Overcoming the biggest challenge in avian critical care
And why it's you
At the 2023 American Veterinary Medical Association Convention, Laila Proença, DVM, PhD, MV, MSc, DACZM, CEO and founder of VetAhead, discussed in a dvm360® interview that when presented with birds in critical condition, approach them like any other patient. The major obstacle you may face is getting in your own head, but with experience comes confidence which will help you succeed in avian medicine and other facets of veterinary medicine.
The following is a partial transcript of the video.
Laila Proença, DVM, PhD, MV, MSc, DACZM: The most challenging part of avian critical care is, you, or us. It's getting out of our heads. It's not seeing [the patient] as a monster, but seeing them like any other patient. I think you guys see fractious cats all the time, there's dogs in huge respirartory distress that you can barely touch them at a risk of them collapsing. We trained our brains to understand that and not panic when that happens, but for some reason if that patient is a bird, we start panicking and we can't think with our veterinarian or technician brains. I think that is the most challenging part is getting out of our heads and taking a step back and understanding this is just a patient, like any other patient and trying not to get so worried and so stressed out because you're going to stress out your team, and you're not going to pass [on] that confidence and you're not going to have that confidence in yourself.
When you start practicing medicine, for dogs and cats or horses or whatever you do, I am sure you were not confident, because I wasn't. It is with experience that comes, it is a process, it takes time. It's going to be the same for birds or reptiles or bunnies, whatever you're seeing. So, I think that's the most challenging part is understanding it's not that different, it's getting out of our heads. I would say that is the most challenging part.
