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Post by mona on May 21, 2021 11:16:28 GMT
I have separated them today. I tried luring breezie with food in another cage, but they wanted to come and go together. I had to grab breezie - did that softly and gently with a cotton handkerchief, just grabbing his body carefully, leaving his feet aside. I was really nervous about hurting his feet even more. Cookie screamed and called out a lot to me. It's really tough. I'll try my birdie calming music on repeat mode to keep them calm. But, I will not be soft hearted, until he heals completely this time. I don't expect him to heal fast, so will keep my expectations low. I have arranged their cage side ways, with one cage wall adjacent touching each other, so that they can see each other and interact. It's going to be tough couple of weeks or more. I have to move the top thin perch (his safe place) a bit lower, so that he can stretch his neck. He was afraid, so I added it just now & he didn't give me time..he just hopped on it. I wanted him to calm down a bit. Will do that after sometime. That's yellow water since it has herbal tea with cayenne pepper and very little cinnamon.
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Post by ariella on May 21, 2021 13:06:55 GMT
Glad that you’ve managed to do it and Breezie is no worse for having been caught. Really hope he can recover fully now and they’ll both settle down with your music.
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on May 21, 2021 16:16:12 GMT
You can let Cookie out to fly around. She may go perch on Breezie's cage and that may calm them. When Tweetie Pie was in the hospital cage, I let Buddy out. He'd fly to Tweetie Pie's cage and perch there and that calmed both. I didn't put any food out so Buddy had to go back to the big cage to eat, otherwise I'm not sure I'd get Buddy back in the big cage. One thing you might try. Catch Breezie, turn him on his back and put your finger in his injured foot. If he grabs your finger then you know he can feel. If he doesn't grab your finger he most likely has nerve damage and you can have a vet visit as soon as things open up. Come on Breezie, get well!
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Post by mona on May 21, 2021 16:43:03 GMT
I'll try that tweetiepiesmom. Thank you! I had been thinking about getting a remote consultation with the same avian vet once. I'll do that tomorrow. Maybe he could recommend something better.
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Post by Hezz on May 22, 2021 0:45:03 GMT
I know it might be hard to do, mona, but I’d be looking at giving him, or them, perches that are quite a bit thicker than those I can see in the cage. If he is sitting most of the time with his feet clenched quite tightly, and not spending much time with his feet more spread out, this might be a reason why he is hurting it. I may be completely off track, but it is worth giving him the opportunity, I feel. If you aren’t able to get out to collect some good branches, something I’ve done to change some of the budgies’ perches places to be suitable for my larger boy, Loki, is to wrap the smaller perches, especially dowels on the play gym, with sisal rope. It gives a much more textured perch and thickens the smaller dowels by quite a lot. I think you have said you can’t get sisal, but jute would work just as well.
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Post by mona on May 22, 2021 5:27:34 GMT
Sure Hezz.. I would like to try whatever could help him. These images are for the temp cage I had set up for him, in a hurry and I think that would make sense for his recovery. He seems to perch on the thinner perch right now in the center of the cage. I have jute, cane strips which can be wrapped around as well as wooden beads too which I can add there. I'm trying to get in touch with the gardener over here to get more variety of thick perches. They have access to nearby farms and nurseries. I will add thicker natural perches to his temp cage too. Could you please check these images (for the larger cage, where they both were earlier)? Their feet wraps around almost half of perch. Is that thickness okay? I plan to replace the smoother perches with natural, as and when I can arrange those. Had been thinking about wrapping cane strips on some parts of the perches to make it a bit uneven.
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Post by mona on May 22, 2021 5:55:05 GMT
Also, wondering if he overused his half recovered foot last time in excitement (and I let him too 🤦♀️). He had been flying around a lot in and out of cage. Should he be in an even smaller cage to restrict movement later when he starts moving around? I have smaller travel cage, but I felt that would be too small to stay for a couple of weeks. If his recovery requires that, I'll get him into smaller cage too 😔
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Post by Hezz on May 22, 2021 10:57:48 GMT
I can’t really tell much from the photos unless the birds are sitting on them. If you have wrap and anything to make the thicknesses vary, that should work well. Even taking a few shorter, and thinner branches that you already have and wrapping them to make thicker, uneven branches, not trying to line branches up to make a uniform thickness should work. Of course natural (unwrapped) perches are best, but you have to work with what you have got.
Regarding his exercising, if you really think that it is Cookie’s interference that is causing him to land heavily, by all means let him out for short periods of exercise - this will have to happen sooner or later, anyway, but only you can determine when and for how long. While he is happy enough to sit round nursing his foot, let him, but once he gets restless then he needs to be out for short periods of exercise to begin with, and more as his foot improves.
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Post by mona on May 22, 2021 11:52:10 GMT
Thank you for the suggestions.
I'll try out everything as advised by everyone and keep everyone posted once he improves..
