my male r/t broke the middle toe on his right foot. the break is between his foot and the first knuckle. should injury be left to heal on its own or splinted? have discussed matter with doc's, 1 for splint, 1 for leave alone.
Post by forestfalcon on Mar 14, 2008 21:50:36 GMT -5
red said:
my male r/t broke the middle toe on his right foot. the break is between his foot and the first knuckle. should injury be left to heal on its own or splinted? have discussed matter with doc's, 1 for splint, 1 for leave alone.
It would be tough to say without seeing it. Has anyone taken any xrays? It really depends on the severity of the break, where exactly it is, any soft tissue swelling, etc. there are problems with both options. Some of the issues I can think of: If you don't splint, the toe could heal at an odd angle, and not be able to function as well. On the other hand, if you splint, it may still heal oddly, perhaps a lesser chance of this happening. I've seen birds that were splinted that would not stand on the bandaged foot, causing the other to have problems with the constant weight load.
I would talk to both of the vets you saw, and see what their thoughts on the pros and cons are.
"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?" -Bloc Party
yes clean break, seems to angle from top of toe rearward, some swelling over uper 1/2 of toe. the issues you mentioned are my dilema. vets also point out same. say its up to me. looking for someone with past experience to hedge my bet.
Post by forestfalcon on Mar 14, 2008 22:47:21 GMT -5
By no means am I trying to give you medical advice, but if it were my bird, I would try a splint in hopes that it would heal correctly, but if my bird started getting upset with a bandage, I would remove it...but I would probably still try.
"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?" -Bloc Party
If it was my bird, I'd wrap just the toe with vet wrap for a week - to keep the bones aligned and keep the swelling down. It doesn't have to be a bulky wrap. Just a few windings (not too tight!). If the bird takes the wrap off, put another one on. I wouldn't us a hard split or wrap the whole foot.
Post by forestfalcon on Mar 15, 2008 17:24:35 GMT -5
migisi said:
If it was my bird, I'd wrap just the toe with vet wrap for a week - to keep the bones aligned and keep the swelling down. It doesn't have to be a bulky wrap. Just a few windings (not too tight!). If the bird takes the wrap off, put another one on. I wouldn't us a hard split or wrap the whole foot.
I just have to add to Migisi's post: Vet wrap is a wonderful thing, I use it almost every day at work...BUT, it can be dangerous in the wrong hands, if you don't know what you are doing. On several occasions, I've seen owners try to put it on their own animals, and it is VERY easy to put it on too tight. Most were lucky, and the owners figured it out that it was too tight, but for an unlucky few, they lost digits, extremities, etc, just from the lack of bloodflow. A good rule of thumb with it: if you can see through it (i.e, when you are putting it on, and stretching it out,) it will be too tight. It's general use is to put it over other bandage material, like cast padding, to keep it clean and intact.
"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?" -Bloc Party
I thank you both for the advice. As an update.. i'm keeping the bird on the screen perch, it seems to be working well. the swelling has gone down, and he doesn't bate at all. at feeding i am feeding up with cut whole food, this way he doesn't have to tear at it. while on the perch, the toe seems to have a natural curvature to it. the nice thing about the screen perch is that he doesn't have to grip it like a bow perch. the only problem i see with the vet wrap is i don't think it would be effective because of the location so high up on the toe. i think i would have to imobilize the first knuckle at the foot, and that brings along with it all the previously mentioned problems. time will tell....
Red.... glad to hear the bird's resting quietly. Yes... a break so close to the foot would need a foot wrap for it to work. I must've misunderstood your injury description.
Short follow-up for those interested- At approx 4-6 weeks after break the bird was fully healed. Once healed I cut him loose in his free loft. Other than the swelling [calcium deposit] at site of break, he does not seem to be affected. Very capable of grabbing and holding on to food.