I See Chickens Too

Yes,  I see chickens as patients too. I don't generally do birds, but by "birds" I really mean what are classified as Psittacines - parrots and the like. I never saw enough of them to feel very comfortable doing the best for them or their owners. I would of course, on an emergency basis but most people who have these birds - if they seek veterinary care - want and deserve someone who does a LOT of bird work.

I love raptors too but I rarely get the chance to work on them either. I did a little at a few jobs and in my time at the Cape May Zoo.

I am very familiar with chickens, however. This is because of my time at the Univ of Delaware - and not just because we ARE the Fighting Blue Hens. Delaware is a huge poultry producing state - both eggs and meat. There is a lot of research at the University regarding poultry health and nutrition, as well as related topics like agricultural methods, environmental impacts, etc. 

I did research as an undergrad in poultry nutrition and I loved it. I also helped a few grad students with other topics like poultry immunology, etc. It was here that I learned what I now use to treat the occasional chicken that comes in to my office.

The chickens I see are often pets. They may be used for eggs but overall they are truly dearly loved and very sweet to work with.  

This is a sweet girl named Buffy who was attacked by a beagle one morning that had gotten out of his owner's property. She came in with multiple lacerations to the left hind end - thigh and very close to the vent (which is the shared GI, urinary and reproduction - egg laying - outlet).  

She was in stable condition but needed some wound cleaning and closing. Due to the discomfort she was experiencing we used gas anesthesia to sedate her and cleaned up the wounds. One involved muscle so I sutured that up as well as closed most of the skin. Fortunately there was not a lot of tension on it. And also fortunately, the vent was untouched and in tact. Her tail feathers were torn off and the the tail head itself was shredded pretty  bad but we got it back to a pretty normal anatomy. 

Here are some immediate post op pics:

We sent her home on some injectable antibiotics that we showed her owner, a knowledgeable pet parent, how to give. 

This is her one week later and all the sutures are still there and the tissue appears to be healing very nicely.  She is enjoying a pampered life at home in a very protected area and is apparently the envy of the other chickens in the flock!

Important Info!

I'm sharing a list put out by the AVMA on some of the top poisonous HUMAN drugs that our pets may ingest and the harm they can cause.

Please, keep your medications out of the reach of your pets. You may not understand it (frankly, I don't) but they sometimes will eat them, no matter what they taste or look like! 

Check this out:  10 Poison Pills for Pets


And if your pet does eat these or any other human medications, please call YOUR veterinarian (not your neighbor, the breeder, your uncle, your hairdresser, etc). If it's after hours, call an emergency veterinary center in your area.

AND please - PLEASE - call us BEFORE you give any medications we didn't prescribe. We will talk to you about things over the phone if you are a client. Please don't give something for 3 weeks and then call to see if it's ok! Dogs are different than humans and cats, well, they are a whole different animal! 

A Long Awaited Answer

Now that the holidays are behind us, we can get back to learning and experiencing life in the world of veterinary medicine.

I posted a picture of a dog's skin toward the end of last month, asking readers to take a guess as to what was going on.  I didn't get any responses but I won't take that personally - I know it was a busy time of year AND I've been away from the blog for a bit.

Well, here's what's going on with that dog. That dog happens to be MY dog, a 4 yr old Golden Retriever named Theo. 

Theo has hydrocephalus which is explained at the link. We don't know whether it was congenital or not, but we do know he was normal at 9-10 months of age.  

He began exhibiting restlessness at about 2 1/2 - 3 yrs of age. Sedatives did not help his condition. The MRI was the definitive diagnosis and the reason he was put on the medications he was on and they have helped tremendously. He is not a 100% "normal" Golden and probably never will be, but he has come a long way.

He was on a low dose of steroids, which are used to treat a wide variety of neurologic conditions in animals. Dogs and people tend to have more issues with long term steroids than our feline friends, who do quite well with them. 

Theo developed a rare condition called calcinosis cutis, which IS what it sounds like - calcium deposits in the skin. It can be quite irritating. 

The photos were pretty classic or as we say in veterinary medicine - pathognomonic for this disease. I sent photos of Theo to my favorite local dermatology vet - Dr. Brian Palmeiro, VMD and he agreed it was likely that. We needed a few skin biopsies to determine 100%, so I performed those in my office and yes, it was indeed that. 

Now we are weaning him off the pred slowly - SLOWLY - that's the key. Why? Well, when we give dogs or cats (or people) steroids, we shut down the pituitary adrenal axis pathways for these being produced naturally in our bodies. If we simply stopped cold turkey, our bodies would go into shock! We need steroids, so to let the adrenal glands get back up to production mode, we slowly wean off the prednisone. Fortunately, it's the phenobarb that's helping with most of the neurologic signs AND I have to have him possible evaluated for surgical drain placement, which might mean no meds are needed down the road.