My point was<how easy it is to cut of a budgie foot>

As for bleeding,it was very little.

But thats okay,If you want to take your bird

to the vet,for something that's not worth the visit.

Sailor are you a vet yet,

My point was<how easy it is to cut of a budgie foot>

As for bleeding,it was very little.

But thats okay,If you want to take your bird

to the vet,for something that's not worth the visit.

Sailor are you a vet yet,

How is taking a bird to the vet not worth a visit?..

You pay $60 to see the vet +meds & 9 times out 10 it dies,

you could of brought another one for $20 & it

could be abetter bird then the one,that died.

Most of the posters on here could get a bird

from another member,

My point was<how easy it is to cut of a budgie foot>

 

The long answer:

-The bird has to be under general anaesthesia. This involves fasting the bird before surgery and sedation/pain relief if needed. It might need some blood tests to make sure its kidneys and liver are okay for metabolising the anaesthetic durgs, otherwise it can die under anaesthesia or shortly afterward. Then it has to be masked down to make it asleep, and a tube put down its little throat if necessary for it to breathe. Then the bird has to be watched constantly for the whole time to make sure it is not so light that it wakes up and not so deep that it stops breathing and dies. This involves watching the breathing, blinking, heart rate, reflexes and changing the gas flow as necessary. Every bird reacts to the gas differently. Sometimes you might need to breathe for it if it stops.

-Give the bird some fluids - usually inject a bolus of hartmann's (electrolyte solution) under the skin, to make sure it is hydrated and make up for blood loss. Anaesthesia also turns off their heat regulating mechanisms so you have to make sure they don't get cold - use a heat mat, warm room, warm fluids if possible.

-The area has to be prepared aseptically, which means several different chemicals are wiped across it to kill the surface bacteria. You don't want to amputate a leg only to have it infected again afterward.

-Where to cut? You have to consider that the bird will have to use the stump to get around, so if you cut it too low it will end up damaging the stump, leaving it prone to more infection, but if you cut it too short it will not be able to use the stump. You don't want to cut muscle bellies if it's avoidable because it bleeds, hurts so needs more/longer pain relief, and takes longer to heal. Depending on how high up it is you have to think about what other nerves and blood vessels are around and where they go. Cut the wrong thing and other parts will die or be paralysed.

-Cut the skin, tendons and muscles as you need to, deal with bleeders as you see them. Birds can only lose about 1% of their body weight - 0.3ml in most cases. They may choose to disarticulate the joint, depending on where the problem is. If they cut bone, how to do that without causing spiral or comminuted fractures?

-Close up the skin, hopefully you've thought about cutting it in a way that leaves you some skin to work with. Make it look neat since that's what the owner will see, not your anatomical knowledge or surgical technique that will let the bird get around with minimal complications.

-Give the bird antibiotics, pain relief and anti inflammatories.

-Let it wake up, keep it on oxygen to make up for build up of carbon dioxide while it was under, make sure it is warm, can breathe for itself, watch if it vomits after anaesthesia, make sure it won't thrash around and hurt itself in the recovery period.

 

Short answer: It isn't.

 

Sorry for the essay, but I'm on a surgery/anaesthesia rotation and let me tell you it is not something to dismiss as simple and easily thrown away. Any anaesthesia alone, no matter how long, is plain nerve wracking because the moment you let your focus slip the patient can go into cardiac arrest and die.

I haven't taken into account the cost of the drugs and gas. I won't try to put a price on the stress and knowledge required having a patient's life in your hands while you perform surgery and anaesthesia on it.

Edited May 11, 200915 yr by Chrysocome

Terrific post Chrysocome....many many thanks for sharing your knowledge

You pay $60 to see the vet +meds & 9 times out 10 it dies,

you could of brought another one for $20 & it

could be abetter bird then the one,that died.

Most of the posters on here could get a bird

from another member,

 

But I couldn't have just let her die or taken a pair of scissors to her leg .... and no, I can't just replace her just like that - she's a Cec Gearing hen.

You pay $60 to see the vet +meds & 9 times out 10 it dies,

you could of brought another one for $20 & it

could be abetter bird then the one,that died.

Most of the posters on here could get a bird

from another member,

 

But I couldn't have just let her die or taken a pair of scissors to her leg .... and no, I can't just replace her just like that - she's a Cec Gearing hen.

Well Renee,if you take notice of what Sailor said,

not to breed with her,its a waste of the money

you spent at the vet,I would put her with a good

cock,but no perch & hope they mate on the floor,

or if you know some one that can do AI,give that a try.

Excellent post Chryso.

I find anaesthesia quite nerve-wracking at times having to check their vitals every 5 minutes and the many risks associated with it. I'm doing surgery on a sheep in just over a week. I'm excited but scared at the same time.

 

Macka, some tumours are genetic, but you can't know for sure if what that tumour was was genetic. Domestic budgies these days are gentically more prone to them, but the question of wanting to breed the budgie is up to Renee. The tumour may not be genetic, we don't know that.

She values the little bird's life over $150 and I'm glad she does.

It's sorta like saying it's free to make kids, but you still pay for them and love them, because they are your responsibility. Believe me I've paid quite a bit for my non show quality pet birds that I do not breed with, because they are my responsibility and I feel that they didn't chose to live with me, I chose them, they had no choice and it's unfair to not treat them. (My views).

Our responsibility as their caretakers is to ensure animal welfare is not compromised.

Edited May 12, 200915 yr by Sailorwolf

How is this hen coping these days Renee ? :rofl:

How is this hen coping these days Renee ?

 

I put her in with the 'oldies' and she caught the pasty bum syndrome that I've eradicated from my flock (but I didn't bother with them and evidently they are carriers) and she carked it. :rofl:

 

I felt pretty stupid when I realised what I'd done.

Edited June 16, 200915 yr by renee

I thought you were going to keep her with your other disabled birds in the indoors cage ?

I thought you were going to keep her with your other disabled birds in the indoors cage ?

 

yep, that's the one. The cock bird is ancient and the 2 hens are disabled but I separated them out last year BEFORE doing the extensive treatment on my flock to get rid of the pasty bums syndrome. They never exhibited any ill effects but clearly they were carriers. :rofl:

I thought you were going to keep her with your other disabled birds in the indoors cage ?

 

yep, that's the one. The cock bird is ancient and the 2 hens are disabled but I separated them out last year BEFORE doing the extensive treatment on my flock to get rid of the pasty bums syndrome. They never exhibited any ill effects but clearly they were carriers. :rofl:

What were they CARRYING ? Pasty bums is a symptom, what was the disease ?

I thought you were going to keep her with your other disabled birds in the indoors cage ?

 

yep, that's the one. The cock bird is ancient and the 2 hens are disabled but I separated them out last year BEFORE doing the extensive treatment on my flock to get rid of the pasty bums syndrome. They never exhibited any ill effects but clearly they were carriers. :rofl:

What were they CARRYING ? Pasty bums is a symptom, what was the disease ?

 

I never got to the bottom of it (sorry pun not intended). Gerald Binks talks about it and describes it as pasting of the vent but he doesn't elaborate too much and certainly doesn't offer any meds treatment. So basically since last Spring I started covering all bases and did an extensive range of treatments. After the second course of Fungilin I felt I'd turned a corner but basically I treated the flock as if they were in quarentine and by the time I finished my troubles were over.