Tiki Was Attacked Today

[ChristaNL]

what Ellen said - get (all of) those birds checked out (PDDtests and everything) asap

 

[Teddscau]

Sorry for not responding guys! I took Tiki to the vet and his leg...well it's injured, that's for sure. It's not broken or anything, he still has feeling in it, it's not infected, etc. However, his tendon or whatever was injured (you could see his exposed tendon since SOMEBODY had removed his calf muscle or whatever that muscle is), so he can't grasp with his foot at the moment. Okay, I know what you're thinking, but at the moment that's not a bad thing. He was getting pressure sores all over that leg before from walking on it with a closed fist, but now he's forced to walk on it with his toes positioned properly.

His leg's healed up quite nicely if I do say so myself (or at least I think it looks better/the swelling's gone down), and I'd say his tissue should be regrown before winter comes. I wasn't actually too worried about his leg "regrowing", I was just worried about infection.

So yeah, long story short, it looks like Ju might have eaten Tiki's calf muscle, based on the fact that I saw Ju beating Tiki up several days ago. I had to keep shooing him away from the cripple, but he kept running back to grab Tiki by his crippled leg. Don't worry, I've ordered Tiki a special enclosure.

Man, the enclosure's going to be awesome. First off, the artificial grass came in and everyone loves it. Heck, Tiki can actually grip it properly while walking. It was horrible watching his hips nearly dislocate each time he took a step. Right, so the enclosure. I finally typed in the right key words, and I've ordered him an awesome outdoor toddler enclosure! It's made out of plastic (i.e., zinc-free), he shouldn't be able to get any of his body parts caught in it, the others can't get in to pick on him, I can put it in the aviary on the artificial turf to help improve his strength, his dog crate fits in it (yes, he sleeps in a dog crate at night), it has doors on it allowing him to play with the others/forage under my supervision... It's great!

Right, so I'm also making him some leg braces out of this super soft material and this clothes elastic. They go around his hips and help keep his legs more stable and should prevent him from further wrecking his hips. I'm only going to have them on him while supervised, though, just to be safe.

Oh, and as for the vomiting... I've taken them to Dr. Morris and Dr. Yee numerous times about it, and they ran all the tests, but in the end we're no closer to finding out what's wrong. I realize just how serious vomiting is, but after months of trying to figure out what's wrong I've sort of given up. When ever they start vomiting I just go back to feeding them millet and pellets for a couple of weeks. I honestly hate seeing them vomit since it's not normal, but I feel as though it's one of those things I'll spend thousands of dollars on, only to find out it's "idiopathic" or something. I guess the vomiting must've started at least two years ago, when I put them in the aviary. And by gosh, it can't be the aviary. I LITERALLY made it toxin-free. Mythic Paint, Mythic Primer, marmoleum flooring, Pet Focus Disinfectant, stainless steel dishes, stainless steel mesh, stainless steel and nickel-plated screws and whatnot, Paulie rope (Polly rope?), giant apple tree branch hanging from the ceiling, UVA/UVB bulbs, no particle board or plywood, untreated pine framing the walls and windows... Seriously, everything was made to my paranoid specifications.

Oh, and the new guys (Trixie, Alex, Rainy, Comet) have been coughing! Why are they coughing? I don't know. The vet doesn't know. Hmm, actually, I have to go check something in my aviary...

 

[Teddscau]

Oh, I finished the device last night for his cripple legs. Put it on him a little while ago and it looks promising! He's taking smaller steps now (before he was taking ridiculously large steps), he's holding his legs a bit closer together, and I think it's helping to stabilize his joints.

I've been wanting to get him braces or something for a while now, but for some reason I thought I'd be able to get professionally made ones. So, on Tuesday I decided to just try to rig something up for him instead. They seem to fit him well enough (I tried to make the "anklets" as loose as possible), and he's gotten used to it really quickly. It's basically a modified splayed leg device that allows for mobility.

Man, his posture looks so much better! I think he might even look a tad more confident! I worked really hard on it (I've only sewed/sewn a couple of times before), so I'm thrilled they seem to be working. My mom said it wouldn't work, but it actually does . I'm going to watch him whenever he wears them to make sure nothing goes wrong, just to be safe.

 

[EllenD]

I don't really know what to say here about the bird with the leg issue, as this doesn't at all sound right to me, but again, I don't know what is actually going on here...Just to clarify though, muscle tissue does not "regenerate" itself, once it's gone, it's gone. So his leg is not at all going to "regrow by winter". I hope that a Veterinarian didn't actually tell you that, because if they did then you need a new vet. So please don't think that any muscle, tendons, ligaments, bones, etc. that he has lost is going to grow back, as he's going to be like this from this point forward, and you're going to have to help him permanently adapt to having no lower leg muscles from now on...

