HELP! Budgie leg necrosis!

[snupito]

[/b]Dear friends,
I would be very grateful if I receive some good advice on a very urgent matter! First of all I have to mention that in my region there are no avian vets available.
Two years ago I bought two budgerigars – male (named Blue) and female (named Tweety), with the Ferplast Piano 4 Open Cage and I added a nest box to it.
I never imagined that they would have a family but it happened! In march this year three healthy baby budgies hatched, grew up fast and became adults without any problems whatsoever.

On the third of September the couple again hatched three babies.

This time the female was aggressive towards the male, refusing to feed the chicks so I removed her in a separate cage.
The father raised the children properly all by himself – here is a link to my youtube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKvl62NUFWg – of how the father feeds the chicks.
Two of the young yellow budgies were becoming very anxious to leave the nest box before they had grown up enough to have the strength to hold on the perches.
I found them on the bottom of the cage two times after work, they had fallen from the nest box earlier in the day - a friend of mine who raises cockatiels told me it was normal and that I did not have anything to worry about.

The third time I found them on the bottom of the cage I was horrified. The youngest was lying on one side, unable to use his leg, but fortunately after 20 days he recovered completely.
The other ones leg was blue and swollen but he was able to use it normally, he showed no signs of disease – was very playful, energetic, big appetite.
I showed two ordinary vets pictures and everyone convinced me that I should wait and the leg would recover on its own.
I put the two birds together in a small cage with their father so that they could not injure themselves, on a soft bed of napkins. When they started eating on their own I returned the father to the big cage.
After 10 days the leg looked better, returned its normal color, was using it and grabbing hold on a perch I added to the small cage.
Just four days later I found out that necrosis had started to form. Immediately I took the bird to several vets, no one knew what to do and how to treat the bird.
Sad and worried I took him in a pet shop where the salesman had been a parrot breeder. He gave me the address of an old friend of his who was maybe the only avian vet in the country.
I took the bird to the man and he told me that the leg is inflamed, the liver is black and swollen and antibiotic treatment is needed.
I started giving the parrot powder antibiotics that the vet gave me, five days of treatment and three of rest – eight days have gone by and there is no improvement so far.
The budgie only seems to get worse – he has no strength, the leg is deformed and he cannot even hold on a perch for more than 10 minutes. I want to help him but I do not know how, I cannot wait any longer!

For a better look on the photos please view my dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x9ql4kfsjllxqr0/gB0XMJ6QBO
They are on a seed diet – Menu Vitakraft, I give them eggs, sepia bone and vitamins in the water weekly.
Any advice, medication recommendation, diagnosis is needed!

[cml]

Sorry, I dont have anything to help, but I didnt want to leave your post unanswered.

I really hope you find a solution, the situation sounds grim .

[marie83]

I would contact as many avian vets (even if they are in other countries)as you can and see if they will guide one of your non-avian vets in detail as to what can be done about it. Any decent vet will be willing to aid another vet in helping to prevent a sick animal suffering. There may be a few good vets who genuinely don't have the time for such correspondence though.
I hope things work out well. I hope you will come back and keep us updated.

[Pajarita]

Continue giving antibiotic and keep the bird very warm. Keep him separate in a small cage with no perches and a soft bottom (like a folded towel). But, if the leg is beginning to wither (turns black first and then it starts to dry up and shrink), there is nothing you can do for it because it's not getting any blood flow. This is very common with small birds, their legs are very delicate and any little thing that interrupts their circulation ends up in a dead limb (by the way, you need to re-evaluate your breeding and nests). Eventually (and as long as there is no gangrene), the dead leg will fall off. But, sometimes, surgery is needed because it might leave a bone exposed in which case, you will need to find an avian vet to fix it (they will cut the bone at a higher point, make a flap with the skin, wrap it over the end of the bone and sew it in place) because anesthesia for small birds is tricky and regular vets don't know how to do it.

