Medical Nursing Week 9

• Feathers
•     Primary or Flight
•     Secondary gives aerodynamic
•     Tail Feathers- rutter
•         Uropygeal gland (preening gland)  Waterproofing tumor common
•    Down or Plumule- insulation/ water proofing/ heating and cooling

• Scales
• Beak or bill Made of keratin
•    Continual growth
• Cere- nose
•    Nasal Passages
•    Salt gland in sea birds to be able to drink salt water

• Pneumatic
•    Hollow bones-air filled small amount of bone marrow

• 50-100 breaths/ minute
• Air Sacs- could rupture
•    primary air exchange
• Lungs
• Syrinx
•    Voice

• Heart has 3 chambers
• 2 atrium
• 1 ventricle

• Mouth
•    Choana- culture should be gram +
•      opening roof of mouth that connects to nasal passages
•   Glottis- opening into trachea
• Crop- pocket of the esophagus that stores food. Only in parrots and gallinaceous (water fowl/ ducks) species

Crop burn-when a bird is fed food that is too hot

• Proventriculus
•    Normal stomach with acid secretion
• Ventriculus (gizzard) breaks down food
•    nonglandular stomach
• Cloaca- pocket
•    area of excrement for urine and feces and reproduction juices
•    Urodeum- urine
•    Proctodeum- reproduction juices
•    Coprodeum- feces
•    Vent (sphincter) - exit site

• No exterior sex organs
• Some birds sexually dimorphic Different colors
• Many cannot sex without surgery of DNA sexing

• Inspect environment
• Droppings
•    White-uric acid
•    Clear- urine
•    Green- feces
• (should be a clear distiction between all of them)
• Bird behavior- should be perched
• Type food
• Type of cage and toys- Lead toxicity

Type of cage and toys- lead toxicity

• Handle bird in enclosed room
• Use towel or glove
• Do not hold chest- breathing by active process

• Cockatoo can live 20-60 years
• Sexual Dimorphism Red - female
•                                   Male- green
• Males have blue or purpleish ceres.

• Oral Medication
• Use speculum
• Injections
•   IM- most common
•        Breast or flight muscle
•       Lateral to Keel
• SQ Under ventral part of wing
• IV Ventral brachial vein
• Intraosseous- in the bone
• Jugular- Large amount of fluid
• Venipuncture
• Toe nail
• medial tarsal vein
• Ulner vein- in the wing
• Right jugular- larger most common
• Fluids
•   IV - ilner vein or intraosseous
• SQ- under wing or groin

• Feathers- wing feather trim
•      Cut primary feathers to prevent flight
•      Usually bilateral, some unilateral
• Nail and beak trim
•    to prevent breakage and hemorrhage
•    to prevent with Dremel seander or nail trimmer
•            Cauterize with Quickstop or Silver Nitrate Sticks

• Immature Young Feathers
• Pull complete feather and shaft
•    Otherwise will continue to bleed
• Pressure and cauterize as needed
• Emergency due to blood loss
•     Blood Volume = 10% body weight

• Emergency
• Unknown cause of female birds
• Occurs commonly in cocktails, budgies, love birds

• ADR- Ain't doin Right
• Fluffed feathers and perching at bottom of cage
• Bot eating and depressed
• Frequent wagging of tail
• Abdominal swelling

• Radiographs- won't show up if it's soft shell
• Palpation

• warm incubator at 85-90 degree (any sick Exotic)
• Lubrication and digital manipulation
• Intramuscular injections
•     Calphosan- 0.15 to 0.25cc per 100g IM
•      Calcium and Oxytocin- 0.025cc per 100g IM
•    Injacom- 0.1cc per 300g IM
• Fluid and antibiotics support if poor condition
• Surgery as last resort
•    Laparotomy
•    Egg aspiration

• Lead based cages, toys or paint
• Lead shots- pellets

• Weakness
• Vomiting and diarrhea
• Ataxia, head tilt and convulsions
• Hemorrhage in feces

