Need Some Input on this Owl's Leg

[MisterGribs]

Hello! How is your little matchstick girl today??

[GouldieFledge]

mistergribs lovezebs

AH! The current, at-this-very-moment status of the foot is that it is sticking out at a 45 degree angle from the leg, slightly bleeding. I have been monitoring the status of the leg the past...3 days? and had put a little bacitracin onto it and stopped with the espom soaks for fear of overdrying.

I just grabbed her to assess today and that growing ball/lump at the site of injury seemed slightly bigger. I applied a bit more of the antibiotic cream, which seems to have softened the dead foot (?) very rapidly...so in the course of flying back-and-forth/perching, the foot was malleable to turn out on this super awkward angle. AND it was bleeding slightly--it stopped quickly, but I had to wipe down a perch.

She's not happy, at the moment. She was actually hanging out and resting at the floor of the cage for once, I'd imagine this is rather uncomfortable. She is 100% holding the leg up, tucked in to the body since. I really have absolutely no idea what to do here.

[MisterGribs]

GouldieFledge It seems to want to come off on its own, if its bleeding. I imagine its painful, poor thing. It's good you're using an antibiotic!

[GouldieFledge]

mistergribs , yes it indeed seems like that little matchstick does want to come off. I'm pretty sure as soon as she hits it the right way, it's gonna get yanked off. I'm worried if this happens though, she'll bleed out.

[GouldieFledge]

She's squatted down pretty darn low into the perch right now/conserving heat/sleeping. Hopefully this is just from the immediate "trauma" and she will spring back quickly--right after I finished applying the ointment, I sprinkled a little herb salad/dried vegetables from overhead to the floor of the cage (so I didn't have to rummage my hands in the cage again), and she was going crazy like i'd just broken open a pinata. Ha!

She's cute, I caught her playing with a bell last night. This is bad because she's been fighting through this long enough for me to get attached!!!

[GouldieFledge]

Her mate is also poking and prodding at her now...which isn't assisting her balance issues...

[lovezebs]

GouldieFledge

Can you snap a picture?

If the leg was dead, it would not be bleeding.
I know with Max, his dead leg, was just a black dried up little thing. There was no blood in it at all.

I snipped a bit of it off at a time, checking each time, to make sure that I was not getting even remotely close to live flesh.

There was absolutely no discomfort or sensation, or any reaction from him whatsoever.

[MisterGribs]

Is it the leg that's bleeding, or the injury site?

[GouldieFledge]

Man oh man, this little lady is determined to lose all of her appendages. Or make me lose all of my marbles. Listen to this one:

This morning I woke up, was lying in bed. My cages are in my room, so I hear the birds waking. As I'm laying there half-awake, it's starting to register that the morning bird sounds are a little more...persistent than normal. I flash back to when I first got the pair and would remove her from the cage to the bathroom, so I could perform her foot/leg epsom-soaks; those alarm calls the male would make came to mind. I immediately got up and knew something wasn't right...

Low and behold, what do I find but little ole peg-leg stuck in the bars of the cage. She's somehow a combination of the following: upside-down; head pushed THROUGH the rungs of one set of bars, wing pushed through the adjacent set; and half-resting her body between the back of a seedcup.

Of course when I first go to dislodge her she starts flapping/thrashing around which is oh, I don't know, probably the WORST thing she could do with the position she's in. She (surprisingly) calms really quickly though, and just shuts down, closing her eyes and freezing. I'm able to slowly lift the guillotine door while holding her head, wing and body still, then maneuver them gently back through the rungs of the bars. Released her and she popped over to the nearest perch, staring at me with eyes buggin out of her head, in a very human-like "WHATTTT JUST HAPPENED!?!?" way.

I have absolutely no idea how long she was like that. I'm assuming she had a night fright and went bonkers, and this was the result, so god only knows how long that could've been. And happy ending, she is completely and totally fine. Unscathed. Honestly, I think the seed-cup saved her life, because it gave her body something to lean against once she relaxed (instead of dangling her body and breaking her neck, or suffocating).

This bird is a miracle!!!

[lovezebs]

GouldieFledge

Good grief
A bird with a death wish

What in heaven's name is going on with this chickie?

She's very very lucky that she didn't lose the wing, or break her neck for that matter.

That's just too freaky.

[GouldieFledge]

lovezebs I still cannot believe it! Had I known she was fine, I would've taken a picture, just to show everyone how absurd this position she got herself into really was!

P.S. I also witnessed her laying her first egg this morning like, literally watched the event. That was cool and surprising. She laid it on the mock-platform I made for her a couple of weeks back, which is essentially a wooden hut, turned upsidedown and filled flush with newsprint/paper towel. I'm pretty sure one of them scratched away at the papertowel "floor" to create a divot for the egg to sit in/avoid rolling around the surface...the positioning is too coincidental. Smart, fast-acting little buggers! This pair are really keeping me on my feet, lol.

[lovezebs]

GouldieFledge

There will be eggs and babies, whether you want them or not, lol.
These kids have their own agenda obviously