[charlotte&mango]

I am a vet student training with an avian vet.
Has the bird had an xray / fluoroscopy conducted on its leg? Its quite probable that it is broken and that having not been set properly it has restricted the blood flow.
Anesthesia and operations are difficult on birds, especially such small and young ones and the risks are quite high, hence why a lot of the time they are not conducted. I would imagine the ideal would be to have the leg effectively rebroken and set. But this is unlikely to happen.
Amputations are not really successful in birds but if you had an xray and found it be for example within a toe it may be possible.
Unfortunately otherwise it comes down to quality of life. He may be in pain and it may cause other altercations. I would definitely would not wait and would seek the advice of a proper avian vet who can assess it properly.

[snupito]

Continue giving antibiotic and keep the bird very warm. Keep him separate in a small cage with no perches and a soft bottom (like a folded towel). But, if the leg is beginning to wither (turns black first and then it starts to dry up and shrink), there is nothing you can do for it because it's not getting any blood flow. This is very common with small birds, their legs are very delicate and any little thing that interrupts their circulation ends up in a dead limb (by the way, you need to re-evaluate your breeding and nests). Eventually (and as long as there is no gangrene), the dead leg will fall off. But, sometimes, surgery is needed because it might leave a bone exposed in which case, you will need to find an avian vet to fix it (they will cut the bone at a higher point, make a flap with the skin, wrap it over the end of the bone and sew it in place) because anesthesia for small birds is tricky and regular vets don't know how to do it.

Thank you for the good advice, fortunately the two front fingers have fallen off with
no complications, the back finger is still holding on. I hope all goes well, for now I stopped
the antibiotic treatment and only give vitamins in the water. I'm not sure I want to re-evaluate
breeding, I never felt so helpless in treating my pets!

I am a vet student training with an avian vet.
Has the bird had an xray / fluoroscopy conducted on its leg? Its quite probable that it is broken and that having not been set properly it has restricted the blood flow.
Anesthesia and operations are difficult on birds, especially such small and young ones and the risks are quite high, hence why a lot of the time they are not conducted. I would imagine the ideal would be to have the leg effectively rebroken and set. But this is unlikely to happen.
Amputations are not really successful in birds but if you had an xray and found it be for example within a toe it may be possible.
Unfortunately otherwise it comes down to quality of life. He may be in pain and it may cause other altercations. I would definitely would not wait and would seek the advice of a proper avian vet who can assess it properly.

You are probably right in your assumption, I also think that the bone had not set properly and
was maybe broken. The main problem was the inflammation, because the leg was swollen small
parts of the skin ripped a little in the edges of the fingers, causing small bleeding wounds. They
heeled very quickly but I suspect that they had contaminated the blood with bacteria. That in
itself caused the liver to inflame, blood circulation to the fingers had stopped and there you have it.
I hope that the bird will regain strength on its one, as for now I stopped the antibiotics.

Here are some photos from today, please right click to preview the pictures for a better look,
they are not originaly cropped!

[Pajarita]

I am a vet student training with an avian vet.
Has the bird had an xray / fluoroscopy conducted on its leg? Its quite probable that it is broken and that having not been set properly it has restricted the blood flow.
Anesthesia and operations are difficult on birds, especially such small and young ones and the risks are quite high, hence why a lot of the time they are not conducted. I would imagine the ideal would be to have the leg effectively rebroken and set. But this is unlikely to happen.
Amputations are not really successful in birds but if you had an xray and found it be for example within a toe it may be possible.
Unfortunately otherwise it comes down to quality of life. He may be in pain and it may cause other altercations. I would definitely would not wait and would seek the advice of a proper avian vet who can assess it properly.

I've had several amputations (feet and legs as well as wings) done in birds as small as canaries and all of them were successful, they all came through the surgery well, recuperated quite quickly and lived lives of a normal expectancy.

[snupito]

I thank everyone for the kind support and have good news!

The small one has heeled for now and is trying to adapt to the big cage.
He is looking rather sluggish and isn’t as fast and confident as the other parrots he lives with.
I still don’t know if it’s a he or a she, and would like to ask you if you have some name ideas !