate and I had the glamourous job of holding the bucket after he was given the vomit-inducing drug? Not a smell you can forget! What vet show is that? It sounds interesting!

*medical drama music* Well, I keep saying I'd update you all on how vet school is going. Basically, it's busy and stressing and draining (physically, mentally and emotionally), and it is also amazing, I am enjoying it so much. I'm going to put up some photos of what I've gotten up to so far this year. I'm now in Third Year, which is when we move from the city out to a semi-rural area to learn (and in many cases live) at a teaching hospital. I happen to already live in this suburb, so bonus for me. The teaching style changes from lectures to more and more prac work until at last in final year there are no lectures, just doing rounds and reports from work experience. We also start our clinical work next semester, which is rather exciting. At the moment we are getting so many pracs, it is great. There is only so much writing can tell you, the rest is teaching all your senses to 'see' to what is going on. I won't bore you with the lectures. But I've done so much in pracs, particularly with farm animals, and it's only been four weeks. -Birds: This was such a sinch for me It was catching/handling, how to give injections, crop feed, take blood, do wet preps of the poop, that kind of thing. -Cows: I've passed a stomach tube, taken rumen fluid, taken blood, tried to catheterise the bladder (with no success), given injections, had my hand in her mouth (ow!), cleaned out an abscess the size of a grapefruit, learnt lots of knot theory for tying halters and leads. (A note about drawing rumen fluid - pay attention when you're sucking on the stomach tube with your mouth!) -Horses: I've anaesthetised a horse, done injections, passed a stomach tube, picked up all the feet and used hoof testers, lameness diagnosis, and yes I've had my hand up a horse's bum. This week I'll practice rasping their teeth. Oh and horses scare me... a lot. -Sheep: Tipped them, tail docking, ring castration, ear tagging, dehorning, taken blood Plus all the normal stuff for a clinical exam: Check over every body system, listen to heart/lungs, take temperature, that kind of thing. In Clinical Medicine we've been doing things with machines: Spinning blood, finding out the concentrations of certain portions of the blood, doing blood smears, interpreting the results. We also had a lot of fun with the radiology machines. I've also been doing Pathology rounds, and am On Call for autopsies these few weeks. I'm signed up to emergencies over Christmas (which I'm sure will be very exciting!), surgery over New Year, and the two weeks after that being Equine rotation and clinical rotation. I also have to fill in my 13 weeks of work experience which I've worked out so far to be at a cattle practice, another bird place (yay!), a horse place and an emergency centre. Plus, I'm going to South Africa for the "wildlife" part of work experience ! So yes, I'm rather busy these next two years! Here are the pictures, Me and my best friends posting for our "vet show". Using hoof testers. Equine anaesthesia. We injected a sedative then an anaesthetic. It's rather scary doing anaesthesia on horses - you have to help them lie down or else they'll just flop over and hurt themselves. That's me with the stomach tube. Action shot of my good mates maintaining the horse while she's down. I like this X-ray. The uni has this high tech digital X-ray machine which have plates that you can keep reusing because it's digital. Attempting to place a urinary catheter. Me and my mates with Betsy, a teaching horse. There's also a rather nice picture of me at a horse's back end, but I think I'll spare you that So we've done a lot of large animals. I know I've always been set on becoming an avian specialist. But I'm starting to think that if that isn't possible, going into rural practice wouldn't be a bad option. Enough of my babble, now to get back to doing Epidemiology, which is suspiciously like Maths and Stats...

I'm going to be simple and say... green and yellow can you tell? I especially like pale yellow, the kind you get with yellowface - Milly has it all over.

I must have missed this last year because of uni. I just burst into tears what a terrible story, the bit about the 'breeder', reminds me of how messed up the world is and how we must keep fighting for the animals we share the world with. The vets and nurses (I assume it's the place I worked at), they must have been so horrified. Yet I have tears of pride, I am glad this case was resolved, hats off to you for taking these birds away and sparing them a slow, painful life and death. What a brave and responsible girl Katie is, hope all is well with her and her budgie.

