What is a zoonosis? Unfortunately, it's not a fun outing to Taronga, but instead any disease that infects or is carried by animals, which can also infect or be spread to people.
 
An estimated 60% of human infectious diseases around the world are zoonoses. And there's one that has the potential to do a lot of damage to chooks and humans: Bird flu, or Avian Influenza (AI), which has its reservoir in wild birds (they carry it without getting sick). AI comes in multiple varieties including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, (HPAI). An example of HPAI is H5N1, which has lately smashed everything from parrots to penguins on every continent except Australia. 
 
Preparations for the worst are being made. What preparations can owners of backyard chooks make?
 
NSW has an excellent fact sheet here: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/avian-influenza.aspx
 
...with the main take-aways being that bird flu is endemic in wild birds; that is, they carry it in their bodies all the time, and may not show any symptoms or get sick from it, but when they mix with domestic birds, such as your free-ranging leghorns, or contaminate your backyard by coming down to your birdbaths or chook feed dispensers, the virus can be passed to you, not to mention your budgie or your bantam.
 
What to do? Rehome your birds? If your household has immunocompromised people in it (eg young children, the elderly, anyone on chemo or other immunosuppressing medications) this is a valid step. Not just on account of AI, but other endemic zoonoses such as psittacosis, aka parrot fever, which has frequent outbreaks in the Blue Mountains due to our love affair with feeding native species. 
 
If you've ever worked at a big poultry producer, you'll know pet birds at home aren't allowed, because of biosecurity, ie the risk that your pet bird may be invisibly carrying something nasty. Poultry farmers have had the experience of driving vehicles through troughs of disinfectant, to keep contaminated soil out, and of performing a complete shower and change of clothes when passing in or out of the buildings.
 
This kind of barrier between your kitchen and backyard may not be practical. But you can try to approximate it by regularly washing hands with soap and water, wearing coveralls, and disinfecting your gumboots before and after attending to your chooks, even if you don't go the full PPE including P2 mask.
 
If you have a birdbath, situate it well away from areas that your chickens have access to. Fully emptying and disinfecting any food and water vessels every day is ideal. Always choose water containers that can be scrubbed and sterilised over a pond or waterfall which can never be cleaned and which will attract wild waterfowl.
 
Use netting, covered water and feed dispensers, and rat-proofed coops to reduce the chances of wild bird contact and/or contamination. 
 
Be careful around wild birds - enjoy watching them but don't encourage them to land on you, come into human-frequented spaces, or share your food.
 
Love your chooks and your aviary birds but don't kiss them!
 
Keep your annual human flu vaccination up to date. This reduces the chances a bird flu virus and a human flu virus can coexist in your body, potentially swapping genetic material with each other to mutate into the superflu that causes the next pandemic.
 
And if you notice a swathe of sudden deaths, coughing and sneezing, or other symptoms in your backyard flock, refer to this Bird Life Australia handout: https://birdlife.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Avian-Influenza-Fact-Sheet-Sep-2024.pdf
 
...and AVOID, RECORD, & REPORT to the Animal Disease Hotline.

Have you had your blood pressure checked? For the humans in your household, the answer would be of course, yes. But what about your furry family members? Particularly in cats, high blood pressure or hypertension is a common disease that is easy to overlook. But this can result in catastrophic consequences such as sudden blindness, seizures, kidney damage or heart disease.

Cats with pre-exisiting kidney or thyroid disease are particularly prone to developing hypertension and dogs aren’t exempt from the problem.

Fortunately, with a little bit of cooperation, diagnosis is easy. A blood pressure cuff (similar to ours, just quite a bit smaller!) is put on the leg or tail and either using an electronic monitor or listening to the blood flow, the pressure can be measured.
We use several different devices to measure the blood pressure, as with each style their accuracy can depend on the size of the patient and how stressed they are. Oscillometric non-invasive blood pressure monitoring machines are quiet and easy but can be a little temperamental (they do use a computer after all). Doppler monitors can be a bit noisy but allow us to hear the heart beat at the same time. We use a combination of monitors for tracking our patients’ blood pressure both as outpatients or when they are undergoing anaesthesia.
​
If we do detect that a pet has hypertension, the good news is that there are several medications that we can use to help control it and keep your pet safe.

