# First Vet Visit Results!



## SnowHedgehog (Jun 24, 2015)

Hello! I thought this would be a nice thread to post for other owners wondering what to expect from a first time vet visit. 

Yesterday was Popsicle's and Bridgette's first vet visit! (yay) We went to a highly recommended and regarded Avian/Exotic vet in my city and I have to say I'm very happy with the work the vet did, she wasn't one of the main vets/owners (referring to herself jokingly as "just the third vet" ) but she did such an amazing job. She even answered my questions about being an exotic vet as that is my future dream job

Overall, attitude wise, the girls did wayyyy better than I thought they would, although Popsicle did try to nibble a hole in the vet tech's coat  They didn't, however, appreciate being put in the travel cage, even after I explained it was for their own good 

Now, for the details about the visit! (which all took just over an hour)

The vet started off by asking my mom and I basic questions, what are we feeding, what is the cage like, how much sleep do they get, where are they housed, how much out of cage time do they get, so on and so forth. She then went into incredible detail on nutrition and overall health, giving me tricks and tips, which I really appreciated. That all took about half an hour.

For Bridgette (who went first):
The vet tech took her out in a small cloth and the vet started the examination. This included a full body, eye, ear, nares/cere, oral, vent, feet, feather, and respiratory check. Next, the vet trimmed her nails which were the first time they have been trimmed so of course they bled a bit, but she was really good about ensuring Bridgette stayed calm. The vet tech then put her into a small, clear box and set her on the scale.

She weighs 34 grams! This was a really big surprise to me as I always thought she was the one eating all the seed and picking through all the pellets (turns out I was very wrong )

Rinse and repeat for Popsicle:
Her nails also bled a bit and she got a beak trim as it appeared she must've chipped her lower beak on something, now her mouth closes very nicely.

The real shocker was that Popsicle weighed in at a whopping 45 grams!!!  _NOW I KNOW WHO MY LITTLE FATTY IS_ :laughing: You could even feel the food in her crop (she ate just before we left) and it was all seeds, those dang picky birds!

However, the vet said this wasn't really anything to be worried about, as she is otherwise an incredibly active and healthy bird, just to think of adding Nutri-Berries or Avi-Cakes to their diet as part of their seed portion since it's very hard for them to eat only the seed off of these and they end up getting pellets, fruit, etc. in them as well. (*That being said, if anyone has a Nutri-Berry recipe they'd be willing to share I would be more than grateful as they contain peanuts and I am very allergic <3*)

The total cost was $199.50 (CND)
$90 - First bird, general check
$80 - Second bird, general check
$20 - Nail trimming for both of them ($10 each)

So now I know that they are 100% healthy and I'm safe to apply to foster birds 

Hope this thread was a bit insightful!


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## Budget baby (Jan 1, 2013)

I am glad your budgies had a successful first vet visit. It sounds like she did do a quite a thorough check up did she take crop swabs and check your budgies poop for any bacteria that should not be there? 
When cutting the nails they should not actually bleed this means they were cut too far back. If they bleed in future place some corn starch on the bleed this will help the bleeding to stop.


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## Jo Ann (Sep 3, 2011)

*First*

Thanks for a very good vision of what to expect on the visit vet visit. You can learn to check your birds for many of these first signs of medical need in your birdies. With a large flock our vet gives us an avian flock discount. This is not free though. We do prelim checks and keep a regular watch on the weight and droppings and 3 to 4 times a year we do a mini vet check looking for lumps and bumps and mites, ears and eyes and inside beak. We clip nails and even reshape beaks using a small 3 sided file.

To begin with you will need to know how to catch your birds with out scaring them. We use several methods. Free hand or net. move slowly and quietly, which is needed for when you have to get things done on schedule, or need to give meds etc. Very sensitive birds are best captured in the darkest you can make a room. The birds get slow and sleepy and are very easy to pick up. This is not grabbing and yanking on a bird. Our birds do not react in negative way to this as they figure out that there is a difference to bonding time and daily routine/ medical needs as you saw the vet do.

Preparing your bird for vet visits help the vet staff do a good job. Exposure to the travel cage and neighbor hood rides give them safe signals of what to expect and always have a treat available for reward of good behavior. On our mini vet exam times, we spend personal attention on just one bird and as a followup we give a foot massage with a little oil on the feet and area around face and clip feathers around vet if the droppings stick in the feathers. Feeling the bird and listening to heart and breath sounds are close contact work that your bird should accept if not like as the over all health is important.

