Sprained Leg

[BirdLady]

Help Budgie Fellows: my budgie Chickak started lifting his leg and limping about two weeks ago. I took him to the vet a few days later, and they confirmed the leg was not broken. He was prescribed the pain/anti-inflammatory medication Meloxicam to be given morning and night. He remained happy and active over the following week but the leg did not improve. Back to the vet. They said to continue the meds for another week and keep him closed in his cage with low perches, a soft bottom and to paper the inside walls so he can’t climb them and stress his foot. I’ve done this. If there is no improvement in a week, the boy will have to undergo an x-ray to see if something other than a sprain is causing the problem. In your experience, how long can it take a sprain to heal and how restrained does the bird need to be? Giving the meds twice a day is terrible as he doesn’t want to be caught and hops and flaps around the cage like a maniac and I am afraid that this is actually causing more stress on the leg. He continues to be well otherwise, healthy appetite, clamouring to get out of the cage, asking for treats… Anyone went through something similar?

[Hezz]

How long does it take you to recover from a sprain? For me it can take weeks, depends on the severity of the injury. You should not expect anything different for your budgie. If you keep him quiet and as calm as possible, try to prevent him from climbing and using the leg/foot too much, his healing shouldn’t be compromised, and you should see some improvement in a week.

Having your bird used to being handled makes times like this much less stressful for all concerned. Have everything ready before you go to pick him up, meds measured out etc, and having another person to help can make the ordeal both quicker and less dramatic.

[BirdLady]

Thanks for that, Hezz. It has been five days of cage rest now and twelve days on Meloxicam, morning and night. Chichak has been good about not doing acrobatics inside the cage. He is still lifting his foot a lot, but I noticed this morning that he was able to stand on it briefly while stretching out his other leg and also while scratching his head with his other foot - something he was not able to do before. He is also scratching his head more vigorously with the injured foot now, so I'm hoping it will continue to get better, but progress is very slow. The boy has been lifting his leg for 2.5 weeks now and I am worried sick about him. I don't want to put his through the hell of an x-ray.

[Hezz]

That’s okay; good signs that he is starting to use it properly even if for limited times. He had obviously hurt it quite badly for him to be content to not climb about, but don’t give in to his pleas for freedom just yet. If you have another vet appointment, I’d wait for the all-clear from the expert, otherwise how much longer has he been prescribed the meloxacam for? Once you see him getting about almost normally, that may be the time to try him without it, but be vigilant as you don’t want to cause him any more pain or injury.

[BirdLady]

Update: I have decided to stop the Meloxicam after two weeks as I felt that the acrobatics he has been doing to not be caught were actually risking aggravating his leg injury. He did not show improvement on the medication but continues to be in good spirits with a healthy appetite now so I am simply carrying on with the cage quarantine and giving extra veggies and protein (egg white and tofu) to promote tissue healing. I do still put some Meloxicam in a small quantity of water for him in the morning and he takes a gulp or two.

Next step at the vet would be an x-ray to look for fatty liver (pressuring sciatic nerve) or tumors. Vet has said that tumors would be inoperable and he weighs 34g and eats a very healthy diet of pellets, vegetables and a small quantity of seed so a fatty liver is very unlikely. I feel that it would not make sense to put him through this stressful procedure in order to have a diagnosis of something that cannot be treated. I will make this decision in a couple of weeks, thus giving his leg more time to heal.

[Loz]

Feb 23, 2023 15:42:49 GMT BirdLady said:

Update: I have decided to stop the Meloxicam after two weeks as I felt that the acrobatics he has been doing to not be caught were actually risking aggravating his leg injury. He did not show improvement on the medication but continues to be in good spirits with a healthy appetite now so I am simply carrying on with the cage quarantine and giving extra veggies and protein (egg white and tofu) to promote tissue healing. I do still put some Meloxicam in a small quantity of water for him in the morning and he takes a gulp or two.

