I totally understand about the cost being much more at the CAV/Avian Specialist Vet, however as you found out, you get what you pay for, and when it comes to your bird's well-being, or any pet's well-being, you can't take these chances...Just as an aside, my Green Cheek, Bowie, got a horrible infection in his foot/leg this past year and he almost died from it, and it was due to me trimming one toenail too short until it bled, and bacteria just happened to get inside it. It cost me a whole lot more than the cost of a nail-trimming at my CAV to save his life, with exams, x-rays, and meds.
That's something I like about KwikStop, it has a mild antibiotic that usually stops infections before they start.
I'm glad Bowie survived it. That story shows that nail trims are an important part of healthcare and too often get overlooked.
Yes, we unfortunately just don't think about such simple things, and they can become horrible tragedies...I have probably trimmed, no exaggeration, over 500 birdie toenails in my lifetime (caring for my mom's breeders when I was growing-up, and then my own), or at least filed them because they typically don't get that long due to using the Cement-Perches that Gail and Christa are talking about, so they only need the point at the end filed-down every few months. I usually don't cut them too short, I know how to look for the vein, though I keep powdered QwikStop on-hand at all times while I'm doing it...And I've not ever once had a bird get any type of infection or after-care issues before. Not once. With Bowie I simply clipped one of the nails on his foot a bit too short, it bled a bit, I immediately put QwikStop on it, and he didn't even seem bothered by it at all, he didn't make a peep when I clipped it, nor did he care when I put the QwikStop on it, he went about his business as soon as I let him go...And then 2 days later I noticed that this particular toe with the nail I trimmed just a bit too short has swelled-up quite a bit. He wasn't favoring it and he was walking on it, no open wounds or bleeding, so I soaked the entire foot in a mix of Hibiclens and warm water for about 5 minutes, patted it dry with sterile gauze, and then applied Neosporin to the tip of the nail, as that was the only "open" area anywhere on his foot. The next day his actual foot was swollen, and off to the CAV we went.
My CAV told me that he sees this quite often with both toenail trims and beak trim where the person uses a power rotary tool and accidentally exposes the blood supply in the beak or the toenail. It just happens. He took an x-ray, did blood-work, and did microscopy on a sample of his blood, and he was fine at that point, just a local infection in his toe. So he gave him an injection of Cephz and put him on oral Cephz as well, and I kept soaking his foot in the Hibiclens daily...3 days after that Bowie was acting very sick all of a sudden, lethargic, not eating, and looking at me like something was really wrong and he wanted me to help him... We had to go to the 24-hour Emergency Animal Hospital because it was on a weekend at that point, they did more blood-work and told me he was septic....My CAV kept him overnight on antibiotic injections and tube-feedings for one night, and somehow Bowie survived. But just a simple thing like a toenail trimming almost killed him...
***I have a Cement-Perch in each one of my guy's cages, I bought them all at Petco I believe, they are about a foot or so long, and have a round, plastic attachment at the end that you turn to tighten them to the cage bars. They are all different colors as far as the cement goes, I'm looking at Kane's right now as he sits on it, lol, the cement part of his is light green and the round, plastic part that tightens to the cage bars is dark green. He's had the same one since I brought him home 2 years ago now, and it's still got a lot of life left. Kane sits on it constantly, I put it inside the front of his cage, towards the top, and it's his favorite place to sit and walk back and forth on...He also uses it daily to rub/file his beak on. I forget how much they cost me each, but it wasn't much, and they're great. Work very well for both their beaks and their toenails...
***Pro-Tip: Unlike Kane and Bowie, who love their Cement Perchs, I could not get Lita, my Quaker, to sit on hers for anything. I tried moving it all over different areas of her cage, I switched it out with the Manzanita Perch she sits on the most, I even switch colors from light-pink cement to light-blue cement, lol. Nothing. She avoided it like the plague...Then I decided to kind of "force" her to have to use it by arranging both her food bowl and the little water bowl that she uses to dunk her pellets in so she'd have to sit on the Cement Perch in order to eat...She didn't fight it at all then, she hopped right on it and we've never had a problem since...And as a bonus, since it's what she stands on to eat, it's also what she uses to wipe her beak off on while she's eating!
So yeah, I too highly recommend hitting the pet store and buying a Cement-Perch to anyone who is having to clip their bird's toenails, and especially to anyone who has a bird who's beak grows long enough that it has to be filed-down/Dremmeled to reduce it's length...I'm not talking about filing the point off the end of their beak, or using a file to clean-up any uneven edges on the bottom mandible, etc., I'm talking about birds who have beaks who actually grow long enough IN LENGTH that they have to have the end actually taken-off/shortened. Because I've not once noticed any of my guy's beaks growing in length at all, and they all wipe their beaks off on the Cement-Perches, and I've seen Kane actually using it to literally "file" the tip of his beak on while he wasn't eating, he just goes to the Cement-Perch and spends a minute filing his beak on it...
