Remove withered leg?

[MariusStegmann]

I saw a few days ago when I caught my birds to put then in a new aviary that my Red
Cheek Cordon Bleu has got a withered leg. I noticed a few months ago the bird has a injured leg, but I thought that it would come right by itself. Obviously it didn't. The leg looks completely dry and dead. I wonder if I can cut the leg off because it is a hinderness for the bird because the foot is hooking on things. I know that the female bird can loose a leg and still successfully breed, but a male not. I have a female golden breasted waxbill with one leg that breeds ok.

Regards
Marius

[Sally]

This is a tough call. I have only amputated a leg once, and it was a case with a Blue-capped hen that had caught her leg up in something, and she was flying frantically around the cage with the bottom half of her leg dangling, catching on everything. It was only connected by a very tiny strip, so when I cut off the leg, it didn't even bleed. Any time I have had a foot die, it eventually fell off, so I didn't have to amputate. You would have to be very careful, as if there still was blood flow, she could easily bleed to death. However, if the leg is withered and dead, there must not be any blood flow. Birds can certainly adapt to one leg.

[Jeff McKee]

A friend of mine has a one legged Gouldian that has children....

[lyzzyjayne]

I would say use toenail or claw clippers sterilized and just do a bit at a time.

[MariusStegmann]

There is defninately no bloodflow. The foot is like a dry twig. Hard and dry. I think that I would leave it for now and see if it falls off. It looks like above the joint, the leg is ok. Jeff, the friend that has a one-legged bird that procreated, is the bird a male? Males don't seem to have a problem mounting one legged females, but the same don't go for the males. As things stand now, the male has zero change of mounting the female. If I amputate, perhaps then.

[finch2622]

i have seen 1 leg males & females breed and care for young. most of the birds lost from the tibia down
there is one case of a male which has not flew for over a year with a damaged wing producing 2 seasons of young. If the male is fit and in breeding condition he will breed a hen that is in condition.

[MariusStegmann]

I saw that the withered leg of my RCCM male fell off by itself. The bird is full of energy again and chased my bluecap male around in the aviary. The withered leg obviously bothered him, but now that he is sporting a pink stump, he seems happy.

Now all that I have to do is make him a prosthesis and teach him how to put it on and take it off. HaHa

[debbie276]

That's very good news!
Good luck to him in the future

[Nanajennie]

MariusStegmann hahahaha that is funny!! So glad it all worked out! WOW!

[Toddmin]

I have never seen that happen before. I once had a Diamond dove with a gimpy leg, but it did not seem to bother him.

[waxbill lover]

If the leg is completely dried, and no blood flow to it, I would absolutely clip it off. If it is catching on things in the aviary the bird is at risk to get caught in something and end up hanging and dying.

I had a female gouldian who got her leg caught in between the bars of a cage that had a sliding door. Her leg ended up becoming dried and withered up from the elbow joint down through to her foot.
I took a pair of nail clippers and clipped the dead limb off, right up to just before where the blood flow started. I left about 2 cms of dried limb left, and that piece eventually fell off on its own. She went on to produce several clutches of fertile eggs with her mate (although they were tossers, so I had to foster the eggs out)

Many of these birds we own, actually mate inside the nest... they don't require much balance while in the safety and privacy of their homes.

Good luck!