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| Please follow the instructions below in order to improve the chances of your bird’s full recovery. Temperature: Birds expend a lot of energy trying to maintain their normally high body temperature (102-103 degrees). Energy spent on keeping warm can be used to fight off infections and to rebuild damaged tissues. Therefore, it is important to provide your bird with a warm environment in which to recover. We recommend creating an incubation box or cage in which the temperature stays around 90-95 degrees. Whenever you are attempting to increase the temperature of the environment, it is critical that you have a thermometer inside the cage to register the temperature!! Too hot an environment can be even more harmful than a cold one. Even after this medical crisis is over, you should strive to provide your bird with a constant temperature environment between 75 and 80 degrees, especially during the colder evenings. This can be accomplished in a number of ways: · The best approach is to purchase a space heater to warm the room in which the bird is placed. We recommend the oil filled radiator type heater as they have less chance of catching fire, or harming your bird. Most are equipped with a thermostat and a safety switch that will turn the unit off if it should fall over. Heaters of this type can be found at Home Depot and other large hardware stores. They usually cost around $50.00 and will give you years of service. · If a space heater is not available, or not within your current budget, you can warm your bird by covering 3/4th of the cage with a towel and then placing a 100 watt light near the cage. Use the thermometer to determine where to position the lamp to achieve the desired temperature. Infrared heat lamps will usually generate too much heat to be used safely on your birds. · Finally, you can try using a ceramic undercage heater (available at reptile stores) that may provide enough heat for our purposes. · Keep you bird’s cage temperature in the suggested range for at least 1 week beyond the time when the bird appears totally normal. Then slowly reduce the temperature and watch your pet’s response. If your bird starts to fluff out the feathers, then it is too cold. Handling Your Bird: While recuperating, your bird needs plenty of rest and minimal stimulation. We recommend taking your bird out of the cage only to administer any medications that may have been dispensed. Perches: When your bird is sick, it is best to lower the perches in the cage to reduce the amount of work the bird has to do to get up to them. This will also enhance their safety if they should fall off the perch. Administering Medications: Giving oral medications to a bird can be a bit challenging. The best technique is to do the following: · Hold your bird upside down so that the top beak is pointing up at you. This makes the top beak appear like a small ladle. · Place a few drops of the medication in the upper beak at a time. · Slowly bring your bird upright. This movement causes the liquid to move along the roof of the mouth so the bird can swallow it. · Repeat these steps until all the medication has been administered. This technique reduces the chance of your bird choking on the liquid and minimizes the amount that gets spit out. Bandages: If your bird has a bandage or splint applied, be sure to do the following: · Lower all perches so that if the bird falls because of the bandage, it won’t be harmed · Place a towel under the newspaper in the bottom of the cage to act as a cushion in case of falling. · Place all water sources off the bottom of the cage to reduce the chance of wetting the bandage. · If the bandage gets wet, return to the hospital to have it changed. |
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