Next step at the vet would be an x-ray to look for fatty liver (pressuring sciatic nerve) or tumors. Vet has said that tumors would be inoperable and he weighs 34g and eats a very healthy diet of pellets, vegetables and a small quantity of seed so a fatty liver is very unlikely. I feel that it would not make sense to put him through this stressful procedure in order to have a diagnosis of something that cannot be treated. I will make this decision in a couple of weeks, thus giving his leg more time to heal.

This seems an entirely sensible approach to me. It's possible there may be further advice to be had here from the forum but you seems to me to be doing the right thing.

[ladybird]

Does he have millet?  You could put his medicine on that, my budgie would take it like that…

[BirdLady]

Update: Chicak seems to be doing better at last: uses his beak less to balance himself on the perches when turning around, is able to stand on the injured leg while scratching himself with the other one, and is also starting to be able to balance himself on the injured leg while stretching his other leg. He seems to be putting more weight on the injured leg too, which I noticed when he came on my hand for some millet yesterday. I am beyond relieved! If he continues like this, I will be cancelling next week's x-ray appointment. It certainly seems to be a long road to healing. It has been four weeks since he began lifting his foot and he has been in cage quarantine for just over two.

[Loz]

What a relief to see signs of recovery!

The problem with injured budgie wings and legs is they won't (or can't) rest them properly so they take a long time to heal.

I know your worry well and so I know what your relief feels like!

[Hezz]

That’s good. Birds don’t know how to take it easy and rest an injury - that would make them too open to predation in the wild.

[BirdLady]

Thank you for all the helpful feedback and info sharing everyone. The healing really is long and I noticed today when I let Chichak out of the cage for the first time in two weeks that he has developed redness and a sore on the base of his good foot as he has been using it so much. What can I do to help him with this? I’m concerned it will get worse while the injured foot probably takes another week or two to get back to normal. I’ve got a vet visit scheduled in three days for a follow-up.

[Hezz]

Is it just a red spot, or has the skin broken? If the skin has broken then now is the time to wrap his perches with vet wrap or something similar, try smearing something like aloe gel from the aloe plant leaf on the area, or sudocrem, or both. I would monitor the spot very closely, and keep the vet appointment just in case. Bumblefoot can be very hard to clear up once it gets hold, but with this being caused by an injury rather than poor circulation, inappropriate perches or the like, once he is back to using both feet evenly he should be okay. Your vet may have other ideas of how to treat or look after his feet and it would be best to get an expert’s opinion.

This may have been mentioned in previous posts, but does he have a platform perch to rest on? Some birds won’t use them anyway, but they can be very good for birds struggling with foot/leg problems.

[BirdLady]

It’s bad news unfortunately… Chichak’s blood test showed abnormally high levels of the enzyme amylase. The vet said it means he has a serious pancreas condition and probably only a few months left to live. There is no cure. They have recommended two weeks of antibiotics in case of accompanying infection but it’s not curative. They are also recommending Meloxicam for pain/inflammation until he passes away and an Omega 3 supplement to support kidney function and thus elimination of amylase. I am heartbroken…

[Hezz]

Oh, that is not good; I am so sorry. Did the vet suggest a lower-fat diet as a possible means to help?

Has the vet given any indication that they feel these two things are related?

[BirdLady]

They believe that it is the enlarged pancreas or a tumor on the pancreas that is causing pressure on the leg nerve. The highly elevated amylase points to the pancreas but the vet said it could also be kidney related, although unlikely given the level of the elevation. The only thing that changed in his life in the last five months is that I switched 50% of his diet to (high quality) pellets. I am now wondering if this had something to do with his decline. I have done a ton of reasearch over the past week and have found quite a few veterinary sources - even the pellet manufacturer (Labefer) - stating that pellets can cause kidney failure in small parrots. This seems to be especially true of mutation parrotlets, tiels and budgies (Chichak is a mutation). I am considering abandoning the pellets altogether to see if it makes any difference. Has anyone else had the experience of their budgie falling seriously ill after being given a pellet diet for a few months?