Help! Injured budgie

scottishblondie

I don't know how many of you kind people here have pet birds, but I find myself in need of some advice and support regarding my pet budgie Ziggy. Yesterday evening I came home to find blood all over the cage, and found poor Ziggy with blood all over the left side of her face. The source of the blood seemed to be her eye.

I immediately phoned the vet to get an emergency appointment, but when I came back to put in into the travel box I found her lying on the bottom of the cage with her left foot caught on her eyelid by one of her front claws!! :eek:

The vet clipped her claws short, and prescribed antibiotics (Baytril) to prevent infection. She said it was possible to fit a funnel collar to stop Ziggy from scratching the eye, but that many budgies are very distressed by this and that it could raise her blood pressure and aggravate the bleeding, so we decided not to do it. The eye itself looked intact, and she had a normal pupillary response to light. The vet said the eyelid had a small tear in it which is the source of the bleeding.

The bleeding seemed to stop last night, but the eye still looked very weepy/watery and it looked like she was having trouble fully closing it. Now this morning the eye looks really bad - there has been more bleeding and it's caked with blood. I've seen her scratching at it several times today, as well as rubbing her head on the perch and walls of the travel cage which now have quite a lot of fresh looking blood on them. I've kept her in there as I have 2 other budgies and I worry that they would attack her in the cage.

I've never had a bird injured like this before, and I really don't know what is best to do. My parents normally help me out with the budgies, but they're in Switzerland at the moment, and my BF doesn't do birds. I'm really freaking out about it TBH!

If she keeps scratching and rubbing at it I'm worried that it will keep bleeding and she'll never heal, but at the same time stressing her out makes the bleeding worse. Should I take her back to the vet and have her fit a collar and see if anything can be done to help the eye?

bagginslover

I would try fitting the collar. Leaving her without it hasn't worked, you might be able to get her to keep it on long enough that it gets past the itchy stage.
I know you said you have separated her from the other birds, but are you keeping her close by? If not you may end up with some fighting when you reintroduce them. Keep their cages together if you can, it will help to keep their bond.

I hope she recovers soon.

inamegajam

I have a 24 yr old cockateil and have had similar problems. 1st time the ex idiot trapped his foot by shutting the door while Joe was sitting on top, and chopping off one of his toes. The 2nd he had a nostril infection and kept rubbing it and making it bleed. The vet told me to take out all perches and put his food and water( oh and his beloved tea cosy to snuggle on to ) on the floor of the cage to stop him causing any more damage, mainly because they have only got around a spoon full of blood as it is. If you can handle your budgie you could bath the eye with tepid boiled water to get rid of any build up other wise I would really consider the collar.
Hope the little beauty gets better Good luck:)

nikki702

how is the budgie doing? did you fit the collar?

pinkcandyflossprincess

cornflour is excellent as an emergency treatment to stop bleeding on birds although not a replacement for a vet in case of severe injury.
I found that out after getting lovebirds, if they tear a claw etc, bleeding can cause death very quickly in small birds but cornflour is great at stopping the flow and causes no harm to the birds.

scottishblondie

Hello! Sorry I took so long to come back to you, it's been a manic week. Little Ziggy is getting on OK, we didn't fit the collar in the end. She stopped fiddling with it so the bleeding calmed down, and there wasn't any fresh blood after the day I first posted.

She really wasn't keen on being given the antibiotics, but the course is over now and the eye looks ok. It's still really grungy aroundabout, but she's back in the main cage today so hopefully the others will give her a clean. I tried using a cotton bud and some tepid sterile water, as iminajam suggested, but it was fairly thick and well stuck in her feathers so I gave up in the end.

The other 2 budgies have picked on her a little today, I kept her next to them and she got out to sit ontop of their cage, but I guess a period of adjustment to her being back in with them is normal. I'm keeping a close eye in case things get out of hand.

Thanks for the tip on the cornflour - I've previously worried about how to stop bleeding when clipping their nails. Sitting holding a cotton pad onto their claw til the bleeding stops just isn't fun for either of us!

nikki702

Thanks for the update, glad she is feeling better