Red tailed Buzzard skin lesions

Re: Red tailed Buzzard skin lesions

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:46:41 GMT

They can bash themselves up pretty badly - frontal ridge and cere trauma is classic and other areas of face/beak less consistent. The Buteos seem to be the most prone to this by far, it is thought to be because they are 'more intelligent' so respnd to environment more intensely, not convinced this is exactly true as a cause but they are certainly less tolerant of neglect/change.

Marie

Re: Red tailed Buzzard skin lesions

Andrew Henfrey — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:30:14 GMT

Hi Marie

could the bird get the crusted lesion under the beak on the right side just by trauma? The dorsal ridge erosion I can certainly see being trauma.

I haven't asked the owners yet how close the walls of the aviary/hide are but this info will obviously be key.

thanks for the input

Andrew

Re: Red tailed Buzzard skin lesions

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:35:24 GMT

Hi,

Red tails can be very flighty/fiesty birds and this time of year will increase activity and it is quite common to see lesions like this where they are battering their heads against enclosure walls and causing abrasions while reacting to external stimuli (especially other captive/wild birds). Owners often don't see this happen unless they have CCTV set up for remote supervision as as soon as the falconer is seen/heard the bird will focus on them and stop the behaviour. Having flexible mesh reduces impact (but many materials are not ideal for grasping), using rounded batons on the inside of the walls to create a mini-standoff works well as a permanent solution to prevent ongoing injury or the alternative is to have the bird tethered at risk periods (early morning and later afternoon/evening) with visual barriers to other birds (including wild birds) set up.

The frontal ridge injuries can be difficult to heal as they are under a lot of tension so tend to appose poorly and split so warn the owner it won't heal overnight, especially if trauma persists. In really stubborn cases you have to rongeur the edge of the bone to shorten the frontal ridge to reduce the tension.

Marie

Re: Red tailed Buzzard skin lesions

Mark Rowland — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:23:58 GMT

Hello,

If finances allow I would bacterial swab first, then I would go with topical F10 barrier cream on the lesions for now, cover for parasites as you have done and consider a biopsy if there is no improvement after about 10 days. If you wanted to add a short course of antibiotics also, I would go with a 5 day marbocyl course (10mg/kg po sid). Any longer than that and I would add some antifungals also (e.g. nystatin) to prevent fungal enteric disease. Some vits wouldnt hurt (ACE high)

Goodluck