• Radiographs
• Blood lead levels

• gavage and toxiban
• Fluid diuresis
• Remove source
• Chelating agents
•    Calcium EDTA

• Chlamydia psittaci
• Transmission
•    Aerosolization
•     Dried fecal material
• Zoonotic
• Contagious

• ADR-adverse drug reactions
• Diarrhea- green
• Dyspnea
• Hepatitis and Splenomegaly

• Culture
• ELISA
• Tissue necropsy

Tetracycline and fluid support

Hepatisis- Liver

• Unknown
• Suspect DNA virus
• Primary cockatoos, but can effect any bird
• Contagious through oral and respiratory

• Malformed feathers and beak deformity
• Feather picking
• Bald with no feathers
• Can lead to crop stasis, diarrhea and death

• DNA Probe
•    Blood
• Feather follicle biopsy

Symptomatic, no treatment

Remember naked could be from behavioral problems

• High contagious viral disease causing respiratory and neurological disease in all species of birds.
•    Primary carrier are chickens and ducks (poultry industry)
•    Can infect wild birds, raptors and parrots
• Fatal disease that is controlled by eradication at state and federal levels.
• Disease is important because it causes a huge economic loss for the poultry industry.

• Caused by paramyxovirus with 3 different strains of pathogenicity
•        Lentogenic- produces few symptoms
•       Mesogenic- young chickens causing respiratory and  neurological signs with high mortality
•      Velogenic- most pathogenic and contagious strain, marked by respiratory signs and green diarrhea before acute death.
• Incubation time averages 4-6 days from 2-20 day range
•       Very hard virus that survives in the environment and in cold, but dies from dehydration or sunlight.

• Direct contact
•    Feces
•     Nasal and respiratory secretions
•     Contaiminated food, water, human cloths, ect.
•     Carcass of dead bird (eat dead bird)
• Some pet birds have been known to shed virus up to 1 year

• Respiratory
•    Gasping, coughing, nasal and ocular discharge, sneezing
• Neurological
•    Dragging legs, torticollis, circling, depression, paralysis
• Gastrointestinal
•    Anorexia, green diarrhea
•    Decreased egg production or thin shells
• Swelling of head, neck, and eyes  Inflamed sinuses

• None- fatal disease
• Euthanasia or cull

• Serology
•       Haemagglutination inhibition test
•       ELISA
•       Blood Test
• Virus Isolation
•      Isolation of haemagglutination by ND virus- specific antiserum
•     Choana, fecal, cloaca swabs from live birds or organ and feces from dead bird.
• California test choanal and fecal swabs
•       PCR test- most accurate
•       If positive confirmation with virus Isolation 

• Destroy all infected birds and disinfect area
•          Do not repopulate for 21 days
• Quarantine all new birds for 30 days
• Proper carcass disposal- burning
• Vaccination if permitted by state
•         Live vaccine
•        Live B1 and LaSota strain administered to water

• Can cause conjunctivitis in people
• Not to worry about spread to other species or from eating chickens or eggs

Uropygial Gland

• Carnivores
• High protein and fatty diets
• Cat food my work well, but now ferret diets are made
• by Kaytee and Marshall
• Nocturnal animals
• Housing
•    Cages
•    Should be confined, because ferrets will burrow and cause damage to house.

• Females (Jills)
•   Sexually mature at 8-12 months
•    Seasonally polyestrous (March to August)
•    Induced ovulators- after intercourse they will get pregnant
• Males( Hobs)
•    Males larger than females
• Gestation is 41 days
• Litter size
•    avg=8 (5-15)
•  Life Span is 8-10 years
•  

• Temperature= 96-103
• Heart Rate = 260-600
• Respiratory= 70-120

same as cats

• Canine Distemper
• Start 6-10 weeks, then 3-4 weeks later for booster
• Then yearly
• MLV
• Rabies
•   Killed only
• Start 4-6 months, then yearly
• Restrain by scruffing

