Avian First Aid Kit - Putting Together A First Aid Kit

A well stocked avian first aid kit is essential to your bird’s well being.  A first aid kit is not meant to replace a trip to your avian vet, but is intended to use to stabilize your bird before traveling to visit your avian vet.

It is a good idea to find a local avian vet before you need one.  Being established with a qualified avian vet will ensure that you have a place to go in an emergency.  You can also bring your first aid kit in to your vet’s office and have him/her take a look at it and see if there is anything else you should consider adding.

• Gauze pads – for covering wounds, burns
• Cotton balls – for cleansing
• Q-tips – for cleaning out small wounds, getting stuff out of a bird’s mouth or throat.
• Vet wrap (cut into strips and rolled) – for wrapping broken bones, wings, or binding gauze pads to wounds.
• Surgical Tape – for holding gauze in place
• Penlight or small flashlight
• Sterile water – for flushing wounds or mixing with food
• Pedialyte)- for rehydrating a dehydrated bird.
• Hand feeding formula, jars of human baby food such as veggies, cereals or squash. Often sick or injured birds will be too weak to eat on their own for a few days. During this period of time we may find ourselves having to spoon or syringe feed the bird to help keep their strength up.
• Feeding syringes – sometimes when a bird is injured or sick they will be too weak to eat on their own and will need to be syringe fed.
• Aloe Vera – for very minor burns. The best thing would be to have an Aloe Vera planting growing in your home.
• Towel – for wrapping and securing your bird –this is very helpful in preventing your bird from thrashing and making the situation worse
• Scissors – VERY IMPORTANT!  Birds have the tendency to get strings from their toys wrapped around their feet.  Having scissors in the immediate area of where your birds are housed can mean the difference between losing a toe or keeping a toe!
• Quik-stop and/or Styptic Pencil (silver nitrate stick) – to stop bleeding from broken blood feathers or cuts.
• Wire cutters – These need to be a heavy duty set!  The wire cutters need to be able to cut through quick links, metal rings and possibly identification bands.
• *Hemostats and tweezers – for removing broken blood feathers, and/or splinters
• *Needle Nose Pliers – for pulling blood feathers or unbending chains and quick links which birds are known to injure get wrapped around their beaks.

* If you have never pulled a blood feather or been taught how to pull a blood feather -DO NOT PULL a BLEEDING BLOOD FEATHER! Stabilize your bird and immediately proceed to the nearest avian hospital.

The above supplies should be stored in an air tight container.  The container should then be placed in an easily accessible location in your home.  The location should be one that is in the room that your bird is housed.  You never know what you could find upon entering your bird room and your supplies need to be close by so you are not wasting valuable time searching for your First Aid Kit.