Amazon recovering from losing toe HELP please!

[wordy]

My yellow naped amazon Wordy got her toe stuck in her cage severing it off completely today. I was able to take her into the emergency vet and they stitched it up, put a ball bandage on it, and fitted her with an e collar to be worn for the next ten days. They sent me home with some antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory pain medication. Now, I have her at home in a large clear plastic container. Does anyone have any tips for helping her adjust to the bandage and the collar? She is very frustrated and just wants to bite and chew everything in her reach including the collar itself. Also, she hasn't been wanting to eat or drink in the few hours since we got home from the vet, how do I encourage her to eat while she is so distressed? I just don't know how she is going to make it through this recovery, anyone with experience please help my poor little girl!
-Lori

[Michael]

That's just terrible. Poor bird. How did it happen? Is there anything we can learn from this?

This is the story about when my Cape fractured his pelvis and caring for him at home. He had to stay in a plastic tub nearly a month so he would remain immobile so things could heal. For the first week he barely ate and I even had to feed him baby formula to make him eat. So check it out but consult your vet on things first. Just be patient and do your best.

http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... oming+Home

[Pajarita]

I used to put recovering birds in the hospital cage but I no longer do unless they are in their last legs when they feel more comfortable hiding because they feel much more comfortable in their familiar environment. Try putting him back in his regular cage but put folded towels at the bottom, make his perches easily accessible (so he doesn't have to actually climb) and see if you can buy a couple of platforms so he can stand without using his toes to clench the perch.

Take out the collar, put his favorite food down in front of you (like sit down at a table and put him on it with the food in front of him and you) and talk to him softly (do you have a phrase you normally use for his meal times? If you do, use it) while you watch him so he doesn't tear his bandage off. Soft food usually does the trick (at least for mine who are not used to getting any people's food whatsoever). With the exception of a RedLored which had to have her broken leg bones reset after many years of been broken which necessitated a metal rod PLUS an external fixator (a metal contraption that has screws that go into the bone through the skin) AND a cast for almost three months, I've never had a problem with them trying to tear a bandage
off but vigilance is essential, of course.

Don't worry, he will recuperate, a toe is nothing. Birds don't commit suicide by starvation.