• Venipunctures
• Jugular and cephalic
• IV catheter in cephalic vein
• Ovarianhysterectomy and castration
•    Performed at early age as 5-8 weeks
• Descenting
•    Analsacculectomy
•        anal sacs- descending
•        sebaceous skin glands

• Ear mites
• Treat like cats
•    Ivermectin 0.2-0.4mg/kg SQ, then repeat 2 weeks later
•     Tresaderm

• Control environment
• Pyrethrins
• Can use Program at cat dose or Advantage

• Clinical Signs
•    Lethargy, caughing, pulmonary congestion, ascites

• Diagnosis
• Radiographs
•   Heartworm test- knotts test

• Treatment
• Preventive heartguard monthly
•  Carparsolate for adulticide

• Clincal Signs
• Wasting and anorexia
• Hemorrageic diarrhea
• Chronic diarrhea and vomiting
• Casued by Camphylobacteria

• Diagnosis
•   No definitive test
•    Radiographs and blood profile
•    Fecal

• Treatment
•    Supportive
• Chloramphenicol 50mg/kg PO BID  (must wear gloves)

• Clinical Signs
•   Chronic Wasting
•   Black tarry feces- Melena
•   Splenomegaly
• Diagnosis
•    Blood profile
•   Hypergammaglobulinemia on protein
•    Electrophoresis
• Treatment
•   None
•   Symptomatic

• acidic diet- Struvite urethral obstruction similar to cats
•                   Treat as cats

• Clinical signs
•   Anorexia, nasal discharge, salivation, seizures and CNS disease
•   Fatal disease

• If Jills are not bred they will continue to secrete estrogen and stay inestrus causing estrogen toxicity and death.
•   High estrogen levels cause bone marrow suppression
• Clinical Signs
•    Pale MM
•    Melena
•    Anorexia and depression
•    Petechial hemorrhage
•    Anemia and thrombocytopenia
• Diagnosis
• History not spayed
• Blood Profile
•    Anemia and thrombocytopenia
• Treatment
•    Ovarianhysterectomy
•    Blood transfusion
•    Anabolic sterioids
•    fluid Support

• Lymphosarcoma
• Insulinoma- Tumor of the pancreas
•     Hypoglycemia
•    Collapse
•    Seizures
•    Treatment
•        Surgery- best
•       Proglycem (Diazoxide)
• Most common neoplasia
• Oxyglobin- True Blood

• Etiology
• Human Influenza Virus
• Transmitted from ferret to ferret or human to ferret
• Clinical Signs
• Sneezing and runny eyes
• Upper respiratory infection
• Fever
• Treatment
•  Symptomatic with antibiotics

• Hair Balls
• Toys
• Plastic
• Treatment- Surgery

• Adrenal gland disease, Hyperadrenocorticism
• Symptom
• Hair Loss

• Temp=103 Temp Sensitive
• HR= 100-300/min
• Resp= 35-65/min
• Diet
• Timothy Hay
•  Herbivore
• Pelleted diets
•     22.5% Fiber and 14-17% crude protein
• Hay
•   Lower in Fiber
•    May reduce hair balls
• Fresh vegetables

• Female- (Does)
• Induced Ovulators
• Year round breeding
• Male (Buck)
• Sexually dimorphic
• Male have large head and dewlap
• Gestation is 30-35 days
• Litter size
•  Average 7-8
• Life Span 5-10 years

• Rabies
• Tularemia- Bacteria
•   Francisella Tularenesis (bacteria)
•   Plague like Symptoms- Fever
• Tuberculosis
• Ringworm
• Use towel for restraint
• Urine is brown

• Penicillin antibiotics
• Lincomycin
• Erythromycin
• Rabbit GI flora gram positive, so antobiotics destroy normal flors and cause diarrhea.
•   Diarrhea kill rabbits
•   Must give Yogurt to lactobacillus when giving antibiotics

Early mornign fecessoft mucous feces (green) that rabbits eat directly from their anus. This gives them Vitamin B

• Blood samples from marginal ear vein, jugular cephalic
• Catheters
• Ear vein
• Femoral
• Trim Nails
• Teeth trimming
•       Need to trim incisors to prevent malocclusions
•       Incisors continually grow if not worn down

