Avian Practice
Core concepts
Avian medicine rewards a candidate who thinks in species groups: psittacines, passerines, raptors, waterfowl, and poultry differ in anatomy, restraint, and drug tolerance. Master the unique anatomy - the avian lung is rigid with air sacs providing unidirectional airflow, so inhaled drugs and gases behave differently than in mammals; the kidney has renal portal valves, so inject caudally administered drugs with care; and birds lack a diaphragm, making coelomic palpation and respiratory assessment distinct. Understand the cloaca, the uropygial gland (absent in some species), and the importance of keel and body condition scoring.
Diagnostics and husbandry
Know that birds mask illness until late; weight trends are the single most useful serial data point. Familiarize yourself with choanal and cloacal swabs, feather and skin cytology, and the value of radiography with the wings pulled forward. Nutrition-related disease (hypocalcemia in African grey parrots, obesity in Amazon parrots, vitamin A deficiency in seed-fed birds) is heavily tested.
Traps
Questions often swap mammalian and avian norms: birds have nucleated red cells and thrombocytes (not platelets), a higher body temperature, and a very short gastrointestinal transit. Do not assume a mammalian drug dose scales directly. Egg binding, cloacal prolapse, and respiratory distress from air sac disease are common vignette themes.
Worked example
A budgerigar with a swollen cere and crusty nares - think Knemidokoptes (scaly face mite) versus a respiratory infection; the mite answer is favored when the cere is affected and the bird is otherwise bright. Rule of thumb: in a small psittacine, examine the cere and feet first, because that is where the cheap, high-yield diagnoses live.