Zebra Finch cut her leg, now it's swollen

[Sir Bubbles]

Well here I am again posting about Sophie. Before I begin I should post some brief background information about her medical history for those that don't know.

Several months ago Sophie had problems bleeding from her vent. I was never able to identify the problem, but this only ever happened twice and both times she seemed to produce a clot of some sort. I took her to the vet for this and he said they couldn't identify any tumors or anything of that nature, and she seemed pretty healthy otherwise.

About 2 months ago she had developed what seems to be some sort of leg paralysis in her left leg. She just suddenly lost the ability to lose it. She became unable to perch and walk around for the most part. I moved her to a hospital cage for about 3 weeks and I eventually decided to reintroduce her to the main aviary ( with 4 other birds. ) Amazingly, she seemed to learn to get along without the use of her leg and was balancing fairly well on just the one.

For about a couple of weeks she was doing great, but eventually the other birds started to pick on her. I suspect this is either because they had to re-establish the pecking order or because of her disability. Either way, things started to get a bit out of hand and I began to feel that with her disabled leg she doesn't need the added stress of fighting.

So about a week ago I notice her leg is bleeding. I don't know what happened, but I decided that it's best to put her in her own cage indefinitely. The leg seemed to heal up just fine. Of course it was still paralyzed, but all that remained of the incident was a tiny dark red spot like a scab, and I assumed that it had just healed itself up.

The past 3-4 days I began to notice some minor swelling. Yesterday, her leg was looking a bit irritated and slightly bloody. I've seen her pecking at it, so I assume she's been making it worse. I helped her clean it off and put some corn starch on to stop the bleeding. Today I haven't noticed much change, but the leg isn't really getting any better either.

I want to say that overall, she seems to be a happy bird. She doesn't show signs of being sick or tired like my other birds have in the past when they have problems. She gets along fairly well in her cage, scooting around to eat seed and millet. She has a towel on the floor so that she's comfortable. Everything is made to be very accessible to her. All that being said, I do feel like her quality of life has dipped a bit. I don't think she's in constant pain and grief, but I'm worried that her new leg problem may take a turn for the worse.

I lost a bird in the past that got twine wrapped around her leg and I assume she cut off the circulation, so the leg began to swell and generally become unpleasant. The Vet advised me that we should remove her leg because it would hamper her ability to move around. So we tried surgery, and she didn't make it. After that, I'm afraid to put anymore birds through surgery due to them not being able to handle the anesthesia so well.

I don't know what will happen to her leg, or to her for that matter. I'm kind of scared right now and don't want to lose her. I was planning on calling the vet but I feel like he may not be able to do very much for her at this point. I will still do it to make sure she gets the care she need, but I'm just pessimistic.

What do you guys think?

[cindy]

A vet is a good idea, especially if swollen or infected, she may need an antibiotic, broad spectrum such as baytril.

I would definitely remove her from the aviary and place her in a hospital cage, heat lamp to one side if need she can go to it. food and water down low where she can comfortably get to it.

[Sir Bubbles]

Thanks Cindy. I got her all set up with heat and low food & water in a hospital cage at the moment.

I'll give the vet a call and see what they have to say.

Update:

Okay I called the vet. The avian specialist that I normally see isn't available until Thursday ( he's on vacation, so I can't see him at all. )

They told me that there are a couple other doctors who may be willing to see her on Monday instead depending on how comfortable they feel with seeing a bird. Also, one of the doctors has apparently worked with chickens in the past. I figure this may be my best bet since I don't really want to have to wait around for 4 days and let her get worse.

[wildbird]

Going to a vet that doesn't really know what they are doing with finches can be worse than not going at all. Sometimes it's best to do what you can yourself than to put her through the stress with a vet who might prescribe the wrong treatment or worse. Small birds require an experienced avian vet.

[Derk]

Sir Bubbles
Sorry to read about poor little Sophie. It sounds like you are trying your best to provide a wonderful life for her. Is it the paralyzed leg that is injured? If it is, it is unfortunately not a surprise. It is likely getting bumped around a lot and it will be prone to injury and infection. Amputating the leg, would likely increase the birds quality of life. Unfortunately, you are correct to be concerned about the anesthetic and surgery.

