- Hi, my name is Dr. Matt.
I'm the avian vet here
at the Melbourne Bird Veterinary Clinic.
And today I'd like to talk to you
about the importance of doing a new bird check
and what that entails.
(upbeat music)
If ever you buy a new bird,
whether you're adding to your collection
or whether it's a sole bird
that's going to enter your family
and become a family member,
it's very important soon after purchase,
no matter where you've purchased it from,
to do a complete health check with your avian vet.
The avian vet is likely to ask you
to do a number of health tests
associated with the clinical examination.
Birds have a natural instinct to hide any sickness
or hide any disease.
So it's quite common for them to carry diseases
that you may not be aware of.
So therefore, doing health checks along with testing,
might be blood tests, fecal tests,
and other types of testing,
is extremely important when you're getting to know
the things that your new bird may have and may be carrying.
So, a common test that we do is fecal checks.
And we're looking for parasites
that your bird may have been purchased with.
So whether they have been wormed or not,
it is important to double check
that they aren't carrying parasites.
There's many different types of parasites.
Some worming treatments won't cover them all,
and sometimes a lot of people will just worm
by putting worming medication in the water.
If the bird doesn't like the worming medication,
they might not be medicated properly and efficiently.
Other tests that we commonly do
are tests for things like psittacosis.
Psittacosis is an important disease,
it may be referred to as parrot fever or ornithosis.
This is a disease that can cause mild sickness in parrots
right through to sudden death.
You can get respiratory disease
or gastrointestinal disease with this.
The other really important thing about psittacosis
is the disease can be serious in humans.
So it's one of those diseases
that we as people can catch from our parrots,
and some people have actually died from that disease.
So it's very important to have a screening
of that particular disease
when you first purchase your bird.
The other sorts of diseases that are important to screen
may be for beak and feather disease,
polyomavirus, maybe even herpes virus.
The sorts of screening you might do with your bird
may depend on where you live
and how common those diseases are.
So, sometimes we see with these sorts of parrots,
we more commonly might be testing
for something like polyomavirus,
as opposed to, say, beak and feather disease.
Although they can get beak and feather disease,
we don't commonly see it.
So certainly if we've got a budget to work for,
and if we've got no clinical signs suggesting that,
then we may decide to take the risk,
and it may be a very low risk
not to do those sorts of diseases.
So it does help to know a little bit about the bird,
a little bit about the sort of diseases
you see in your area,
and what your bird may or may not have been exposed to.
Particularly if you're working to a budget.
If you're not working to a budget,
sometimes just doing a full screening test
of the full virus collection can be extremely useful.
If you're not sure, doing a general blood test
can also help detect underlying diseases.
So it may not specifically detect
for a specific disease like psittacosis,
but it may give you an idea
whether it's worth going on
to doing more extensive virus testing.
Particularly if you get changes
in the white blood cell counts,
which might suggest some kind of infection going on
inside the bird,
or changes, say, in liver or kidney tissue results.
So, all of these tests are extremely valuable
and extremely important.
It may mean that your first consult
might be quite expensive,
but in the long run, you will end up with a bird
where you know what is going on with that bird.
You might discover disease early
that you can treat and detect.
You might find that bird has a disease that can't be treated
and before you bring it into your flock
you can make a decision
whether you actually return that bird and replace it.
It's very, very easy to bond
very, very, very quickly to these birds,
and those decisions can be extremely hard to make,
even if you've only had the bird for a week.
So, another reason to have in mind as soon as you purchase,
that this is a bird I need to purchase
on the basis of a clean bill of health.
It's not a healthy habit to allow your bird
to chew between your teeth or to eat out of your mouth.
There's all kinds of problems associated with that.
It will lead to behavioral problems
because that's a very sexual kind of thing
for the bird to do, but it's also unhealthy.
The sorts of bacteria and things we have in our mouth
may lead to sickness with our birds.
So, they can develop sort of throat and sinus infections,
or they might develop diarrhea
and gastrointestinal problems as a result.
So it's very important for us to be hygienic with our birds,
and to also understand those behaviors.
Now, the bird might be doing that
because it's trying to tell you that it loves you,
and it's trying to mate with you
and develop that kind of bond.