And please, if one of your other birds did in-fact attack his leg and remove the muscle tissue from it, you obviously need to keep them separated from this point forward, and that bird is going to have to be protected from your other birds in-general from now on (I don't know what actually happened, as you mentioned a couple different things that happened to him, like someone else "removed the muscle" and then "the other bird chewed it off", so that's what I mean when I say that I don't know what actually happened)...And again, i hope you are working on getting them all on a much healthier, steadier, routine diet...

 

[Teddscau]

Annoying. I thought I posted a response, but apparently I haven't yet. Anyways, what I meant by "regenerate" was that animals tend to recover from tissue loss quite well. I mean, I cut my leg once while shaving and I still have the scar, whereas a severely neglected 4 year old dog who's collar hasn't been adjusted since he was a puppy heals up perfectly after having the collar surgically removed. Or you can skin your knee as a child and have a scar from it when you're an adult, but a cat who suffered severe burns over most of her body more often than not looks completely normal after several months.

Oh, and I thought I'd drop in and update you on Tiki. His leg braces seem to be working, and I'm hoping to be able to move them from his thighs down to his shins(?) by winter to tighten up his gait even more. I'm taking things slow, though. I also locked Ju and his boyfriend up in the flight cage so he can't harass Tiki anymore. Unfortunately, the toddler enclosed hasn't come in yet.

Oh, and Tiki's been acting really weird the past two days. Yesterday, he was energetic, perky, and scurrying around the aviary. Mom even noticed he had more energy. And today, he's standing a lot more upright (his posture still sucks), and he's eating his chop! Can you believe it? I've been trying so hard to get him to eat veggies again, and BAM, suddenly he's eating them again! The difference this time is that I made the pieces of chop slightly larger, and I also threw in some apple.

Fudge, I'm not sure what's gotten into him, but it might have something to do with me upping the concentration of vitamins I've been injecting into his bugs. Don't worry, I've cut back quite a bit with the bugs. Man, I'm watching him right now and he's extremely alert, his movement is slightly more coordinated, and he seems excited. Holy fudge, I just saw him swallow a chunk of leafy green.

Hopefully his feathers will grow back soon. His head's looking pretty scraggly (not to mention his naked tummy) due to mites, but we may or may not have dealt with them. Yes, he's basically a walking pathogen. At least 99% of his issues are unique to him. The illnesses he has are so weak and mundane that they can't be spread to other birds.

I found some mites on some of his old feathers, but the mites are dead and I didn't find any on his fresh feathers. I'm going to examine each feather he loses under my microscope from now on to make sure he doesn't get mites again. Odds are he has those mites that only kākāriki carry.

 

[Teddscau]

Okay, so I noticed Tiki do something the other day, but I didn't say anything because I wasn't 100% sure. However, I just confirmed it a few minutes ago. Tiki... is regaining use of the toes on his right foot! I was holding him while I was removing his leg braces, and he almost made a complete fist! Front AND back toes! Nobody thought it was possible, but his leg is healing so well! Here's hoping he continues to defy all odds and regrow that missing calf muscle . Man, I kind of wish I took pictures of his leg as it progresses. I might have to record a short video of him moving his toes.

Oh, and some more good news: his toddler enclosure came in. I'm going to set it up tomorrow.

 

[EllenD]

I'm glad he's doing better, I really am...well, of course I am! I'm sorry that you didn't like my reply, but you did say that you thought "his leg tissue would regenerate by winter", and that just is not true, obviously muscle tissue once it's gone is gone forever...However, I want you to really know that the reason I pointed this out to you was because I was under the impression by the way you wrote your reply that your Vet told you that all of the missing tissue in his leg would "regenerate", since you used that specific word, after all, the word "regenerate" does mean "to re-grow" or "grow-anew", and I didn't want you to be expecting to see the muscle tissue on his leg growing back simply because some Vet told you it would (it's not like we haven't heard a lot of vets say a lot of untrue things and give horrible advice). That's the reason I wrote that to you, honest it was. So if I was "annoying" I'm sorry, but I just didn't want you to be expecting the poor bird's leg muscle/tendons/ligaments or whatever else is gone to be "regenerating" due to something a vet told you...

 

[Teddscau]

No, I didn't mean you were annoying! I meant it was annoying that I thought I'd already replied when in fact I hadn't. Dr. Morris didn't say anything about it regrowing. I got the impression that he thought Tiki would be (extra) crippled for life. Heck, I'm pretty sure he thought Tiki would never be able to move his toes again on that foot.

 

[Teddscau]

Okay, so his callous (from his ouchie) finally came off yesterday. His leg looks amazing. His tendon is covered with tissue, and there's only the slightest indent where his calf was ripped off. He has been having a hard time breathing lately, so I'm going to bring him and two of my budgies in to see Dr. Morris this week. He probably needs to go on a different course of antibiotics. Too bad his granuloma can't be removed.