You are presented with a collapsed parrot.......
Mr Smith phones and asks for an appointment for his 4 year old, female, African Gray Parrot, Jemima. She has had two recent episodes of unusual behaviour with head rolling, wing shaking and episodic weakness. This morning she has become weak, lethargic and is having difficult standing up.
Is this normal? When will you book an appointment for?
You recognise that this is not normal and ask Mr Smith to bring Jemima straight into the practice. On arrival he informs you that she has collapsed again. As you shout on the vet and take her through to the emergency room, different causes for this are going through your head.
What are the possible causes?
A number of diseases in parrots, as with other species of bird, may result in sudden collapse including infectious disease (e.g. aspergillosis, chlamydiosis), cardiac disease, egg-binding, renal and liver disease. However with this history and diet, and considering Jemima’s species and age, and without contact with other birds/pets/wildlife, one condition, hypocalcaemia is highly likely.
What would you do first?
The important thing to do here would be to provide oxygen and carry out an examination to get basic parameters:
RESPIRATION: Normal values are 20-30 breaths per minute for an African Grey parrot at rest. Respiration is slightly increased.
HEART RATE: 200-350 beats per minute at rest with no audible murmurs is normal. In this case there are arrhythmias, and a slow heart rate, which could be expected in hypocalcaemia.
Blood sampling: Which vessel could be used for blood sampling?
A blood sample taken from the right jugular vein or the ulna or brachial vein of the wing can confirm hypocalcaemia.
Medication: Hypocalcaemia is diagnosed on bloods. What medication would be needed? Calcium gluconate would be used to treat the hypocalcaemia but it is also important to ensure that anti-epileptics (e.g. midazolam or diazepam) are available as hypocalcaemic parrots are more prone to seizuring.
Housing / handling: Ensure that the parrot is placed somewhere warm (22-26˚C), dark and quiet to minimise stimulation is advised as hypocalcaemic parrots are more prone to seizures
Ongoing Support
If you would like to find out more about Avian Nursing, then consider studying the Advanced Programme in Veterinary Nursing of Avian Species.
Is this normal? When will you book an appointment for?
You recognise that this is not normal and ask Mr Smith to bring Jemima straight into the practice. On arrival he informs you that she has collapsed again. As you shout on the vet and take her through to the emergency room, different causes for this are going through your head.
What are the possible causes?
A number of diseases in parrots, as with other species of bird, may result in sudden collapse including infectious disease (e.g. aspergillosis, chlamydiosis), cardiac disease, egg-binding, renal and liver disease. However with this history and diet, and considering Jemima’s species and age, and without contact with other birds/pets/wildlife, one condition, hypocalcaemia is highly likely.
What would you do first?
The important thing to do here would be to provide oxygen and carry out an examination to get basic parameters:
RESPIRATION: Normal values are 20-30 breaths per minute for an African Grey parrot at rest. Respiration is slightly increased.
HEART RATE: 200-350 beats per minute at rest with no audible murmurs is normal. In this case there are arrhythmias, and a slow heart rate, which could be expected in hypocalcaemia.
Blood sampling: Which vessel could be used for blood sampling?
A blood sample taken from the right jugular vein or the ulna or brachial vein of the wing can confirm hypocalcaemia.
Medication: Hypocalcaemia is diagnosed on bloods. What medication would be needed? Calcium gluconate would be used to treat the hypocalcaemia but it is also important to ensure that anti-epileptics (e.g. midazolam or diazepam) are available as hypocalcaemic parrots are more prone to seizuring.
Housing / handling: Ensure that the parrot is placed somewhere warm (22-26˚C), dark and quiet to minimise stimulation is advised as hypocalcaemic parrots are more prone to seizures
Ongoing Support
- Nutrition - Metabolizable energy requirements for parrots are often calculated following the nutritional formula
- Maintenance Energy Requirements = 1.5 times the Basal Metabolic Requirements (BMR)
- BMR = 78 x (weight [kg])0.75
- Ongoing supportive nutrition needs to focus on energy requirements, frequency of feeding and digestibility. Typically a diet that is more evenly balanced between seed, preferably a proprietary psittacine pellet and vegetables should be provided. It is worth noting this can however take considerable time and effort to convert a parrot into eating vegetables and pelleted feeds in preference to seed and so this is more of a long-term aim rather than a short-term fix
- On food vitamin and mineral supplementation should be used to try and correct the imbalances seen in an all seed/predominant seed diet, particularly the lack of calcium and vitamins A and D3 and should be started immediately as an immediate attempt to fix the problem.
- Consideration to provision of ultra-violet light suitable for a parrot should be made-or preferably, daily exposure to unfiltered sunlight if possible to encourage vitamin D3 synthesis and naturalistic behaviours.
- As the patient has been on a diet likely to be deficient in vitamin A as well as calcium, increased risk of respiratory tract infection, particularly aspergillosis should be considered and the bird examined for this via radiographs, blood samples and possible endoscopy. If suspected, drugs such as itraconazole may be required (noting that African Grey parrots have a lower tolerance to the toxic side-effects of this drug than many other parrot species).
- This individual parrot is also female and considered for the species as sexually mature at 4 years old-therefore egg-binding (post ovulatory stasis) is a concern going forward, particularly if the dietary changes regarding calcium and vitamin D3 are not made
- Further reading can be found here
If you would like to find out more about Avian Nursing, then consider studying the Advanced Programme in Veterinary Nursing of Avian Species.
