Leg/Foot Injury

[Falcon Boy]

I found this picture, this is similiar to what happened to my first bird. For treatment, i was advised to remove the anklet and put a fast acting gel that helps the wound heal on it twice a day. I did it, but it still took about 2 months to heal. My question, with an injury like this, what is the best way to heal it? PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF MY BIRD! The difference between this and my bird is my birds injury was on the leg, not the foot. This actually looks like a really bad case of bumble to me. Anyways, i figure the more info we can get on how to treat it the better. Whats' everyones opinions?

[Minca]

well, if it was on the leg then I do agree with removing the anklet, but I'm not so agreeable with the gel thing. It just seems to me that things like that heal quicker if they can stay dry. I would have just used bactine, witchhazel, or alchohol on it regularly and kept the birds husbandry in a way that kept it clean. But then I've also heard that keeping it wet will help it heal from the inside out as opposed to from the outside in, which may be preferred. Was it infected, or just an open sore?

[Falcon Boy]

Just open, no infection. I know that Yarak has said to keep it dry, and thats what i did when my kestrel had his scale damage and it healed quickly. I also have seen/heard to keep applying a gel or neosporin type cream.

[Minca]

I think I would only be tempted to do that if I were worried about infection, it won't help in healing in general. Rosie had some kind of crap going on between her toes that I suspected were from the cool dry air but she would stand in her bath water alot (it looked kinda like athletes foot, crusty) so I put Bagbalm on it and that helped alot. You just gotta assess your individual situation.

[kitana8]

The main reason why we want to keep a wound moist is to allow the new developping cells to stay alive without benefiting the protection of the skin. Cells die when they dry up. But we don't want the wound to macerate, allowing bacterias to proliferate.

As a vet student, I had a stage in a very large raptor rehab center at the université de montréal (one of the 5ft larger raptor centers in north america in fact) and we treated lots and lots of legs and foot injuries. We applied bandages on every wound and depending of the healing stage the wound was in, we applied different kind of gels. An antibiotic is almost always necessary because infection isn't forgiving at all and the raptor environment is full of harmful bacterias (think about mutes, rotting meat parcels glued on the foot skin, etc...). If infection is present, plain old table sugar may be applied directly on the wound to promote healing, bring humidity to the wound and kill the bacterias. Without infection (the healing tissues are a bright pink when not infected) a gel like Intrasite or a bandage like Biodress has to be applied under the bandage.

Hope this help!

[Falcon Boy]

Yup, thanks!

[kitana8]

No prob! Health is still the only area where I can help for now, so... ;D If you need the compagnies making those gels just PM me. Hope your bird heals well!!!

[Falcon Boy]

Oh this isnt my birds, this is just a sample "What if...." question.