Sprained leg - Questions

[skylerbird]

Hi everyone.  On Thursday morning, my budgie Skyler seemed to have injured his right foot somehow.  When I uncovered his cage that morning, he couldn't put weight on his foot, and he would hobble around his cage.  I'm guessing he injured it somehow during the middle of the night, maybe while jumping onto his favorite swing.  He likes to do a lot of acrobatics at night jumping on and off the swing after I cover him for bedtime, and I always watch him using my pet camera under the covers, and I didn't see anything unusual, but maybe that's how he hurt himself?  I wasn't able to get him to the vet until the next day, Friday - his usual avian vet didn't have any openings, so we had to drive 46 minutes away to a farther away avian vet, but the vet said it was probably just a sprained leg as there was no break, no tears, no swelling, and no bruising, and it should heal up on it's own.  The vet said it might take just the weekend the heal up on it's own, but he prescribed an anti-inflammatory medicine, 0.06 ML of Meloxicam I think it is, to give him once a day orally.  Of course Skyler has been really difficult about that, and it wasn't until Saturday that we were successfully able to give him the medicine. 

Unfortunately Skyler's leg has not healed within that time frame, but he has been super happy and playful, with lots of singing. (He's a bit hormonal too - his preferred spot to do his hormonal dance is my shoulder and I can never get him to leave it alone haha, but I'm grateful that he still feels like doing that even with his injury.)  He still eats and poops normally, though in the beginning he was having difficulty leaning into his food dish to get food, but I accommodated that by putting his seeds and pellets in spoons on top of his cage (his favorite place to be haha) for him to eat, and he's been enjoying that.  He has since figured out how to eat from his food dish, but he still enjoys eating from the spoons on his rooftop and of course spilling them all over the floor.  Overall I think he's okay beside the fact that his leg is injured somehow, though he's been a little tired at times, but he's also just finishing up a molt and was sleepy even before he hurt his leg.

I was just wondering if anyone knows how long it typically takes for a sprained leg to heal, and if anyone has any suggestions on how to better outfit his cage to make it more comfortable for while it heals?  Skyler's the type of bird who hates it when I do anything new to his cage (I put a new bird heater into his cage today and he is super mad about it, and I might even have to take it out if he isn't accepting it) so I know if I rearrange his cage with better, softer perches, he'll be extremely angry, but I hate seeing him try to jump around his cage and around the house and having to hold his foot up afterward because it irritates his bad foot.  I also feel bad that he hasn't had a chance to rest his good foot, as he's been mostly standing on that one alone.

I should mention that I have been seeing some improvement since he got hurt, like sometimes he's able to put a little weight on his bad foot so he can scratch his head with the good foot, so I'm hopeful he will recover, but it's slow going.  Thank you so much for any help and guidance, I really appreciate it. 

I've attached a picture of his current cage setup in case that will be helpful.  I apologize that it looks so messy and the lighting is not so good.  Can you guess how all the spilled pellets got there? :'D

 

[ladybird]

My Charlie sprained his foot last year and I think it took about a month to show improvement. I was giving him pain killer every night. I don’t think there is a lot you can do regarding his cage. But I took the wire bottom from the cage, I think it’s bad for their little feet….but that is just my opinion of course. Would he let you gentle massage his foot? Charlie wouldn’t let me do it but he was a stubborn little boy. The vet had said to do it gently with a tiny bit of baby oil.

[skylerbird]

Nov 22, 2022 19:01:02 GMT ladybird said:

My Charlie sprained his foot last year and I think it took about a month to show improvement. I was giving him pain killer every night. I don’t think there is a lot you can do regarding his cage. But I took the wire bottom from the cage, I think it’s bad for their little feet….but that is just my opinion of course. Would he let you gentle massage his foot? Charlie wouldn’t let me do it but he was a stubborn little boy. The vet had said to do it gently with a tiny bit of baby oil.

Thank you so much for your reply.  My dad has been gently massaging his leg when he administers his medication to him.  Of course Skyler voices his complaints, he hates being held haha, and hates being force fed the medicine, but it's a necessary evil.  I could probably put a towel over the bottom of the cage, but he also never goes down there, but I was concerned about that too.  I was thinking of maybe getting vet tape to put over his perches to make them softer, but I'm afraid that'll scare him off as well. 

