Baby's first vet visit...

[JawzX]

so, today Baby went to the vet for the first time since she came into my care. She has been a little moody and quiet the past couple days, and I have no vet history for her, so I descided it was time to start one and build a relationship with me semi-local avian vet.

she's a great traveler, which is good since they're 45 minutes away by major roads.

The vet has Derbyans, and one of her techs has an IRN, but Ms. Prissy Beak is the first Alexandrine they've had in the practice.

Vet said she seems to be in good health, and may be a little plump. She weighs in at 189 grams, which is small for an Alexandrine, but she's a little small for an alex so the breast-fat check is the determination... A little pudgy she is!

vet also suggested that the moodyness may be due a little to the grey, crappy weather we've had fo the last
week and the fact that she seems to be molting at the moment... (two new tail feathers and four new primaries in the last two weeks)

this is ostencibly just a well bird check, but I had them do a full set of cultures for good measure. The little girl took it like a champ and only tried to eat the vet's fingers a little

the check also revealed that she sounds a little "dry" in her air sacs and the vet suggested she either get more Time in the nice steamy bathroom at shower time, or possibly a humidifier for the winter heating months.

has anyone else here used a humidifier for their birds?

 

[wildheart]

I am glad there are no serious problems and a good thing to start a record.

I do not have experience with a humidifier for birds but I have a humidifier on for my iguana. You get the hot and the cold steam, I am using the hot steam because the cold one did not work as well and had to run over longer periods to get the same effect.

Firstly do not buy the pet shop junk, it is only made to last a couple of months and then you must buy a new one! Buy a human one that are sold for babies. The hot one works perfect in heating up the room as well, but be warned, your electricity bill is going to go through the roof! I've had my hot one now for 3 years and it is still working perfect.

Hope that helped.

 

[Spiritbird]

As far as a humidifier goes I uses one for myself in the winter. For Rosie I take her in the bathroom all seasons and run the shower. Sometimes she is in the shower on her perch and sometimes she is just sitting in there for the steam treatment. I guess a humidifier would be good to use but you would need a very large one. Just get your bird used to sitting on the shower rod or door with the water running. Also a mister may help.

 

[wildheart]

The other thing that I have done to keep the humidity high was I filled the room with plants. I dont know where your cage is, but you can put plants around it.

I have found that the best humidity plants is [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Palms, I use the Areca Palms but you can use any of these: areca, date, fan, lady, parlour, howeia, kentia, Phoenix, sago.

The Areca Palm is beautiful and grows big if the conditions are right. If your palm thrives then you know [/FONT]Ms. Prissy Beak[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] will thrive. My palms drinks 2 liters of water every single day and I mist the leafs which automatically brings the humidity up around them.

Here is a picture that I took for you this morning. (I cant get the thumbnail thing right.)

[/FONT]

 

[wildheart]

Oh, if you do decide to get palms then you need to check the underside of the leafs and the stems for white spots. Try and avoid those but if you cant get any without it, then you can wash the whole palm down with a water, soap and garlic mixture. (I'll give you the recipe when it is needed.)