​Do you know what's in your soil? Or, more to the point, what's in your chickens?

In 2019, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the most lead-polluted areas in the Greater Sydney area included the Blue Mountains, with 29% of mountains residences exceeding safe levels.

Where natural background levels are 20-30mg/kg, Blue Mountains average lead concentration in the soil was found to be 287mg/kg.

It might be simple enough for flower-fancying gardeners to whack on gloves while they're trimming the roses, and take away the toddlers' mud pies before dirt hors d'oeuvres can be eaten. But what about free-range backyard chooks? Often, if there's lead in the soil, there's also lead in the eggs.

Lead is absorbed mainly through the gastrointestinal tract in chickens. Chicken bones serve as the long term storage site for the toxic heavy metal. Lead affects the red blood cells, the kidneys, and the nervous system. You might notice incoordination, regurgitation, or weakness. But you also might not - some chooks can absorb terrible amounts of lead without showing any signs - including not slowing down on the egg production.

In a study reported on by the ABC's Conversation in 2022, backyard hens' eggs were found to contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs  ( https://share.google/nWVvKSY54BJcBwHMM ) and almost half the eggs analysed posed a threat to human health.

Sources of lead in the backyard can include contaminants from industrial processes of decades or centuries ago, lead paint used on older houses, residues from the days of leaded petrol, lead pipes, lead sinkers, lead light windows, and proximity to railway lines.

Soil lead testing kits are available at hardware stores, or from online suppliers.

What about testing your hens? Vets can test blood lead levels in chickens. Not all chickens with high levels of heavy metals will show clinical signs. Affected chooks can start a series of injections for chelation therapy - but they then have to go to a safe area of the garden, or be rehomed if you're unable to have your own backyard decontaminated.

For food safety, if a child is eating one egg from a backyard chook per day, the levels of lead in the soil would ideally be less than 117mg/kg - and if you aren't eating the eggs, for the health of the chook, less than 166mg/kg is recommended.

Investigating lead levels in your soil and your chooks may bring peace of mind when it comes to eating eggs sourced from your backyard. 

​Aside from grooming and the removal of matted hair, there are multiple reasons your pet might have had fur clipped at the vet - and it's not to embarrass them on their next trip to the dog park, or unnecessarily expose them to howling winter winds in the Mountains!
 
(a) For a blood draw, or intravenous catheter placement. This quick clip is to reduce the chance of surface contaminants being pushed through the skin by the needle. It's basic disinfection, not aseptic preparation. Within time constraints, we just want to de-fur and reduce as much dirt and normal skin flora - yeast and bacteria - as possible. We will apply spirit on a cotton ball, and, again if time permits, apply a local anaesthetic cream or spray to numb the skin. Clipper rash is a possible complication.
 
(b) For surgical preparation. After clipping the hair, with margins of at least 15cm around any proposed incision, we apply more concentrated antiseptics, such as chlorhexidine or povidone-iodine, used in combination with surgical spirit. Add gentle abrasion, and you have a surgical scrub. Most flora, excepting those hiding deep in the hair follicles, are now dead. Possible complications are clipper rash and a reaction to the antiseptic.
 
(c) For diagnostic ultrasound/Doppler blood pressure. We need to see inside! And air is the natural enemy of ultrasound & Doppler sound waves. Anyone with a Labrador retriever knows how good that lush coat is at trapping warm air against the skin when your dog plunges into an icy lake. Clipping allows the probe and ultrasound gel to press directly against the skin, with minimal air bubbles interfering.

Visiting the vet shouldn’t be a stressful ordeal for your furry family member. Yet, for many pets, a trip to the clinic triggers fear, anxiety, or even outright panic. Whether it’s the association with feeling unwell, a traumatic experience in the past, or simply a dislike of needles, many pets—and their owners—dread veterinary visits.

