Work back from the symptom to the likely cause, and to how urgent it is.
EXPLORE BY TOPIC
Aspergillosis is a fungal lung infection birds pick up by breathing spores from mouldy feed or damp bedding — hard to spot early, hard to cure late. The signs an avian vet looks for, and what treatment involves.
The safe-deworming walkthrough for backyard chickens — when a worm load needs treating, and what a vet reaches for to clear it.
Fowl pox is a slow-moving virus that shows up two ways — dry scabs on the comb and wattles, or the more serious wet form with yellow plaques inside the mouth and throat. What each one looks like, and the supportive care that gets a flock through it.
A one-off sneeze is usually dust; sneezing paired with runny eyes, gaping, or a wheeze is respiratory infection — the signs that say wait-and-watch versus call the vet today.
Parrot fever — what <em>Chlamydia psittaci</em> does to an infected bird, what it can do to the humans who keep her, and how a vet clears it.
A squishy, warm crop that hasn't emptied overnight, and a sour, fermented smell coming up when you cup a hen's beak under your nose. That's sour crop.