I hate emergencies as I get upset when I need to be most alert thus we have procedures and a first aid kit/travel cage etc already so that in a few precious minutes we know the basics: weight, droppings general appearance and obvious injuries, and bird is put directly into a preset up holding /travel cage and ready to go to the vet or be watched and treated at home. any bird observed on the floor in a walk in flight is immediately brought in for observation. Blessings, Jo Ann


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Brit,
That was a great post and I'm really glad to hear Popsicle and Bridgette are healthy. 
Well done! :thumbsup:*


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## SnowHedgehog (Jun 24, 2015)

I realize I totally forgot to mention if she did any poop checks or anything, oopsies 

She did check out their poops and everything is healthy, they look great, have good form, healthy colour, etc. As for the crop, she didn't swab it but she gave a very thorough feeling of their crops, I wasn't too concerned about it as they have zero history of vomiting or anything that could relate to a crop infection. Next time we go I will hopefully have full tests done, just to be sure.



Pretty boy said:


> When cutting the nails they should not actually bleed this means they were cut too far back. If they bleed in future place some corn starch on the bleed this will help the bleeding to stop.


Hi Cathy,

I believe the vet said they bled because it was the first time they had been cut and the quicks were quite long, now I will go back every 3-6 months to get them trimmed (depending on how long the nails are looking) and as the quicks get shorter they won't bled anymore. The vet used a powder like you would use for dog or cat nails, but for birds (I think it was Quickstop but I'm not 100% sure on that). That's really good to know that cornstarch is safe to use, thank you for that , I'll be sure to put some in the budgie first-aid kit I'm working on 

Thanks!



Jo Ann said:


> On our mini vet exam times, we spend personal attention on just one bird and as a followup we give a foot massage with a little oil on the feet and area around face


Hi Jo Ann,

What type of oil do you use? I've heard both hypoallergenic baby oil and extra virgin or 100% virgin coconut oil are ok, is that correct? They can't get as many showers in the winter as they can in the summer so I'm trying to keep their feet nice and moisturized!

Thanks 



FaeryBee said:


> *Brit,
> That was a great post and I'm really glad to hear Popsicle and Bridgette are healthy.
> Well done! :thumbsup:*


Thank you, Deborah!


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## Featheredflyers (Jul 31, 2015)

Wow! What a fantastic and thorough vet! Wish she was near me....my vet, who apparently is one of the top 6 avian / exotic vets in this country (he took great pleasure in informing me of this!) didn't do even half as good / thorough a check as yours did... Alas.( But still charged a whopping big fee of course! ) Plus I was told they're to be moving premises....and so will no longer be 'local ish' to me. Sigh. But thanks for the interesting and helpful post.x


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## Jonah (Feb 3, 2013)

Sound's like a great visit/wellness check, and at a reasonable price. I have various size wood dowel, and natural branch perches, along with a cement perch they land on to go to their feeders, and a couple sandstone swing's and I find my bird's nails stay short, and feet in good shape...


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## SnowHedgehog (Jun 24, 2015)

Jonah said:


> Sound's like a great visit/wellness check, and at a reasonable price. I have various size wood dowel, and natural branch perches, along with a cement perch they land on to go to their feeders, and a couple sandstone swing's and I find my bird's nails stay short, and feet in good shape...


Hi Jonah,

It was a great visit! Where do you get your cement perches or what are they called/ what brand are they? I've been looking to add one to the cage for a while but I'm not sure which is safe 

Thanks 



Featheredflyers said:


> Wow! What a fantastic and thorough vet! Wish she was near me....my vet, who apparently is one of the top 6 avian / exotic vets in this country (he took great pleasure in informing me of this!) didn't do even half as good / thorough a check as yours did... Alas.( But still charged a whopping big fee of course! ) Plus I was told they're to be moving premises....and so will no longer be 'local ish' to me. Sigh. But thanks for the interesting and helpful post.x


Oh wow, sounds like he's not that great of a guy more or less a great vet   I defiantly suggest her to anyone living in or around Calgary, AB that's looking for a good vet!


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## Jonah (Feb 3, 2013)

I will see if I can find a link to the one I have. The only thing's you really need to avoid are plastic, and sandpaper although I have never put a cement perch in an area where they perch a lot because it is too rough for their feet to be on constantly in my opinion...



This is a pic of the one I use. The only time they are on it is when they fly in and out for chow time. It is a dowel rod coated with light green colored cement/gravel that I got at either pet supplies or petco....