But, why do we care? Well, there’s some very practical reasons why taking a low fear approach is better. If our patients are anxious or feel pressured, they are likely to react in the ways that can and that includes biting and scratching. None of our team want to be injured so reducing our patients’ apprehension makes a safer workplace. Secondly, we know that >60% of cats and 10% of dogs don’t get veterinary care because they are challenging to bring to the clinic or are a handful to manage once here. If we can take steps to lower the stress of that process, then more animals can access the health care they need. Lastly, we believe that taking a ‘low stress’ approach is the right thing to do! It is well recognised now that pet’s emotional wellbeing is just an important to the physical health, and we don’t want to be relying on traditional approaches that don’t accept this and contribute to the development of fear of the vet clinic.

This is why we’ve invested in the Stress Free Pets professional veterinary certification program for our entire team.

What Is Stress Free (Fear Free) Certification?
This certification equips veterinary professionals (vets, nurses and other support staff) with the skills and tools to reduce stress for animals in a clinical environment. Through rigorous training, comprehensive testing, and annual continuing education, our team members have learned how to recognize signs of stress and anxiety in pets—and, most importantly, how to minimize them.

So What Do We Do Differently?

• Dedicated Spaces: We offer separate dog and cat areas, reducing stressful encounters in the waiting room and in the hospital areas.
• Personalized Care: Patient notes help us identify pets who are nervous around others. We can use different entry points, indoor or outdoor waiting spaces, and minimize contact throughout the visit to make your pet as comfortable as possible.
• Pre-Visit Sedation: When appropriate, we recommend gentle sedation before the visit to help particularly anxious animals remain calm.
• Pheromone Therapy: We use comforting pheromones, like Feliway and Adaptil, on bedding and consult tables to create a soothing environment.
• Ongoing Training: Our team commits to continuous education in stress reduction techniques to ensure your pet always receives the best care possible.

Our Stress Free Pet Certified Professionals go beyond providing medical treatment—they look after your pet’s emotional wellbeing. We’re here to help your pet feel safe, comfortable, and cared for—every step of the way.

​Springwood, maximum 13 degrees. Brrrr!

Who wants to put their pet birds outside in winter? In the mountains? You'd have to be crazy, right?

Actually, you'd be crazy not to. And that's because of the importance of direct sunlight to your bird's vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D is essential for the absorption and utilisation of minerals including calcium. Human residents of the Blue Mountains may be used to their GP's exhortation to get more sun, especially in winter. Without enough vitamin D, laying birds can show reduced eggshell thickness or eggs with no shell at all. Growing birds can show osteodystrophy. All can show clinical signs of hypocalcaemia including seizures, and soft bones prone to deformity or fracture.

Backyard chooks will usually get plenty of direct sun. When it comes to caged birds, however, setting their cage near a window won't quite be good enough, since it's the ultraviolet part of the spectrum they need, which can be filtered out by the glass.

UV-B converts provitamin D in the skin to cholecalciferol, or Vitamin D3. If it's really freezing outside, could you use UV-B fluorescent bulbs for some fake sun therapy? Absolutely! 30 minutes of direct sunlight per day should be sufficient.

Couldn't you just supplement with vitamin D in water or food instead? This can be tricky when it comes to under- or over- dosing. Macaws can get vitamin D toxicity (mineralised kidneys) at lower levels than other birds (1000 IU/kg). Dosages vary, and many formulated diets already contain extra fat-soluble vitamins including vitamin D.

Ideally, regulation of calcium and vitamin D would happen with variety in the diet, optional grit available at all times, and plenty of direct sun. It is possible to get vitamin D toxicity by oversupplementing, but not via too much UV-B! (Sunburn remains possible, keep in mind).

Whether you go for the UV-B lamp or the wintry mountain sunshine, taking care of your bird's bones will be worth it. Happy solstice!