Surgery fears

[Farnoosh]

Dear all,
I have a pineapple green cheek female named Paisley who was born with a slightly deformed toe. Her toenail curls in and grows into her foot if it doesn't get trimmed and properly taken care of by an avian doctor every seven weeks. After about two years of doing this, her doctor is now suggesting a surgery to remove that toenail permanently. The doctor's concern (and also mine) is that trimming that little toe of hers is very tricky and sometimes Paisley get a little hurt if the doctor accidentally comes into contact with her flesh as she is trying to trim the nail. The doctor is worried that if she makes a cut into her toe by accident, then they will have to do emergency surgery. Also, if for whatever reason her toe doesn't get the regular trimming, it can get infected – which has happened a couple of times already.
I'm very scared about surgery in general, and of course there is always that slight little bit of chance that things might not go well. The doctor believes that things will be okay and it will be an easy 15 minute surgery. But of course you can never guarantee anything in terms of the surgery going wrong.
My biggest fear is that the anesthetic (yes they will have to put her to sleep and they can't just do a topical anaesthetic unfortunately) might be dangerous for her.
I lost my bird Daisy who was very young due to health issues a couple of years ago and I'm pretty traumatized by it still. Even just a thought of Paisley maybe not making it through surgery makes me want to cry and brings back a lot of trauma and difficult emotions.
I don't know what to do. I just thought that maybe I could post this on this for them because I know that in the past people on here have been so helpful to me when I was going through issues with my previous bird. I'm hoping that some of you can perhaps share any experiences you may have with small birds and surgeries, success stories, or anything I should think about, or anything else you want to say I would be so grateful to hear from you.
Thank you so much,
– Paisley and her concerned parront.

 

[SailBoat]

Reality Check!!

The normal position of the toe nail is very close to the body, Now!
Trimming every seven weeks states that without trimming this nail will enter the body!
That will cause a serious infection with the combination of an emergency surgery and will more likely make a positive outcome problematic!
The micro amount needed prior to a toenail surgery with 'no' infection would be within safe levels. Yes as with Humans, all surgeries have some level of risk.
At this moment, just trimming has caused issues that could lead to infections.

Time to be that Adult within you and accept the risk, but understand the the richness of the upside is a happy Parrot that is not faced with a lifetime of Vet visits every seven weeks that could easily go bad.

Deep Breath, slow exhale and set the appointment.
You are not alone, you have this Forum standing behind you!!

 

[clark_conure]

My previous Cinamon GCC had a beak missaligned and the vet had to like dremel it from time to time. She put her to sleep (alive) several times. Never an issue was a little wobbly, and a little "WTF was that" afterwards but was always ok. I wouldn't worry. The AVNs know what they are doing. If you don't trust your AVN find anouther AVN. I trust mine.

 

[Farnoosh]

My previous Cinamon GCC had a beak missaligned and the vet had to like dremel it from time to time. She put her to sleep (alive) several times. Never an issue was a little wobbly, and a little "WTF was that" afterwards but was always ok. I wouldn't worry. The AVNs know what they are doing. If you don't trust your AVN find anouther AVN. I trust mine.

Thank you so much for sharing, and for the reassurance

 

[Farnoosh]

Reality Check!!

The normal position of the toe nail is very close to the body, Now!
Trimming every seven weeks states that without trimming this nail will enter the body!
That will cause a serious infection with the combination of an emergency surgery and will more likely make a positive outcome problematic!
The micro amount needed prior to a toenail surgery with 'no' infection would be within safe levels. Yes as with Humans, all surgeries have some level of risk.
At this moment, just trimming has caused issues that could lead to infections.

Time to be that Adult within you and accept the risk, but understand the the richness of the upside is a happy Parrot that is not faced with a lifetime of Vet visits every seven weeks that could easily go bad.

Deep Breath, slow exhale and set the appointment.
You are not alone, you have this Forum standing behind you!!

Thank you so much for the wise words, and for the support. I love this forum still very scared but I know it's the logical thing to do…

 

[clark_conure]

yeah she will be fine. They actually look a little funny as they come out of it.....a little funny.