I squee'd at the wet pics She is so beautiful. Thanks again Bec. It is a joy to see her so happy and settled

Jeez I can't believe I missed all this! *headdesk* Tough call, but it is so great to hear that she's finally happy and flying around with other budgies . She did spend a week at the vet's and she had the okay from us. I'd keep watching for a good two weeks, even if the quarantine period had been up. Good luck with it all - and post pictures :(Laughing out loud):

They are so lovely. I read the title and was like, "Wow.. I thought they did operations to stop that now!" Orientals are so gorgeous... I love their names too! I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter Kaz. :hap: Good luck to you both. *hugs*

:hap: Please do! Heheh. My point there was supposed to be that she was underweight! Whoops!

I thought I'd share one of the consults I saw when I was doing work experience at the bird vet clinic. The vet walked me through every step of the way, interrogating me for what I thought it was and what we should do about it. It was basically 'my' case. Here is a modified version of my case report (easier to read, and to protect client privacy). ------------------- Presentation 23/2/08, 2-year-old male budgerigar. Owner history indicated that it had an irritated left eye and had been rubbing it on the perches. Possible diagnoses: mites, minor trauma, foreign body, eye/sinus infection. Examination Patient presented on 23/2/08 weighing 28grams. Cere indicated that she was female. Left eye was weeping with an area of baldness and irritated skin around it. There were also matted feathers on the forehead. The matted head feathers indicate that the bird was vomiting and it is likely that some of it had entered the eye, causing irritation. The underlying cause of vomiting needs to be investigated. Differential diagnoses: Trichomoniasis, avian gastric yeast, hyperthyroidism, bacteria. Case management A crop flush was performed. The contents were viewed unstained under a microscope, and then stained with Diffquik, which revealed large rod-like organisms. They were positive under a Gram’s stain. Diagnosis The microscopic appearance of the organisms suggested Macrorhabda ornithigaster (formally Megabacteria). Treatment Patient was given Amphotericin B. Owner was informed of importance of hygiene and quarantine, and advice was given regarding the improvement of these. Information about general bird care was given. Discussion A crop flush is performed by drawing a small volume of saline into a crop needle, ejecting it into the crop and then drawing all the contents back up into the syringe. Passing the needle also helps identify if there is an obstruction of some kind causing the vomiting (eg a foreign body). A drop of the fluid was viewed under a microscope. If the bird had the protozoa Trichomonas gallinae, their swimming motions would have been seen. Another drop was stained and placed on a slide. When viewing under a microscope, stains help visualise certain aspects. Diffquik is a quick way of looking at the slide in general. Gram’s stain categorises bacteria into positive (purple) or negative (pink), which is useful in identifying them. Macrorhabdus was previously thought to be a bacterium (megabacteria) but has now been identified as a yeast. The distinction is important because antibiotics have little use against fungi, and often help he fungi proliferate. It has predilection for the avian proventriculus (stomach), and is now called Avian Gastric Yeast. It causes a chronic disease of weight loss. Regurgitation is a common finding, and birds may eat more due to the inadequate food intake. Mortality is high, although recovery can occur. ------------------ So what presented as an eye problem was actually alimentary! As they tell us again and again in class, "examine the whole as well as the hole". I quite enjoy the investigative part of cases, it is like solving a mystery. I'm glad I got to learn so much about in one sitting. The vet told me everything I wanted to know about megabacteria and more on the drive to an aviary visit. Hope this was informative to you. Feel free to ask about it, I will try my best to answer.

What do you mean by 'laying on perches'? Do you mean squatting? Have they stopped working completely, as in she can no longer perch, or is it just weakness? Is it one leg or both? Which part of her legs have stopped working? (Sorry for the barrage, the more we know the better). If it's not trauma, then it could be something else compressing the spinal cord. Budgies commonly get kidney tumours and this can cause paralysis in one or both legs. As Kaz said it could be something to do with an egg or the reproductive system. Osteoporosis and some infections can also cause leg paralysis. These are extreme cases. She could also just be tired or generally sick if she's squatting on the perch. Birds are notorious for trying to look fine and behaving normally when they're sick. I believe a bird vet check is best.

