Terrible Accident

[Nelsbels]

Hi,
I haven't posted in a long time, too many other things going on but I do check in from time to time.

Four nights ago, Gabby, our blue crown conure was asleep in her cage with the cover over it, my husband was not too far away reading when he heard a thud. Gabby had fallen off her perch. David checked on her and she appeared ok.

The next day she seemed ok moving around out of her cage doing regular things but she did seem to be a little quieter than usual.
The second day after the fall, she was favoring her right foot, although she would stand on it from time to time and would hold food in it to eat, she was eating and drinking normally. Late in the day she started chewing on her leg, I could not see where she was chewing because it was under the feathers and she did not want me to touch it.

The third morning I had my daughter come over with some aloe and we were going to try to put some on where she was chewing. Well, Gabby had chewed her leg to the bone. It was all I could do not to freak out. We put aloe on it and wrapped it with vet wrap and the minute we let her down she went after the vet wrap with a vengence.

I called the vet and we took her right over. There are no broken bones in her leg, Thank God, but the injuries she has done by chewing are life threatening. The vet put her under anesthesia, plucked the feathers around the chewed area and slightly above, cleaned the wound and rigged up a cone collar for her, just like what you see dogs wear to keep them from chewing themselves and gave us oral antibiotics to give her. The vet said she might get better and all would be well or she might get better and as soon as we take the collar off she will start chewing her leg again, or she may get a systemic infection from this and die.

She hates the collar and attacks it constantly. The only thing that halfway calms her is sitting on my or my husbands shoulder.
Thank goodness I once read on here about Chamomile tea having a calming effect and I had some on hand. She won't drink it but I put a little in a syringe and giver her no choice in the matter. It seems to help her a lot.
The vet said he couldn't give me anything to calm her down.

I have a smallish box that has 1"wide by 2"high holes on all sides that I put her in to sleep. She can see us very well through the holes. It is a real heavy duty box. We were able to hang her water bottle on it and I have a dish of food in there for her. We put the cage grate over it so she can't get out.

She ate pretty good last night when we got home but doesn't seem to be eating as much this morning. I am feeding her out of my hand as she has trouble getting in the food bowl with the collar on. She can drink just fine.
I am sending my husband to the store for some baby food that I can put in a syringe and feed her some so she doesn't lose too much weight.

I can tell you that she will Never sleep in the big cage again. I wanted to post this so all of you can see how easily a bad thing can happen to these birds and maybe put something soft in your birds cage at night so if they do fall they won't hurt themselves.

Any suggestions of anything more I can do would be appreciated.

Crystal

[Halo]

Awwwww. I'm sorry this happened to Gabby. We'll be sending lots of good wishes and prayers from our home.

[Willow]

Oh no! How scary!! Sending your family lots of comforting and healing vibes. Hang in there, and please do keep us posted on how they are doing.

[guest1717171]

how scary!
i wonder why she did that
i hope she heals up ok!!

[DarwinTheSun]

Oh, what a terrible thing to happen to you guys. Did your vet give you any indication of why she would start to chew her leg? I wonder if there was a small injury from falling and it became a bit of an obsession?

[Valo's Moirana]

wow, that is scary - i hope Gabby recovers quickly and leaves the little foot alone....


thanks for the warning, never heard anything like that happen - and so far (knock on wood) the boys didn't fall off their perches at night... i'll put a towel down though from now on - better safe than sorry

[Lisa B]

Sorry to hear that as well. I will pm you my phone number and give me a call when you get a chance. I have had birds in collars and also talk about the baby foods as compared to handfeeding formulas again...

[Nelsbels]

Thank you for all of your kind words and good thoughts. Yes, I believe she did have a bruised area and then became obsessed with it. Lisa, I am going to call you because she is going nuts with this collar.

[Amie]

Oh, I'm so sorry. Thoughts and prayers your way. Keep us updated!

[xafsmom]

Poor baby! I wonder if it's itching and she's fussing it because of that. If it's on her leg and the feathers are removed, perhaps a topical water-based ointment might help her? One that doesn't have a good taste to it, perhaps, but can't harm her. I have to do that for one of my rescues who cannibalises herself. She can't wear a collar either for very long. I figured bitter apple worked for cribbing horses, so I tried something similar for her and once she realised it was yucky, she's stopped eating herself in those areas.