Restraining

RESTRAINING

Restraining

  • Small and most medium sized birds can be restrained adequately in an average person’s hand.
  • Some large birds required continued use of a cloth for restraint.
  • A small hand towel or bare hand should be wrapped around the bird, with the thumb and forefinger again grasping the head in the vicinity of the bird’s ears.
  • The rest of the fingers wraps lightly around the body.
  • The small bird’s feet can also be placed between the fourth and fifth fingers of the restraining hand for better immobilization.
  • The towel contains the wings and gives the feet something to grasp.
  • The bird can be held to the body of the examiner and the various parts of the birds uncovered and examined as desired.
  • The towel should be loose to allow free respiration and avoid over heating.

Larger birds

  • For larger birds both the hands should be used.
  • One hand for the head and another for the body, hence frequently larger birds required an assistant to handle the bird.
  • It is better firs the veterinarian to capture the bird and after restraining it can be given to the assistant so that the veterinarian can be freed for further examination.
  • While transferring the bird to assisting first pass the head, once the head is controlled by the assistant, the body can be controlled easily or transfer to another assistant later.

Head holding

  • Normally the head can be held with thumb and index finger.
  • For specific operation like beak trimming, administration of medicine three finger holding will do better.
  • In this case the bird can be held with three fingers.
  • In addition to thumb and index finger the middle finger also used to hold the bird.
  • First the middle finger is placed in the place of index finger and index finger is slowly moved to the very top of the head.
Last modified: Thursday, 7 June 2012, 9:14 AM