5 tips for a successful avian exam

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Although most clinics primarily have clientele of cats and dogs, there will be times when a client with a pet bird makes its way into your clinic. When this happens, are you and your team prepared to assess and treat this patient? If you could use a little refresher on avian medicine, or are curious about treating birds in general, this is the episode for you!

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Adam Christman, MBA, DVM, and Laila Proença, DVM, PhD, MV, MSc, DACZM, cofounder and CEO of VETAHEAD, review Proença's top 5 tips for performing an effective avian exam, plus a special guest Proença may be bringing to Long Beach.

Below is a partial transcript. Listen to the full podcast for more.

Laila Proença, DVM, PhD, MV, MSc, DACZM: I will say the first one is you already know what you have to do. You are already a bird veterinarian, all of us are, or a technician or assistant, because you know, the medicine is the same, Adam. My tip number one is don't be afraid, because we already know what we need to know. Okay? It's just like when you are seeing a dog and then you're going to see a cat. The medicine is the same. There are a few unique traits like how you restrain that cat versus how you restrain a dog...So the first thing is don't be afraid.

If you use proper technique, which is not difficult to accomplish, we're gonna go through them. It's going to be okay, you need to examine the bird. Just a visual exam is not going to take you anywhere you're not going to be able to practice your medicine [and] you're not going to be able to palpate or auscultate, so don't be afraid. And I will close this first by saying I don't practice exotic medicine. Okay, exotic medicine it's a lot of BS. It's a lot of nonsense rules [and] a lot of things that you must do and must have which makes absolutely no sense. And it's all there to make us afraid of doing it. It is zoomed, that's why I say zoomed because you already know it.

Want to learn more from Proença? Well, you are in luck! Proença is one of our incredible keynote speakers at dvm360's first-ever Fetch conference in Long Beach, California from December 1-3, 2023. Join Proença and all of our incredible speakers for a conference you do not want to miss, so register here today to secure your spot.