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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Avian medicine
1.Avian medicine
I. Tully, Thomas N. II. Lawton, Martin P. C.
III. Dorrestein, Gerry M.
636.5'089

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Avian medicine/edited by Thomas N. Tully, Jnr.,
Martin Lawton, Gerry M. Dorrestein.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 7506 3598 3
1. Avian medicine. I. Tully, Thomas N.
II. Lawton, Martin P. C. III. Dorrestein, G. M.
SF994.A93 2000
636.5'089–dc21 00–036020

ISBN 0 7506 3598 3

Composition by Genesis Typesetting, Laser Quay, Rochester, Kent

Printed and bound by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Acknowledgements
The completion of an international text is a
substantial achievement. Only a cohesive
team can accomplish what one person can-
not. We the editors want to first thank the
authors, without whom there would be no
Avian Medicine handbook. The idea of an
international text to call upon the expertise
of a global avian community was encour-
aged by our publisher. Wanting this expertise
and having them commit to this project
with their busy schedules were two different
matters. Fortunately, we were able to secure
their commitment and feel the veterinary
community as a whole will benefit from this
work.
There was a large support staff which was
an invaluable asset in formatting the original
manuscript. Joseph A. Smith, whose hard
work and dedication will serve him well in his
chosen profession, veterinary medicine, led
this support staff team. Others who made
significant contributions to this project
included Harry M. Cowgill, photographer;
Michael L. Broussard, graphic artist; Sam
Moran and the staff at the Greater Baton
Rouge Zoo and Joshua R. Pinkston.
We are also grateful to our colleagues in our
practices who supported us during this
endeavour. Drs. Mark Mitchell and J. Jill
Heatley at LSU, Drs. Lynne Stoakes, Stephen
Divers and Julie Austin in the UK and Dr.
Marein van der Hage in Utrecht were all instru-
mental in the completion of this text. The edi-
tors would also like to thank Marion Jowett for
her belief in this project from the beginning.
Of course this work could never have come
to fruition without the constant nurturing,
commitment and work of our publisher, But-
terworth-Heinemann. There are a few special
people we would like to thank for their help
and efforts, Mary Seager, Senior Commission-
ing Editor, for being the captain and running
this ship, and Angela Davies, Medical Desk
Editor, and Caroline Savage, Editorial Assis-
tant, for making the impossible task of putting
the original manuscript into a publishable text
possible.
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to our wives,
Susie Tully, Lynne Stoakes and Marein van der
Hage and families who helped us survive the
ups and downs of editing a multi-author
medical text.
Foreword
‘The night when I came home I was much troubled to hear that my poor
Canary Bird, that I have kept these three or four years, is dead’
Of all animals, those in the Class Aves – the
birds – have most fascinated the human race.
Their almost ubiquitous distribution, the
tendency of many species to live in villages,
towns and cities and the ease with which
some can be tamed or trained: these and other
features have led to birds occupying a very
special place in the lives and traditions of
various cultures.
Interest in the biology and health of birds is
not new. Two thousand years ago, Pliny,
Aristotle and others studied birds, taught
others and published their observations. In
the 17th century European anatomists carried
out painstaking dissections of many species
and were able to produce scholarly descrip-
tions that have, in a number of cases, with-
stood the test of time and are still valid today.
A century later John Hunter, the great sur-
geon, anatomist and champion of the veteri-
nary profession, explored the links between
structure and function in animals and
amongst many other great discoveries, descri-
bed the air sac system and studied factors that
influenced the healing of fractures in avian
species.
Medical care for birds is also not new. As
long ago as 1486 advice on the diagnosis and
treatment of falcons was given in the Boke of St
Albans written by Dame Juliana Berners – a
reminder of the key role in avian science
played by women, even 500 years ago! The
popularity of the sport of falconry over the
succeeding three centuries ensured that pub-
lications on raptors continued to appear.
There was interest in other types of bird – see
the quotation from Pepys at the beginning of
this Foreword – but it was only in the 19th
century that serious attention began to be paid
to the diseases of those kept in cage and
aviary.
