Worried. New here. Sun conure bruised wing.

[lizarosco]

Hello. I'm new here and I'm sorry if I'm just rambling or not following any rules or anything. I just need some input or advice on what to do with my sun conure. A few weeks ago she had a seizure that scared me like crazy and I took her to the emergency and she was back to normal quickly afterwards. We never found out what was wrong and due to a lack of funds I wasn't able to follow up with my primary vet until 2 weeks later which was about 2 days ago. I took her for a checkup and they even took X-rays. They said she was perfectly fine and healthy and that seizure she had had must've just been a random occurrence. She was fluffed up and tired and droopy winged and I assumed she was just stressed from the whole visit and X rays.
I took her home and put her in her cage and she ate and drank water and was fine. Later in the day I decided to let her out and she usually flies to my bed. But she didn't. Instead she attempted to fly and plopped with a loud thud to the floor. She couldn't fly at all. And her left wing was still droopy if not more so. That's when I realized that the droopiness was not normal and I panicked and felt scared and angry thinking the vet's assistants broke her wing during the X rays. I called them to let them know that her wing wasn't right and they asked me to bring her back right away. They had to examine her again and when they went to take X rays again I asked about the procedure and they let me go to the back to watch. I wanted to make sure no further harm was done to my baby. They said it wasn't broken but just bruised. They showed me her skin under her wing and how swollen and purpley red it looked. They didn't charge me for that visit. They prescribed her some pain medicine, which I did have to pay for.
It's only been about 3 days since then and she's still eating and drinking fine. She attempts to fly when I let her out and still plops to the ground like a rock so now I'm hesitant to let her out. Now she seems depressed and stays poofy most of the time and her wing is still just as droopy. She has trouble sleeping in her little bird hut and her wing seems to tremble even more lately even with having the pain medication.
I don't know what to do to help her and I'm worried that if she's not better in a week I'll have to bring her in as the vet asked to do if she's not better and I don't know if I can manage to dish out more money when her first checkup cost me $211 only to find out she was healthy and fine but leave with a bruised wing. What do I do in this situation? Has anyone ever had their bird hurt during a visit to the vet? Is it normal that her wing is trembling and her mood so low still? I feel awful that she's had to go to the vet this many times so close together and for her to have gotten hurt because of it.

[Wolf]

Stop letting the bird out to fly for a while so that she doesn't injure the wing further. I would not think that the vet techs were responsible for the bruising as she most likely hit the wing when she had her fright in her cage. It is however, possible that the vet tech did this regardless of how unlikely I think it is.
With her wing being as bruised as you describe, the muscles are injured and that makes it hard to hold her wing properly resulting it the tremors. You might be able to slip a piece of a sock over her body to support the wing, but not if she tries to fight it. It would just be a tube cut from the sock.
Pajarita is much more experienced than I am so hold off until she has responded to this post and take her suggestions over mine.
I would also remove any perches that are higher than just a couple of inches from the bottom of the cage, cover the grate on the bottom with newspaper and put her food and water down on the bottom of the cage. You want to encourage her to not use the wing until it heals some.

[Pajarita]

Yes, Wolf's advice was good: Put the perches low to the bottom of the cage so she only has to step up to reach them and the food and water at the bottom. Fold a towel or whatever so the bottom of the cage is soft and put paper over it (so it doesn't get all dirty with poop). Keep her quiet and warm. This is important. Birds lose a lot of body heat when they are wounded or sick and need the extra warmth to heal (and this means real hot for us -85 degrees or so) and it's, most likely, the reason why she is all fluffed up. Do not let her out of the cage and do not allow her to use the wing, it needs complete rest to heal properly. Wings are tricky that way because even when the bones are not broken, if the tissue damage is significant, the bird can lose the use of it.
Continue with the pain medication. I assume it's metacam (or the generic form of it, meloxicam) and it's good not only for pain but also for inflammation. Don't rush things and don't get impatient. It takes quite a while for their wings to heal so keep a vigilant eye on her and, if you don't see any improvement whatsoever in a week (blow on the feathers so you can see whether the skin under is beginning to get back its normal color and whether the swelling is going down), take her back to the vet.

