Poor Cypress - boing safety

[Willow]

Yesterday when I got home from work, I went in to check on the birdies and noticed Cypress holding something odd in his foot and chewing on it. Upon closer inspection, I saw he had some very fine string tightly wrapped about his foot and his toes. I chased him around his cage with the towel for a bit before successfully catching him :(poor guy): Once out, I saw there was no way I would be able to remove it without assistance. Off we went to my friends house, who is a vet. She was able to remove it by using suture removal scissors, which are quite small and have a tightly curved end. Whew! The foot was a bit swollen by the time we got it the strings removed but everything was fine and no lasting harm, thank goodness I caught it in time! I almost didn't go in and check on them as I'd only been gone 2.5 hours and was supposed to head right back out and go meet my father for dinner.

I couldn't imagine where the string had come from but when I inspected his cage the only thing I can see is the boing. It is slightly frayed near the top where he sits, but nothing that would have caused me to worry about it and nothing there that would be able to be trimmed off. On a routine inspection, it would have passed. :( I think I will likely remove everyone's boings from their cages and have them only as free time perches (they are out most of the time anyway, only in cages when I am not here). I will have to get some sisal boings instead - those are the only ones I will put in cages from now on, I think.

I just wanted to pass this along, as it was pretty scary!

Here is a photo of my handsome boy taken earlier this month. (Facing camera, Mulberry has his back to the camera.)


Sincerely,
Amy
see my feathered friends here:http://www.geocities.com/willowbabybird/Home.html

[cgrite]

Simply beautiful birds!!!!

glad you caught that in time...i had a similar instance b4 with one of my G2's but caught it in time as well.....i totally changed things around as well after that...

[LMPego]

Thanks for the warning. Cory has a sisal boing, but she has one of those Booda perches - I'll have to go home and inspect it.

What kind of birds are Cypress and Mulberry? They are beautiful! (And I love their names.)

[smallonion]

same thing happened to my Humphrey a while ago, even though I didn't know where he string came from. We tried to get it off but couldn't, so I took him to the local vet (non-avian) and he did the same thing to get the string off poor Humph's foot. And he didn't even charge me!

Humph's foot was fine, but it was quite scary.

Michele and Humphrey

[Willow]

Hi everyone,
I discovered today it was NOT the boing that had the threads which became wrapped around Cypress's foot and toes! He had a toy that had those springy shoe laces on it. Normally I wouldn't put a toy with those in a cage, because I worry about them getting it wrapped around their neck. These were short enough that I thought they were ok. The birds do love to chew on those!

Well, today I discovered it was this lace that was the culprit. He had chewed it and caused it to unravel into a fine polyester type thread - those does not tear like cotton would! This is *definitely* what was around his foot and toes. I thought it was strange it have come from the boing but couldn't see anything else. Now I know. I am relived that I didn't over look an obvious danger from the boing! But, I can't believe I could have overlooked this. The only thing I can think of, is that he must have just begun the unravel process. Today he must have decided to have another go at it, and I noticed it immediately upon looking at him in his cage. It was not like that yesterday.

As always, it's important to inspect toys and perches daily, but I do not think this type of not breakable material is safe to let our birdies play with unsupervised.

Hopefully, this helps others.

Here are some photos:

[The Outlaw]

That's exactly why you have to be very careful and ONLY use cotton rope and Paulie rope when making toys. Your other options are leather thongs and chain.

For the record, they can get tangled in the darndest things. I had that happen with one of my greys. She had a piece of Miss Lily's hair, which is almost white, wrapped around her foot. It makes you wonder how in the world the EVER survive in the wild.

[Willow]

This was a purchased toy, not homemade. Another case for making your own, since you know exactly what is put into it! I've had other toys with those laces, and they LOVE them, but from now on they will only have access to them if I'm right there watching, if at all! Poor birdies! I guess nature makes things a little more forgiving (breakable). LOL