Magoo, a hyacinth macaw, gashed his foot on a toy block. Fortunately, his sitter knew how to stop the bleeding.

MAGOO IS a wonderful hyacinth macaw that I had the pleasure of meeting under less-than-wonderful circumstances.

Magoo's "mom" had recently moved to Atlanta and had not yet found a veterinarian. She was away on a business trip, and Magoo was staying with one of my clients.

Magoo had been adjusting to all the changes - new home and new people - very well. But while exuberantly destroying some toy blocks, he gashed open his foot. Luckily, his sitter knew the first rule of first-aid for bleeding: apply pressure. She grabbed the foot with a nearby washcloth and by the time she arrived in my office, there was no more bleeding. All we had to do was clean up and suture the area. Magoo healed quickly and beautifully without incident because his caretaker knew how to handle an emergency.

Whether you are thinking about acquiring a bird or already have one, preparing for an emergency is one aspect of bird care you might have overlooked. It's an important one, though. And the best time to think about what you might do in a crisis is now, not after it happens.

Let's take your first-aid game plan step by step. Here is what you'll need to know: whom to call, how to restrain your bird, and how to perform some fairly simple procedures.

First things first: Finding a good veterinarian
There is no substitute for good medical care that is tailored to your pet. First and foremost, retain a veterinarian who routinely sees avian patients and with whom you are comfortable. Birds have many special needs that require specific avian knowledge. Keep the numbers of your veterinarian and the nearest after-hours emergency clinic by the phone.

When an emergency occurs, knowing how to properly restrain your bird is crucial. Not only will it help prevent him from harming himself further, it will put you in a better position to take stock of the situation and save you from painful bites (even birds who never nip will if they’re hurting).

Try to accustom your bird to restraint before an emergency arises. You’ll be glad you did. It will familiarize him with the process and give you practice, too, so there will be one less thing to be anxious about. If you can, practice while he’s still young. Otherwise, work with your older bird on a regular basis.

It may look uncomfortable, but the neck hold is the safest way to restrain a parrot.

I find that wrapping a towel around a bird helps “extend” my hands and allows for better and more comfortable control for both the patient and me.

So that you can pick the bird up with the towel already in place, start by gently draping it over him. Next, grasp him around the neck with the opposite hand you are accustomed to using. (In other words, if you are right handed, use your left hand to pick him up.) This leaves your other hand free to examine him.

The advantage to holding the neck is that your bird can't bite you; he can bend his head down only as far as you allow. If you want less range of motion, just slide your grasp up, to just below the jaw.

If holding by the neck sounds dangerous, it does require care. However, unlike mammals, whose tracheas are composed of incomplete C-shaped cartilaginous rings, birds’ windpipes have completely closed rings of cartilage. This makes them more difficult to accidentally crush than C-shaped rings, whose sides can break.

Never try to restrain your bird by holding onto either side of the cheek over the temperomandibular joint. This will bruise his face - and he can still pivot his head to bite.

To keep your bird's feet from flailing you can hold onto them with your free hand or ball the towel up around them. (This is an especially good skin-saving trick if the nails are long and needlelike!) A lot of birds will grasp the towel by themselves.

To help keep the wings folded and close to the body, you can tuck in the edges of the towel. If you've done this correctly, your bird should look like the proverbial pea in the pod (with the towel as the shell).

The towel should be snug but not excessively tight. Make sure your bird's head stays uncovered so he can see what's going on and the towel isn't poking him in the eyes. After all of this, let your bird chew on any free towel. It will give him something other than somebody's fingers on which to take out his frustration.

Perhaps the most important point to remember about restraint is to monitor your bird's breathing. Do not try to stop him from struggling by holding on "in the middle," over the chest area. Birds do not have diaphragms. They need to be able to move the chest upward to pull air into the respiratory system. So make sure that the chest is free to move - and that it's moving.