It bothers me that she had a seizure because, as far as I know, there is no such thing as a 'random seizure', there is always a reason for them and it's always medical.

[lizarosco]

I'll make sure she gets peace and quiet and refrain from using her wing. The day she had the seizure really had me worried. They hadn't found anything wrong during her exams. That's why I'm so worried with everything that's been happening since then. My vet said that everything was okay and they couldn't determine why she had it. I guess it's just something I have to live with knowing. I've had her for all 7 years of her life and that was the first time anything like that has ever happened. A month before the seizure at her annual exam she got a clean bill of health. We even did the 7 day fecal sample test thing and that came back normal. I don't know what would've caused her health to lead to a seizure just a short month afterward.

[Wolf]

Humor me if you would and tell me about her diet please. This is as good of a place to start looking for the cause of the seizure as any.

[lizarosco]

She has a combination of typically kaytee brand seeds with roudybrush pellets and I give her vegetables like peas, carrots, corn regularly and some fruits like berries and apple. I add in other things whenever I can add variety like peppers, squash, some nuts and such.

[Wolf]

Ok, thank you for the dietary information. I really need a little more detailed look at this as it is not only important what she gets to eat, but also when she gets what to eat and how. For example do you give her pellets in the morning and leave them in for all day until dinner? The same with the other foods as well. I am sorry I should have been more specific.

[Pajarita]

Does she have a bottle for her water instead of a bowl?

[lizarosco]

She uses a water bowl. I change that out whenever it gets messy and after she bathes in it whenever she does bathe. I leave the seeds and pellets in all day and if she finishes it and is hungry by dinner time I'll add some more. The perishables I take out after she eats it in the morning and that's the only time I offer them.

I've been wanting to switch things up and make things work better for all of the birds. That's part of the reason I joined this forum, so that I can get ideas and advice and see what other people are doing that lead to happier healthier birds.

[Wolf]

Well I was rather lax on responding yesterday as I was not feeling very well. These weather fronts tear me up something awful, but your reprieve from me spouting my opinion is over, I'm baack.

The free feeding of pellets is on par with the issues of free feeding seeds to our birds in that we now know that this is bad for them and just like free feeding seed was the major cause ( I think) to liver, kidney and heart disease in its day, we know that the free feeding of pellets leads to the same end results. And why not as the base ingredient for pellets or at least most of them is seeds, followed by many artificial ingredients such as dyes, preservatives and even artificial vitamins and minerals and a controversial protein in the form of soy and soy products.
There are now several "more healthy alternatives" to feeding pellets now on the market in the form of foods that you cook at home for your birds. This appears to be in response to the newer information showing that the healthiest diet that we can feed to the majority of our birds is the one that we shop for and prepare for them just as we would for any other member of our family, the old fashioned home cooked meal. The problem with these new foods is that the commercial feed companies are loading these foods down with the same substances that I specifically have issues with, namely artificial preservatives artificial flavors soy and soy products. What is a person to do?
Well we keep getting told that keeping parrots is not easy and, truthfully, this is true in many areas, but it is not really true when it comes to the diet of these birds, except for a couple of species requiring a highly specialized diet. Yes, providing a decent diet for our birds does require a little more planning and time, but when you stop to consider that for the most part that our parrots eat what we eat and if we just either cook a large meal for them and portion and freeze the excess for future use or we cook enough for them without the addition of salt and fats and such then not only does your bird eat a healthy diet, you too can eat a healthier diet in the process, it is not so hard just a little more time and thought.
What di I feed my parrots? I start their morning off with fresh raw produce in the form of a vegetable, a fruit and a leafy green and then on to the mainstay of their diet gloop followed by a dinner of a quality seed mix and tree nuts.
So what is gloop? It is basically a cooked mixture of several whole grains, vegetables and legumes. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13666 This is a link to an easy version of gloop and by searching the word gloop using the search function in the diet and nutrition section you can find several variations of this food for your birds, as well as how to convert your bird to eating it and even a recipe or two for birdie bread.