Ask Me Help Desk - How to care for a bird with a broken wing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by harleymaxx

hi altenweg, yes please lets move on. ok in response to ur ??'s. it is an adult and it is male. there is no wound on his body at all as i have checked him over. i have him a dark room with the door closed so it is quiet for him. i have a little seed and some water in the cat carrier for him.

there is no bone protruding, and i am onlty taking an educated guess that his wing IS broken. he is holding a little lower than the other and when he jumped out of the box i had him first he didnt land on his feet he just rolled over on to his side. he did manage to right himself.

he has only hissed at me a couple of times other than that he has been pretty calm.

i have read on a few sites to cut the toe out of a sock and cut a hole for his feet and place him in the sock. that is the only way to fix a wing.

i fear a wildlife sanctuary will dispose of him because he is a common bird and it will be easier 5than trying to fix him. i cannot let that happen, so am trying to do all i can. the rspca do not take in injured wildlife. this i know from previous attempts

I think the sock would be a good cushion, but I don't think it will hold the wing in place tight enough for it to heal.

If you do talk to your vet I'd ask him for some vet guaze. It sort of looks like that material that you buy for trailers so that your dishes don't slip off the table. It sticks to itself, not to feathers or fur, so it's great for pet injuries. I'd put the sock on underneath and then wrap the vet quaze around that, making sure the wing is secured against his body.

I think that one of the links I sent you showed pictures on how to do this. If not, let me know and I'll look for another one.

So far I've searched and the two links I already posted are the best info I have found.

It's worth a try.

If he's eating and drinking, hissing and trying to move around, then I'd guess he's not in a lot of pain. I've had birds all my life. When they're in pain they won't move, they just sit and shake, refuse to eat or drink. They usually die of shock within hours.

Just keep an eye on him and do at least call your vet. It doesn't hurt to ask if he/she is willing to look at the bird, or just tape the wing up for you.

I'd love pictures of the little guy, but lets wait until he's healed. I wouldn't want to frighten him with a flash right now. :)

Keep us posted. Too many times we never get to find out what happened to the animals people ask questions about. Even if it's bad news, please let us know. Deal? :)

I completely understand... and as you know I'm the last one to harp a vet :P I guess I live in the strangest part of the world because we have a wild bird sanctuary that takes in wild birds of any kind, rehabs them, and sets them free. There is a run of the mill hawk that was saved years ago and is living happily at the sanctuary. The vets around here will sometimes donate their knowledge and help out with the wild animals.

But oh well. The best of luck to the op and the bird.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucky098

I completely understand... and as you know I'm the last one to harp a vet :P I guess I live in the strangest part of the world because we have a wild bird sanctuary that takes in wild birds of any kind, rehabs them, and sets them free. There is a run of the mill hawk that was saved years ago and is living happily at the sanctuary. The vets around here will sometimes donate their knowledge and help out with the wild animals.

But oh well. The best of luck to the op and the bird.

I wish that was the case everywhere.

A friend of mine found a wounded barn owl when he was a child. He brought it home and his parents put it in the barn and then called the bird sanctuary.

3 days later they came to supposedly get the bird. They did take it, after they stabbed it to death with a pitch fork right in front of my friend. His parents were outraged, couldn't believe it. They told them "sorry ma'am but it's a really common bird around here and we can't afford to waste time and money unless it's a rare species". They didn't even euthanize it humanely.

From what I've read, the cockatoo the OP found is as common in Australia as seagulls are in Canada. I know for a fact that our wildlife sanctuary won't take seagulls. I had one under my care years ago, broken wing. The bone was actually protruding from the wing. The wildlife people told me to set it loose, that it could be food for some hungry fox. My vet at the time also wouldn't look at it, said that since the bone was protruding it would be best to kill the bird. We did our best, sadly he died of shock hours after we found him. :(

OK I have rang my vet and a few surrounding and none are willing to see the bird "pro bono" the wild life sanctuary are not that keen either, like I said he is a common wild bird that for any professional carers it is easier to euthanise.

He is not in any discomfort and seems to be having a little snooze at the moment, so to me he is doing OK so far in my care. I was given two great sites by altenweg and when my hubby gets home am going to bandage up his wing and care for him. I will let all of you who have shown genuine interest, how he is going. Thanks

You can probably get the stretchy gauze alty was talking about at a drug store, if you need to. I've seen it in all kinds of colors right next to the bandaids and regular gauze. It would probably be a lot cheaper than buying it from a vet, too.

Please understand, no one here was trying to call you a bad person. We take it as policy to ALWAYS recommend a vet visit (or doctor visit, for people) when someone comes on with a medical question. It doesn't matter if the op has specifically asked for non-vet answers. It's just a way to cover our a$$es, so to speak.

If at least one person suggests a vet visit, then we feel better about giving alternate advice. Unfortunately, that one person is usually then seen as rude, thoughtless, stupid, and just a general bad guy for making the suggestion in the first place. It's a risk the experienced posters take knowingly.

I know both of the people you attacked. Neither of them meant disrespect toward you. They were merely concerned about the animal and wanted to make sure that it was getting proper care by biting the bullet and suggesting a vet. They were unaware that no vet in your area will treat that type of bird, or even look at it, when they made the suggestion.

Now, attacking members who are only offering sincere advice is not allowed. You can disagree with what they have to say. You can even fume and yell. Starting a thread by insulting members, and the site as a whole, is frowned upon. I'm not a mod, so I can only tell you that it's not appreciated, and does very little to ingratiate you to other members who might have otherwise helped.

I know the responses probably just pushed some buttons. It happens. They were pointing out things you had already thought about, stressed over, and discarded as possibilities. That never puts anyone in a good mood. You just need to know, that it's impossible for us to know the full story on here, so we usually offer the 'safe' answers until we have more information.

Too many people come on here with questions about seriously sick animals that they insist on trying to treat themselves. We've had people with animals that had stopped eating several days before who wanted us to diagnose and offer treatments, when they had never even thought about calling a vet for advice. We've had people with animals that were seriously injured and obviously in pain decide they would rather let their animal suffer and die slowly rather than take them to a vet or follow any other advice given here. We even had a child come on here seeking help for her dog who had a maggot-infested wound in it's ear and she wanted to know what she could do to help it because her parents refused to take it to a vet or turn it over to the humane society (they eventually decided to put the animal down).

We see so many inconsiderate and incompetent people with animals they have no idea how to care for, that we tend to assume any question from an unknown poster is coming from someone who has no knowledge of animal care. It's just safer for everyone, especially the animal, if we start from the most basic answer (take it to the vet) and THEN move on to the more hands-on approaches.

I hope your foundling bird is OK. Hopefully his wing isn't broken and he'll be able to fly again. It's always sad to see a bird that's lost the ability to fly, especially if they grew up wild. Please, keep us posted. We really do care how things turn out.