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Baby Bird Basics 15

fracture generally is an indicator that the area is unlikely to heal with full return to function.
Open joints are always of serious concern and healing that results in a fully functional joint is
uncommon.
Wild birds may become depressed if encumbered by heavy or confining splints, and wraps may
damage growing feathers. Hence, minimally restrictive wraps and lightweight splints are recom-
mended. Only use tapes that can be removed without pulling out feathers and do not leave a sticky
residue behind. Whenever possible, allow the chick to use their legs as normally as possible during
healing; weight‐bearing speeds bone healing. It is often contraindicated to immobilize a joint that
is actively growing; creative solutions that allow the chick to grow normally while healing a skel-
etal injury are often needed. This includes sometimes doing nothing and not immobilizing the
fracture at all, with the chick treated with cage (e.g. nest) rest.
If a fracture must be immobilized, consider:
Baby bird bone often lacks enough density to hold fixators and pins.
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The bone may be twice as long in a week or so; growth may either engulf an intramedullary pin
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and render it irretrievable or the fracture may no longer be supported by the pin.
The joints are also developing; maintaining range of motion in joints is imperative for the bird to
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have normal mechanical properties of the joint when it has finished growing.
If the chick is headed for wild release, flight feathers must be able to continue growing unim-
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peded by any wraps or splints or pins.
Chicks that need to be able to fly when adults must absolutely have fractures reduced prior to
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fixation to avoid loss of long bone length.
Cross pins in an external fixator may hold a long bone at a certain length while it is trying to
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grow – this can either result in a bone that bends to conform to the fixator length, or in a bone
that grows past the fixator while it pushes past the pins in slow motion. There are, however,
circumstances when pins are appropriate in growing birds, see Duerr and Purdin (2017).

Parasitism
For details regarding the most common and many uncommon parasites of wild birds, see Atkinson
et al. (2008). With certain exceptions (e.g. Capillarids) (Yabsley 2008), helminth (i.e. multicellular,
worm‐like) parasites typically have a life cycle that involves one or more intermediate hosts, thus
concerns for transmission from bird to bird during care are minimal in the absence of intermedi-
ates. Others, such as protozoan parasites, may be able to directly infect birds sharing housing or
cause reinfection after treatment if housing is contaminated, although some require vectors to
transfer infected blood such as ticks (e.g. Babesia spp.) or mosquitos (e.g. avian malaria), which to
some extent can be controlled in captive environments. Individual chapters in this book discuss
parasitic infestations relevant to the species covered. See Hawkins et al. (2018) for a thorough
review of antiparasitics used in birds.
In general, the social needs of wild chicks during development outweigh the need to keep birds
infested with parasites alone until deemed clear of parasites. With few exceptions, at least one
conspecific companion should be paired with an infested chick; most single chicks should never
be kept alone for more than a short period.
From a longer‐term view, it is a likely benefit to wild chicks to have been exposed to the normal
parasites of their species – a subclinical infestation of normal parasites is ideal. However, many
chicks received for care are debilitated in many ways, recovering from starvation or injuries or
both. Consequently, reducing a chick’s parasite burden while it recovers and finishes growing up