I moved to Florida from New Jersey a few months ago, and landed my dream job, working as a receptionist for an avian veterinarian. The hours are long, the work is hard, and I love every minute of it. I get to talk to birds, be around birds, give a little advice, and learn a lot.
A lot, if not a majority of the sick birds we see have ingested metal. Many of these birds are routinely left out of their cages, unsupervised. So many people think their bird is too smart to ingest metallic particles. Smart has nothing to do with it. Would you leave a three year old child home alone, unsupervised? Same thing. Remember, birds have the intelligence of young children.
I know of one Umbrella Cockatoo that had never gotten down off his stand, so the couple who owned him decided to leave him there while they went out for an hour. They returned to find that he had jumped off his stand and totally shredded a pack of cigarettes and 
possibly swallowed some of it. I held him, as the doctor gave him subcutaneous fluids. The birds beak reeked of tobacco. Fortunately, this story had a happy ending. The bird left the hospital the next day and I'm sure his owners will never leave him out, unsupervised again.
For years, I've known that Teflon is toxic, but until recently, I've never seen first-hand, the sad consequences of Teflon used in a home with pet birds. A woman called the clinic, hysterically crying and screaming. I finally got her to calm down enough to hear what the problem was. Her Blue and Gold Macaw had regurgitated, had trouble breathing and had fallen over. I asked if she had been cooking. She said no. She didn't drive. She had called when her husband was on his way home to get her and the bird to bring them in. About 45 minutes later, the distraught couple came running in with, not one, but three dead birds--the Blue and Gold, and two African Greys. They placed the dead birds on the examination table and pleaded with the doctor to revive them. He gently explained that he wished he could, but he couldn't. The three birds were gone. The woman was in shock and her husband wept.
It turned out that the woman had been boiling water in a Teflon-coated pot. The phone rang, and she forgot about it until the water boiled out. The birds, even dead, were in beautiful condition. It was obvious that they were well cared for and much-loved members of the family. The couple was devastated. The sad thing was, they knew that burning Teflon was toxic, but never anticipated such an accident.
How much simpler and safer it is to get rid of all your non-stick cookware and replace it with Revereware or Farberware, or the like. Accidents account for a fair number of our hospitalized birds. Birds that have been stepped on, hit with doors, even a Budgie that had been run over by a bicycle! (Amazingly, the Budgie survived!) All could have been prevented by supervising birds during out-of-cage time.
Animal bites and scratches account for a number of our little patients. Cats will be cats, and don't differentiate between your pet Cockatiel and the outside birds they stalk from the window sill.
One woman had a much-loved Quaker Parakeet that finally succumbed to bites received from a dog that she was caring for as a foster dog.Unfortunately, it just never occurred to her that a dog unaccustomed to pet birds would hurt her pet bird. I've seen the results of bigger birds biting smaller birds and although often, broken legs can be fixed and some birds learn to manage without the top portion of their beaks, these injuries and disfigurements could have so easily been prevented.
Some things, perhaps, cannot be prevented, but there are ways you can protect your cherished little friends. Always supervise out-of-cage time. Get rid of your non-stick cookware. don't assume the various pets you keep will make friends.î Carefully supervise your pets when they are out together. Put your cat in another room while your small bird is out of its cage.
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