Avian Anatomy & Physiology and Common Diseases Flashcards
(26 cards)
Name the parts of the GI tract:
Proventriculus, Vent, Esophagus, Gizzard, Large intestine, Liver, Pancreatic duct, Cloaca, Bile duct, Small intestine, Gall bladder, Ceca, Crop, Pancreas
What is the purpose of the crop?
Expansion of esophagus in some species
- Storage pouch for food
- Source of “crop milk” in pigeons
Stomach
1. The two compartments
2. Proventriculus
3. Gizzard (3)
- Glandular & muscular
- Anterior glandular stom; site where chemical digestion begins.
- Muscular stom; striated muscles that grind food.
- May ingest small pieces of grit to aid
- Pellet of owls, etc, is regurgitated from here
Cloaca
1. What is it?
2. Coprodeum
3. Urodeum
4. Vent
- End of digestive tract
- Anterior section; receives excrement from the intestine
- Receives discharge from the kidneys & genital ducts
- Muscular anus
Oral cavity
1. Glottis
2. Choanae
3. Larynx
- Opening of the trachea at the back of the tongue
- Internal nares
- Open from nasal chambers into roof of mouth - Does not function in production of sound
Air sacs
1. What are they?
2. Paired vs Unpaired
3. Function (4)
- Thin walled, lightly vascularized membranes
- Paired: cranial thoracic, caudal thoracic, cervical & abdominal air sacs
Unpaired: interclavicular air sac - Functions
- Reservoirs for air
- Provide warmth & moisture to facilitate diffusion of air thru capillaries
- Aid in thermoregulation
- Help with buoyancy
Name the air sacs
Posterior, Abdominal, Interclavicular, & Anterior
Clinical signs of illness (6)
- Abnormal droppings
- Less talkative
- Out of character
- Fluffed up
- Cold feet
- Decreased appetite
Supportive care for ill bird (5)
- Environmental heat
- 80 F ideal - Fluid support
- High nutritional plane
- Syringe feed is common - High air quality
- Humidify, filter, no smoke/dust - Minimize stress!
Avian nutrition
Vitamin A Deficiency
1. Cause
2. Clinical signs (4)
3. Treatment
- Unsupplemented seed diets
- Signs
- Swollen foot pads (bumblefoot)
- Feather picking & dry skin
- Susceptibility to resp infections
- Submandibular swelling - Foods high in Vita A!!
- Broccoli, yellow corn, carrots, cantaloupe, collard greens, peaches
Vitamin D Deficiency
1. Cause (2)
2. Clinical signs (3)
- Insufficient diet or sunlight (UV) exposure
Metabolic disruption - Signs
- Bone; egg shell
- Rickets
- Bones; beak rubbery
Vitamin D Toxicity
1. Cause (3)
2. Clinical sign
- Cause
- Diet excess
- Supplements in addition to diet supplement
- Species difference (macaws sensitive) - Soft tissue calcification-kidneys
Calcium Deficiency
1. Cause
2. Clinical signs (4)
- Low calcium diets
- Signs
- Egg binding (in cockatiels & other species)
- Weakness, tetany
- Metabolic bone disease
- Hypocalcium of African Greys (associated with high fat diets)
Metabolic Bone Disease
1. Cause
2. Side effects (2)
- Raptors fed all meat diets
- Pathologic fractures & Osteopenia
Egg Binding & Dystocia
1. Etiology
2. Clinical signs (3)
3. Treatment (3)
- Failure of egg to pass thru oviducts (emergency!!)
- Signs
- Depression
- Abdominal straining
- Laying on bottom on cage - Tx
- Supportive care (heat, fluids)
- Calcium supplementation
- Careful manual expression of egg
Goiter
1. Cause
2. Clinical signs (3)
- Hyperplasia of the thyroid gland in budgies due to Iodine Deficiency.
- Insufficient iodine reduces production of T3-4 = increased production TSH & hyperplasia of thyroid.
- Gland can grow 1.5mg to 1000mg in mass. - Signs
- Regurgitation
- Change of voice
- Difficulty breathing due to mass in neck
Obesity
1. Commonness of it
2. Causes (4)
- Very common in pet birds
- Causes
- Seed diets
- Exercise intolerance
- Fatty live syndrome
- Lipomas
Broken Blood Feather
1. Etiology
2. Treatment
- Normal feathers have rich blood supply when growing in and this regresses in the mature feather.
- Damage to a blood feather can lead to life-threatening hemorrhage! - Tx
Bleeding must be stopped with:
- Direct pressure
- Corn starch
- Plucking feather
Feather Picking & Self-Mutilation
1. Causes (5)
2. Clinical sign
- Causes
- Behavior (bored, aggression, stress)
- Diet
- Infection (mites, viral, or bacterial)
- Allergies
- Endocrine disorders - Loss or damage to body feathers, normal head & neck
“Bumblefoot” Pododermatitis
1. Etiology
2. Causes (4)
3. Treatment (4)
- Infection of the tissues of the plantar foot
- Causes
- Poor perching/floor surfaces
- Trauma
- Obesity
- Vitamin A deficiency - Tx
- Underlying cause
- Sx debridement
- Wet-to-dry bandages
- Systemic antibiotics
Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease
1. Cause
2. Clinical signs (2)
3. Diagnosis (3)
4. Treatment
5. Prevention
- Viral infection that can survive in the environment for months to years.
- Signs
- Malformations of beak, nails, and all feathers
- Depressed immune system with secondary infections - Dx
- Clinical signs
- PCR for viral antigen
- CBC - Tx: Supportive care, death eventually occurs
- No vaccine :(
Testing, culling & isolation
Scaly Face Mite
1. Clinical signs (2)
2. Diagnosis (2)
3. Treatment
- Signs
- Sandy, honeycomb lesions of cere, feet, cloaca
- Abnormal beak growth - Dx
- Clinical signs
- Positive skin scrape - Ivermectin
Sinusitis
1. Etiology/Cause
2. Diagnosis (5)
3. Treatment (4)
- Infection of the sinuses cause Periorbital swelling (bacterial, fungal, or viral)
- Dx
- Clinical signs
- Diet Hx
- Rads
- FNA of swelling
- Chlamydia or viral testing - Tx
- Lance & drain abscess
- AntiB
- Vitamin A supplementation
- Improve diet
