S.O.S. for my Harris's feet problem

[femoralis]

Hello. I am from Argentina and have a tiercel harris hawk born in Nov 2005.
Here we are in winter now. My hawk started having some brown spots in the feet and now suddenly they got swollen and the spots got terribly worse last week.

I got it to a vet and told me she was afraid it could be the consequence of eating some herbivore animal that eated plants infected with some fungus (Claviceps sp), and so got some mycotoxins that could produce isquemia due to ergotism.

She was not sure of this condition, and she was also afraid of a possible infection with Stafilococus.

I am really worried by the evolution of the feet of my Harris, and am sending a SOS to those of you guys who may be able to help.

Searching through the web, I got an article called:

Wing Tip Oedema and Dry Gangrene in Birds of Prey
Neil A Forbes BVet Med Cbiol MIBiol Dip ECAMS FRCVS


I am attaching a picture of the feet.

Best regards,

femoralis

F:\Mis Documentos\Mis imágenes\Animales\Pajaros\Halcones Nuestros\patas torco.jpg[/img]

[Falcon Boy]

the image did not attach. Please email it to me at [e-mail] and i will be more than happy to post it.

[Falcon Boy]

Here are the pics

[Weasel]

Those feet are in BAD shape by the lok of it. I have never seen that before where the red is forming above the joints. What do the bottom of the feet look like? Did he put the bird on any meds? antibiotics? etc???

[WildEd]

Get that bird on antibiotics now. If it is frostbite they will not help, but do something before you lose it. ET

[femoralis]

Thanks for your reply. It is on antibiotics since last Thursday. Streptomicine + Penicillin together injected under the skin.
I am also applying a topic creme that contains antibiotics, antimicotic, antiinflamatory, etc., twice a day.
The toes underneath didn't have any injury till last Thursday, when a vet saw him. But now there are some spots of that same color.
The bird is in good mood and good condition otherwise.
The only strange symptoms it had after applying antibiotics by injection was vomiting the food he had immediately after the injection. I mean vomiting the fresh food by opening the mouth and shaking the head, not just dropping an egagropilae. I guessed the stress of immovilizing it and giving the injection is not minor. Or may it be an instant reaction to the antibiotic?
But giving him food in other moments was successful and he gained weight to a good level (570 grs). His flying weight has been 510 grams so far. Now we are feeding him as much as he accepts, in order not to have any nutritional restriction.

Any other recommendation is much welcome

Best regards

Alfonso

[Weasel]

I have been looking online at pics of frostbite and this certainly does not look like it to me. Frost bite would be black as the tissue died. Keep us posted on his condition. I am very interested to see what happens with this.

[Jay]

That does not look like frostbite that I have seen pictures of. I will show it to a friend at work tomorrow she is a wildlife vet tech who worked with raptors for the last 15 years.

[Weasel]

I am now not too sure it isn't frostbite. A few other falconers have now said they have seen this in Harris's before and it is in fact frost bite

[jfneumann57]

it's frost bite the reason it's not black is because tissue necrosis hasn't set in

[Jay]

I showed this to the vet tech today she said almost 100% sure it was frostbite. She also went on to say that the bird is going to loose that middle toe. There is a 50/50 chance of saving the others.

[redtailnut]

Jay whats the latest on the feet..

[Jay]

No idea I haven't heard anything about the bird since I posted that last reply. I sent a PM saying that the best option would most likly be to put the bird down.