Echocardiographic examinations of 60 African grey parrots and 30 other psittacine birds

The aim of this study was to establish reference values for the assessment of cardiac function in birds by measuring structures in the heart of healthy psittacine birds; 60 grey parrots, 10 Amazon parrots, 10 cockatoos and 10 Senegal parrots were anaesthetised with isoflurane and examined echocardiographically. The heart was visualised in two planes (vertical and horizontal views). Depending on the quality of the images, several dimensions of the heart could be measured and various parameters calculated. on the basis of these values, it was possible to establish reference values for each parrot genus. Some relative parameters showed no significant difference between the genera, independent of the bird's size.