Woodie With Serious Wounds To Back

[amyable]

HI,
I had a young Woodie brought to me last night and it's been badly mauled.
It has virtually no skin across it's back and neck and it's crop has been ruptured by a possible puncture wound entering from behind.

It smelt very bad and I spent last night trying to clean out the contents of it's crop as it was full of seeds spilling out of the hole around it's shoulder.
The smell seemed to come from the crop and it was full of white stuff and had some massive nuts stuck in there.

The bird is very alert and lively but I don't know if I can save it due to the extent of it's injuries.

I luckily had a few Synulox left over from the last bird that went to Nooti so have started it on them. All I could do was clean and bathe the wounds and plucked as many feathers away from the worst parts.

Today it's still with me and alert so I had another go at cleaning it's crop out as nothing had gone through since last night.
I got some more very large nuts out again and it didn't seem to smell quite as bad so I think the smell is from the crop not the wounds.

I just tried to tube it some Kaytee to see if that went through but it split out of the side so I've cleaned the bird up and put it back to rest.

I'll post some pictures in the next post with a warning about their content as they're not pleasant for those who don't want to look.

Is there anything I can do for this poor little soul as I fear it will starve to death if I can't get any food through it and also is there any chance of the skin growing over the back. A vet would just euthanise it so if I can't help I'd have to consider that as I don't want it to suffer.

Any thoughts and help greatly appreciated.

Janet

ps. I'm afraid I'll only be able to pop back on and off occasionally tonight as I've got my daughter's 18th birthday party about to kick off in an hour, and am out a good chunk of tomorrow, so please don't think I'm ignoring any posts of help if I don't respond immediately.

[amyable]

This is a close up of the back injuries.
The hole on the left is the opening of the crop:

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...dWoodie002.jpg

The contents I cleaned from the crop today. You can see from the size of my finger how big these nuts were !

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...dWoodie003.jpg

[Feefo]

Hi Janet,

Phone Helen! Have you alerted Pidgey?

Cynthia

[Feefo]

OK, I have e-mailed Pidgey...dehydration will be a problem, any chance of getting just a tiny bit of rehydration solution at a time to the bottom of the crop?

The back injuries: this is what Helen did for "Almost Lunch":

... here is today's new patient. At first glance this injured
pidge doesn't look too bad. Extend his neck and you see that all the
flesh surrounding the neck, shoulders and spine has gone. His spine
and shoulder bones are exposed, although that is difficult to see
through all the red. He's now installed under heat lamp with Synulox
in his system and the wound covered with BR jel. He should survive -
whether he'll regenerate enough muscle to fly again is another
matter. This is probably a sparrowhawk attack.

Cynthia

[amyable]

I've got problems tonight with the internet crashing just when I need it, will come on as much as I can.

The description of 'Almost Lunch' is pretty much it, so won't give up on him.

I have been dripping rehydration liquid into him. Helen gave me some orange antibacterial cream when I met her and I've been putting some of that on the raw areas. That's why it tends to be looking yellowy in colour.

Janet

[Feefo]

Helen gave me some orange antibacterial cream when I met her and I've been putting some of that on the raw areas. That's why it tends to be looking yellowy in colour.

That will be the BR jel, Helen swears by it.

[amyable]

I've just been to give him his anti-biotics and some more fluids.
Nothing is going through him still. I've just got another two of the large nuts out of his crop. Together with last nights that makes nine of those nuts along with some small seeds and various suspect things in there.
The Kaytee was still in the crop and there's a bit of blood on the cotton bud when I cleaned the muck out.

I syringed a small amount of hydrating fluid down his throat into the crop to try and flush it a bit. I'm concerned he may have something blocking the food from passing down into his digestive system.
If he's still with me tomorrow I might try and syringe some digestive enzymes down him to see if that helps things pass through.
I've had to put him back to rest again as he gets stressed after a while. He's coping so well though but he must be feeling wrotten.

Janet

[c.hert]

I looked at your profile---very commendable---and your birds are just beautiful and healthy and I am sure in time with your new birdie the decision making will come and I say a birdie prayer that something positive comes up with its treatment program especially in getting nutrition into him and no knowing you but reading your profile and all those nice pictures--this bird is in the best of care---Spirits bless---.c.hert

[Pidgey]

Of course, I don't have any experience with woodies and their problems with getting excited and going into what amounts to shock from being handled. If you can't get any fluids (and, therefore, oral medications) in, then you may have to resort to some other way like I had to do here:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f6/sig...ife-27445.html

Hate doing it that way but in an emergency you're sometimes stuck.

I'm having a difficult time envisioning where all that damage is because not enough of the bird is shown to get a reference. As long as nothing vital has been destroyed, the bird should be able to make it as long as we can get the GI working again. Are the breast muscles full or is this bird kinda' lean?

Pidgey

[amyable]

Hi,

I'm just home for a short while and having checked in on him he's still very alert and standing.
He's a juvenile, around 3to4 weeks approx, so not massive and well developed.
As far as Woodie type of stress levels he's coping very well, much better than an adult and will sit quietly on my lap while I've been cleaning out the crop.

I can't believe I've got another two nuts out today and also a couple of very small snails. He's got to be empty soon. The smell from the crop has gone. There's some blood on the nuts and cotton bud again from inside.
Where these nuts are coming from I don't know as I can't feel anything in the crop when I massage it. He has a flap and somehow these nuts get pushed to the surface of the hole.

He's taking fluids well from a syringe if I drip it along his beak he sips it ok.

I've been giving him the Synulox tablets and so far haven't seen any evidence of them coming out of the hole so I hope he's getting them ok.

I'll be free later on once our party's over and will take some better pics of his back injuries.

Thanks for the link.

Janet

[Pidgey]

In theory, that hole in the crop should be fairly high up, enough to hopefully allow formula to gravity-feed through. Watching the poops at this point will be the ticket to figuring out whether anything's actually making it through or not. Given the possibility for a Pasteurella multocida infection, you can't afford to go too long without either getting an injectable in there or doing that thing up the vent if there's any chance that the oral route isn't working. Best of luck!

Pidgey

[Feefo]

Ah! Good thinking Pidgey....I had forgotten that the synulox might not go through! .

I think I will try to get some injectable from my vet to keep for emergencies like these...

[amyable]

Hi, just snook back in to give him some more fluids.

I'm not confident he's going to make it now as he seems to be tiring and closing his eyes more.

Another nut just came out and the smell's back. More bleeding inside aswell.

He's very thirsty and bless him he's nuzzling the syringe to get a drink. Then I put his bowl by him and he put his beak in and drank so much. Unfortunately
I then felt my trousers were wet and could see as he was drinking it was pouring out of his side.
Maybe it's flushing him out a bit.

The hole is so large it would need stitching I'm sure but I wouldn't think that was a good idea while there's so much muck still coming out of the crop.

I really don't know what to do for him at the moment other than keep getting this stuff out of the crop as it surfaces.

Should I try some more Kaytee later even if the crop is bleeding?

Janet

[Feefo]

Poor baby...I would keep him on rehydrating fluids only just a bit longer, Josefina just had Hartmann's for a couple of days.

Cynthia

[Pidgey]

Picture of the poops? That is... are there any?

Pidgey