accident with perler bead bands!

[lstyles]

I just got back from two week vacation. I was pleased to find that my black cheeks eggs had hatched and I have four healthy looking chicks. This morning I noticed that the male was holding up a foot and it looked black in parts. I quickly caught him and found that the split perler bead I used for identification had slipped up to "knuckle" (?ankle) and was strangulating the foot. I got it off and he seems to be doing okay but he is going to lose at least the end of two toes as those areas are still black. He is getting around but obviously not as mobile as before. I am concerned that the perler band would do this as that I why I use those bands (to prevent strangulation of limbs). That is not my problem though....
Because he is less mobile, his mate (Stevie) is getting a little peeved at him for not going into nest as much to help out. She has started to pick his feathers! I caught her today twice with one of his feathers in his mouth and have seen her try several other times. She never did this with her first mate and I never saw it before with this mate. What should I do? She spends a fair amount of time in nest feeding the chicks and hopefully he will improve to get around more to help but I can't see that happening quickly. I don't want to separate them at this critical period (chicks are probably about 4-5 days old).
thanks,
Lori

[finchmix22]

At about five days, then parents don't stay in the nest all the time, so you may need to put him in a hospital cage for a few days with an antibiotic, heat and watch for healing. Hens can feed chicks on their own if they must.

[cindy]

I have had this happen with young chicks with slender legs and feet, often the bead fall off but on bigger birds if they get the bead or band (had it happen with a metal band also) gets snagged on something and the bird tries to free itself the bead or band can be pulled over the foot. Heat and ointmement if needed, most of the time the blood supply is restored and hte foot relaxes and the bird is able to perch in time.

[wellingtoncdm]

I also recently had two parrot finches holding their feet up from the split bands. I removed them which was not easy and they seem to be healing OK. I have never had this problem before.

[lstyles]

Today the male is doing better. Flying around more and even went into nest so mom could come out. I will watch to see if she still picks his feathers. Two of his toes are black and he is going to lose them. The rest of the foot looks okay. I am waiting to see how things develop but do people usually amputate the dead parts or wait for them to fall off. I am a doctor so don't mind doing the amputation if that is what is best. I am a little hesitant to do it right now as he does seem to be using the dead parts to balance himself. I don't want to throw him off by removing them too quickly.
thanks,
Lori