Cloacal Swab

Cloacal swabs will provide information about the digestive and, in some cases, urinary tract of birds. The swabs can be used for cytology,
fecal analysis or culture.

The vent is a transverse opening on the ventro-caudal aspect of the bird for waste elimination and reproduction. Prior to swabbing this
area it is ideal to evert the mucosa to examine for any obvious pathology (Figure 1).

Figure 1.
Cloacal eversion in a parrot revealing a cloacal papilloma.

To obtain a cloacal swab, have your assistant restrain the bird in a towel. Tip the bird slightly on its back to properly visualize the vent.
Use sterile saline to move the feathers away from the vent.

Select a sterile culturette or mini culturette based on the size of the bird. Moisten the swab with sterile saline. Gently rotate the swab to
enter the vent.

For cytology, roll the culturette on a slide and then dry and fix it to the slide. Interpretation must take into consideration the potential
of contamination with normal bacterial floral. Stain the slide with Gram’s stain and evaluate for the presence of gram negative bacteria,
parasites or yeast organisms.

For culture analysis, the culturette transport medium can be used.

AUTHOR
Erika Cervasio