Raptor emergency and critical care: Assessment and examination

Raptors are commonly presented with traumatic injuries and therefore need e mergency stabilization. Triage is key to a successful outcome. History may; be minimal, but field guides can help determine signalment. Raptor physiol ogy, temperament, and presentation status make it challenging to evaluate r espiratory, cardiovascular, neurologic, and musculoskeletal systems. Priori ty should be given to emergency stabilization, with a visual evaluation pre ceding manual restraint for physical examination, which should then proceed ina stepwise manner. The suggested minimum database should be tailored to the individual veterinary clinic but can:be accomplished with minimal time and cost. Further diagnostics should be based on suspected or common diagno stic differentials in the affected system.