Our baby GCC has hurt her wing :(

[bmsweb]

It's been 24 hours since the stitches under a GA and she seems to be doing fine with the exception of wanting to fly all the time. We have her in a plastic box for now . You can check her out here http://bmswebcam.dyndns.org:9001/ user name visitor and leave the password blank.

She had a bath and the stitches look terrible

[lzver]

Sorry to hear that she got injured ... but glad to hear she got proper vet care and sounds like she'll be on the mend soon.

Keep us posted on how she is doing.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Did you ever figure out how she did it? I am becoming more and more convinced that bird ownership is a form of constant paranoia...

[Mr.Darcy]

What is the update? I tried to get on the videocam but it did not work. Is she chewing the stitches??

[bmsweb]

Sorry for the lack of updates but she is doing well. Yes she has started on picking on the stitches and even pulled off a little skin but no blood. She spent the last three days in a plastic box which she didn't like one bit. Yesterday for the first time she got pretty nippy and acting a little crazy! She has managed to get away and have a quick fly around a few times, but then as soon as she lands on me I put her back . . so its almost like she is being punished for flying.

The irony is I just received her Aviator Harness

We just put her in a smaller cage today to see how she goes (and I've put the webcam back on so we can monitor her from a birthday party we are going to shortly).

I will post a detailed description of everything as soon as I get a little time along with pictures and video of her.

[bmsweb]

OK so finally here is the whole story along with some photos of her injury!

Last Saturday I notice some of the feathers on her right wing were it joins her body were looking darkish, so I washed it away using a moist towel, but I soon realised it was blood. After careful inspection this is what the injury looked like:


As you can see it doesn't look very big, she was still playful and wanted to do her tricks and spend time with us. I washed it with salt water and it looked to be healing. Then after a couple of days she was picking at it and it started to bleed but not as much as the first time so I decided to take her to the Vet.

The Vet had a look at her and was pleased we washed it will salt water and the wound still looked very clean. He said she would need a GA and will require a couple of stitches and it would only take 10 mins. I was told to go home due to the fact his assistant wasn't due to arrive for another 30min or so.

While waiting at home I received a call from the Vet's assistant and she said once our Conure was under a GA and they had a proper look at the wound, it turned out to be much larger than anticipated. Her feathers were hiding the extent of the injury.


This is what it looked like when we got her home.


After a couple of days she really wanted to have a bath and she was going to have one in her drinking water. So we let her have one in the Kitchen sink, which my wife washed, disinfected and then made her a salt water bath. Which she seemed to love.


This is what it looked like after a few days.


So how is she now. Well the Nippyness seems to have settled and she is pretty much back to norm but still frustrated with the fact that we limit her flying. I think she just needs to have a good fly around to get it out of her system.

She hates her antibiotics and doesn't like the fact that I make her have it, but that's just life hey Its now 4 days since she had the Stitches and some of them have started falling away. She picks at it but so far she hasn't made it bleed.

As far as I can tell she ripped her wing while trying to break out of the cage. I've since noticed the cage has some sharp bits on it, but this only becomes an issue if the bird tries to get its wings out of the cage which is what she's been doing. Our Cockatiel has the same sort of cage and hasn't had an issue, so I honestly think its due to her and what she's been trying to do.

My Conclusion!
I guess the thing I've learned from this is even if the injury appears to be small the feathers can hide a lot, so be very careful!

The Vet's Bill
Consultation - Avian $59.09
GA Bird Isofluorane 15ml $45.00
Surgery - Avian (20min) $120
TFEE Avian Surgery $24.55
Hosp. Bird Small $13.64
Clavulox Drops $20.43
Suture Chromic Gut 19.58
Total Ex Tax $302.28
Tax $30.23
Total $332.50

[Mr.Darcy]

Wow that was quite the cut she gave herself!! silly bird I guess if the vet was concerned about pulling the stitches they would have put a collar on her...?
Glad she seems better. And really, to me, the vet bill didn't seem too bad considering her injury...(maybe cause I didn't have to pay )

good luck
Marlies and

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Yeah, I think Austrailian vet bills are more palatable. I paid almost that much for a checkup NOT including vetwork -- in US dollars. Not sure what the current exchange is.

[bmsweb]

Well at the current exchange rate it works out to $312.037USD so not all that different. I guess its a good thing we're not in the US hey! Then again I know all your medical bills are way more than what most countries pay so I guess its no different for Vets.

Mr Darcy, the vet actually considered using a collar but wanted to see how she would go. Touch wood all is still good.

This is a video of the mini Hospital enclosure we made for her which she hated!!! but she couldn't fly or climb The first part is when we brought her home from the Vet and the second half of her doing tricks was taken yesterday.

[Azure Hanyo]

Poor little girl! Hope she mends fast!