• Incisors grow continually about 10cm per year
• Overgrowth causes anorexia, weight loss and starvation
• Treatment
•   Clipping and filing teeth
•   Split or abscessed teeth should be extracted

• Due to powerful hindlegs, rabbits will over kick when restrained, playing or running. thus, secondary fracturing or luxating their lumber spine.
• Diagnose with radiographs
• Treatment: surgery or euthanasia

• Clincal Signs and Forms- upper Respiratory
• Mucopurulent nasal discharge
• Rhinitis and sneezing
• Pneumonia
• Head tilt and torticollis- twisting
• Abcess
• Skin
• Otitis media and externa
• Metritis- inflammation of mammary gland
• Treatment
• Antibiotics
•   Chloramphenicol
•    Baytril
•   Tetracycline
• Symptomatic care
• Abscess surgical repair
• Prognosis is guarded, never will go away and will return

• Signs
•      Mucoid diarrhea
•      Bloat
•     Anorexia
• Causes
•     Nutritional
•     Bacterial
•            E-coli
•           Bacillus piliformis
•           Salmonella
• Viral
• Coccidia
•        Diagnosis with fecal exam
•       Treatment with Albon
• Treatment
•    Increase roughage- oat hay
•    Pepto-bismol 0.8ml/kg PO TID
•    Chloramphenicol palmitate
•    Fluids if needed

• Signs
•      Anorexia and weight loss
•      Diarrhea and depression
• Diagnosis
•      PE
•     Radiographs
• Treatment
•      Medical
•          Mineral oil- 20ml PO
•          Pinapple juice- 5-10 ml PO SID x 5 days
•          Alfalfa hay
•          Laxatone
•    Surgery
•      Gastrotomy- remove hair ball

• Rodents
• diet
•    Herbivores
•    Pellets
•    vitamin C Suplementation required
•       Supplements
•       Fresh vegetable as greens
•            Cabbage
•            Carrots
• Physical
• Temp= 99-103.1
• HR= 230-300
• Resp= 70-130/min

• Reproduction  
• Gestation  59-72 days 
• Litter size 3-4 average (1-6) 
• Precocious    
• Born with eyes open with teeth and hair  
•   Start eating within 24 hoursLife span 6-8 years

• Venipunctures
•       Toe nail and jugular
•       Catheter jugular and cephalic
• Continually growing teeth- trim them
• Do not give penicillin
• Be careful because any injection can cause respiratory distress due to secondary anaphylaxis from histamine release.
• Use towel for restraint

• Dermatophyte (ringworm)    
•      Alopecia and scabs
•      Treat with griseofulvin
• Coccidia
•    Diarrhea- fecal exam
•    Treatment with Albon

• Scurvy (hypovitaminosis C)  
• Mutated gene that cannot produce L-gulono-y-lactone oxidase, so cannot convert glucose to ascorbic acid
• Signs
•    Weakness and lethargy
•    Poor hair coat
•    Enlarged limb joints
•    Nasal discharge
•    Diarrhea
• Diagnosis
•     History and clinical signs
•     Radiographs
•     Serum ascorbic acid levels Vit C
• Treatment
•        Ascorbic acid (vit C)
•                 50mg SQ

• Sneezing and ocular discharge
• Dyspnea
• Treatment
•      Antibiotics
•           Baytril
•           Tertacycline
•           Tribrissen

• Rodents
• Diet
•   Omnivores
•    Seed diets
•   Vegetable
• Life Span
•       Rats 2-3 years
•       Mice 1-3 years
• Medical concerns
•       Venipunctures
•       Tail veins
•       IV catheters not used

• Signs
•     Sneezing and ocular discharge
•     Labored breathing
•     Epistaxis
• Treatment
•      Antobiotics
•           Tetracycline
•           Baytril
•  Many times do not do well
• Cannot sometimed get rid of disease

