Bird & Exotic Vet

Other than birds and turtles, our other companions typically have teeth. And teeth get problems no matter what animal they grow in. Some type of animals have more dental issues than others.

For example, ferrets can break their teeth; they have issues with periodontal disease and lots of calculus (what you may have heard as tartar) which can allow bacteria to get between the teeth and bone and cause infection.

Small herbivores due to their easy life and commonly available ‘bad’ foods can get overly grown and abnormal teeth especially of the back teeth that you can’t see very well. During this changing process, they can shift and change the skull and jawbone, and infections and abscesses are often a complication of dental disease. Since abscesses are best treated surgically, the complexity of the skull can make it problematic to identify exactly what is wrong and find best way to approach the altered anatomy.

CT scans are very helpful in this regard, but can be costly and difficult to get done for nontraditional pets. The next best option- is high detail radiography of the skull and teeth. This can be done by “extraoral” views or “intraoral” views. Extraoral is when the xray beam is shot directly through the head onto a sensor on the outside of the head. Intraoral is when the xray beam goes partway through the jaw to register on a sensor that is placed in the mouth. For most of us, going to the dentist means getting xrays of our teeth so we are familiar with the intraoral approach- where we bite down on a little film or sensor and the little xray machines aims on it. This is similar to what is done for our patients, adapted of course to the small size, different anatomy, and with herbivores, a mouth that doesn’t open very wide (versus carnivores, whose jaws open wider in comparison).

We need to use the highest resolution as possible because our patients are so small. We have recently started using a dental digital radiographic unit called the CR7 in our dental work. This shows detail five times the resolution of our regular digital radiographic unit and has sensor plates of various sizes as well as some shaped to get the best view for lower rabbit jaws.

Here is an image of a normal rabbit jaw on the rabbit plate. In this choice of views, we can see the most rear molar very well. It’s on the top of the X-ray.

In fact there is so much detail we can see a slight disruption in the tooth growth of the front tooth (it’s on the bottom). This detail can really help track down issues.

Here is a view of a rabbit’s upper respiratory system as well as a view of the upper row of teeth. In this case, the rabbit had had several abscesses already due to infected roots of teeth, and after removing the roots and flushing out the abscesses they healed up. However, another abscess developed and we needed to see whether there was another infected root that would make us need to take out a tooth. In this rabbit’s case, we are not seeing an infected tooth and the infection seems to come from an infected bone on the outer part of his head, probably secondary to his previous abscesses. This intraoral view shows us a clear picture of how affected (or not affected) the tooth roots are and helps plan our surgery beforehand.

upper jaw (“maxilla”) of a rabbit that has had extractions of abnormal teeth, with a new abscess but not connected with the remaining teeth.

In addition to the radiology views of the teeth and head, we can also get more detail on small parts of the body than typical radiography. Here are views of a mouse.

It is a pleasure to more easily see what we need to do to treat our patients with the CR7. If your exotic animal has a problem that has been hard to track down, perhaps radiology can give further details. During your animal’s examination we can discuss how this kind of imaging will be useful.

Found sun conure dropped off here at our hospital today by a kind soul in Lake Worth area. We are providing a temporary place to stay but hope to find his or her owner soon that person must be worried! If you know of a recent sun conure lost please have the owner contact us at 561-964-2121 during our regular hours. We regularly provide temporary lodging for homeless birds and other exotic pets so if you would like to help us in our endeavors sometime please let us know!

In the world of current technology of relatively inexpensive and quick DNA analysis, we sometimes forget that for many years an internal examination via surgery was the only way of telling (without laying an egg or fathering chicks) the difference between males and females of monomorphic parrots (“monomorphic” as being defined as both males and females have undetectable outward appearance differences). “Surgical sexing” as it is often called, is still done in many cases where it is important to know how healthy, mature, and active the reproductive tract is especially when the birds are being put with a mate for the purpose of breeding. At the end of this procedure, it is common for a bleb of tattoo ink to be instilled under the skin in the wing web. The general standard is that the ink is put in the right wing for males, and the left wing of females (“hens”).