Samuel Pepys (1665)
In 1903, Arthur G. Butler produced his Hints
on Cage-Birds (British and Foreign) and in the
Preface declared that ‘Aviculturists in the
present century ought to do better work than
their predecessors....’. Butler went on to say
‘Now that men who have laboured and
suffered are recording the results of their
work..., their successors may confidently look
for brighter and more prosperous times, start-
ing where the pioneers left off they may
continue to add to the sum of knowledge,
and may hope eventually to bring the science
of birdkeeping to something approaching
perfection’.
Nearly a hundred years later, it cannot be
claimed that the ‘science of birdkeeping’ has
yet approached perfection, but the advances
have been enormous. Over the past two
decades our knowledge and understanding of
bird diseases in particular has progressed
extraordinarily and much of the credit for this
is owed to the ‘pioneers’, amongst them the
editors and many of the contributors of
this book, who have turned avian medicine
into a bona fide, state-of-the-art, scientific
discipline.
It gives me particular pleasure in this
Foreword to note and to commend the book’s
international orientation. The Editors are from
three different countries and the authors of
chapters span even more. This spread reflects
the global importance of avian medicine, in
terms not only of treating individual sick
birds but also of promoting the health of wild
(free-living) avian populations, particularly
those that are under pressure for other rea-
sons. The part that the veterinary profession
can play in conservation is now widely
recognized and a Resolution at last year’s
(1999) meeting of the European Committee of
the Association of Avian Veterinarians urged
x Foreword
international bodies and policy makers to
recognize that role and to incorporate veter-
inarians in their programmes. In my own
work overseas I have witnessed the contribu-
tions that can be made by those with a sound
knowledge of aviculture and pathology, medi-
cine and surgery. Thus, for example, the
survival and recovery of the Mauritius Kestrel
(Falco punctatus) owes much to the collabora-
tion in the 1970s between veterinarians and
biologists who, often unfunded, worked to
save the species from extinction. This study
has been repeated on a number of occasions
since then and augurs well for the future.
Tom Tully, Martin Lawton and Gerry Dor-
restein are familiar names to all who keep or
treat birds. Those of us who care about – or for
– the class Aves owe them a debt of gratitude
for all they have done to promote a better
understanding of these animals and their
requirements. This book will serve as a lasting
legacy of their work, and at the same time,
will encourage others to contribute to the
challenging and exciting field of avian
medicine.
Professor John E. Cooper
DTVM, FRCPath, FIBiol, Dip ECAMS, FRCVS
Consultant Veterinary Pathologist
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
(Jersey Zoo)
February 2000
Contributors
Alan Abrey BVSc
Consultant/Director, Zoological Collections,
Durban, South Africa
Janette Ackermann DVM, MS
Chief, Veterinary Services, American Wildlife
Foundation, Molalla, Oregon, USA
Brian H. Coles BVSc, FRCVS, Dipl ECAMS
4 Dorfold Way, Upton, Chester, Cheshire,
UK
Gerry M. DorresteinDVM PhD Dipl Vet
Pathology
Associate Professor in Avian, Exotic Animal
and Wildlife Pathology, Utrecht University,
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Peter de Herdt DVM, DVSc
Professor of Veterinary Medicine, University
of Gent
Director of Clinic for Poultry and Special
Animal Diseases, Merelbeke, Belgium
Luc Devriese DVM
Senior Researcher in Veterinary Bacteriology,
University of Gent, Merelbeke, Belgium
Nigel H. Harcourt-Brown BVSc, FRCVS,
Dipl ECAMS
30 Crab Lane, Bilton, Harrogate, North
Yorkshire, UK
Don J. Harris DVM
Avian and Exotic Animal Medical Center,
Miami, Florida, USA
Maria–Elisabeth Krautwald-Junghanns
PD Dr Med Vet, Dr Med Vet Habil,
Dipl ECAMS FTA
Professor, University of Leipzig, Leipzig,
Germany
Martin P.C. Lawton BVetMed CertVOphthal
CertLAS CBiol MIBiol DZOOMed FRCVS
RCUS Specialist in Exotic Animal Medicine,
Exotic Animal Centre, Romford, Essex, UK
Patricia Macwhirter BVSc (Hons), MA,
FACVSc
Principal, Highbury Veterinary Clinic,
Burwood, Victoria, Australia
Glenn H. Olsen DVM, MS, PhD
Veterinary Medical Officer, US Department
of Interior, US65 Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center, Laurel, Maryland, USA
Patrick T. Redig DVM, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, The Raptor
Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul,
Minnesota, USA
Ian Robinson BVSc, Cert. SAP, MRCVS
RSPCA Norfolk Wildlife Hospital, Station
