How To’s On Giving Your Pet Bird Medicine

All bird owners will at some stage need to give their pet some bird medicine and this post will help you to decide which way is the best way to do it.

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The trick is to know how to do this without causing any harm to your sickly bird.

If your bird is in need of medication, find out from your vet exactly how often and in what quantities the medicine will need to be administered.

Make sure you know how long the treatment must go on for and if you forget what to do rather call your vet back than make an error that could negatively impact your pet bird’s health.

Here are some of the most popular ways of administering medication to your pet bird.

Giving Your Pet Bird Medicine

By Mouth

Feeding your bird medicine by mouth is a good route to take with smaller birds, as they are easier to handle.

This is done using a plastic syringe without the needle.  Direct the syringe into the left side of the beak and aim it towards the right side of your pet bird’s throat.

This is recommended so that the medication goes down the bird’s throat, and not into the lungs, where aspiration pneumonia can result.

Adding the medicine to the bird’s food or pellets, or offering premedicated pellets is a good way to medicate a bird if it is not too sick to eat.

Another way is to add the medication to the bird’s water supply, but this is not always as effective because sick birds don’t often drink a lot of water, and the medication might make the water taste funny which will result in the bird refusing to drink it.

By Injection

Avian veterinarians usually consider this the most effective method of administering medication to birds.  The best injection site is the chest, as it has the greatest muscle mass.

To do the injections yourself, wrap your bird securely, but comfortably in a washcloth.  Lay her on your lap with her chest facing up towards you.  Using the one hand, hold her head securely with your thumb and index finger, and with the other administer the injection.

You will need to insert the injection at about a 45-degree angle into the chest.  Remember to alternate sides – you could inject in the left side of the chest in the morning, and the right in the evening.

Remain calm and talk to your bird in a soothing tone throughout, and before you know it the task will be done.  If you have never done this, ask your avian veterinarian to show you exactly how to do it and let him watch you do it to give you the confidence you need to do it on your own.

Topical

This is a method of applying the medication directly to the infected part.  This type of medication is usually used in the eyes, on the feet, or in the nose in the case of sinus problems.

Because most pet birds are small, if they get sick they tend to deteriorate quite quickly, so make sure you get the help of an avian veterinarian as soon as you see that your bird is out of sorts to ensure that your pet bird survives.

Here are some examples of bird medicine that you can buy online. I always keep a supply of vitamins, bird hemp, and probiotics at home as a backup.