Sometimes these tattoos can be mistaken for injury or bruising. Here is a picture of a wing web tattoo in the right wing of a macaw.

Here is a surgical sexing tattoo in the right wing of a macaw indicating that the one performing surgical sexing found male gonads.

Parrot Catalog HD was just made free. No review yet… soon to come.

We will be closed Wednesday November 21 and 22 for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kudos to Jeremy and Tracy Henle at Crazy Cavies, a great south-Florida guinea pig rescue group. They take exquisite care of the pigs they take in. They are also very active with outreach and education to help people know the best way to take care of their little cavies. Unfortunately, there are many unwanted pets in this day and age, and often times small rodents and rabbits are purchased upon impulse with little thought towards the future and long-term commitment of care, time, and cost. Because the charm and delight of these little ones are often only recognized by the enthusiasts, they are often ignored by larger animal rescue groups that concentrate on more well known pets like dogs.

Crazy Cavies will take financial donations as well as donations of food/supplies. If you want to find a guinea pig as a companion, the best way is to go through them and give an unwanted guinea pig a home.

The iTunes App Store offers Audubon Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians for Apple iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad for 99 cents. This is usually $4.99. Now you can figure out who locally is most related to your pet skink.

We would like to introduce a Master Reiki healer, Robiana Panagacos, who will be hosting an evening’s discussion and introduction about Reiki. Ms. Panagacos has worked with many animals and will be speaking here at The Bird & Exotic Hospital November 7th at 7 pm about her work and about Reiki.

This is what Ms. Panacagos would like to share about Reiki and herself:

“Reiki came to the west and is now practiced widely as a method of pain relief and enhanced healing; It is greatly effective where tension and stress are primary causes of pain and other disorders. Reiki is an energy force, appearing to work within the body in the similar fashion to acupuncture and other arts which make use of the body’s energy channels. Reiki is the Universal Life Force Energy. A system of natural healing.

In 1999 I completed the First Degree of the Ancient Healing Art of Reiki; I completed the Second Degree in 2000 and then completed Third Degree Master Teacher Level in 2001. From the beginning of my three years training to present I’ve worked in hospitals and privately with children, adults and horses in Philadelphia, when moving to Los Angeles I worked with animal hospitals helping alleviate pain,reduced stress, anxiety and fear. I’ve been living in Hawaii for the past four years working with rescue animals, animal hospitals, wild animals and people. I work with frequencies and energy as an attribute of movement. I look forward to meeting you and opening this progressive and positive way of healing for you and your animal companions.”

Please let us know with an email or a call that you would like to join us that evening. Humans are welcome but we would need to plan to see the companion animals that need help on a later time.

Dr. Rolfe will be attending the joint AEMV/ AAZV/ ARAV meeting and will be out of the office from 10/22/12 and returning the afternoon of 10/30/12.

Our office will be available regular hours by Angie and DeeAnn and they will be able to provide referral veterinarians for emergencies or will be able to contact Dr. Rolfe for consults on her regular patients.

Birds as a rule can be difficult to judge age (after leaving the nest) since they are missing teeth (having a much lighter and just as efficient beak) as compared to mammals. One way to judge aging in a mammal patient is to see wear (or lack thereof) on the teeth. Mammals and birds have many differences and this lacking teeth is considered one of the ways they are beautifully adapted for being a flighted animal.

One way we can judge bird aging, for at least a short period of a young bird’s life, is to know how certain patterns on the feathering change as the bird develops, and certain physical features.

A couple such changes happen in the Congo African Grey parrot.
Youngsters have very dark irises, which lighten over time. As the bird matures, it becomes white or yellow (even darkening to a deep yellow color).
Also, the tail feathers are a dull greyish red with grey tips; the tail feathers brighten over time to a bright red.

Our first example is a youngster about 6-7 months of age, and you can see the iris around the normally dark pupil, and the tail feathers.

The second set of pictures is from one 24 years old.