Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 8, 2023 15:52:54 GMT
We’re very lucky that Dante is the sweetest wee soul, so as much as he doesn’t love getting held he doesn’t make too much of a fuss and is good(ish) at taking what’s offered to him. Makes it a lot easier with things like giving him cayenne pepper and his antibiotics! Everything that you experienced with Mr Hibs does sound similar to Dante, so I’m really hoping he gets back to his usual health soon. I do feel like I’m seeing slight improvement today although I don’t want to pin my hopes on it as I know how quickly their health can change. That’s so sad your usual vet offered that I’m so glad you got some help from an avian specialist. I wish there were more avian vets, from what I can see there are only a few specialists in Scotland.
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Post by Hezz on Jan 9, 2023 0:09:20 GMT
Birds’ feet are prone to injury regardless of how hard we try to make their cage and outside environment safe. My old boy with the small back toe problem broke his leg while shut in his (large) cage back when he was only about a year old. A budgie with a plaster on his leg really did pull at the heart ❤️ strings. My guess with Dante is that he hurt his foot, got it caught somehow, and the other changes you noticed were due to his discomfort. Glad the vet has given you some meds to help him through his recovery. And what a good boy for eating his cayenne pepper.
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 9, 2023 8:12:45 GMT
Birds’ feet are prone to injury regardless of how hard we try to make their cage and outside environment safe. My old boy with the small back toe problem broke his leg while shut in his (large) cage back when he was only about a year old. A budgie with a plaster on his leg really did pull at the heart ❤️ strings. My guess with Dante is that he hurt his foot, got it caught somehow, and the other changes you noticed were due to his discomfort. Glad the vet has given you some meds to help him through his recovery. And what a good boy for eating his cayenne pepper. Aww, the thought of a budgie with a plaster on his leg really does pull at the heart strings! Thank you again to everyone that’s been replying. I’ve had budgies for over 30 years and never seen anything like this, so having a community like this has really helped! Update is that he still seems to be showing signs of improving. He was asking to get out this morning so he sat on my hand taking to his favourite mirror and eating banana for a while. He wasn’t able to fly back to his cage but I’d surrounded it by cushions so when he tried (and failed ) he had a soft landing. Still got 5 days of meds to go, so with that and everything else I’m trying I’m still hoping for the best.
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Post by Loz on Jan 9, 2023 9:02:28 GMT
Sounds a lot like my Hibsy, that. Except he hates banana.
When Mr Hibs started feeling better he used to hoist himself up the bars of the hospital cage and dangle from the top by his beak. That made my eyes sting - he so wanted to live. Eeyore would stand on top of the cage or cling to the sides, talking to his poorly friend.
Is it any wonder we love budgies?
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 12, 2023 9:10:48 GMT
Sounds a lot like my Hibsy, that. Except he hates banana. When Mr Hibs started feeling better he used to hoist himself up the bars of the hospital cage and dangle from the top by his beak. That made my eyes sting - he so wanted to live. Eeyore would stand on top of the cage or cling to the sides, talking to his poorly friend. Is it any wonder we love budgies? That’s so sweet, little Eeyore checking on his poorly friend. Budgies really are the best! Update on Dante: he seems to be on the mend (fingers crossed)! His droppings are back to almost normal and he is a lot more with it. His foot is still curled in and bothering him though, he’s able to move about on his perches ok but it’s definitely not right and when he’s out he sits on my hand and it’s all curled up. He’s also still not got the strength to fly, he flutters to the ground, for this reason I’m not really letting him out as I don’t want him to injure himself further. If this continues I’m worried about the long term effects and how I’ll make sure he gets enough exercise. I’m still at a loss as to what I can do with his foot. I‘m pretty certain there are no breakages as he’s able to use it on his perch although I haven’t seen him put his full weight on it. They are such fragile little things. I’ll need to go onto this on my desktop to add a photo of my wee man
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 12, 2023 11:18:32 GMT
Here he is watching me clean out the bottom of his cage this morning. Doing well holding onto the bars This is him at his food, foot not doing so good here (bottom of cage is still out getting cleaned). Lastly this is him before all this happened looking gorgeous but scruffy with his pin feathers coming in.
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Post by Loz on Jan 12, 2023 11:30:55 GMT
Looking a little like Mr Hibs' foot at an early stage of his illness/injury.
Dante's a cute boy!
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 12, 2023 13:35:36 GMT
Looking a little like Mr Hibs' foot at an early stage of his illness/injury. Dante's a cute boy! Thank you. He really is a wee cutie! It’s great hearing from people who have been through the same and similar with their wee budgies. It’s so good to know that although Mr Hibs went through something really similar he’s now recovered and living a full great life!
