How to tell if a parakeet’s wing is broken? Update: Wink is doing well!

[Wink05]

Hi. I painted a wall in my bedroom a few days ago, so moved my parakeet, Wink, to a different room of the house for the couple of days while the fumes cleared out. I moved him to a room that had a gate and was mostly off limit to the pets. A family member didn’t know the bird was in there and let the cat in (I don’t even know why, he knows the cats aren’t allowed in there) and immediately walked away. None of us know exactly what happened, but we heard Wink squawking and ran downstairs. One of the dogs ran down ahead of us and the cat ran off to hide somewhere. The cage’s lid was clawed off and Wink was hiding under a shelf. Wink has an injury under his wing where we think the cat used his paw/claws to reach into the cage, catch him by the wing, and pull him out. We think Wink must have done his best to get away, so wasn’t injured anywhere else.

It has been about 4 days now and the wound is healing up nicely, we did a chlorhexadine rinse the first two days and have been gently coating it with an antibiotic ointment. Wink is eating, drinking, pooping, active, and alert and the wound is healing nicely, no infection. but he holds his wing in a funny way. We are trying to determine if it is broken or if it’s just that the wound hurts him to tuck his wing in right. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I tried to get them in angles that show how he holds his wing. It drops and sticks out very slightly.

If it is broken, what is the best course of action?

 

[Laurasea]

What a scary and dangerous situation. I'm so glad he has made it to day 4. Most cat interactions cause a Pasteurella infection and the bird dies within hours to 48 hours from septic.. so you dodged a bullet this time.. in tge future if an encounter with a cat even a paw get them to tge vet and on antibiotics the same day !!

Its hard to say, to me the wing shoulder area seems swollen , they don't have room to swell much in the tissue there. So any swelling could be an infection or from the injury. Its been enough time fir a secondary wound infection to develop. So I still recommend a veterinarian visit as antibiotics might be needed.

Myself am hesitant to put ointment on a wound as now its sticky abd nasty stuff can stick too it. I use dilute betadine to clean wounds and treat. You can soak a paper towel in tge dilute betadine and hold in tge area a few times a day until healed. Betadine does stain stuff.

As for broken or muscle trauma I have no idea. Again recommend a veterinarian check up.

I hope the little one continues to improve.

 

[Wink05]

What a scary and dangerous situation. I'm so glad he has made it to day 4. Most cat interactions cause a Pasteurella infection and the bird dies within hours to 48 hours from septic.. so you dodged a bullet this time.. in tge future if an encounter with a cat even a paw get them to tge vet and on antibiotics the same day !!

We are fairly certain it was a claw, not a bite which definitely helps. We cleaned the wound within an hour, and monitored it closely. Our nearest avian vet is 2 hours away, and it happened after dinner so they would’ve been closed anyways. I am very thankful that two of my family members are healthcare professionals so we’re able to offer advice as to what to clean the wound with, how often to clean it, and such, and I have some experience with small animals and birds (we rescued a hamster who came to us with a serious fungal infection, a duckling who was attacked by the rest of the flock and had every bit of skin ripped off her leg, and raise dwarf rabbits— we’ve seen everything!)

Its hard to say, to me the wing shoulder area seems swollen , they don't have room to swell much in the tissue there. So any swelling could be an infection or from the injury. Its been enough time fir a secondary wound infection to develop. So I still recommend a veterinarian visit as antibiotics might be needed.

Should I be able to see anything “off” about the wound or his behavior, should there be something brewing?

I have some betadine, should I start rinsing it again? Would a picture of the wound itself be helpful? Wink will let me lift his wing gently to see the wound, and I could switch to an antibiotic cream as opposed to ointment?

 

[Laurasea]

Usually if it's infected you will feel warmth extra warmth in that location, redness, or oozing.
It will become more painful than was originally. That's hard to tell in a burd tho.

Weighing him daily can help as would be loosing weight with infection. For little burds put a bowl of seeds on scale zero it out then put the bird in the bowl hopefully eating seeds nit stressed let's you check weight.

Chlorhexiden is a good cleaner as well. I like betadine better because you can leave on the skin.

I'm glad you had help. Immediately cleaning a wound and continued wound care is excellent. I'm just offering my experience as asked. I have had years of taking care of sick critters myself and did medical parrot fosters .

You are truly lucky he has survived, claws are just as bad. Think of cat scratch fever in humans, its the same Pasteurella bacteria, or another bacteria Bartonella henselae bacteria.
" : In humans, rapidly developing Pasteurella multocida cellulitis after a cat scratch or bite is a well-known entity that sometimes progresses to necrotizing fasciitis and can be fatal."

I hope you and your family can review your cat and burds safety protocol .

The best advice I can share , if it ever happens again is immediately getting veterinarian care. Because if those bacteria enter the wound they need antibiotics and wound care alone won't save them. They die from septicemia in less than 24 hours usually.

Great job in helping him recover. Keep us updated

 

[Wink05]

I definitely appreciate your help! Thank you so much. I wonder if the cleanliness of the cat and it’s litter box has anything to do with the likelihood of the scratch becoming infected?

I will weigh him, and keep you updated! Thank you so much.

 

[Laurasea]

I'm sure it can't hurt. But these bacteria are part of the natural flora of cats, just like we have our own types of bacteria.

 

[Owlet]

I definitely appreciate your help! Thank you so much. I wonder if the cleanliness of the cat and it’s litter box has anything to do with the likelihood of the scratch becoming infected?

I will weigh him, and keep you updated! Thank you so much.

I doubt it as the bacteria comes from the saliva and cats are religious groomers.
I would definitely take him to the vet regardless of possible infection or not. If you're worried about a break there's no way we can determine from a picture and he would need an xray.

 

[Wink05]

Wink is doing well. He holds his wing snug again. It trembles only when he stretches it or flaps it, but quickly goes back to normal. The wound has continued to heal as well! He is alert and eating and drinking, there is no sign of infection.

 

[Wink05]

I am proud to report that Wink is completely back to normal! His wing is completely back to normal and the wound has healed entirely. He continues to eat, drink, and poop. I got him a friend, I thought about it and decided to do it as I realized if he had died, I would have been heartbroken he had spent his life alone. He is so in love with his friend! He grooms her face so gently. He’s like a whole new bird since introducing her. They’ve been in separate cages, so I plan to make a thread about introducing them to the same cage when my bigger one comes.

 

[MayMaroa]

so cute