Christie's Bird Links

What should you do if your bird is sick or hurt?

First, don't panic.  The calmer you are about the situation, the easier it will be to handle your bird.  You need to already know your local Avian Certified Vet, and Emergency Vet that can work with birds, or if you don't have either of those, a vet in your town that is capable of handling an exotic animal and is willing to consult on the phone with an avian certified vet.  You need to have these addresses and phone numbers written down in an easy to access location.  With a bird, time is of the essence with an illness.  Being a prey animal, they will hide an illness as long as they can to avoid becoming something's lunch.  When you notice your bird is sick, normally, they have been sick a long time.  This is why you need to get them into the vet ASAP, this could save their life!  

Even if you didn't pay much for your bird, or even got it for free, by owning an animal, you are legally responsible for it's care, this includes taking it to the vet.  Yes, veterinary services can be expensive, talk to your vet ahead of time (before your bird is ill,) to discuss if they do payment plans for expensive procedures.

Follow your gut instinct.  If your gut is telling you that there is something wrong with your bird, go with it.  If this bird is new to you, please do take it to the vet as soon as you can for a well bird visit.  These can range in price, but even if the bird shows as healthy, (and I really hope it does,) this will give the vet a baseline on where your bird is on a normal basis, making diagnosis of any future illness much easier. 

In my opinion, if you are unwilling to pay for vet care for your animal, you don't need to own one.  For those people, there are plenty of online games that have pet care, spend your time on one of those.