'Hernia' is rather broad. As Sailor said, it can be any tissue anywhere. Consequences range from fine if it's just connective tissue, to completely disastrous if it's the gut. It can be congenital, or due to trauma, or due to something in the body putting pressore on it (cancer, fat, hepatomegaly). Herniation can also occur when a bird is egg bound and it's straining so hard to push it out that the body wall tears and abdominal organs (even the egg) can go through it. According to my avian medicine textbook, it is also part of a syndrome called hyperoestrogenism (it has a really cool radiograph and photo with it, can post if someone wants to see it). Here is a section straight out of the textbook, Avian Medicine: Principles and Application, by Ritchie, Harrison and Harrison (1994 Wingers Publishing, Florida) p158. Ventral abdominal hernias are common in budgerigars and racing pigeons (particularly hens). A causal relationship with hyperestrogenism, which causes weakening of the abdominal muscles, has been suggested. The hernia may contain fat, loops of bowel or other abdominal organs. Incarceration of the intestinal tract is a rare but possible complication. A diagnosis can be made by physical examination and radiology. Treatment involves surgical closure of the abdominal hernia. Removal of excess fat that is primarily located between the sheets of the posthepatic septum facilitates the procedure. A perineal hernia containing a persistent right oviduct was observed by the author in a budgerigar. p1132; Abdominal hernias frequently develop in female budgerigars and cockatiels, which may be related to a hormone imbalance causing a weakening of the abdominal muscles. It has been suggested that altered calcium metabolism in chronic egg-laying hens may contribute to muscular atony and over-distention in the caudal abdomen near the cloaca. In most cases, the hernia is of little clinical consequence. The defect in the body wall is large with little risk of organ entrapment. As a result, herniorrhaphy may carry more risk than the potential benefit. Because of the extensive system of air sacs (on which birds rely heavily for respiration), efforts to close the body wall defects frequently result in respiratory compromise. In birds with chronic or large hernias, the resulting respiratory compromise can be life-threatening. Hope that helped.

Maesie: Every single good ending fills me with joy - it never gets old! I wishh they could all be that way. Bec Sta: Work at it :budgiedance: It is indeed hard but it is so gratifying in the end. Zebra: I'm so sorry to hear about your rabbit While I was at the clinic, we had what felt like a small epidemic on our hands. In Australia, vaccinating them against it is illegal. They believe they will lose their 'weapon' against the pest rabbits, despite clear evidence that the wild rabbits are getting more and more resistant to it. I tell you it is one of the saddest experiences I have ever had. Everything fills with fluid, especially their eyes, and gunk comes out of their eyes/nose. I never saw one near death and I am glad I didn't - apparently it is terrible to watch. Here in Australia it is an absolute death sentence because they have no immunity. The rate is something lke 98% will die, within three weeks of getting it, and that can be as soon as a few days after the signs. There is no treatment for it. We put them to sleep well before the terminal stages you described kick in. If they were immune to it, they would get really bad then get better. But it's not possible here because they just can't be vaccinated

He went home with one of the vets, as the treatment for scaly face is simple but takes a while. He was also taking up space at the hospital. She has said she will send me photos and updates :hap:

