Glad to hear you got her all set up nicely!
If you're willing to spend the money, I might have a very serious discussion with your vet about amputation now (if you haven't already).
If money is no object and the vet believes she's quite likely to get in infection, it may be best to amputate now, before her body is compromised by infection.
Often, by the time you see visible signs of infection in these little guys, it's already too late because they hide it well and they have a super fast metabolism, which means those processes tend to go a bit quicker.
I speak from experience. I had a wonderful hairless rat who had a bone tumor in his leg. It was very slow growing at first and he was well medicated and not in any pain. We took him into Angell Memorial said we'd wait until it was a real problem and then discuss amputation.
By the time we felt it was time to amputate, it had already spread to his pelvis, so removing the leg would have done no good. It was too late.
He died of a respiratory infection -- totally unrelated.
But he couldn't walk well in his last year of life. By the time he died, his leg/hip was the size of half a baseball. Thanks to pain meds he wasn't uncomfortable. But I wish I'd taken action sooner.
I'll caution you that these surgeries are *very* expensive. As a rat, he was considered an "exotic" and amputation was in the range of $1500. I had a pigeon foster who had a leg amputated. I didn't pay for it as he wasn't mine and it was covered by the rescue, but their "discounted" rate was still something like $500.
So I guess my point is that if you're willing to do it and there's a good chance she'll get an infection, I might consider doing it now while she's healthy. At least you'll have a better chance of walking away with a live bird at the end of the day.
I don't understand
why it's so expensive, especially for a bird leg.
Heck, if I had anesthesia capabilities, I'd give it a go myself! LOL I mean, really! You're cutting something off and sewing the stump closed.
Remove the bone at the joint above the break, so it's a smooth bone end and not a sharp broken bone end. Leave some extra skin to cover the end of the limb. Cauterize or stitch any blood vessels. Stitch the skin closed with some dissolving stitches. Bandage it. Done. I could do it for $30 in sterile medical supplies and about half an hour of my time.
And that, folks, is why they regulate the availability of anesthesia drugs!
