Is your bird choking? Many people get clueless in such conditions when their birds start choking. Are you also facing the same kind of condition?
If yes, what should you do in such a condition to save your bird? Do not worry because in this article you are going to get all your answers and solution for it.
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What can make a bird choke?
As in humans, choking is often due to the too-large bite of the food, or not enough chewed food, or putting something in the mouth that is not edible.
Choke in a human occurs when the food is stuck in between the trachea and obstructing the airflow to the nose and mouth.
But in birds, it happens differently. Birds are devoid of teeth and chewing muscles. They often only swallow the food as a whole. Many of the birds are dependent on the stones in their crop for aid in digestion.
Swallowing the whole seed, or another food item can lodge in the bird’s oesophagus and lead to choking.
Can birds choke to death?
Though there is rare evidence of the birds choke to death. Still, some cases are reported to show a bird likely choked to death.
What symptoms do bird show when it is choking?
But before the solution, you must have the idea of some symptoms when the birds are choking; you may see that your bird starts extending its neck, gasping for air in such condition.
Also, in a few cases, birds make the voice or a small sound just as a cough that people usually ignore noticing.
In a few conditions, it has also been noticed that the birds, open their beak wide and sometimes take their tongue out while moving their head back and forth.
If you are seeing all these symptoms in your bird, then beware because you should not ignore them as it can cause harm to your bird.
Things to do immediately after when you see your bird choking:
What should you do in such a condition? Without any delay, you should call veterinary care as soon as possible.
The veterinary will mostly perform the radiographs to attend and limit the substance in the air sacs or respiratory tree.
During such a condition, you should always remember not to give water to your bird as providing water to your bird may cause it to aspirate water.
It would help if you tried to open their beak and see what is there and try to get it out. During this procedure, there are possibilities that your bird may vomit or pour it back.
Birds do not have a diaphragm that sets the chest cavity apart from the abdominal cavity. Hence, as their caretaker, you must try to gently feed them with your hands by turning them upside down without inhibiting its head.
This clearly shows the gravity and both natural jaw manipulations to remove or take away the object. Birds cannot perform the standard Heimlich manoeuvre, which is generally used while in the choking of humans.
It would help if you also took care particularly in case of any semi-solid or liquid has entered into the respiratory tract of your bird. It would be essential to provide them with nebulization therapy for the treatment.
A veterinarian may insert an abdominal air sacs tube so that the bird can breathe if any upper airway obstruction is creating the choking problem.
This can also be called a life-saving method that enables the body to breathe until the obstacle is taken out. Once the problem of choking gets resolved, you do not need to give any additional treatment to the bird on a long-term basis.
Apart from all this, you should not try to replace the professional veterinarian’s experience. You should not take all the decisions on your own regarding your bird’s health.
If you get to see any of the illness signs in your bird’s way of behaviour, immediately notice all the symptoms and call the nearest veterinarian or take your bird to the nearest emergency pet clinic immediately.