I've found that the thought of having to restrain their parrot in any situation is one of the most agonizing for owners to overcome. The trick is to practice occasionally so that when the real test comes, you don't make a bad situation worse by using improper techniques. And remember to be confident, calm, and vigilant. Though it may not seem like it at the time, your confidence and skill will help your bird remain calmer, too.

Bleeding and fractures
Two of the most basic areas of first-aid you should be familiar with are how to stop bleeding and what to do if your bird breaks a bone.

One caveat before we begin: these are general suggestions and may not be what your own veterinarian would prescribe. Always call your veterinarian first, and if you can't make the call, have someone else do it while you start first aid.

Your bird is bleeding; what should you do? Direct pressure is the old standby and very reliable whether as a first means of defense or the last, when other ideas are not working. Depending on how much pressure you apply, the patient’s blood pressure and the size and location of the wound (beaks, for instance, can be awkward), most types of bleeding should clot within about a minute. Prolonged bleeding could mean your bird has a clotting problem, which can be caused by liver disease, some medications or a deficiency in vitamin K.

Let’s start with nails. It is easy for a nail to get broken, especially if it’s a little too long. It is also easy to "quick" a nail with traditional nail clippers. For larger birds, I recommend using a dremel. Although some people question the extra restraint time required to grind the nail, I think it's less stressful in the long run. Dremeling takes only a few minutes; clipping to the quick can cause pain for a day or two. A dremel also lets you round the nail edges so there are no sharp or splintered edges.

However, I don't recommend you just pick up any dremel and bit and grind your bird's nails. Have someone well versed in this type of nail trim help you select appropriate equipment and teach you how to perform it safely.

A broken nail can bleed profusely without a clotting agent.

If you find yourself faced with a bleeding nail, you can help along the clot in several ways. Direct pressure does not work very well in this case; most bird owners use some type of styptic powder, sold in most pet supplies store. (To make application easier I fill a 1 ml/cc syringe.)

Silver nitrate sticks are another option. Or, you can make do with a household cure: flour, corn starch or bar soap (Ivory has the fewest chemicals).

When "blood feathers" break
While new feathers are growing in, they have both an artery and vein running through them. Clumsy birds such as babies and birds prone to thrashing such as cockatiels often will break one of these new "blood" feathers and when they do, the bleeding can be profuse - enough in some birds to be life-threatening. As the bird thrashes around and splatters the blood it can look like they are bleeding even more.

The rule of thumb when drawing blood for laboratory testing is that a bird can safely lose 1 ml (cc) of blood per 100 grams of weight. For instance, a 50-gram bird can lose 0.5 mls (cc) of blood. An easy way to try to learn to estimate blood loss on the floor or other surface is to get a syringe and fill it with colored water and do some test splatters outside.

In most cases, the best way to deal with a broken blood feather is to pull it. You'll need some type of instrument that provides a good grip. One option is a pair of hemostats, used in medicine to hold tissue. You can buy fairly inexpensive ones at the corner drug store or, if you would like better quality ones, have your veterinary office order them for you. Another option is a pair of fine needle-nosed pliers.

Peroxide works great for determining which of several blood-stained feathers is bleeding. It will "bubble" on all blood present but it will turn old blood stains brown. The freshly spurting blood will be red.

Grasp the shaft of the feather above the tear, making sure you haven't accidentally closed around any skin. Hold firmly and pull straight out in the direction the feather is growing. Do not jerk or pull at an angle because this could cause further tearing.

If you still need help, apply pressure if possible and get to a veterinarian.

Pulling feathers does hurt, but if you leave a broken blood feather in place, the scab could dislodge later and cause further bleeding. That said, not all veterinarians prefer to pull bleeding feathers. They would rather apply pressure if necessary and leave the feather in place. Pulling feathers can damage the follicle. It can also result in tearing or shredding the feather shaft further, making it even more difficult to stop the bleeding. This is definitely one of those questions to discuss with your veterinarian before an emergency.

When wounds threaten
When your bird tangles with a sharp edge or is attacked by another animal, a nasty cut or worse can be the result. First, try to stop the bleeding with pressure. Your technique will depend on the type of wound and where it's located.

