Broken beak tip, vet immediately or wait and see?

[Michael]

Wow, I'm surprised it was so complicated. It really doesn't seem to be much beak at all. I have a hard time imagining it being so much trouble. I know Capes have long and sensitive beaks, but that was such a tiny piece that was busted. From your description it sounded like a chunk the size of maybe halfway from the lower beak to the tip was broken. So when I saw the picture, aside from cutting the remainder off it didn't seem so bad. I still think I would have waited till at least tomorrow to see if this takes care of itself since there's no bleeding or further damage.

Here's a video of how I was hand feeding Truman and how I gave him medications. Basically you just squirt it in the beak and the rest is up to them. You can't make them swallow it and they are likely to shake it all around. But some may still stick to the tongue and make its way in. Try taking the water away for some span of time and serving a sip of water right after the meds to help flush them in.

[kaylayuh]

I'm not sure how you would do it with a larger bird, but with my birds I can hold their heads between my index and middle fingers with my thumb across their chest. From that point, I put the syringe to their beak and kind of wiggle it a little so they open their beak. Once their beak is open, I push the medication in. I suppose you could towel the bird and do something similar, but I'm not sure how well that would work.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Michael, from the angle of the photo that connecting strip looked really tiny, but it was basically a little ribbon which you are seeing from the side. It was apparently just enough to be really painful. Had it come all the way off, it wouldn't have been so bad. But my husband was feeling the same way you are -- and is amazed at how much better he clearly feels with it removed. It was just sensitive enough to make him really miserable.

I suppose a steady hand and some styptic powder might have gotten us thorough it if we were stuck, but I'm OK with having paid the vet to fix it. Another factor was that the vet was available today and not again until Monday, I'd have had to drag him a much greater distance if we waited and he did need attention.

[coral]

Im glad he's okay! When I first got marty he had a bacterial infection and a upper respritory infection, so I wrapped him in a white towel so only his head poked out and wrapped it snuggly so he doesn't break his wings hold his head between your thumb and pointer finger so his head doesn't move to much and then try to get him to bite the tip of the syringe and once he does stick it in and squirt the meds out lol, for the cream I would try a q-tip maybe since its on the inside tip of his beak

[Margaret]

Hi entrancedbymyGCC,
I'm so glad that Scotty is ok now.

I have had similar situation with Mango at the beginning- he was rescued, had a lot of health issues ie: overgrown beak. First time vet clipped it and I assumed that's so simple procedure.
Mango was very scared to go to vets, so I started clipping his beak by myself and with my boyfriend help. I did it about once in a month. One time I clipped it too much- Mango started bleeding, panicking, we menage to put flour but I was afraid about him and we finished in exotic pets ER)it was evening). They didn't do nothing much except prescribing him liquid pain medication, kept him about 2 hours for observation and my bill was around $400. But I knew he'll be ok, in pain but ok. So I completely understand your concern about Scotty. He will be fine in no time-you'll see. I kept Mango(scared budgie) in my left hand and somehow pushed the syringe with medication from the right side of his beak. Good luck!

I have to write it to make sure "nobody" gonna teach me in the moment that I did a wrong thing.
I can go to vets to clip Mango beak($20) or to the nearest not-chain pet-store($5), but I do it by myself every month not because of money. Mango is scared enough and he've been through a lot before I took him that I want to save him those trips. When I do it with my boyfriend he Mango is screaming like we really hurt him. It's enough for him. Each time he's shaking, because he's really scared. With time we've got experience to clipped enough and not overdo it since we have to repeat it about once a month.

Michael- it's your forum, so please be kind and don't do things to scare people from coming here. Remember: we all can have different opinions, but it does not give you right to treat people like you do. It looks like: my way or no way. Doesn't look good specially for the owner of forum.

[Michael]

Why do you clip his beak in the first place? Is there some kind of health problem?

[Margaret]

Why do you clip his beak in the first place? Is there some kind of health problem?

Mango, I just mention that to show his history, came to me from one house, when people didn't care. They hung his little cage in the kitchen, gave him bonanza seeds and water. When I took Mango to vets first time, he had couple health problems and the worst was thyroid problems which together with bad diet lead him to diagnosed liver disease. One of the symptoms is overgrown beak and nails. Somehow he managed to trim his nails, but beak was overgrowing very fast.
Since that time I have changed diet very slowly on pellets+a little amount of seeds+veggies. It slow process of beak growing, but didn't stopped it.
Other than that Mango is a very full of energy budgie, but scared of people.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Just an update, he's almost back to normal now. Still a little careful with the tip of the beak but otherwise using it normally. We'll probably forgo the oral Metacam, but I guess it will be nice to have on hand.

I think the painful thing was that little connector getting flexed every time the looose tip touched something. By the time we decided to take him in, he was just sitting on his perch fluffed up and shivering a bit... as minor as it looked, he was just not at all comfortable, and that's what took us to the vet, not the appearance of the damage. Maybe he's a wuss, or maybe it really hurt that much. Got better.

If it happens again, we might try trimming it off at home with the styptic powder handy. It's funny, I'd happily do something like that with a horse or a cat, but I'm just not that confident yet with the birds. They are so often described as so fragile that I don't feel I have a baseline as to what is something I can handle vs. what needs professional attention. I have no problem trimming nails, but that's about as far as my comfort zone extends.

At any rate, it was nice to hear his "voice" emerging from the office this morning as normal!

[kaylayuh]

If it happens again, we might try trimming it off at home with the styptic powder handy. It's funny, I'd happily do something like that with a horse or a cat, but I'm just not that confident yet with the birds. They are so often described as so fragile that I don't feel I have a baseline as to what is something I can handle vs. what needs professional attention. I have no problem trimming nails, but that's about as far as my comfort zone extends.

At any rate, it was nice to hear his "voice" emerging from the office this morning as normal!

Glad he's feeling better!

I can't even trim my birds nails, but have happily trimmed multiple cats. The one time I tried trimming No Name's, he looked so distressed and I was so nervous I could barely trim them. It's funny how people are so much more careful with some animals than others.

[Michael]

Glad he's better. Definitely best to skip the metacam if it isn't necessary. I still wouldn't have given it until at least 24 hours since injury and things being the same or worse. I guess I'm kind of used to my birds getting hurt and vet visits now. Truman is a complete klutz and falls down all the time or provokes Kili to bite him and has scabs on his feet or head. So I'm pretty used to all of this and if it's something that can heal itself within a week, I generally don't even consider the vet. But if it's too open or a long term injury, then always better safe than sorry with the vet.

Really if vet was closer, cheaper, more available and all that, I'd probably recommend using for most of these issues just in case. But unfortunately there is so little they can do and so much cost for doing it that it's really tough for us. Good thing you were able to afford it and get it taken care of quickly.