Fajr's foot fracture

[shiraartain]

Hello everyone! I got back from Japan about a month ago, but it's been busy since then, so much so that I haven't even had time to look over forum threads.

Woke up from my nap yesterday to mom screaming Fajr's name, and we rushed Fajr off to the 24 hr emergency vet. Turned out chika shifted her weight without realizing Fajr had moved to that side of her body and he was hurt. Vet gave pain medication and antibiotics for the bruising around the fracture. He's got a splint now and a cone to prevent his chewing off the splint. Thankfully Fajr is taking very well to his medicines, got very excited over the pina colada flavored one. This is a very rushed summary, I will scan the vet's summary and share that once I return home tonight.

The problem is that we removed all of his perches and have a folded cloth over the grate. At first he just rolled around, but at some point he remembered that he has wings. And is now flying from one side of his cage to the other so thay he can grasp the cage bars with his one good leg and his beak. He's not allowed out of his cage this week because he's not supposed to be flying....but Fajr very much desires to move around and climb. I'll be calling in to the vet to see if they have any recommendations, but any ideas from anyone here?

[Wolf]

Maybe a couple of low perches for him. They could even be flat ones, but he is accustomed to perches and would probably feel more comfortable with one or two even if they are kept low for safety reasons.

[Pajarita]

Yes, you need to put perches and platforms in there and he needs to be let out to fly. You will need to supervise him closely but you can't leave him in his cage for the weeks it will take for his leg to heal.

[shiraartain]

I put one perch in there, which seems to have helped. He's trying to take off his cone right now, i've snipped off the bits of tape the tech put around the very edges of the cone because he kept chewing them, but now he's decided to go after the tape directly around his neck- they put it there for his comfort so that the cone doesn't cut into his neck, but he's chewing it up and there are strings of tape left now. Will talk to dad about removing it this evening- I don't want to try to do it myself and harm Fajr in the process.

Parjarita, he does escape from us and fly when we let him out as we don't towel him, just hold him on his back, but he does so without regard for his left leg. Can you elaborate on what you mean by close supervision? The vet's verbal instructions were to keep him in the cage just for the first week. He's already going stir-crazy in there, even with us taking him out every afternoon.

He's started to get stubborn about taking his medicine. The Baytril is given to him at 11PM, so no wonder. I can barely keep my own eyes open until it's time to give it to him. He'll take the other medication pretty easily in the morning, a bit more reluctantly at night.

Droppings have returned to normal (I was worried because they were still watery Monday night), I've scheduled his follow-up for Monday afternoon.

Here are the vet's instructions: https://goo.gl/photos/La655WoJ7Nuh76Ce6

And here is Fajr, reaching for tape after the outer rim was trimmed: https://goo.gl/photos/BZbdxHWTuag5DT7h7

[shiraartain]

Oh! Also, he got a bit of droppings on his tail. As the instructions state, the splint is to be kept away from water (I feel awful about it because he has a ton of pin feathers coming in and even with regular baths he was preening very often). The droppings are just white smidges at the bottom of his tail so I took a damp napkin and tried to help him out with at least that but he became extremely agitated. Is it okay to leave it as is for four weeks?

[Wolf]

If you can keep his flying down some so that he doesn't stress the leg too much the splint will probably come off in about two weeks.
If you are using a syringe to give Fajr his meds, you could try giving him some juice with it a couple of times a day to reduce his reluctance to taking his meds. I don't know why they put him on taking meds at 11 pm as he should be sleeping before them, don't make much sense to me.
Please keep us updated on his progress.

[liz]

The video was funny but not really fun for the baby. The poor little thing.

With my kids I would back up the med giving by one hour at a time. 10 pm then 9 pm and so on.

[Pajarita]

Baytril is given every 12 hours so I usually do 7 am and 7 pm - why don't you try that?

Personally, I would just let him fly and watch him to make sure he doesn't end up caught somewhere because of the splint or the cone. Have you considered putting the cone with the wider part down instead of up? It's sometimes more comfortable for them and it still prevents them from reaching their legs. You can also get the kind of cone that has a padding around the edge that goes on the neck - they are a bit more expensive but not by much (http://www.birdsupplies.com/saf-t-shield-bird-e-collar/). As to baths and poop, don't worry about it. Let him go a bit dirty for a couple of weeks, it won't kill him

[shiraartain]

Fajr's baytril is for every 24 hours- i'll call in to the vet today about adjusting it. The nurse did say something about giving the meds at the same time, but I was so frazzled by the whole situation that I nodded and then by the time i realized I had no idea what she meant, I was at home again. The reason the timing is at 11 is because we went to the vet pretty late at night, and i'm assuming that's just the time the next dosage was due.

I don't think i'll be letting him out specifically for the purpose of flying. As he recovers, he's been more and more reluctant to just lay in our hands and let us pet him so we let him hop around a bit in a closed room. If he flies, he is retrieved and returned to the spot where he was.

For the cone, he's the one who moves it to his liking. No matter how I try to adjust it, he'll rotate it as he likes.

An update: I was worried because he hasn't been talking at all since the incident, but I just got home and after hearing my voice and realizing that I'm home, he started calling for me. Also I swear I see his left foot (injured one) twitch sometimes, so from the outside at least, it seems his body is starting to heal!

[Wolf]

It actually started to heal as soon as it was set, but there is now way of knowing how fast it is healing until your next x ray of it. If it is starting to twitch it is time to start watching it for signs of pain and you already know to watch for swelling or color changes.