Bird Care info, similar story?

[MKay]

A couple weeks ago, my amazon became tangled in one of his toys. It was a wooden toy that had strips of cloth (similar to a bedsheet) that hung through holes. At the end of each strip of cloth was a ring. My parrots love these toys; we'd find them everywhere, even Wal-Mart carries them. My pionus would chew the wood, and the others swing from the rings and tear at the strips of fabric.

Well, my amazon had tangled his foot in the cloth strip. It had somehow wrapped around his leg and he was unable to get loose. I'm not even sure how long he was hanging there before I figured it out, as he frequently would hang from the rings and flap like a silly guy that he is. He chewed at his foot, and I noticed that it was bleeding. Of course I had to cut the strip free and unwrap it from his leg. It wasn't so bad then, but he was so upset and I'm sure it was uncomfortable. I cleaned and wrapped his wounds, and he tore that bandage right off, further damaging the foot. I called the vet (45min-1hr one way) and they were just about to close shop for the day. Luckily, there was somewhere else I could go, though they're not avian vets, they've been handling parrots for over 20yrs and have worked very closely with the avian vet; I trust them equally. They have meds on hand; I took Treeko with me and we headed that way. It was nearly impossible to try to make him leave his foot alone in the car; I had to hold him (nobody else was home to help me) because he kept picking at it. He only got a hold of that foot a couple times, but he's an amazon. You can imagine--it looked like a lawnmower had run him over by the time we arrived at our destination (20min drive). My friend (a Godsend) helped me clean and again bandage his foot, this time taking care to wrap an extra toe and secure the bandage as it needed to be. She used a wet bandage that would seal the toe that was very badly chewed. After administering antibiotic (YES, she knew what she was doing!) and sending me on my way with a prepped syringe for the next day, we were on our way.

Due to the extent of the injury, it was advised that the foot be left alone for at least 2wks to allow the skin to grow back. The bone was showing on the one toe. That's how bad it was. Well, today we looked at the toe, and though we didn't remove the bandage completely (it was hardened like a cast) we could see that there was a hole in the skin where the worse bite had been. It was not infected, never any draining or swelling, just a hole now that we covered up and will check in another week as per her advice. (I value her experience and knowledge just as I would the actual avian vet).

Have any of you dealt with an injury of this nature? If so, how long did it take for the foot to completely heal? Treeko looks like Christmas, with his red vet wrap on his foot and his green body looking dry since he's been missing his showers!

At least it's safe to mist him now; couldn't risk getting the bandage wet before, and you should just see the fellow! He's cranky and flakey!

Looking forward to hearing any similar stories and any advice. He's used his foot since the first day he chewed it. What a trooper!! Never favors it, works just fine!

How long to fill the hole in his toe, you think?

 

[Peta]

Firstly let me say how sorry I am that Treeko has had such a bad accident and I do hope it will heal up very quickly.

I've never had any of my birds hurt quite so badly, thankfully, Bucc has a few of those toys and loves them, he managed to get his wing caught in one a while back but he made such a noice about it that there was no mistaking the fact that he was caught and I was able to free him very quickly without any damage being done to him.

Bucc did once manage to get a foot injury once, his fault completley, as he was tormenting my little parakeets, who are usually very nervous and shy, but on this day Errol had had enough and managed to bite his toe, we had a little blood and a little hole, very small but that took a good 2 weeks to heal. But I have to add that was NO where near like Trekko it was more like a scrape than anything else. Trekko seems to be coping very well indeed and I hope that he makes a full recovery as soon as possible.

Keep us informed of his progress, we wish him all the very best for a speedy recovery.

 

[MKay]

How funny about your brave Erol! When Treeko was younger, my lovebird, Onyx, jumped right off of my shoulder and into his cage. He seemed to enjoy the company.

I don't think he'd be so forgiving of an intruder now, though I'm not going to test that theory!

Thank you for the well-wishes. Treeko is softly singing right now, very quietly as their all just waking up. It was a late night!

 

[Peta]

Treeko certainly seems to be keeping a close eye on what Onyx is up to. LOL That is a great photo, thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[Alison]

Injuries like that generally take two - three weeks to fully heal. The fact that he uses the foot is a good sign. If there were alot of damage inside the foot, he wouldn't have such good use of it. Given the large volume of birds I have had here, I have had the misfortune of having more than the average amount of injuries like that over the years, once was a Cockatiel that got his leg band caught on a swing and she was hanging upsidedown for quite a while and had chewed her leg pretty badly trying to get down. She fully recovered in about 3 weeks. Still had scars, but no open wounds or apparent problems with mobility. I have since made adjustments to all the swings to ensure it never happens again. I also had a Cockatoo get her toenail caught in a cage protector, she did some damage to herself trying to get free also. I no longer use cage protectors for that reason as well as other safety reasons that have come to light. I have had a few birds receive feet, leg and toe wounds (including amputation of toes) by other birds whos cages they decided to get on when they shouldn't have. They all recovered too with in a couple weeks. I hope Treeko is doing good.