MEDICATING YOUR BIRD BEFORE LEAVING THE VET'S OFFICE
Before doing anything, even leaving the vet office, always do two things:
1. Examine the bottle(s) of medication and read the labels.
2. Ask for a few extra dosing syringes. This is in case you lose one, or the bird damages the syringe with its beak.
The Medication
Examine the bottle of medication you have received. Are there labels on the bottle? If so, be sure and read them. Some vets don't put warning labels on the medication (Keep in Refrigerator, Shake Well, etc.), so always ask the following questions:
1. Does the medication need to be shaken well before administration?
If the medication is a suspension, it will need to be shaken well or you will not be helping your bird get well, as the medicine will be in one place and the suspending agent in another, in two layers. The result? For half the time the bird is on the medicine, it will be getting the sweet suspension agent--and no medicine. The other half of the time, it will be getting the medicine undiluted--and thus be getting too much medication. If you look at your medicine and see it has separated into two layers of liquid, it is a suspension.
2. Does the medication need to be kept in the refrigerator?
If the medicine needs to be kept in a cool, dark place and is not kept this way, the potency will break down, and the bird will be getting a much weaker product, or a product with no medicinal value at all.
3. Does the medication need to be kept in a dark place?
Many medications are photo sensitive (such as Baytril). This means the medicine must be kept in a dark cupboard or drawer to remain potent.
4. Does the potency of the medication expire after two weeks?
Liquid Clavamox and Amoxicillin are two examples of medicines that, once reconstituted from a dry powder to a liquid, have a short life time in regard to potency, before breaking down. Therefore, should the problem recur, you will not be able to use any saved medicine. Always throw away these sorts of drugs when you are done using them, as after the two week period of use, they will become nothing much more that a sweetened liquid.
5. How often is the bird supposed to be medicated?
Most medications are given two times a day. This means, you should try to give the doses 12 hours apart: one at 9 AM, one at 9 PM. If the dose is 3 times a day, you should try and dose the bird every 8 hours (8 AM, 4 PM, and as close to midnight as possible 10-11 PM), and so on. Try to give the medicine after the bird has had something to eat, rather than on an empty crop (stomach).
