HELP PLEASE!!! URGENT!

[hailee]

One of my finch hens toe is bleeding and will not stop! She keeps pecking at it! What do I do!!! I can't tell if she bit off her nail or not or even part of her toe! Please help!

[debbie276]

put the toe in flour to stop the bleeding if you don't have blood-stop

[lovepoodle]

I used surgical tape rapped around toe....with little gaze. When one of my Finch lost her nail. So she can't mess with it. But, It's was hard to take off.

[hailee]

I used some antiseptic liquid bandage to stop the bleeding, but it looks like she has lost part of her toe (maybe half) and a tiny little bone is sticking out, she seems happy now and is perching fine and cleaning her self like normal. The toe that is injured is a side toe, not the middle one so she is able to balance, but I am confused as to what to do now...

[ac12]

Feed her egg food and keep an eye on her.
She has to replace the blood she lost.
Main thing is that she does not pick at her injured toe, so it can heal.

The hard thing to do is to figure out what happened (after the fact) so you can fix the problem.

[Ria]

Gary's right, lots of egg food/protein to help her recover. A heat lamp is a good idea too - something like a gooseneck desk lamp with a regular bulb will do fine, placed so she can sit under the light and soak up the warmth. Just be sure that there's a space she can get away from the lamp if she gets too warm. Not sure what to do about the toe bone, though...

[hailee]

She picked at her toe and it started bleeding again, so I took her out and repeated the same steps, but this time I tried to have my husband help me bandage her leg so she would stop pecking it, but between the two of us we can't get her leg to stay in a bandage, bandaid, or anything. I don't want to put any sort of sticky tape on her and cause her further pain, is there a trick to bandaging her foot?

[Nerien]

Maybe use the liquid bandage again to stop the bleeding, then cover the injury itself with a little bit of tissue or gauze, then cover that with tape over a larger area, so the tape is not stuck to the injury itself? Also, use the least-sticky first aid tape you can, usually the paper kind, to make it easier to get off.

When I was putting corrective shoes on my chick, to get the tape off his toes I would use a flat toothpick to gently push it back little by little rather than pull on it and risk further injury.

[ac12]

hmm
You may have to cover the foot, so she can't pick at her toe.
Then put her in a small hospital cage w/o a perch, so she does not have to use the foot to grab the perch.

[Tammy]

That happened to one of my society finches. I basically set-up a hospital cage for him. I removed from the other finches, placed him in a cage , with a heat lamp on one side of the cage and a sheet over the half of the cage. I held a small amount of baking soda on his toe and applied some pressure on the toe. after a few minutes I placed him back in the cage. Good Luck. - Tammy

[hailee]

This morning she looked great, but then started pecking her toe again after every time we get it to stop bleeding, she makes it worse. Her leg is turning red and she won't perch on it. I got some ornacyclene from the pet store and avilac stress mix, should I try giving her these? She has been eating this morning and drinking, but seems to be slowly getting worse. I may take her perches out so she can just sit on the floor and rest with a heat lamp. Any thoughts on crafting a foam collar so she won't peck at it as a last resort? I can't get her to keep any sort of bandage on her foot.

[debbie276]

If it's turning red and so painful she can't perch on it it sounds like it's getting infected, an antibiotic may be necessary.

[hailee]

Would that be a suitable antibiotic to use? I got some kwik stop powder and am going to try that instead now.

[Ria]

Have you tried bandaging the whole foot? Not just the injured toe? That may stay better if you wrap partway up her leg. A dot of neosporin could be used, but only if she isn't going to pick it off right away. my cat's vet would say it has to be on at least 20 minutes to do any good, so if she can tolerate a bandage that long...(that was for dogs that kept tearing off bandages)
Definitely move her to a perch-less cage, make food and water easily accessible in floor dishes, perhaps a little nest on the floor of paper towel strips. And keep the heat lamp going 24-7 if you can. Best of luck with her!