Advice for African grey with fractured leg

[Suyu]

Hi,
I have an approximately 4 months old African Grey. It always like standing on the edge of the container in which it came with and I normally put the container in my room at night when its 8pm. I would close the door and it goes to sleep. But, just three days ago, I follow the usual routine of cleaning up after my lovebird and African Grey and putting him to my room first. However, I heard a loud sound from my room not long later and when to check it. It was a horrifying sight and I wish no owners will ever have to see their own parrot in that state. My African grey wasn't standing and it was on the ground, flapping its wings non-stop. And it had down feathers and thrown up bits of dinner all over the room. I picked it up and it could barely move nor respond, just panting heavily.

We rushed him to a 24/7 animal clinic and the doctor gave him an x-ray under anaesthesia. The doctor told us that he had fractured his left ferum and we only had three choices. The first one is to go for surgery in which they would place a metal rod in his bone which will be connected by pins that go from the inside to the outside where there would be a metal frame to hold his leg. The second was to leave it and the scar would fix itself back up over time but he will not be able to walk with that leg and will be limping for the rest of his life. The third was to amputate it. However, the doctor said that my African Grey would have a 20% chance of dying if placed under anaesthesia. The surgery was not immediate and he would have to be kept over night for observation. We could have opt for him to be taken home but I was afraid of taking any risks and losing him so we let him stay at the vet's overnight.

The next morning, I went to the vet's with my brother on cab as our parents had work. Another doctor from the same animal clinic contacted us on our way there to tell us their observation. My African Grey was feeling much better and was able to climb the cage it was placed in with its beak and healthy leg. He was also given an IV drip and painkillers. He can be discharged and if we want to opt him for surgery, we can always arrange with the animal clinic for a date when they are available. He also recommended us a vet that deals with exotic animals to get a second opinion and to look for an alternative if we do not plan on putting him down for surgery.

And we went to the recommend exotic animal specialists. This vet seemed much more knowledgeable about my African Grey than the previous one and she even has own African Grey in the animal ward standing on the tree-like perch with toys, doing its own thing. She told us that it would be better to do surgery within that week.

However, this is where the dilemma comes in. The first animal clinic will only one avian specialist working on my African Grey for the surgery with a 20% chance of possible death from anaesthesia. And there will be four times of revisit. For the first visit to this vet, my family has already spent $500. The surgery under this animal clinic will be $2500 with an extra $60~80 per revisit and it does not include the X-ray costs or pin removal costs yet.

The second clinic recommended by the first clinic will have two specialists on the surgery. One which specialises in fixing bones and another specialises in giving anaesthesia. However, there is nine revisits. The consultation and short observation stay with a few meds has added to $200 and the surgery will costs from $3500 to $4000 with one revisit from $50~100 which also does not include the X-ray costs or pin removal costs.

We are not sure if we should continue looking for more options at this point because my parents only earn approximately $2000 plus or minus because of the nature of the job. The two consultation has almost added up to $1000 and to opt for surgery might be too much. And my mother would is in charge of the finance of the home worries that if my African Grey injures itself once more during the healing process after surgery or if the leg gets infected after surgery the costs would go to waste. I only have $7000 in my savings from my education awards a few years back but after what my mother said, I am not sure I should put my African Grey for surgery either even though it really tears me up inside to see it limping and struggling with some usual movements he could usually do when he had his healthy two legs.

Can anyone give me their opinions on this? Thank you.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Suyu and Baby Gray and I am sorry you and your poor bird are going through this. But, my dear, this is a decision you must make on your own... nobody else can. It is a fact that avian vets are very expensive and that any intervention goes into the thousands of dollars. Now, I am going to give you my personal opinion based on your situation - I had a bird with a broken leg, it did take thousands of dollars to fix it and we paid for it but if you don't have the money or a credit card where you can put the bill, you would obviously have to go with another solution. The best one would be for you to give the bird to a rescue that would have the surgery done. I know that this would be a huge disappointment to you but the welfare of animals we take into our homes is our responsibility and, in all honesty, what happened was entirely preventable. Baby birds need to be kept in a small cage with a soft bottom precisely to avoid what happened to yours.

I would never consider amputation or any other drastic measure for a problem that can be fixed. And a broken leg can be fixed. My bird also required the metal rod with the pins attached to an external fixator and weekly XRays to ensure the bone was knitting properly so what they told you is the correct way of treating a fracture. But if the fracture is not a displaced or compound one (the displaced is when the bone breaks and the ends are not aligned facing each other and the compound is when the end of the broken bone sticks out of the skin), you might be able to get away with a good cast so the first thing you need to do is ask the vets to show you the XRay, if it shows that the bone is broken but that the ends are facing each other, the cast should work. But, if the ends are not aligned then the only way of fixing it is putting the bird under anesthesia and, if they can make the ends align through manipulation, they can also use a cast but, if this does not work or the displacement is severe or it is a compound fracture, then the only solution is the metal rod with the pins and the external fixator in which case, I would highly recommend you contact a good rescue and ask them if they would take the baby in and provide the medical care you cannot.

One more thing, it would seem to me that the mother of your baby bird was not provided enough calcium and that the baby was not being handfed a good formula because baby birds are very resilient and hardy little things for all their apparent fragility and a four month old grey has almost all its plumage and would have flapped as it felt itself falling thereby softening the fall. So we are talking a malnutrition or some other problem here, too.