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Gouldian Fledgling with a bad leg
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:23 pm
by Tmiller
My gouldians were sitting on a clutch of eggs and after about a week they decided to abandon them, so I gave the eggs to the societies but by then they were ice cold but surprisingly a couple of them still hatched, well now they just fledged a week ago most of them are good but one just sits on the bottom of the aviary, I noticed he was having a hard time getting around, he doesn't try to fly so I pulled him out and I noticed one of his legs is bent to the side and his toes are clenched and has no movement what so ever, the other leg seems fine, the societies still feed him and he is still very vocal, I have a zebra fledge and a button quail that cuddles with him every night, I was wondering if anyone else has ran into this problem with fledglings and if there is anything I can do for the little guy if I'm going to need to put him in his own special cage or not. Thanks for any advice.
Re: Gouldian Fledgling with a bad leg
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 11:48 pm
by Sally
It may be that there is nothing you can do for the leg at this point in time. I had a baby once with this type injury, leg sticking straight out to the side. He managed to adapt and live quite well for quite a few years. He was able to perch, though with some difficulty when first landing. He managed to use a gravity-type seed hopper, a tube waterer, and get around a 32x21x35 cage.
I would suspect that he was somewhat squashed in the nest and his leg was either injured or dislocated.
Re: Gouldian Fledgling with a bad leg
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:32 am
by lovezebs
Tmiller
Poor little guy....
In a recent clutch, I had a couple of babies, who were splay legged. I managed to catch it fairly early though, and would take them out, placing their legs in the appropriate position and exercising them everyday. They are now weaned and doing very well, and legs are normal.
In your situation, do you feel comfortable with holding baby, and gently massaging his leg, to see if it will eventually get some flexibility to it? You can't force it back into a normal position at this stage, but with some physiotherapy, you might be able to offer him some moton and movement (maybe ). Personally, I would give it a try, but it all depends on what you feel comfortable with.
Good luck.