VMD 513: Pet animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

TRAUMA ASSOCIATED DISORDERS 

Laceration

• Serious abrasion and lacerations, with or without mortality, result when birds run into enclosure fences when panicked by stray animals, especially barking dogs.
• Small skin lacerations can be cleaned and treated as open wound with antibiotic powered such as Tricin or Terramycin in preference to ointments, which often mat the feathers.
• Healing os very rapid and contraction good.
• Large laceration can be debrided and sutured.
• Avian skin is loose and easily mobilized and hence quite large defects can be adequately covered.

Feather hemorrhage

• A blood feather is a newly emerging, immature, actively growing feather.
• Trauma, either accidental or iatrogenic (as in win trimming), to the keratin sheath surrounding these blood vessels can produce severe hemorrhage.
• Hemorrhage inside the follicle often result sin death of the feather.
• Treatment is best accomplished by grasping the blood feather with pliers or artery forceps and removing it form the follicle in the direction in which it was growing.

Breast blisters

• Brest blisters in birds are false bursae; one or more can occur along the sternum, varying in length from 1 to 8 cm, they occur most commonly in male birds of heavy breeds during the growing period.
• The cause is mechanical, due to pressure on, or injury to the sternum.
• Pressure may be caused by the weight of the bird forcing the sternum against wire, slatted floors or perches. Incising the infected blisters and expressing the content reduced their size.

Bumble foot

• Bumble foot or psudodermatitis refers to localized and generalized inflammation of the feet.
• Bumble foot occurs in species of birds forced to perch or walk on unnatural surfaces )e.g. concrete floor for anseriforms), especially those surfaces heavily contaminated with feces.
• In Budgerigars bumble foot is a very common cause of bilateral lameness.
• It develops because of the abrasive action of sandpaper perches or perches that are too smooth or cylindrical.
• Bumble foot in Budgerigars may also be predisposed by insufficient vitamin A in the diet.
• Bumble foot is associated with swelling of the ball or soft pad of the foot, which may not be obvious until the bird is handled.
• Prevention and treatment of bumble foot should include replacement of soiled, abrasive or cylindrical perches with clean, nontoxic tree branches of several diameters.
• Use of antibiotics like trimetoprim, tylosin and topical application of dexamethasone can be used for treatment.
• Surgical treatment involves curettage or dissecting out of infected caseous material, closing the wood with 5-0 silk or placing a drain tube to be flushed with antibiotics allowing the lesion to granulate.