Sorry for the double post/reviving an old thread, but I thought I'd post some stories/photos. I wish I had the time to describe every case and all the experiences I had, but the list is way too long! Here are some of the interesting things I did: -My first operation - desexing a tom cat. -Beak remodelling for a budgie with severe malformations -Autopsied a rabbit (myxomatosis - a disease that humans released to wipe out pest rabbits. Unfortunately, it is carried by mosquitoes and can affect pet rabbits) and a wild cockatoo (poor bird had been hit by a car and was way beyond the ability to recover - busted hip, legs, wings, he was in so much pain, poor guy) -Stood in on lots of surgeries all scrubbed up, and acted as assistant surgeon - this mostly involved me standing there holding things open, (Laughing out loud). I also got to suture closed a few of them. The surgeries included removing a massive grapefruit sized tumour, several speys (including a rabbit), exploratory laparotomy of a dog with a massively swollen belly (turned out to have cancer :hap:), surgical sexing of about 14 birds, and removing an eye from a rabbit with cancer (that was freaky!) -Helped with many X-rays, including a budgie! -Stood in on many, many consults -Gave vaccinations, did clinical exams, took blood, lots of in-house pathology, looked at stuff under the microscope and generally helped diagnose problems And some photos, A little tiel with 'sick bird look' and too young to eat on his own. He was going to be adopted, so was being observed to see how he would fare. I crop tubed him several times until the vet showed the foster how to do it herself. A duck with a broken wing that we bandaged up. Luckily, it's in his nature not to use it very much anyway! That's bird blood. Bird blood is awesomely cool. They have a nucleus in them! All mammalian mature red blood cells lack nuclei. Bird X-rays. I didn't take this one. Sadly it looks like this canary has a cancer in its abdomen. Blue, the other stray budgie that was brought into the clinic. He was adopted by the founders. Friendlist little guy ever, loved to be on shoulders and talked a lot. This little pup holds a place in my heart... he looked just about ready to drop dead for the first few days. He had massive bloody diarrhoea, which absolutely stank, and it took such a toll on his little body. He just kept getting down and down, despite the fluids and transfusions. He also refused to eat - he was just down to skin and bone. After a few days of "hang in there, please don't die" the canine vet, who is an awesome lady, told me to take the pup out in the sun and just cuddle him. I did this and it filled my heart with joy to see his ears perked up. First go, he took chicken from my hands. I did this several times every day after that - he would only eat if I fed him - and to my pleasure, he perked up, began wagging his tail when he saw me, and finally he was barking and romping around. For that first week we had all thought he was done for. He went home in the second week, and on followup (third week) he was soo excited to see me, and I was overjoyed to see that he had some weight back on! Lesson learnt, you can prescribe all the right medicine, but a bit of love and cuddles can do a lot to help them turn the corner. Wet kitties! We were looking after five extremely young kittens. I don't know the story as they were there when I came, but someone told me it was a charity case. As in, no one actually owned the kittens but we were going to look after them anyway Sadly though, some of them died over the weeks, they were severely undersized for their age. These two though were looking strong and were still there when I left. Some of the birds that were being sexed. These guys were sooo cute. Just babies, so it was harder for the vet to see what sex they were. I got to look through the scope for all the procedures. Finally, the little kestrel. The theory is that he was too young/inexperienced to fly, somehow ending up in a horse's water trough, and then was unable to get out. Let me outa here! He didn't have anything wrong with him, besides being rather young and wet, so he went to a wildlife carer. Whoops, enormous post, but so much happened, and it all came flooding out when I started writing about it :hap:

It went well, for me at least. Despite that, it affected me deeply. I suppose it will be a part of my career I will have to acknowledge - ending the lives of (sometimes perfectly healthy) animals. Rest in peace dear one, and thank you. I did learn a lot, though was quite shaky and kept making this one mistake from sheer stress. I am glad for the oppurtunity to practice; using cadavers is one thing but when there's fresh blood spurting at you, it's quite different! I now have to write a surgeon's report and prepare to be anaesthetist for the next rotation.

Please note: The following might disturb some people because it is about abdominal surgery in vague detail. ------ Tomorrow morning I get to perform my first surgery at the veterinary teaching hospital! I'm so excited and yet terrified at the same time. This semester we do surgical rotations so each surgical team member gets to be anaesthetist, assistant surgeon and head surgeon. I got the latter first hit. Eep! My patient is a dog, who does not have an owner and is scheduled for euthanasia. I send my deepest thanks and respect to those animals who give their lives to help veterinary students become competent doctors who will save lives in future. Please let me assure you that we are regulated very closely by ethical commitees, and we treat our patients with the utmost care and respect. In the operating theatre they are true patients and every effort is made to minimise stress, pain and trauma. After the procedure, the animals remain under deep anaesthetia and recieve a terminal injection, which will put them to sleep painlessly and without any stress. I will be performing an intestinal enterectomy and anastomsis. This means removing a piece of the intestine and joining the cut ends together. This type of surgery is used when a piece of the intestine has died, due to obstruction, twisting, telescoping, infection, or other intestinal problems like cancer. I've done an external surgery before (routine desexing) but this is my first ever operation where I have to do everything like a real surgeon - from srubbing up, draping the patient, setting the equipment, opening the abdomen, ligating the blood vessels, cutting the piece out and then stitching everything back together. I'm somewhat terrified. The real surgeons will be watching, asking questions constantly and making sure I don't make any mistakes - which will earn a black mark on my name! In reality, a little mistake can cost the animal's life. *studies meticulously* That said, I am loving life at the teaching hospital! Next semester I will be doing clinical rounds and the year after I will be an intern. Exciting stuff! I'll let you know how it goes. When I get around to being anaesthetist and assitant surgeon, I'll tell you about that too

