Avian

Lesson 1: Fear Free: Benefits and Application to Avian Patients

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Explain the physiologic and behavioral effect of stress
• Recognize the impact of veterinary visits on animals
• Discuss the client and clinical benefits of adopting Fear Free medicine

Lesson 2: Challenges with Avian Fear Free Veterinary Visits

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Address challenges unique to species differences
• Address challenges unique to flight capabilities
• Address challenges with lack of socialization 
• Address challenges with neophobia
• Address challenges with prior aversive experiences
• Address challenges with a low behavioral stress threshold
• Address challenges with underlying disease 
• Address challenges with lack of preventive veterinary care

Lesson 3: Science of Behavior: Reinforcement and Punishment

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Define operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment, and explain how they influence behavior
• Identify at least 3 potential reinforcers that can be used in a veterinary setting
• Describe why positive punishment should be avoided in the veterinary setting

Lesson 4: Science of Behavior: Classical Conditioning and Desensitization

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Define classical conditioning, counterconditioning, and systematic desensitization
• Differentiate between operant and classical conditioning
• Explain how systematic desensitization and classical conditioning can be used together
• Explain the concept of stress threshold and how it applies to the practice of Fear Free Medicine

Lesson 1: Recognizing Signs of FAS in Birds

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Interpret avian body language in a variety of settings
• Explain how sensitivity to avian body language can help reduce FAS

Lesson 2: What Creates FAS in Birds?

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify common causes of FAS in birds
• List things to avoid in a clinic setting to prevent FAS
• Understand how to interact with individual bird patients to prevent FAS

Lesson 3: What Makes Birds Comfortable?

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Provide social support for birds
• Provide environmental stability for birds
• Handle birds with a considerate approach
• Allow birds to stand or perch in a normal body position

Lesson 1: Roles and Training for Team Members

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Explain the role that each veterinary team member plays in achieving the goal of a Fear Free visit
• Demonstrate how all team members work together in a Fear Free practice
• Identify the best training practices necessary to support each team member in working toward this goal
• Explain the role of the veterinarian in a Fear Free practice and the resources available to support them

Lesson 2: Client Education

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Communicate the value of Fear Free medicine to clients
• Address common client concerns
• Identify which training concepts to introduce first
• Develop written information to send home with clients

Lesson 3: Scheduling and Reception Areas

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Optimize scheduling guidelines for avian patients
• Establish client expectations before the visit
• Educate clients on their role
• Create an appropriate receiving area

Lesson 4: Exam Room Preparation and Patient Intake

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Recognize the considerations that dictate how the exam room is prepared
• Identify the details necessary to prepare the exam room
• Choose wisely the scales you will need
• Identify both food and non-food reinforcers for different species and how to use them
• Implement guidelines to follow when first placing the client in the exam room

Lesson 1: Handling Birds Safely

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Reduce risks for staff and patient injury
• Appropriately handle critically ill patients
• Describe basic species differences
• Safely interact with flighted birds
• Handle multiple birds in the same exam room
• Deal with extreme fear responses and aggressive behavior
• Use towels as a Gentle Control tool

Lesson 2: Gentle Control Techniques for Birds

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify a number of potential pitfalls for restraint
• Describe safe restraint techniques for a variety of avian species groups

Lesson 1: Chemical Restraint for Birds

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Define when it is appropriate to consider chemical restraint in birds
• Describe a number of conscious sedation and anesthetic protocols and explain when they would be indicated

Lesson 2: The Physical Exam

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Put together the information learned from previous lessons and apply it to an avian physical exam
• Describe the step-by-step process of an avian Fear Free exam
• Apply recommendations for conscious sedation, general anesthesia, and postponing procedures

Lesson 3: Feedback and Record-Keeping

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Describe appropriate record keeping for Fear Free visits
• Create a protocol for implementation of record keeping at your practice

Lesson 1: Approach to Diagnostic Sample Collection and Procedures on Avian Patients

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Obtain diagnostic samples and imaging while minimizing FAS
• Describe techniques to minimize FAS associated with medical and surgical procedures

Lesson 2: Hospitalizing Avian Patients with Minimal Stress

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Properly set up a Fear Free avian hospital ward
• Make clinical decisions with patients’ FAS in mind
• Understand options for administering medications in the least stressful way possible for individual patients
• Use enrichment in a hospital setting

Lesson 1: Training Patients In-Clinic

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Train hospitalized patients
• Build value for training sessions with clients
• Develop a fee structure for training sessions

Lesson 2: Case Studies

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Understand the complexity of managing critical avian patients in a Fear Free manner 
• Consider the clinical presentation of avian patients when planning treatments, diagnostics, and procedures
• Advocate for training as an adjunctive therapy in long term case management

Lesson 1: Helping Clients Train

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Be prepared to introduce clients to the basic process of training birds
• Have tools and resources to help inspire and reinforce client participation and engagement
• Have a process for follow up

Lesson 2: Training Session Dynamics

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Understand the role of sensitive periods of development
• Understand training session dynamics
• Approach the bird effectively and assess interest prior to training
• Increase motivation for preferred food items

Lesson 3: Practical Application: How to Train

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Train behaviors with shaping and capturing
• Use a bridging stimulus
• Recall the benefits of antecedent arrangement
• Create an action to reinforce

Lesson 1: Behaviors that Reduce or Eliminate Stress

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Train a bird to orient toward a target 
• Train a bird to step onto a scale and wait there for duration 
• Train a bird to be safely restrained in a towel with minimal stress
• Train a bird to willingly enter a crate or other container for transport
• Train a bird to accept oral medications from a dosing syringe

Lesson 2: Additional Behavior Goals

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Train a bird to step up
• Train a bird for nail trimming
• Train a bird for tactile exam
• Train a bird for voluntary auscultation
• Train a bird for voluntary intranasal medication administration

Lesson 3: Addressing Training Challenges

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Understand how to gain compliance
• Address aggressive behavior
• Address fear responses
• Address lack of trust or socialization