Is the injury lower on the leg? Perhaps only a partial amputation would be required? Perhaps ask the vet how long each surgery would be and likelihood of success. I am aware that bird legs have few blood vessels. I would think amputation along a leg bone would be relatively quick. The only experience I have had was with a broken wing and that bird did not survive the surgery.

I am sorry. I am not much. But you do have my sympathies.

[Sir Bubbles]

Going to a vet that doesn't really know what they are doing with finches can be worse than not going at all. Sometimes it's best to do what you can yourself than to put her through the stress with a vet who might prescribe the wrong treatment or worse. Small birds require an experienced avian vet.

My mom and I discussed it and we both think it's best to wait for the bird doctor to be available again on Thursday instead of wasting time and money on someone who may not know what they're dealing with, as you mentioned.

Sir Bubbles
Sorry to read about poor little Sophie. It sounds like you are trying your best to provide a wonderful life for her. Is it the paralyzed leg that is injured? If it is, it is unfortunately not a surprise. It is likely getting bumped around a lot and it will be prone to injury and infection. Amputating the leg, would likely increase the birds quality of life. Unfortunately, you are correct to be concerned about the anesthetic and surgery.

Is the injury lower on the leg? Perhaps only a partial amputation would be required? Perhaps ask the vet how long each surgery would be and likelihood of success. I am aware that bird legs have few blood vessels. I would think amputation along a leg bone would be relatively quick. The only experience I have had was with a broken wing and that bird did not survive the surgery.

I am sorry. I am not much. But you do have my sympathies.

Thanks Derk. It is the paralyzed leg that's injured; around her elbow and upper leg area.

I would love to be able to have her get rid of the leg if it meant helping her and improving her quality of life, but I'm just too worried about the outcome of the surgery.

[wildbird]

I had an english sparrow with a toe that turned dark and needed to be removed. A very well known avian vet did the operation and she survived. It was only a toe, but required a couple of visits to rebandage the foot. Anesthesia is not to be taken lightly. They really have to know what is safe to use for a small finch. Another sparrow had an injured wing that occasionally would bleed, as a piece was missing. One vet wanted to amputate the wing, as he said it would never heal right and was of no use. I noticed the bird needed it for balance and did not amputate it. Another, more experienced avian vet agreed, and that it would have been detrimental to the bird to have amputated it. It eventually healed and the bird could even use it. Remember that you can always remove it, but can never replace what is gone. I would not be in a hurry to amputate. You don't know what has caused the loss of use, and there is a chance that some use will return. Just try to keep it free of infection.

[Sir Bubbles]

That's a good point. I hope I didn't come across the wrong way in my last post, and I'm certainly not in a hurry to cut anything off. I just meant to say that if I knew that removing her leg would be best for her well being then I would do it.

Right now though it's hard to say what's best for her. I'm keeping an eye on her still. Her leg hasn't bled in a while now as far as I know. It still looks swollen but not as red as it originally was, which I now believe was just from her blood. In fact from what I recall seeing, her leg looked pretty normal colored aside from the scabs where it was cut/pecked at.

[wildbird]

That's good news! I hope things keep improving for her. You never know, she may regain some use of it. Just give it some time.

[Sir Bubbles]

I've noticed that at the edge of her beak where it meets her face, she seems to have developed some sort of dimple or shallow hole in it. She's actually had one just like it on the other side of her beak for a couple of months now ( give or take a few weeks ) and I didn't think much of it, but now another one has developed seemingly overnight.

Has anyone seen such a thing before? I can't seem to find much information about holes appearing at the edge of their beaks. The only thing I can imagine is that she's possibly not getting all the nutrition she needs with how she's been feeling lately, and this has somehow caused a deformity to occur. Unfortunately she tends to ignore most things I try to give her in favor of her seeds and millet.

I hope this isn't something bad... I feel so bad for her putting up with all of these problems over the past few months. I keep telling her to hang in there and that things will get better, and they usually do, but then something else comes up. Poor little girl

Edit:

Okay so... false alarm I think. I'm gonna sound kind of dumb here, but my boyfriend and I were looking at it and since we're both still not really finch experts it just occurred to us that I've been looking at her nostrils. It's weird, because I've never seen them before on my other birds. Sophie's just seem to be really prominent.