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Post by Hezz on Jan 13, 2023 0:45:27 GMT
I did suggest to the OP that some milf physio of the toes in question can be helpful, but needs to be attempted before the toes fuse in that position. With your boy being trusting and calm, he is a perfect candidate. Getting him sitting on your finger and then positioning the toes on the correct side for him to grip onto your finger, or doing the same with a perch. On the finger works well as you have more control over how he positions himself. Of course don’t force the issue if it seems to cause him any pain.
If you are not able to rehab the toes back into their proper perching position you should be aware that as he will be using his foot in ways that it wasn’t design for, he runs the risk of developing sores on the parts of his foot that normally doesn’t take his weight but is now doing so, or that the extra weight on the rest of his foot could cause the same thing elsewhere so regularly check the bottom of that foot for any tell-tale signs which will be a reddening of the skin. These sores, known as bumblefoot for those who may not know, can be hard to heal and very painful as birds are very rarely able to rest their feet.
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Post by Hezz on Jan 13, 2023 0:48:23 GMT
Another thing that will help him immensely is to get him some proper tree branches for perches of different sizes, shapes and textures to give his feet proper exercise instead of sitting in the same position all the time.
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Jan 17, 2023 8:04:48 GMT
Another thing that will help him immensely is to get him some proper tree branches for perches of different sizes, shapes and textures to give his feet proper exercise instead of sitting in the same position all the time. Hi Hezz. I tried what you suggested with getting his toes back to position. His larger back toe sits back easily now and he’s able to have it back almost all the time that he’s on a perch or my finger, it’s only on flat surfaces that it doesn’t sit right. The smaller back toe, however, doesn’t seem to want to go back at all and constantly sits facing forward. He didn’t seem to be in pain when I tried to put it back, more just a bit grumpy with me! I’ll keep a close eye on this toe to make sure he isn’t getting sores on it. We have a mix of natural wood and unnatural perches in his cage, but I’ve bought more natural wood perches so we can change them all to this and have spares. This morning he managed to fly to his favourite perch above our door and all the way back to his cage as well! It was so great to see, he really seems to be much more himself now I can’t thank you all enough for all the advice you’ve given!
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Post by Hezz on Jan 18, 2023 0:27:08 GMT
Another thing that will help him immensely is to get him some proper tree branches for perches of different sizes, shapes and textures to give his feet proper exercise instead of sitting in the same position all the time. Hi Hezz. I tried what you suggested with getting his toes back to position. His larger back toe sits back easily now and he’s able to have it back almost all the time that he’s on a perch or my finger, it’s only on flat surfaces that it doesn’t sit right. The smaller back toe, however, doesn’t seem to want to go back at all and constantly sits facing forward. He didn’t seem to be in pain when I tried to put it back, more just a bit grumpy with me! I’ll keep a close eye on this toe to make sure he isn’t getting sores on it. We have a mix of natural wood and unnatural perches in his cage, but I’ve bought more natural wood perches so we can change them all to this and have spares. This morning he managed to fly to his favourite perch above our door and all the way back to his cage as well! It was so great to see, he really seems to be much more himself now I can’t thank you all enough for all the advice you’ve given! Fantastic! This is the best news ever. Having one good toe at the back will make a heap of difference to his stability and confidence. Glad to hear that he is flying about happily, as well. One more thing to keep an eye on, depending on how the abnormal toe is sitting. Just watch how the claw of the toe is growing, since it will not be getting its usual wearing down. My old boy, who I’ve mentioned previously and has the same problem - his toe seems to have fused all the way forward and the claw has quite a tight curve to it, curling all the way over almost to the top of his foot. I’ve trimmed the slightest bit off the end of it recently as it looked as though it might be touching his foot. The trim not only shortens the claw but also blunts it so it is less likely to puncture the skin if I do miss that it has grown too long. So happy for you both - I like happy endings.
