Last night at about 10pm I heard a lot of flapping coming from the aviary. I went out and checked and all the bids had moved to one end. At the other end was one bird, madly flapping. Upon shining the torch on her, I noticed her leg was pinned between some wire and a metal support beam. God knows how she did it, but she did.

 

I went in the aviary and retrieved her - no easy feat as it had earlier that day been restocked with all new gum tree branches.

 

On bringing her inside, in between her constant biting, I was able to look at her leg. It does not look good. She twisted trying to escape and their was a lot of blood all over the leg, feathers, and on the cage. Her leg was not responding to touch.

 

I put her in a separate cage with a heat lamp on her. She was eating, drinking, chirping, climbing, but could not perch as she had all the "dead weight" of her un-usable leg.

 

I took her to the vets this morning. The vet said she was going to knock her out then put a masking tape splint on her leg after she straightened it. She will also get anti-biotics. If she regained use of her leg, fabulous. I asked what happens if she does not? She said that if the leg is not getting blood flow, then the leg will wither up and fall off. If she survives, she might make it back to the aviary, if not, she might end up my first and only inside bird.

 

I will call in about an hour to see how she is at the vets. Bit sad.

 

Which bird is she? Well, I do not have any recent photos of her yet, but she is out of the second clutch of Zeus and Milly. She is a sky blue young hen. here is an old picture

 

I will keep you all updated.

Oh Mate...biggest hugs ...How scary for you. These birds can be tough little things. Think good and positive thoughts and hope for the best.

I lost a baby bird yesterday too, she found an untangled thread on an aviary toy and hung herself. I thought I had got rid of ALL threat like that with fringing on aviary toys, but a piece had come undone and she found it, put her head through and hung herself, while I was busy doing other things. Very sad

i totally feel for you also... i've recently had a casualty too... my only young baby atm has suffered a head injury... well to be honest... a crushed skull :S we rang the avian vet immmediatly and he said if we had the guts to put it down we could if not wait :S he was really bad had a bulging eye and flattened skull, bleeding from the nostrils and mouth and no sense of balance or anything with staggered breathing... we didnt think he'd make it thorugh the night... a few hours after the accident we tried him with some siringe food... to our amazment he took it it's now 5 days later he's regained sight and his head seems to be de-swelling he's starting to hold his head up and even calling for food now next step is to get balance back... so dont give up hope they're tough little things we rang the avian vet back to let him know how the little fella was going and he was as stunned as we were that he made it thorugh the night let alone eating and getting better they're definatly troopers these birds my little bub proves it so i'm sure yours will be fine he's being named arnald after terminator hehe we thought it fit the bill:P

I hope she gets better . Budgies are crazy little things, they always get themself into some trable.

well I just rung the vet and she has a splint on - the bird, not the vet!!! Now it is just a case of seeing if the leg was too badly damaged. fingers crossed.

 

She looks a little like this one now, very similar

 

My fingers are crossed for you that you get a good result from the splint

Well, she is home from the vets, with her little leg attached to a splint and with masking tape surrounding her leg and her foot. Too early to tell what may happen now. she is on antibiotics she has to get injected into her mouth twice a day. Another vet visit next Wednesday. she is i good spirits, chirping away happily, and trying to jump around the cage, something she has great difficulty doing. She is shredding the newspaper on the bottom of the cage leaving quite a mess. I will try to get some photos over the next 2 days.

Awe good to hear Dave. I hope she pulls through I am sure she will with your special care.

Good news Dave very pleased to hear she is doing so well.

Glad the split hasn't got her spirits down, that's a good sign! Hope her leg gets better in no time at all.

:ygbudgie: Sorry to hear of her injury but will pray that she regains use of that leg, what's her name?

I had a bird that got it’s ring caught on a loose piece of wire, I was out that day, so it could have been hanging for some time. Like others say they are tough, it was worse than what yours sounds like, & I thought for sure it would die, I just took it in a small cage in the warm house, it did almost nothing for about a week, but slowly started eating well again & now is back in the aviary, with it’s ring still on, but only two toes. Good luck, I have tried breeding it a couple of times as it’s a nice bird, but without any fertile eggs, they can get by okay, but sometimes breeding may be out of the question.

Ive got a couple of 1 legged birds, they just about run the aviary!! One of them I adopted from a friend that was moving and I didnt want to see him at a pet shop, no problems at all he lays on the shelf to scratch the hard-to-reach areas, just gotta make sure the water level in the bowl doesnt get too low as he cant reach down as far. Another was attacked by a bird and broke his leg- he had no movement in it for months then it finally came good as new(slowly!). I reckon they're the most active in the aviary too!!

and my canary with the broken leg can perch now too :bluebudgie:

Hi Dave,

 

good luck with the leg, I hope it heals with the splint. If not, I'm sure it will adjust just fine.

 

 

Feathers.

:(Laughing out loud): :(Laughing out loud): Just seen my little 1 legged boy try to mate this afternoon, kept falling off though

Well, my still unnamed budgie with the sore leg is doing well. She is a noisy little thing, so today i took her and Mel's hospital cages out into the sun for a little while and put them within seeing distance of the aviary. A alot of the aviary birds flew over to see who was calling out - it was very sweet. Had to stand out there and protect them as the damn honey-eating native birds swoop at them and scare them.

 

Anyway, I took some photos to show everyone her situation. I think she will be named after one of the gods, not sure which one though.

 

 

She is a bit messy as she does not like her medicine, which she gets morning and night form a syringe, and so she often closes her beak at the wrong time, thus the messy fuzzy chops

 

This is Mel, who is much better and might be going back to the aviary come this weekend.

That's good there are both getting better. She is beautiful girl - can't wait for her new name

She's a gorgeous little hen Dave How about the name PEGGY ? Short for pegleg....but that doesnt follow the theme of gods does it

She is a beautiful bird, and she does look much better without the fluffed up, dried medicine cheek feathers. I am surprised how big she is when compared to some of the other birds, she is bigger than her most of her siblings.

 

Since her Dad's name is Zeus, I tried to follow the theme of names. I had Mercury, Hercules (who later turned out to be a girl so I changed her name to Aphrodite), and the exception was Nibbler. Then in the next clutch was Apollo, Neptune, Athena and this little one, who i think will be named...........hmmm, not sure. I know, Pegasus, but he was male horse, so I am going to take on Pegasus, change the spelling to make it more female, and go with Pegasis, and she will get called Peggy for short. There we go Kaz, everyone is happy - (Laughing out loud).

Very cool

Very nice name

I say Hephaestus! Maybe you could "feminize" the name.

 

It is unexpected that a god or goddess would be less than physically perfect. Hephaestus was lame at birth and as Homer put it walked on thin legs. Why might the Greeks include a less than perfect god in their pantheon? There are variations in the story of Hephaestus’ survival as an imperfect god.

 

I figured if you wanted to follow the gods, and needed one that was handicapped, the name works.

:ygbudgie: Love the name Aphrodite! :(Laughing out loud):

Well Peggy went to the Vet again today. the vet was happy with her progress, but decided not to remove the splint. Another week in traction for young Pegasis and then we are off to the vet again to have the splint removed.

 

By The Way, the vet thinks that she is going to be a he. I thought Pegasis was going to be female. Have a look, what do you think?