Methods for diagnosing avian respiratory diseases

Diagnosing respiratory infections in birds can be challenging, especially when using traditional imaging methods like radiographs or X-rays, as seeing these animals’ air sacs and sinuses is difficult. In an interview with dvm360 on her lecture at the Southwest Veterinary Symposium in Fort Worth, Texas, Lauren Thielen, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), shared how she diagnoses respiratory infections in birds, pointing to computed tomography (CT) scans.

Below is the video transcript

Lauren Thielen, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice): So, my primary way to diagnose respiratory infections in birds is imaging. And so, you know, you can use radiographs or X-rays to, you know, look at the lungs. It's really hard though to see the air sacs, and it's impossible to see the sinuses with these X-rays, so…unfortunately, even the lungs, sometimes disease has to be quite advanced to be able to really see what's going on.

CT [is] just a different imaging modality. And really what it's helping with is not only can you see these really thin air sacks, and you can see them thickened or [with] like plaques on them, but you can really look in the trachea, look inside the sinuses, see the mucus there, and you can pick up very subtle changes to the lungs that you would otherwise miss.