a "cure" for psittacine beak growth deformities!

This paper describes the use of cold-curing dental acrylics (used on non-anesthetized psittacines) to help abnormally growing beaks grow normal again.

For instance, this paper describes a case of scissor beak. Here is a picture for this example, stolen from this avian rescue blog: http://centerforavianrehab.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

Anyway--see how the rhinotheca is deviated to the bird's right? and because the gnathotheca has nothing to wear against, it is overgrown.

To treat this bird, you would trim both rhino- and gnathotheca, score the rhampotheca on the gnathotheca (to give the acrylic something to grip) and apply layers of acryllic to the gnathotheca rhampotheca (being careful to keep the bird's tongue away!). Then when it's dry, you shape the acrylic so it's higher on the bird's right and create a "groove" in the middle of the gnathotheca (where the rhinotheca sits in normal birds)--this forces the rhinotheca tip to slide into a more normal position, lining up with the gnathotheca.

After 6 weeks the acrylic usually falls off (or just pry it off) and voila! A more functionally (but not perfectly) aligned beak!

(Dental Composite for Use in Psittacine Species.

Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, Vol 19, No 4 (October), 2010: pp 290 –297)

CPR works for rabbits!

And you don't need to intubate! Well, intubating is always better, but a tight-fitting facemask works well, too. Just follow your normal cat/dog doses and protocols (remember they have higher RRs/HRs!) and go to town! Happy ventilating!

(Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in Hospitalized Rabbit: 15 Cases.

Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, Vol 20, No 1 ( January), 2011: pp 46 –5)

Use of a Portable Tower and Remote-controlled Launcher to Improve Physical Conditioning in a Rehabilitating Wild Mallard

You heard right. That's the title of the study. They literally launched a harnessed mallard (using a real bird launcher) off a 20 foot pole for flight reconditioning. I love this field:)

(Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 24(4):308–315, 201)

Meloxicam in psittacines needs to be dosed every 12 hours at higher-than-mammal doses to provide analgesia

(Cole, Paul-Murphy, et al, JAVMA, 2009, vol 70 no 12)

(Parrots had artifically induced arthritis in ONE tarsal joint and the lameness in that joint was monitored via measuring how much less weight the bird bore on that limb compared to the healthy limb.)

Meloxicam dosed at 1.0 mg/kg q12h to parrots with induced arthritis (in one pelvic limb) DID provide significantly quicker return to normal weight-bearing on the arthritic limb than lower doses.

Clinical points:

-occult blood was not present in the feces of any birds

-at 1.0 mg/kg, parrots returned to normal weight-bearing in 12 hours (after administration), whereas with lower doses it took 38 hours.

-while this study did not monitor renal values or perform necropsies (animals were not sacrificed), many board-certified practitioners routinely use meloxicam at 0.5 mg/kg q12h in psittacines

-new studies (not yet published) have found the half life of meloxicam to be DAYS in pelicans, so caution should be used in waterbirds until further studies have been done

Tramadol 5mg/kg q1-2d or 10mg/kg q4d actually provides ANALGESIA to TURTLES!

(Baker, Sladky & Johnson; JAVMA, 2011, vol 238, no 2)

TRAMADOL given 5-10 mg/kg PO to red-eared sliders actually increased the thermal withdrawl latency (the time it takes for an animal to remove it's limb from an area with increasing heat)==>we assume this to mean it provided analgesia! AND 5mg/kg did not depress respirations.

clinical points:

-5mg/kg should be dosed q1-2d and 10mg/kg should be dosed q4d

-mild respiratory depression could be seen at 10mg/kg so monitor if an aquatic turtle

-to give oral medications to turtles, use an appropriate size metal gavage needle to dispense the medication into the stomach while another holds the turtles head out (don't try with healthy snappers...obviously)

-takes 6 hours to be effective