Abdominal effusion in a bird.

A 2-year-old female cockatiel was presented for abdominal swelling of 3 weeks duration. The bird appeared otherwise normal. On physical examination, the abdomen was distended, but no masses were palpable. Abdominocentesis was performed, and 0.5 mL of fluid was removed and submitted to Antech Diagnostics for fluid analysis and cytology. The fluid was light yellow and hazy and had a specific gravity of 1.042, a total protein concentration (by refractometry) of 7.4 g/dL, 250 WBC/μL and <10,000 RBC/μL. Direct smears, sediment smears, and cytocentrifuged preparations (Shandon Cytospin II, Shandon Lipshaw, Pittsburgh, Pa, USA; 66 rpm for 6 min) were made for cytologic evaluation (Figure 1).