I just hope his normal jumping around the cage won't prevent his leg from healing...

[ladybird]

He sounds very much like my Charlie was…..a scary pants 🙂…….Charlie was on Metacam 0.03 hard to give but had to be done.
I think you will find it will get better each day…..also if it was very painful he just wouldn’t jump around a lot.
Would he let you stand him in shallow warm water for a couple of minutes?

[skylerbird]

Nov 22, 2022 21:51:10 GMT ladybird said:

He sounds very much like my Charlie was…..a scary pants 🙂…….Charlie was on Metacam 0.03 hard to give but had to be done.
I think you will find it will get better each day…..also if it was very painful he just wouldn’t jump around a lot.
Would he let you stand him in shallow warm water for a couple of minutes?

I suppose that's true.  He still enjoys doing his acrobatics at night, and does plenty of hopping around the top of his cage. 

I don't think he'd let me put him in warm water, he would probably hate that haha.  He doesn't like getting wet, the only way I can get him to even bathe is by taking him to the shower with me, and sometimes he likes to splish splash as I call it, but most of the time he won't even step into the stream of water.  He's a very stubborn bird, and that's okay.  It just makes it difficult when I actually need him to do things.  It was a whole ordeal trying to get him into the travel cage to go to the vet, never mind that I'd never taken him outside in the cold before, so I was so worried about that.  Luckily I had his cage covered with so many blankets, and I think he was quite comfortable in the car all the while I was panicking the entire drive to the vet.  This bird has definitely caused me so much anxiety and stress, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Hezz]

You wouldn’t expect a sprain of your own leg to heal over a weekend even with resting it, so expecting an animal to do so while still needing to use the limb really is asking a bit much. Of course a lot depends on how bad the injury was, and if just a little tweak then the weekend rest may be all that is needed, but expect it to take much longer and be vigilant to be sure that it doesn’t get any worse or show any signs of swelling, infection etc.

Don’t make things too comfortable for him. If he is getting around the cage without a problem, then leave things as they are. Animals are much better at rehabilitation than we are as they just get on with getting better rather than worrying about all the “what if’s”. His leg is going to need to heal and strengthen properly and while he may overdo it on the odd occasion, he will know how far and how hard he can push it. There is no need to soften the perches if there isn’t any sign of a break in the skin or any inflammation.

[skylerbird]

Nov 23, 2022 0:53:48 GMT Hezz said:

You wouldn’t expect a sprain of your own leg to heal over a weekend even with resting it, so expecting an animal to do so while still needing to use the limb really is asking a bit much. Of course a lot depends on how bad the injury was, and if just a little tweak then the weekend rest may be all that is needed, but expect it to take much longer and be vigilant to be sure that it doesn’t get any worse or show any signs of swelling, infection etc.

Don’t make things too comfortable for him. If he is getting around the cage without a problem, then leave things as they are. Animals are much better at rehabilitation than we are as they just get on with getting better rather than worrying about all the “what if’s”. His leg is going to need to heal and strengthen properly and while he may overdo it on the odd occasion, he will know how far and how hard he can push it. There is no need to soften the perches if there isn’t any sign of a break in the skin or any inflammation.

That makes a lot of sense.  Thank you.  I guess for the time being I'll just make sure he continues to be able to move around his cage okay, and hopefully he will heal with time.

[skylerbird]

I just wanted to share a quick update now that it's been over a week. Skyler showed a huge amount if improvement over the weekend, and as of today, I think it's safe to say that he has fully healed. He hasn't had a need to hold up his right leg anymore, and is putting equal weight on both feet now. He's been really happy as always, jumping around his cage, playing on the roof of his cage, and hanging out with me as well. I'm so grateful for and relieved that he seems to have fully healed and can now play as much as he wants without tiring out his leg.

Thank you again to everyone who responded to my post and for offering advice. I really appreciate it.

[Loz]

Who doesn't love a happy ending? 😊