For example, cotton balls are a good choice for staunching a small cut on the leg because the fibers left behind will help form a clot. If the wound is large, possibly involving a fractured bone, using cotton balls or any other material that would leave anything behind is probably not the best idea. If they're handy, cotton gauze pads may work better.

Once bleeding has stopped, wait 30 to 60 minutes to attempt to clean the wound. You don't want to rush the clotting process or it could start bleeding again. Besides, your bird could probably use some rest after all the stress. Once the clot has had time to organize and the small vessels time to constrict and seal, you can proceed.

When in doubt, do not put anything in a cut or wound that you would not put into your own eye! Many chemicals can damage tissues. Oil-based cream, ointments and other solutions can destroy a bird's ability to maintain body temperature. Some acceptable solutions are warm water (not hot), 1% chlorhexadine (Nolvasan), or betadine diluted to the color of weak tea.

Contact your avian veterinarian to determine what, if anything, else needs to be done. Your bird should go in as soon as possible if a cut is large or he's lost a lot of blood. Any wound caused by animal attack also is a "right then" emergency. Sepsis, a system-wide infection usually caused by bacteria, can kill a bird within 12 hours.

Binding broken bones
Broken bones in birds usually happen in the wings or legs. The good news is fractures usually are not fatal, unless other conditions or complications are involved.

However, the wing and leg bones are hollow and when they break, they usually splinter into several pieces. The pieces often have sharp edges that can damage soft tissue and cause a bigger problem than the fracture itself. Your goal is to prevent further injury by stabilizing the fracture and keeping your bird quiet.

The figure 8 bandage gets its name from the way it crisscrosses on the wing.

How can you tell your bird has broken something? Often the affected wing will droop - but not always. A leg may appear to be very weak or won't be used at all. Sometimes these are symptoms of different problems altogether. The only way to tell for sure is x-rays, so if you have doubts, always follow up any first-aid with your avian veterinarian.

The basic orthopedic principle in treating fractures is to stabilize the joint above and below the site. Here's how you would do that for a broken wing.

For parrots, which resist their bandages, an especially secure type of splint called the Figure 8 is your best bet.

Place the injured wing in the normal resting position near the body. Using vet wrap or an Ace bandage with Velcro, start the bandage inside the top of the wing. Roll it over the top of the wing and diagonally to the bottom edge of the wing.

Continue behind the wing back up to the top in a straight line. Now bring the bandage over the top of the wing again but this time roll it diagonally the other way to the lower edge directly below the starting point. Roll it behind the wing in a straight line back to where you started. The bandage should now cross in an X pattern on top of the wing and run parallel underneath it. Repeat one or two more times, keeping the wrap firm but not too tight.

To finish up, roll the bandage over the bird's back, under the opposite wing, around the body and back to the injured wing. This part also needs to be firm but not too tight! You want your bird's chest to be able to expand so he can breathe.

When the bandage is in place, and before you place the self-adhesive layer, check to ensure the bandaged wing is level with the unbandaged wing when folded. This simple check is quick assurance the bandaged wing is in proper position.

The finished figure 8 completely immobilizes the injured wing.

If the wings are unclipped, the tips of the primaries (the longest wing feathers) should lie on top of the secondary feathers. If they are under the secondary feathers, the top of the wing is flexed too much and the bandage needs to be loosened.

A technique for other birds
For birds that don't fight their bandages or need a lighter weight splint, such as finches, canaries, pigeons and doves, a simple wing splint will do nicely.

Start with the loose end of the bandage just inside the injured wing. Wrap the bandage around the body including the top of the opposite wing and attach it to itself near where you started. Make sure the bandage is secure, yet loose enough for the bird to breathe.

Take a second strip of bandage and connect it to the first in the center of the bird's back. Then run this second piece down the length of the body, including the tail, so that it lies beneath the wing tips. Now start a third piece of bandage in the same place as you did the first, just inside the injured wing, and wrap it around the bottom so that it's behind the bird's legs but above the vent. Continue this piece under the opposite wing and secure it to the second strip on top.

