Lecture 5 Flashcards
Describe restraint of parrots for medical procedures
Most important to restrain head and beak
Thumb and first 1,2,3 fingers around the base of the skull/neck, other fingers just rest (do not squeeze the thorax) and extend the neck
Describe the restraint of raptors for medical procedures
Most important to restrain the feet/talons
In large birds, place one hand in each leg, in smaller birds the index between the feet and thumb on one side and the rest of your fingers in the other. fingers and palm points down away from the bird
Why do you need to extend the neck of birds
The S shape trachea will allow them to stretch out and bite you even if your holding around the neck
Describe trimming beaks
Take bit by bit off from the sides of the beak, not straight from the tip. Just found off the tip when done
Where should you take blood from water fowls
Medial metatarsal vein (inside of the leg)
Where should you take blood from parrots and song birds
Right jugular (the left side is smaller that the right in birds) this also means you only have 1 attempt
Where should you take blood from raptors and sometimes parrots
Based on size (bigger)
Brachial vein (wing vein near the elbow on the inside of the wing)
Those can you reduce stress in birds
Familiarity
Dark quiet areas
Leave alone to de-stress
What is the general rule for how much blood you can take
10% of body weight is blood, and you can only take 10% of blood volume. So you can only take 1% of body weight in blood
1kg=1000ml= 1L
Describe jugular blood collection in birds
Have a bald spot on the right jugular (makes it easy to find)
Don’t need to hold off during or after -more likely to cause a hematoma but also beneficial to let you bird go to reduce stress and decrease blood pressure
What is the risk of birds bleeding out during blood collection
Bleeding out via a hematoma
This is why blood collection is only done is seriously necessary
Describe taking radiographs of birds
Need anesthetic
Restraint tools: tape, weights, string
Biggest challenge: keeping the keel up
Laterals: wings do not go all the way back to lay totally lateral -keep in mind when taping down
Describe restraint of snakes
Control the head
Grasp just behind the head, then support the rest of the body with your other hand/arm or allow the body to rest in the same arm so one hand it free (must support at least 2 points of the body)
Describe restraint of lizards
Depends on the type of lizard
Support the body and give something for the feet to rest on
Iguanas: very large tails that can thrash (wear long sleeves), may bite and are very fast
Geckos: may lose their tail if handled roughly (avoid handling tail is possible) always warn the owner of this possibility)
Describe restraint of chelonians
(Turtles)
Support the shell
May bite
Can use a block in front of the face to keep their heads retracted into shell (tongue depressor)
What can you dye is a chelonian breaks it’s shell
Reattach any pieces -the shell will heal and reattach just like a broken bone (very slow)
Describe blood collection of snakes via the tail vein and cardiocentesis
Cardiocentesis: directly from the heart, can be from any chamber, blood flow should be easy, length depends on the size of the snake
Tail vein: (tail is caudal to the vent), the vein is on a very steep angle and very deep, exactly on midline on the ventral aspect
Where do you aim when collecting blood from snakes
Go in between the scales when collecting (scales are too hard to go through) and there is a gap in between the scales
Describe blood collection in chelonians via the jugular vein and subcarapacial sinus
Jugular vein: hard to access (biggest disadvantage), may need anesthesia, large, easy to find, dorsal, very superficial, can’t see. Lower amount of lymph contamination
Subcarapacial sinus: underneath, midline where the neck meets the shell, easy to hit. Lymph is very close and often contaminated the blood (biggest disadvantage) but this only matters depending on the type of tests you’re running
Describe anesthesia of reptiles
Biggest challenge: keeping them anesthetized (they don’t breathe a lot and anesthesia has relies on breathing it in)
Tongue reflex in snakes: should be present
Monitor temperature with anal thermometers
Bag, mask or intubate for anesthesia
Very slow process
Righting reflex: place animal on their back and see if they correct themselves
After you think they are out what 5 more minutes
Describe intubating snakes
The glottis is very rostral in snakes, and they have no real epiglottis, the cartilage around the glottis opens and closes with breathing -time intubation with when it opens
How many views do you need to take when radiographing chelonians
3
Craniocaudal view (down the shell from the head)
Lateral view
Dorsoventral view
Why do you not need to straight Omg out snakes for a DV X-ray
Because they stay very straight up
