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Tegaderm (3M). Lacerations that involve exposed muscle, bone, or tendon heal quickly when
closed with sutures. When evaluating lacerations on admission, special care should be taken to
identify all wounds that may be present. Patients with bite wounds from mammalian predators
should be treated with an antibiotic such as amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (125 mg/kg q12 h)
until the wound has fully healed (Hawkins et al. 2018).
Young birds that are rescued from rookeries situated near or over water are also susceptible to
any of the injuries that generally befall waterbirds: fish hook and fishing line injuries, oiling, and
boat collisions. Although these conditions are less likely to be seen in hatch‐year birds than in
adults of the same species, they should not be forgotten if a young bird has been rescued from an
aquatic environment.

Endoparasites
Herons and egrets are vulnerable to debilitation due to heavy parasite loads. Routine deworming
with ivermectin (0.2–0.4 mg/kg orally once, repeated in 10 days) and fenbendazole (100 mg/kg
orally once, repeated in 10 days) may be useful in areas where moderate or severe endoparasitism
is common (see Hawkins et al. 2018 for dosing information). Consult your veterinarian for a
deworming protocol tailored to local conditions.
Every intake exam of a young bird should include an oral examination, to look for parasites in
subcutaneous mouth tissues, and a gentle but thorough palpation of the abdomen to feel for abnor-
mal lumpy areas. Common oral parasites include flukes, which look like small leeches attached
inside the mouth and under the tongue, and Avioserpens taiwana (Kinsella 2008), a nematode that
resides subcutaneously, looking rather like vermicelli within the floor of the mouth. Swellings
from severe Avioserpens infections may become infected or cause tissue necrosis in the floor of the
mouth (Figure 17.2). At International Bird Rescue, affected chicks are treated with fenbendazole
at 100 mg/kg once, with a repeat dose 10 days later. Lower doses of fenbendazole were ineffective,
as was ivermectin, both orally to the bird and injected directly into the worms. No toxicities or
plumage effects of fenbendazole have been encountered at this dose in many hundreds of chicks.
If the worms are killed, they begin to slowly dissolve within the tissue and disappear within a few

Figure­17.2­ Severe avioserpens infestation in the
floor of the mouth of a Snowy Egret chick. Source:
photo courtesy of International Bird Rescue.