Road, East Winch, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK
Andrew Routh BVSc, MRCVS
RSPCA Norfolk Wildlife Hospital, Station
Road, East Winch, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK
Stephanie Sanderson MA, VetMB, MRCVS
RSPCA Norfolk Wildlife Hospital, Station
Road, East Winch, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK
Katja Trinkaus DVM, FTA
Staff member, Clinic for Avian and Reptile
Diseases, Institute for Avian and Reptile
Diseases, Justus-Liebig-University of
Giessen, Giessen, Germany
Thomas N. Tully, Jnr DVM MS Dipl ABVP
(avian)
Associate Professor, Louisiana State
University School of Veterinary Medicine,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Amy B. Worell DVM, Dipl ABVP (avian)
Director, All Pets Medical Centre, West Hills,
California, USA
Introduction
There have been a number of surveys per-
formed by veterinary research groups concern-
ing the number of avian patients seen per week
in the average small animal practice. In those
practices that see avian and exotic patients, on
average two to three bird cases are seen each
week. Most of the veterinary surveys show
that the vast majority of avian owners, approx-
imately 80 per cent, do not seek veterinary care.
There is therefore great potential for veter-
inarians to offer health care for these untreated
birds and maintain them as healthy pets for
their owners. To garner this population of
potential avian clients, there must be com-
petent caring avian veterinarians.
The general public has a basic conception
that veterinarians do not know how to treat
birds, or that a sick bird is a dead bird. This
public perception is slowly changing in the
face of significant medical advances in the
field of avian veterinary medicine made over
the last 20 years. These advances, and the
expertise of avian specialists, have been
acknowledged by the aviculture community
and by lay avian publications such as Bird Talk
magazine. These groups of bird owners are
just the tip of the iceberg; we are looking to
treat and care for all birds, and this can only
occur when the general public is aware of the
ability and availability of avian veterinarians
to care for their pets.
Private practitioners founded the primary
avian veterinary organization, the Association
of Avian Veterinarians (AAV), in 1980. The
majority of AAV members have always been
clinical veterinarians. These practice owners
saw an unfulfilled need in the veterinary
community, and took up the challenge of
meeting the avian pet owners’ demands for
adequate health care for their pets by gaining
knowledge and experience and sharing it with
like-minded colleagues. Since the veterinary
schools and colleges at that time were woe-
fully inadequate in teaching companion avian
medicine, veterinarians had to learn through
conferences and wet-labs. Slowly but steadily
over the last 20 years avian medicine and
surgery has made its way into mainstream
academia and veterinary continuing educa-
tion programmes.
To add to the existing knowledge base of
proceedings and journal articles, a number of
reference avian texts have been published, as
well as periodicals that keep practising veter-
inarians up to date with the latest trends in
avian medicine. This information is especially
useful to the high volume avian veterinarians.
However, what about the majority of veter-
inarians, who see only a few birds a week and
enjoy the variety of patients but do not want
to specialize?
Avian Medicine has been developed to give
the average small animal practitioner a com-
plete information source for the basics of avian
medicine and surgery. It is a multi-author text,
which utilizes the international expertise of the
avian veterinary community. By incorporating
the knowledge of authors from Europe, Africa,
Australia and North America, different tech-
niques that have been successful in treating the
average avian patient are covered.
The first five chapters cover the basic
medical information needed to run a primary
care avian practice. Again, the focus of the text
is on introductory level material and the
average companion animal practice. If you see
between one and five birds a week, this text is
for you.
The later chapters are species-specific. If a
practice sees avian patients, it is not unusual
to treat any one of these species. The informa-
tion in these chapters will allow the veter-
inarian a comfort zone of knowledge in order
to evaluate, treat and/or refer.
We hope the book reaches the groups of
veterinarians and allied technical staff who
need it the most; also veterinary students,
veterinary technicians and the general veter-
inary practitioner.
Thomas N. Tully, Jnr.
Martin P.C. Lawton
Gerry M. Dorrestein