Broken Foot

[Bfitzthum]

So, a week ago I came home from work and my female finch had hurt her foot somehow. Since my mother works at a vet office and had raised birds for years, I called her and she walked me through setting up a hospital cage, medicine, and making her comfortable.

A week later, her foot has turned black and I am afraid I have to amputate it. I got instructions from the vet my mother works with on how to go about it myself (there isn't an birdy vet anywhere near me that will look at Finches). Needless to say, I am horribly nervous. Any advice? Any success stories of this working? What tool works best?

[Sally]

I guess you aren't anywhere near that vet or your mother, so you are having to do it yourself. Personally, I've found that feet/toes/legs that turn black have died and eventually fall off by themselves with no problems. The one time I had to amputate, it was because the leg was broken off to the point that most of the leg was dangling and the bird was freaking out.

I used a pair of cuticle nippers, and all I had to do was clip the little bit of skin that was still holding the leg on, and off it came, no blood even. Did the vet give you advice on what tool to use? Where to cut so as not to start the leg bleeding?

Good luck with this, and I think you will find that it is not as difficult as you anticipate. My personal opinion is that if you cut just below the good part of the leg/foot (but still in the black area), you will just be cutting off dead tissue and it shouldn't even hurt the bird. You should have something ready for blood clotting, just in case (blood stop powder or even just cornstarch).

[Bfitzthum]

Thanks for the suggestions/assurance. It makes me feel a bit better about her condition. I think I will leave it a couple more days and see if it actually will fall off on its own.

I feel a bit out of my comfort zone with finches. I had a cockitiel before I went off to college and budgies for a couple years. But I haven't ever really needed a vet in all those years.

[finchandlovebird]

Sally is right on It very well may fall off by itself. The bird will still be able to function very well without one foot. I have a Silver Gouldian who lost the toes & is just fine with the leg stump

[StodOne]

Bfitzthum My grandfathers canary got his leg twisted up in something , there was no hope at rescuing the leg as he couldnt even hold his leg normaly , he amputaded his leg and now he is doing just fine , he sings all day long and he got used to one leg.
Birds are pretty good at adjusting to the new stuff.

[Bfitzthum]

She ended up loosing all her toes, but she is doing well! She even started laying eggs again (I haven't been able to rehome her first clutch!) I got some platform perches to help with balance, but she still prefers the branches.

Seems like I was panicking for no reason.

[Sally]

Bfitzthum Yes, these little birds are amazingly adaptable. The little one of mine that lost her leg was quite young when that happened. Her sister was still in the cage with her, and remarkably, her sister would let her lean on her until she got better with her balance. It was so cute to see the two of them together, one leaning on the other.