So, important not to do those sorts of behaviors
and understand why the bird
is trying to do those behaviors with you,
but not encouraging those behaviors.
There are some viruses and things
which some species of birds
are actually more prone to than others.
And viruses may cause more disease in one bird than another.
Beak and feather disease is a very common one
that we see in parrots,
but especially Australian cockatoo species.
So, species like this sulphur-crested cockatoo,
beak and feather disease
may be a very important screening test to do,
particularly if you've just purchased a cockatoo.
That'll be right at the top of my list
even if I can't see any symptoms or signs of the disease
on the bird.
It's important to recognize
that there is a difference between having the virus
and actually having the disease.
So some species of birds will actually carry the virus
without getting sick or without showing signs of disease.
So, these are birds that you don't want
around cockatoo species,
particularly young cockatoo species.
Because if you've got a young cockatoo,
their immune system is not strong enough to handle a virus,
and that's when they develop the disease.
And that's when their feathers become all abnormal,
they get beak changes and beak problems,
and this can be a lifelong thing for these birds.
Once you develop those changes,
generally they don't recover from those changes.
But you can have a bird that may be positive for the virus
and never develop the disease.
And the typical example, a common example, is lovebirds.
Lovebirds will carry this virus
but not actually get sick from it.
So you never really want to be breeding lovebirds
anywhere near cockatoo species
because your cockatoo species are the other way around.
Particularly young birds,
they will get the virus and get the disease.
Older birds may get the virus and not develop the disease,
and we never know without doing screening.
So if you have a young cockatoo
and you purchase another cockatoo that has the disease,
or may have the disease,
doing a screening test before you mix them
and having a very good quarantine procedure is really vital.
Otherwise you'll have two cockatoo species
that will end up with the virus
and the disease that can't be cured.
And this will definitely shorten their lifespan.
Over the years we certainly can manage birds have the virus,
but they will always have the virus.
It's kind of like people with herpes virus.
When they're stressed
they'll come out with cold sores and things.
With beak and feather disease,
they carry this virus and it will come in waves.
So they will always have the feather problems
and feather and beak problems
that may need regular trimming and regular care.
But they'll have periods
where they're quite sick with the virus
and periods where they seem to be better with the virus.
And that may depend on stressors, may depend on diet,
it may depend on a lot of different things.
I have cockatoos that have beak and feather disease
where they're a sole bird and they're part of the flock,
and the family have been happy
to manage these birds in their home.
And because they treat them so well
and give them high quality nutrition,
these birds have actually lived
for a lot longer than we used to see them live.
So I've got one that's now 10 years old
that is doing very, very well.
We used to see these guys only living for a year or so.
- [Camera Operator] That's sad.
In the wild it's the same, or even less?
They just drop off?
(indistinct crosstalk)
That's horrible.
- And they get cold and stuff as well.
Beak and feather disease
can sometimes be difficult to recognize at the early stages.
So with the cockatoo, it might not even show up for a year
after you've purchased it.
Some birds will get it so severely as young birds
that they will die very quickly,
and some birds will have the slow, insidious disease
which needs to be managed
if you want to keep a bird in that condition
and think that you can provide it
with a quality of life that's worthwhile.
Early signs of the disease,
particularly with cockatoo species,
is their powder down is affected.
Because that feather is cycled so quickly
and they come out very quickly,
they grow very quickly as well.
That's the first feather
that will be seen as being affected.
So these feathers stop growing and don't grow properly,
and the bird will no longer be producing this powder.
So when you touch them
you're not getting powder on the hands,
and you might see a really shiny beak.
Because they have this gray looking beak,
simply because when they're grooming
they're getting this powder down coating their beak.
And if they're black and shiny,
that will be a telltale sign
that something's not going right with their powder down.
You might also get a bird that's very, very dirty,
because the whole idea of this chalky powder down
is as it breaks up and comes off the bird
it takes all the dirt with them.
So it helps them keep clean.
So these are not a bird that do a lot of bathing.
It's their powder down that helps them keep clean and fresh.
- Guys wanna come down?
It's over.
(groaning) I can't reach.
(groaning)
(indistinct speech)
Gotcha. Yay!
Hi.
(indistinct speech)
- There we go.
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Good job, team.