Well that gives me some relief. I was worried her beak was starting to deteriorate or something.

[Sir Bubbles]

Just wanted to post an update and say about 15 mins ago her leg has been bleeding again. I'm pretty sure she's done it herself by pecking at it. I don't know if I should interfere and try to clean it and put more corn starch on. The bleeding is pretty minimal though so I don't think there's much of a flow that needs to be stopped. I'm just worried about the open wound itself though.

Also a couple of things I've been noticing. One being that her poop seems to be a light yellow color in some cases. Not sure what this could mean since I'm not very good at identifying which parts need to be yellow and which shouldn't, but it looks like most of it is yellow. I've also noticed that her tail seems to be twitching a bit lately.

I suspect these are both signs of her just not feeling well, or developing an infection of some sort. If anyone could elaborate that would be great - just ask me any questions if you need something clarified.

Only two more days until I can see the vet, I hope she can hang in there.

[Derk]

Sir Bubbles
She has so much going on with that leg it is hard to say. I would lower her perches and supply a heat lamp if you have not already done so. Put some nice soft padding on the bottom of the cage. Provide lots of fresh millet or any food she really likes. Keep her water clean, which I know you do. Please keep us posted and of course let us know what the vet says. Sending good thoughts.

[Sir Bubbles]

Thank you Derk. Not much has changed the past few days, which I suppose is good. I'm just thankful she's not getting worse. I haven't been able to get her into the vet yet unfortunately, but hopefully I can this coming Tuesday.

I've been thinking a lot about what you said about your sparrow and the injured wing. I feel like overall Sophie is doing okay. Her mood and health seem mostly unaffected. I've seen the way my birds act before when they're injured or sick and she doesn't seem to be acting that way. Despite her handicap she's still pretty mobile.

I owe it to her to get her examined by the vet, I just have this fear that it's going to be bad news or that he's going to advise amputation. But what you said about your sparrow and the wing gives me this faint glimmer of hope. I don't know what will happen to her leg, and I don't think it's going to get " better. " But right now, I don't think we're looking at a life or death situation, and I don't think her quality of life is poor enough to warrant putting her through surgery.

I'm sort of just rambling here and trying to put my thoughts out there. I think about her a lot and I'm very worried, but I'm also trying to examine the situation objectively. Bottom line is, she seems to be getting along despite her handicap, and if things can stay that way then there's no reason she should have to risk surgery.

[Spreckles]

I am sorry to read about Sophie. I am comforted that I am not alone in worrying myself silly about these little birds!!! I have some knowledge of humans having been a nurse forever. Some of it may cross over? Infections can cause itching, redness, swelling etc... could the bird be responding to the limb's discomfort by pecking at it? Has she been on antibiotics for infection???? I read not to indiscriminately use antibiotics but seems justified here. (More experienced bird folks please jump in) Also with a bird this size a small amount of blood can be a lot of blood. In a tiny baby a blood transfusion is a syringe so these finches losing drops could be significant. Just thinking out loud, I am a newbie. I have an old bird and how she got to be old I have no idea. She had nothing but bird seed and lives in the dormer by a window. I keep the cage clean and give fresh clean water every day. That has been the extent of my bird skills!!!!! You should have seen her with her first millet spray!
I hope Sophie improves. Now among other things I need to get a hospital cage.

[Sir Bubbles]

Thank you Spreckles for the kind thoughts.

I am sad to say that I feel like Sophie is reaching the end of her road.

I know I've been speaking a lot about how I'm trying to remain hopeful for her. It's really hard to say whether or not she's suffering. Her leg is starting to look worse again, and it's probably unable to be saved at this point. She keeps pecking at it and causing it to bleed, and I would be surprised if it's not infected at this point.

I'm going to take her into the vet tomorrow and see what he has to say. I feel like he will either advise surgery, or euthanasia. My mom and I had a talk about this and despite how much I've tried to convince myself otherwise, I'm beginning to think it may be for the best. I've had a very difficult couple of weeks having to watch her leg slowly deteriorate and it's getting very hard for me to watch her like this.

I'm not going to jump to any conclusions here, if I can treat her I will. It's just that things are starting to look pretty grim and I want to be prepared for the possibility that this may be our last night together.

I just wanted to share my thoughts. I'm still doing the best I can to care for her.