Hi Maggie,
It seems we only check in when we have trouble, but it's so nice to know you're here! Luna, my adopted TAG, went in for a beak dremmel a week and a half ago to correct overgrowth on one side caused by misalignment of her beak.
While there I told both the vet and the vet student that I did NOT want her nails dremmeled too because she was gripping fine and never slipping and they were fine. Well he dremmeled them, and then I think, let the student do them (we didn't go back with her because he prefers not ot have your bird link you with the bad experience) because 6 of them were dremmeled to the nub, no exaggeration. It has been horrific. I even called to complain. She's been slipping and falling and having a terrible time getting around since then, just when she had become confident enough to start climbing around and landing on her free hanging rope comfortably. She can't' do any of these things now.
Well, two days ago, I started to notice that she was ALWAYS resting the right foot and not resting both equally. So I began to check closely and noticed that she was not gripping with the toe on the back of the right foot. It was just sticking out straight. And when I held her I could feel her putting her weight on her left foot and barely on the right. There was litttle more warmth on the right too, but not much.
She did rest the left foot once that day that I noticed and she did eat standing on the right (she's left-footed).
Today she's been wobbly when she rests the left foot and has to stand on the right. She's not climbing about. It looks as if both feet are sore now because she's been standing on the left so much to spare the right.
She is walking on it, and will scratch with it and lift it to preen around it. She is eating fine and talking to me, but there is certainly something wrong. She was horribly off-balance today, worse than she's been since the dremmel and was losing her balance even when trying to turn on a perch or spread her poor wings.
I had padded the cage bottom and took her twice today to rest her feet on the couch on fleece. I moved some booda perches around so that she wouldn't have to gingerly climb down the wire to her food and water, but she refuses to use my new routes and I wince everytime I see her painfully, slowly grip and pull like heck with her beak to lift herself up the wire.
I don't want to rush her right back to the vet. I'd like to hear some experience from you and others with bird experience first. I mean, if it's a sprained toe from landing and clinging to the venetian blind strings (since she can't do her usual grip of the wood slats with her talons and beak) it doesn't seem like the vet could help anyway. What would they do for a broken toe? Anesthetize her, x-ray her and tell me they can't fix it? (I have a bad taste in my mouth because I think the vet dremmeled her nails just to give the student some experience even though I asked not to).
What should I be looking for, how soon would a sprain heal, what do they do for broken or injured feet or toes in birds since, like horses, they have to stand on them all day?
I am monitoring her weight daily. It was down several grams this morning, but I can't worry about that yet since her weight does normally fluctuate a bit.
I can't see any obvious swelling, but Im no vet. She looks like she's having trouble standing her full weight on that leg, like when she stretches the opposite wing and foot (the ballerina pose), her right leg is not fully extended, it's bent a bit like it can't hold her up all the way.
My poor baby, I have shed many sad and angry tears at what that nail dremmel did, and now we have an injury on top of the loss of confidence and trust in me.
She let loose such a screeching growl, Maggie, when she saw that vet last week, remembering him from the last beak dremmel only 3 months prior, that I thought, "she can't come back here anytime soon; she is so stressed out and terrified by this man now." I know those procedures are so painful. I'm scared that if I brought her back to see him again, she' collapse. She's so poorly socialized to begin with.
Help! Have your birds ever had any foot injuries? What would you advise me to be aware of when I talk to the vet? Can they do anything for broken toes? I don't guess the leg is broken.
We'd also have to drive one hour with her having to support herself on bumpy roads on those tired and painful feet.
Thanks for reading my worried ramble, Maggie. Luna and I were doing so welll, and now it's gone so bad. I was already gonna write to ask for ways of keeping her beak growth down because I thought, "no way we are doing this every 3 months for the rest of our lives."
I can't change vets. The vet school is the only clinic taking new patients with an avian boarded vet within 120 miles.
Allie and Luna