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on Mar 1, 2023 15:11:13 GMT
It's been a while but I thought I'd post an update which might help anyone else who has this problem with their lovely budgie. After my previous post we noticed a sore on his foot so decided to book an appointment with an avian vet, there isn't one very close to me and I was worried about him doing the journey when he was unwell but seeing as he was acting more himself I knew he'd be fine with the journey. First of all the vet looked at the notes from my local vet and was shocked that Dante had been given a steroid injection, she explained that in bird this compromises their immune system and can cause all sorts of problems. This explained why he got so unwell after getting it! On a side note, it also made me really upset as the local vet had previously given one of my lovely birds (Java Sparrow) one of these when she was under the weather and she passed away later that day. The avian vet gave Dante a really good checking over and said the leg problem was possibly caused by a tumour or infection on his testicles or kidney. She suggested we left him for the day so she could give him an xray and get some blood samples. She also suggested that if the xray showed a growth on his testicles she could give him a hormone implant which would hopefully help control it. We did this (it was the longest day of my life!) and picked him back up at the end of the day. At this point we were given three medicines to give him, an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory and a painkiller (I can't remember which ones I'm afraid) and were told that he had a growth on his testicle so he got the implant. The growth on his testicle would have been pushing against his nerves causing his leg and foot to not work properly. The blood results came back a few days later and showed that he had an infection, so the growth could have been an infection but she thought it was more likely that the bloods were was picking up on an infection he would have got after the steroid injection. In the weeks after this appointment he really wasn't himself. He started the biggest moult I've ever seen (side effect from the implant) and the medicines were making him really really sleepy. He didn't sing and didn't want to come out of his cage to fly. He had a follow up appointment after two weeks and at that point the vet noticed some improvement in his leg! The bumblefoot sore was pretty much cleared up and he had more use in his leg. She took him off the pain killer and the antibiotics but we have to still give him the anti-inflammatory twice a day. It's now been two weeks since his follow up appointment and I'm very happy to say that he's doing much better! About a week ago he started chirping more, then last Friday he came out of his cage for a fly around. He's now completely back to his usual cheeky self. He's flying brilliantly, singing lots, talking to my fingers and screeching loudly when he's not getting enough attention! We still don't know if the growth was/is an infection or tumour, although he has much better use of his leg now and although the smallest back toe has never gone back again the larger one is now sitting right almost all the time. It's never sitting fully forward like it was, it just occasionally bends a wee bit funny when he's on a flat surface. Whatever the growth has been I'm presuming it's smaller now. He has another follow up appointment in 2 weeks time. I'll update this again if there is any more news after it.
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Post by Hezz on Mar 2, 2023 0:36:24 GMT
Poor little thing, what a time he has had of it, but such good news that he is now doing fine. Long may this last. Our budgies are unfortunately prone to tumours, but it is good to know that hormone implants are available for budgies and do work even if not forever. Did the vet give you any indications on his prognosis?
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Jan 7, 2023 9:21:41 GMT
rdm
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 12
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Post by rdm on May 11, 2023 8:06:39 GMT
Me again with a further update on Dante, which may help anyone who experiences similar with their lovely wee budgie. Unfortunately it’s not good news this time though. In the middle of last month we noticed Dante was having issues with his foot curling again, this time it was his other foot. We took him to the avian vet and she told us that this was a bad sign. The tumour was back (meaning it was a tumour all along, not an infection) and it was a bad sign that it was now affecting the other leg. His bumble foot in the original leg got worse because he was now having to put more pressure on it. We were told we could try another implant and pain medication or have him put to sleep. I don’t know if it was the right decision but we want to try everything we can to help him so we tried another implant. Up until this point he was acting absolutely fine, great in fact, so I couldn’t imagine having such a bright upbeat budgie put down! The procedure went well and we picked him up later on that day. Since then he’s really not been himself. After 10 days the vet took him off the Tramadol as it was really knocking him out but he’s not really perked up since then. He’s flying a wee bit and he’s singing but he’s not really moving about his cage much and he is also angry which is not like him at all. He was always a very sweet wee boy who loved to sit on my hand, now he gets angry when I put my hand too close to him. It’s more and more difficult to clean his bumble foot and give him the medication he’s still on. I know this behaviour isn’t a good sign and is probably a sign that he is in pain The last thing I want is for him to be in pain and of course I hope he gets better, but it’s been 3 and a half weeks now, 1 week since coming off Tramadol. Last time it took him almost 2 weeks to be back to himself after coming off the pain medicine. I’m sorry this is a long post but it does help me to write it all down. I hate to say this last part, but the vets advice was that if I don’t notice a good improvement in him then I need to start thinking about having him put down. I’ve never had a pet put down and I don’t know how anyone makes that decision when it’s not 100% clear it’s the right thing to do. He’s still alert, still eating and drinking and his droppings are fine. If he wasn’t angry and still liked to be on my hand I would think he was ok, if not just a bit sleepier than usual. Does anyone have any advice about making that decision? I hope I don’t come across as selfish, as to an outsider it might be an obvious choice, but this is really hard for me. If he wasn’t so alert it would probably be easier. I couldn’t live with myself if I make this decision without knowing it really is what’s right for him. He’s sitting on top of his cage preening right now, he’s so pretty!
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