Birdie first aid - what do you all know?

[Alyce Johnson]

Sometimes you cant get your bird to the vet as quickly as you'd like.

Or, very often with human situations, if the "first responder" doesnt do the right things, the patient is going to be dead before you get him to the ER anyway.

A human example would be a person going into shock. Even an untrained person can save a human life if they know what the symptoms look like and how to help. The interventions are really basic.

So what are the equivalent steps for an injured or badly sick bird, if you dont know any avian medicine but want to give your bird a fighting chance? What can you do when you dont really know what's wrong, and just want to bolster your bird's chances as much as you can?

I know some of you have kept birds for years and must have found yourselves dealing with an immediate emergency. What are the first things to do? Warmth? Hydration? What do you try?

[FeatherLover]

I assume from your post that you are adding to your knowledge base in case of emergency and are not needing urgent care for your bird.

If I am incorrect, disregard the rest of my post...I could be wrong, and would hate to do any harm.

If I am correct in assuming this is a hypothetical (which I hope it is), my opinion is as follows:

I would say first check, if possible, for any physical injury.
Check for signs of recent injury (dried blood on bird/cage/wall).

After that, I'd go with warmth.

What do the rest of you think?

[Freedomoflight]

Assess the sitaution, and depending on the injury, and extent of- go from their. So many possibilities, from a broken blood feather that can easily be pulled, and cornstarch applied to clot the bleeding- to a broken limb and many incidencts in-between... its hard to answer, because of so many possibilities.
There are some good books out there on bird first aid, that I recommend you checking out, to prepare for when/if anything happens.

[Alyce Johnson]

Yes, this is hypothetical.

I will soon be moving to a place that is 3 hrs from my AV (mon-fri only) and 4 hrs from weekend & 24 hr ER avian care. I'm really hoping my AV will be willing to give his personal phone number to the local vet - for what I've spent there it seems to me that would be a nice professional courtesy to extend, for emergencies. (He has given the 24/7 ER place he recommends to his clients his own number for after hours consults, which has saved many lives.) So, I'm hoping I will have some ability to contact my AV for professional advice (or rather that my vet will).

But still, I want to know everything I possibly can, ahead of time. I'm also trying to interest my dad in avian medicine - he worked for many years as a volunteer fireman/fire marshal and EMT and was really good at it. He has nerves of steel and doesnt panic in an emergency no matter how many dead bodies are strewn about or how much blood, vomit etc is getting on him so I figure he should be able to handle a wounded bird calmly, even one that is biting. (People who are critically injured are sometimes combative, believe it or not.)

I personally dont tend to panic either & have been on the scene of some ugly accidents & didnt panic even when I was the primary victim, but when it's my fid, I know I'm going to be freaked out, although hopefully still rational & able to be of some use to the bird.