FINCHforum

Hi there everyone,

I recently adopted a small flock of zebra finches (two males, Atticus and Tick-Tock, and two females, Queen Frostine and Adelaide). I've never owned finches before, so I decided to do some online research on the species. I stumbled upon this forum, and so far I've learned a lot from reading through these posts - this site is by far the best finch resource online!

I adopted the finches back in November from someone who had them for about a year. Queen Frostine came to me with what looks like a severe case of bumblefoot. Her right foot is swollen into an amorphous club that's at least three times larger than a typical finch foot. Her original owner told me she had been that way for a while (I couldn't get a timeframe, and it was unclear if her foot was like this when she was purchased from PetsMart). She motors around the cage and perches fine on the foot, so it seems like her current physical condition is the incurable result of not receiving treatment.

Queen Frostine's been favoring her right foot this past week, and I'm worried that her foot might be becoming a problem. Could her foot start swelling again despite her case of bumblefoot being stable for such a long time? Should I take her to the vets to have it checked out? I don't want to risk stressing her to the point of illness or even death by bringing her to the vets. How do your finches handle going to the vets? If you all don't think a vet trip will stress her to death, and if you think it would be worth having a vet take a look at her foot, I'll go ahead and get an appointment for her.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

- Janice

What type of perches are you using? Do you feed dark leafy greens containing vitamin A? I have one Black cheek female that gets this from time to time and Herb Salad left down daily and dark greens helps a lot.


This article might help.

http://www.avianweb.com/bumblefoot.html

cindy wrote:What type of perches are you using? Do you feed dark leafy greens containing vitamin A? I have one Black cheek female that gets this from time to time and Herb Salad left down daily and dark greens helps a lot.


This article might help.

http://www.avianweb.com/bumblefoot.html

Thanks for the reference!

The finches get a healthy dose of vitamin A - I give them dark leafy greens (spinach mostly), finely chopped carrots and broccoli florets on a regular basis. They have natural branches varying in width/size to perch on. When I first got them, they had a large sandpaper-textured perch that was definitely not an appropriate size for them (it was large enough for a medium parrot to perch on, yikes!). I removed this as though the perch wasn't helping her poor foot.

You may want to cut back on the spinach and give them a variety of leafy greens...to much spinach can cause some issues:

The is information on foods to be given in limited amounts....hope it helps.

http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/safe_toxi ... _foods.php

refer to the section under "Thiaminase"

Try a little bit of Listerine in their bath water.
I used 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon to 6oz of water.
That should help a little to disinfect the foot if there are breaks in the skin.

I would think if it's bumblefoot, there would be a black scab somewhere. With my chickens, I make a slit (yuk) and give them an epsom salt soak 3x a day, With a finch I might try a hospital cage with one perch and wrap it in something absorbent, and wet it with epsom salts in water, so that he's "soaking" it alot whenever he's on the perch.

If there is any cut...try a little Neosporin ointment.

Hi there all,

My apologies for such a late reply! I meant to follow up on my little finch's status, but time got away from me. First off, thank you all for the information on treating injured feet - I will keep this in mind if/when any finch feet get any cuts or scrapes to prevent infections. Queen Frostine's foot was worrying me, so I took her to my flock's regular vet for a second opinion.

The vet has worked with many birds (he's the avian vet for a wildlife shelter in the city I live in), and he wasn't convinced it's bumblefoot.After poking, prodding and taking some skin cell samples for in-house cytology examination, his best guess is that the large growth on her foot isn't bumblefoot but a rather large tumor. Without sending a sample out for a more rigorous cytology exam, I can't know exactly what sort of tumor it is.

So, I'm just going to keep a close eye on Queen Frostine and her foot. If her foot really begins to bother her and grow considerably, I'll chat with the vets and weigh out our options. For now, she looks comfortable and can still perch with her big foot, so she seems to be okay.

Hope you see a steady improvement
good luck

Thanks for the update and good luck with her.