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## SnowHedgehog (Jun 24, 2015)

Jonah said:


> This is a pic of the one I use. The only time they are on it is when they fly in and out for chow time. It is a dowel rod coated with light green colored cement/gravel that I got at either pet supplies or petco....


Thank you, Jonah! That's a great help 

I'll link a few I was thinking about below and if someone could tell me which would be my safest bet (if any) that'd be awesome 

All Living Things® Natural Sand Bird Perch | Perches | PetSmart

All Living Things® Beach Sand Bird Perch | Perches | PetSmart

Living World Pedi Perch - Pisces Pets

JW Pets Insight Sand Perch - Pisces Pets

0 | Petland Canada (This one would be the "XS Pedi-Perch", not the jumbo as the link says )

Thanks again!


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## jean20057 (May 31, 2013)

*I'm so glad to hear that their first vet visit went great! I've got a picture too of my birdies eating like little piggies, I think all 5 at the time in one bowl  *


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## Jonah (Feb 3, 2013)

I think all the ones you linked are great, and I have some of the ones in the first link too....


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## Jo Ann (Sep 3, 2011)

*First*

We use Vet- RX That is available at pigeon Supply places as well as local feed store. But Good kitchen oils like sesame or coconut are fine. The oil smothers any mites and moisturizes skin. It is neat to watch our birds watch me put oil on the feet. I let them hold on my finger so the feet are not kicking in the air which seems to calm them. Some of my guys will sit still while I nip points off of nails and I do not even have to hold their feet they just hold my finger. This you should do only after a lot of experience and trust between you and your bird. When I first started my husband held feet while I clipped nails. Our birds love their lava rocks for nails, beaks and skritching feathers on the head. We have huge rocks in walk in aviary and hand size in smaller cages. There is at least one per cage. even in breeding cages. We have all types of perches, like cactus and type that is smooth on top where soft part of foot rests and rough on sides where nails touch the perch. The perch can be turned top to bottom. and the shape is irregular. This I like best of manufactured ones. I like cactus and lava rock best of the natural perches. Amazingly our birds often choose to roost on the lava rock as apposed to the smoother perches. The main thing for me is we try to provide as many choices as possible for our birds to try. Since they cannot fly free and choose. We keep lixit water baths in all but the breeding cages and most of the budgies line up every day when they get the clean bath water no matter how cold it is out side. In summer or when we have nests we walk through the aviary with a mister to keep humidity up and we also use small crock pots with a few drops of Euca-Mint or eucalyptus oil in them to sooth respiratory irritation. For sick birds we tent small hospital cage with a towel with the eucalyptus oil or use meds we get from the vet in our nebbulizer for serious cases. I have asthma and so we have the Euca-Mint for me all over the house. It is much like the vaporizer and vicks my mom used for me as a child. Thankfully we have few serious respiratory issues that nose drops or Euca-Mint will not handle.

It is really great to see you get your Budgies off to a good start. It is so wise to prevent as opposed to having to deal with preventable emergencies. There are always surprises , but you are prepared for potential as best as you can. Best Wishes, Jo Ann


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## Featheredflyers (Jul 31, 2015)

Wow! You've got an amazing set up for your budgies. Sounds fantastic. :yo::2thumbs:


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## Figtoria (Apr 27, 2015)

Jonah said:


> This is a pic of the one I use. The only time they are on it is when they fly in and out for chow time. It is a dowel rod coated with light green colored cement/gravel that I got at either pet supplies or petco....


HA!! I love this picture!!! Look at all those cute little budgie butts with their heads deep in their food bowls.

So cute!!!


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## SnowHedgehog (Jun 24, 2015)

Jonah said:


> I think all the ones you linked are great, and I have some of the ones in the first link too....


Awesome, thank you so much! 



Jo Ann said:


> We use Vet- RX That is available at pigeon Supply places as well as local feed store. But Good kitchen oils like sesame or coconut are fine. The oil smothers any mites and moisturizes skin.


I'll check out the Vet-RX and hopefully later today I can get some coconut oil on their feet, Bridgette is a very heavy moulter and a little grump right now! 

Thank you, Jo Ann 



Featheredflyers said:


> Wow! You've got an amazing set up for your budgies. Sounds fantastic. :yo::2thumbs:


Thanks!


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

What a wonderful post--clearly, you have a wonderful vet and it's great they're so healthy! 
:clap:


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