Page 179 - BSAVA Guide to Pain Management in Small Animal Practice

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Pain in birds

Steve Smith

Recognition and • lu ed up appearance
evaluation of pain in birds • Sleepy, partially closed eyes
• Separation from other ock members
• Reduced social self grooming
E ective assessment, treatment and • Excessive preening feather plucking
prevention of pain in birds remains challenging. • Vocali ation
ost birds are prey species and mask the • Increased excessive movement
signs of pain to reduce the chance of predation • Reduced activity movement such as beak
clicking or climbing
or to prevent movement down their hierarchy. • Absence of vocali ation
Birds often fail to demonstrate outward signs • ailure to engage with owner
that are typically associated with pain in other • uarding behaviour
animals, for example birds exhibit minimal • Aggression
facial expression; a characteristic often used to • Any other abnormal behaviour
aid pain assessment. here are also intra 3 bserved signs of pain in birds. It should
species di erences in pain sensitivity and even be noted that the signs of pain can be wide
genetic variability. or example, response to and varied and sometimes con icting .
pain has been demonstrated at the individual
level in di erent strains of chickens ughes, survival, can hinder decision making; for
199 . Behavioural changes can be cryptic and example, immobility under observation may
subtle and do not manifest uniformly among or may not be associated with pain. eather
di erent types of bird igure 7. . nowledge grooming is another behaviour that can
of normal species speci c behaviour, as well change variably in relation to pain birds may
as individual behavioural characteristics, are stop grooming when in pain or, conversely,
important, hence, owners are often best at preen excessively when in pain as an
detecting early signs of pain and assessing intentional distraction.
response to analgesia. Successful treatment of bird pain relies on
Some behaviours that birds exhibit, which accurate pain assessment. his remains highly
have evolved over thousands of years for sub ective and the clinician is left to rely on

174 BSAVA Guide to Pain Management in Small Animal Practice. Edited by Ian Self. ©BSAVA 2019

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