Finally, roll a fourth piece of bandage around the wing tips and tail and tape it. When you're done, you should have a system of strips in place that will effectively immobilize the injured wing.

The Robert-Jones bandage
If your bird has a fractured leg, an acceptable quick-and-easy splint is what is called a Robert-Jones bandage. Basically, take roll gauze, a strip of cloth (or washcloth even), or rolled paper (if nothing else is handy), and wrap it around the leg several times so it makes a tube around the leg.

Try to place the leg in a normal position if at all possible. If bone is visible, try not to touch it while wrapping. Tape the edges of the bandage in place. However, if you cannot incorporate the joint above and below the fracture for stability, don't try this bandage.

You can keep a small cage warm by placing a heating pad against one side and wrapping in plastic.

The home hospital
If your bird does not need oxygen or other specialized care at the veterinarian's, you may be able to care for him at home. You should focus on four areas: temperature, access to food and water, environment, and your patient's mental status.

A sick bird needs extra warmth at all times until fully recovered. Keep the temperature at between 80 and 85 Fahrenheit. A heating pad or light bulb for the cage, or an incubator, or a ceramic heater in a small room all can work as long as you set them up safely. For instance, if you use a heating pad, make sure your bird can move away from it if he wants to. The pad placed beneath half the cage can work. I also like to give most birds a choice of lighter or darker - 24 hours of light is stressful for any creature, so set up light bulbs accordingly. If you go the room heater route, be certain the heater does not have any internal components made of Teflon. These can emit poisonous fumes and kill your bird. Whatever you choose as a source of heat, make sure it's safe.

Monitor the ambient temperature to make sure your bird does not overheat. If he pants with his beak open and wings held away from the body, it's time to dial down the mercury a bit. Equip the cage with a thermometer he can't come into contact with in case he starts feeling better and decides to chew.

Keep perches low so your weak bird can't further injure himself, and serve food and water on or near the floor of the cage so it's easy to access. Sick birds don't feel like climbing up to a food cup to eat. Small ceramic bowls work for some birds.

Pedialyte can help maintain electrolyte balance in birds with a poor appetite. Be sure to offer your bird's favorite treats, even if they're not the healthiest. The goal is to keep him eating!

If your bird stops eating and you're not experienced at gavage, or tube, feeding, contact your veterinarian immediately to decide what is the best approach for supportive care.

The pressure to "look good"
You'll want to keep your bird in a quiet and dimly lit room where he can feel secure. Never allow the dog, cat, or any other four-legged predator to wander through no matter how well your animals usually get along. The bird may feel pressured to "look good" - instead of looking like dinner - and use energy he may not have.

Your bird may also perk up whenever you are near, then go back to lethargy as soon as you leave. To tell how he’s really feeling, try monitoring him from a vantage point where he cannot see you.

Keep all the syringes, medicines and towels you need to medicate and restrain your bird nearby and easily accessible. The goal is to get treatments done quickly, correctly, and with as little stress for the patient as possible.

Read more about it
You can read more about first aid for birds in one of my favorite books on the topic, First Aid for Birds: An Owners Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Gary Gallerstein, DVM and Julie Rach. Another good resource is Zen Publishing's "by the phone" first-aid pamphlet that lists the problem, its possible causes, and what you can do. Your veterinarian can order it for you.

After knowledge, your best insurance in an emergency is to stay calm. Panic is for after it is all done. Practice beforehand what you would do in an emergency, if possible. But most importantly, remember to take a deep breath and help your pet when he needs you the most.

Tammy A. Parker, DVM is a 1993 graduate of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Currently employed at Loving Hands Animal Clinic in Alpharetta, Ga., Dr. Parker is responsible for exotic animal medicine and surgery. She acts as an advisor for the Georgia Department of Agriculture and volunteers her skills at the Chattahoochee Nature Center Wildlife Clinic. She is an active member of the Association of Avian Veterinarians.