Oh no, how terrible I hope she is okay, please keep us updated.

That's exactly what I meant. Sorry deb, for highjacking your thread

None at all! I wasn't making like you should feel guilty or throw money at the vets or whatever, just to maybe consider those things a little. Money is always a sensitive issue, and everyone has their own problems to deal with. As long as there is no abuse happening, going the cheaper way is totally understandable I trust our experienced members completely - they have taught me so much! Vets have a medical and scientific perspective, but breeders generally focus on their particular species and are therefore extremely knowledgeable about them.

I'm glad you sorted that out and learnt how to do it yourself I was the one who trimmed Little the student budgie. He wasn't sedated because he was very docile, he didn't even react to being held. Sometimes they get sedated because they might go crazy at the drill and hurt themselves. We worry about nailclipping beaks not just because they can bleed/hurt but because they can split, with pretty severe consequences. But I'm sure you have been given sound advice from the experienced breeders here. I'd like to make a quick note about vet costs. I'm not going to cause a huge fuss because I groan over it too when I have to go myself But let me ask you to consider these things: how much vets are paid (in Aus, at least), how much uni (and in particular specialising, which is what it takes to be an avian vet) costs, the cost of medicine and equipment (which is not under any medicare system) and the level of study/time/effort required to get in, stay in, graduate and then be expected to be an expert on all things animal (and that includes all fields of medicine including radiology, anatomy, surgery, handling, orthopaedics, anaesthesia, dentisty, behaviour, obstetrics etc etc). But, this is totally off topic, and is best left for another day. :hap:

Vegetables are more important than fruits, they tend to have more nutrients per volume. Also, celery (and lettuce) is made mostly of water and isn't of much nutritional benefit. As for my birds, Milly and Squee go nuts for cooked broccoli, cooked corn and raw carrot. I don't cut these up as they absolutely love tearing it into little bits then go foraging on the floor for them. I figure that's good for their beaks and keeps them occupied. Luckily my babies will test anything new that appears on their "veg peg". They really like silverbeet, bok choi, orange, grapes and spinach but will take most things off the peg (Milly hates tomato and mango, Squee hates bananas). Birds like us have individual tastes so experiment with different foods and forms (cooked/raw, grated/chopped etc). It also takes a lot of patience to get a bird onto veggies if it isn't used to them. As always, no apple seeds or avacado. Sunflowers seeds should only be a rare treat. They have a high fat content. My bird vet likened them to a fried mars bar! If your bird doesn't get lots of exercise or is overweight, I would say avoid them.

Maesie, (Laughing out loud). Maybe the sound of the rain on the cover freaked them out more? That or they really wanted a bath :(Laughing out loud): An interesting thing I learnt recently that relates to what you said Missy. Birds passively perch and actively release. What that means is that they have to think about letting go, but holding on comes naturally to them. The same way we have to think about spreading our fingers but they automatically go back to a slightly folded position when we aren't thinking about it. For them the automatic position is closed. This is why they don't fall off the perch when they sleep (that would be rather awkward!). So I guess sleeping on the wire makes no difference to them. Maybe it's even more comfortable, because they can rest their heads against it.

Haha. My Nibbler used to do that, and he was a pet bird. It ws so funny to see him settling to sleep on the wall. Must be comfortable! Milly will do it sometimes in the corner when Squee's stolen her favourite perch :(Laughing out loud): I wonder why they do it? Edit - beaten by lonebudgie, who answered my question