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on May 22, 2021 17:04:02 GMT
Those perches look great to me and a variety of thickness would be good for any bird. Good luck to you and Breezie.
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Post by mona on May 22, 2021 19:30:03 GMT
Those perches look great to me and a variety of thickness would be good for any bird. Good luck to you and Breezie. A few vendor bought natural perches are smooth.. I will add some flat thin perch pieces to the larger perches & wrap cane/jute around it. They will anyways chew cane (thin strips made out of bamboo stem, can be moulded when a bit wet & hardens back when dries out). That would help me change the branch structure every now and then. I tried checking sensation in breezie's feet, as you had suggested. He still has sensation in his feet. I'm trying to get closeup pics for bottom of his feet and all other angles to share with the avian vet too once. I have a feeling that this will heal on its own, but consulting once will not hurt anyone. If I had shifted him one day earlier, his feet might not have been so bad - it just worsened flying and landing every minute or so. I had an emergency at home, so it got delayed. When I had time after that, it was past midnight & shifting at that time didn't seem right to me. I feel really bad & guilty about it. I have contacted the gardener to get some natural thick branches from organic farms. He might send some in a few days, along with the vegetable vendors. Not really sure if he really understood about the thickness part. Had a chat with my toy vendor to send me branches with barks, but he stays in the area which gets highest rainfall, so he has different ways to get rid of mold. I'm going to ask him to send me one with bark in its natural state and see if there is any mold growth - if so, i can use the methods suggested here earlier. It's 40 degrees Celsius in this city.. I think it would work. But, that's all futuristic. Till then, I have one thick spare natural branch which I can arrange in Breezie's cage and remove the thin one. Will wrap it as suggested, whenever I get some spare time. I haven't thrown away any thin perches.. cant dispose those after hurting the trees.. will use all of them. My mom got some thick perches for her birdies & she kept some for me. Otherwise, I didn't have access to any pesticide free trees. All the ones near me are either on road or highways. She said she has access to some other variety of perches too, but during these times, it's difficult to go out & get those. It's 3.5 hour drive from here to my mom's home, so I'll really depend on her again, whenever situation is close to normal!
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on May 22, 2021 23:11:11 GMT
Great news that he has sensation in both feet! It is sounding more like a strain or pulled muscle in his foot that just needs to heel up.
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Post by Hezz on May 23, 2021 1:46:32 GMT
What I see in this photo is a lot of smooth perches. There is one I like that is nice and lumpy. The perch Cookie is on is fine, thickness-wise, but it is very smooth. Wrapping some rope around them may be enough to change things up for them, but branches with bark on them have two benefits. One being the extra texture underfoot and the other is it gives them something safe to chew on.
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Post by Hezz on May 23, 2021 2:15:04 GMT
I didn’t mean to suggest that you throw out all the thinner branches, mona. My meaning wasn’t at all clear. Just to change the texture and thicknesses for the time being. Of course a few thinner branches are fine to have, but for now with a weakened grip, the extra thickness and texture will help him both land and take off even if just jumping around the cage. You can’t really prevent him from doing that. The best way to get photos of the underside of his feet is when he climbs the bars of the cage. When you tried his feet for grip, did he grip with all four toes, and was it as strong as the grip on the other foot?
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Post by mona on May 23, 2021 8:27:31 GMT
Agreed Hezz, those are smooth perches. I'm searching for similar thick natural perches. I have 2 perches like that right now in the cage. Will wrap these smoother perches as suggested by you for now. The material with which the round swing is wrapped in the enlarged image, is available with me which is wood too.. I can use that to wrap, though it will be a bit smooth too - they can chew on that.. all of that until I can get thicker perches.. You have suggested me earlier to wrap those thinner branches with jute or beads while I was making a tree stand. It was really clear message from you.. it's me 🤦♀️! He hasn't climbed on the cage bars so far in the temp cage. He keeps his foot up for quite a while, so I'm trying to capture a photo from cage base. He stays still when I use the front camera from cage base,to see himself, but he puts his feet down. The pressure for both feet isn't the same. With the affected feet, he has trouble locating and placing around perch / my finger. He grips with all 4 toes but pressure is very less. It's very weak. I'll try taking a video to upload for reference. There's a vast pressure difference between the grip for affected and normal foot. Grabbing him again was difficult, so i tried that with Step up on my finger to judge and just putting my finger when he was sitting with his feet hanging down (hope that method to check was okay). One month back, this was the exact state his feet was, but then he recovered to run, but couldn't curl completely to tuck feet in. I have seen him try to stretch other feet and wing, with some load on affected feet, but he can't pull up his normal feet entirely. He slips a bit when walking on the perches - even the thick ones. Do neurological issues recur at particular interval or randomly again? Sorry for lengthy and unstructured texts. Cookie is trying to find the exit to the cage to get to breezie and trying to cut through the cage bars with constant screaming & contact calls. She would kill me right now, if she could 🤦♀️
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