• Anatomy
•   Skin
•     Scales
•     Heal slower than skin when sutured
•     4-6 weeks for healing and suture removal
• Cardiovascular
•    3 chamber heart
•    Poikilothermic heart- cold blooded
• Respiratory system
• Lungs

• Digestive
•      Linear duct from oral cavity to cloaca
• Reproductive
•     Internal sex organs
• Physical exam and restraint
•      Inspect environment and cage
•             Many diseases  are nutritional and husbandry
•    Diet
•    Excretions
•    Remember some reptiles will hibernate
•           (pythons, desert tortises)
• Restraint
•   Gloves and towel Salmonella
•    Hold tails in some species as Iguana and monitor Lizard

• Procedures
•      Oral medicine (usuallly liquid)
•         Syringe feed or in water
•        Not used much

• Injections- must be given in Cranial 1/3 of the body 
• Do not give injection in hindlegs or caudal area due to renal portal system        
•     Nephrotoxicity
• Intracoelomic (Ice)   
•     Especially for large amounts of fluid or medication             
•      Risk of injury to internal organs Puncture
• SQ
•      Frontlegs of turtles, lizards and iguanas
•      Primary choice for turtles
• IM
•     Front legs and back muscle- longissismus
•     Lizards and iguanas
• IV
•     Not used, except when IV catheter placed

• Chelions (turtles)
•       Right Jugular
•       Toe Nail
• Snakes
•      Cardiocentesis- heart
•      Caudal tail vein
•     Palantine vein- palate
• Lizards and Iguanas
•     Caudal Tail vein

• Chelions
•       Catheters placed in right jugular
•       Sq fluids in arm webs of fornot legs
• Lizards and Iguanas
•       Catheters placed cephalic vein
•       Introsseous
•       SQ Fluids on back
•       Intracoelemic Fluids
• Snakes
•     Catheters placed in right jugular vein
•     Intracoelemic fluids

• Etiology
•      Poor nutrition
•      Single food source as meat or meal worms and     vegetation
•      Seen especially in Iguana
• Clinical Signs
•       Weak thin and emaciated
•       Bone deformities and fractures
•       Soft Shells
• Diagnosis
•      Radiographs
•     Blood profile
•     History and physical exam
• Treatment
•      Treat problems
•     dietary management
•     Calcium supplements or crickets
•    Neocalglucon

• Primarily in Turtles
• Caused by vitamin deficiency poor diet
• Symptoms
•       Swollen eyelids- discharge
•      Loss of appetite
• Treatment
•        cod liver oil and green vegetables
•       Injacom (vit A and D)

• Secondary bacterial infection from injury, nutrition, poor husbandry
• Symptoms
•      Swollen mouth and redness
•      Pus discharge
•      Oral deformality
•      Loss of appetite and weight loss
•      Death
• Treatment
•      Surgical debridement
•     Antibiotics
•         Baytril
•         Chloramphenicol
• Topical treatment
•       Flush and clean betadine
•     BNP or antibiotic ointment
• Nutritional support
• caseous /ca·se·ous/ (ka´se-us) resembling cheese or curd;

• Causes are bacteria from poor husbandry
• Symptoms
•       Nasal Discharge
•       Dyspnea
•       Open  mouth breathing raising up
• Diagnosis
•      Tracheal wash and cultures
• Treatment antibiotics 
•     Antibiotics
•     Nutritional Support

• Caused by bacteria Salmonella
• Zoonotic
• Causes enteritis and respiratory disease
• Treament with antibiotics

• Caused by diarrhea infection, dietary, parasites, egg bound
• Treat cause
• Surgery
•    Purse string suture

• Emergency
• Caused by dystocia
• Seen in snakes and Iguanas and Turtles
• Treatment
•    Medical
•      Oxytocin
•      Digital manipulation
• Surgery
•    Needle aspiration
•       Then allow to pass shell on own
•      Salpingotomy

salpingostomy /sal·pin·gos·to·my/ (sal″ping-gos´tah-me) 1. formation of an opening or fistula into a uterine tube.2. surgical restoration of the patency of a uterine tube.