Veterinary session

Keeping exotic animals and especially pet birds are getting more and more popular, and on the other hand due to the increased awareness of nature people are taking several rescued birds to the veterinarians.

We performed radiological examination on the head of birds, and concluded in the necessity of general anaesthesia and the use of different restraining instruments. We compared the macroscopical and radioanatomical structures of the skulls of two species (African Grey Parrot [Psittacus erithacus] and Eurasian Magpie [Pica pica]) which are frequently examined in veterinary clinics, and performed computed tomography, too. Comparing skull radiographs taken in vivo and on museum specimens of the same species’ we found significant differences caused primarily by the lack of soft tissues and secondarily by the missing bony structures due to the unattentive taxydermal preparation.

We described the radioanatomy of 72 bird families with special emphasis to the structures with clinical relevance. We analyzed 135 radiographs with pathological alterations, including mainly mandible and beak anomalies and neurocranium deformities caused by trauma. All together 777 radiographs of 185 specimens in 128 species were taken and analyzed.