Tootsie had a bad day....

[JamesC]

Feeling so sorry for my little old girl. She was preening peacefully on a playpen when suddenly my Senegal took off from across the room and "tackled" her. Completely surprised me. He hit her hard enough they landed 3 feet away from the perch where Sidney continued to attack. By the time I got them apart, he had a bite on her right toe. It was bleeding quite a lot. Got her to the vet and after anesthesia, x-rays and such, she came home with me with her foot wrapped in a big green ball. Fractured the toe and got a pretty big gash in it. And she lost all her tail feathers from the stress of the attack.

The good thing is that she is eating and drinking though I have to break up her food into small bites so she does not have to hold it. The bad is that she is on 3 medicines every 12 hours and I have to take her back Thursday morning to change the bandages and hope that the toe is starting to heal. Otherwise it might have to come off.

She is resting now. After watching her move about as she regained her senses, I was confident enough that she could go back into her cage and not have to stay in the travel cage. But I am sleeping with my door open tonight just in case she loses balance and falls off. Cage is padded with a big fluffy towel if she does.

I'm heart sick over this whole thing. Sidney had been behaving himself rather well other than his excursions into the kitchen to get after whatever he could. So this totally caught me off guard. I hated to do it, but his wings got clipped when I came home. I just wish I had some warning so I could have done it before Tootsie got hurt.

What really sucks is that her right foot is her good one. The other foot has has damage over her lifetime of 30+ years and is arthritic. I sure don't want her climbing ability to be any further lessened.

 

[BirdGeeks]

Oh no! I hope she gets better, and that you don't have to take her toe.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Ohhh I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope she mends quickly and happily.

 

[Terry57]

Oh no! I hope she doesn't lose her toe. Sending healing wishes her way.

 

[JamesC]

She is doing ok this morning. Eating and drinking some. And she seems to be able to perch OK with that thing wrapping her foot up though she is clumsy moving around. I think she is starting to get a little used to it. And she isn't picking at it.

Currently she is up on the play stand making soft "burrrrr" noises. She had her meds about 20 minutes ago so is relaxing after that. Though I've had to give her medication in the past, I always hate to do it to her. Tomorrow she should start with her figuring out how to NOT take her meds with the little tricks she does. Then it'll become a seesaw affair trying to get them down. At least 2 of the 3 taste good, so that helps.

 

[LordTriggs]

aw poor syd, good to hear she's fairing okay now. hopefully her foot heals up quick enough

 

[Kiwibird]

Poor Tootsie I hope she heals up well and regains full use of her foot.

Wonder if the attack had anything to do with the time of year/hormones? I've heard Senegals can be pretty aggressive when hormonal.

 

[JamesC]

I think it was hormonal. Though Sidney has been less than friendly with the other birds since the day I brought him home.

Tootsie is getting around ok though clumsy with that ball on her foot. But she seems to have decided that if she wants to move around, she will just fly there instead of walking. I could almost laugh at one thing, though. She wanted to scratch the right side of her head and wacked herself with the ball a couple of times. She took my offered finger to rub her head against instead.

The ball seems a bit slick. I think I will bring home some adhesive backed sandpaper from work and stick a small strip on the bottom of it. Give a bit more grip against the perches.

 

[JamesC]

Well, unfortunately the toe could not be saved. When the bandages were removed this morning, the toe had turned black. So it had to come off. In a way, I'm ok with that. I had prepared myself for that news since I left the vet on Monday so it wasn't a shock. The good news is that the healing process will be much quicker and she is wearing a simple plastic wrapped bandage instead of a gigantic ball immobilizing her foot. As long as she does not pick it apart the bandage will come off Thursday and that will be that. And fortunately, she does not seem to be inclined to pick at it so far. Another sign that she is feeling better with this situation is that when I got her home, she immediately went for her food cup and ate & drank a lot. No problems with appetite at all.

I had prepared for a long recovery in case it went the other way, though. I modified her cage so that the bottom grate is just a couple of inches under her perches. If she lost her balance, she could only drop a short distance. I also purchased a Nest camera and put it inside of her cage so I could monitor her when I was not home. (I'm confident that she won't touch it. Pooping on it might be another matter when she is on top of the cage.) I am helping out our night shift for a while so I'm away from early afternoon until after 11. I've been watching her all evening long. And still am watching her as she sleeps right now.

This is kind of fascinating in a way. Seeing her in a nighttime sleeping mode is opening a bit of a window into her world that I don't normally see.

(Camera is offline now. I removed the link for streaming from it.)

 

[RavensGryf]

James, I’m so sorry to hear about this . It’s a terrible feeling having to run to the vet office for an accident.

Sending good vibes to Tootsie, that she will heal rapidly, and that she will learn to use this damaged “good” foot well enough that she won’t be too handicapped for her sake. Regardless, she can count on being well taken care of by her dad . Take care James, I know it’s rough right now.

 

[Kiwibird]

I'm sorry she had to loose her toe, but her having a good appetite is definitely a good sign! It's not all that uncommon for birds to loose toes, so she should be able to adapt to the disability quite well and still have good mobility. I hope she heals up quickly with no further complications

 

[Terry57]

Oh no, I'm so sorry she lost her toe I think she will learn to adjust and do just fine, especially under your loving care.

 

[JamesC]

I took the camera offline tonight. Just out of curiosity, how many people watched Tootsie sleeping & eating for any length of time? And maybe listened to me awkwardly try to comment as I was around the cages?

And she is still doing very well. Not quite ready to use the foot for much but she is testing it. Hopefully she will soon be able to balance on it. Like most parrots, from what I've heard, she is left footed. She and Rosco both. They each hold food with the left while they eat. I'll be happy when the right foot can take her weight and she can go back to that.