broken leg

[jojo67]

hi all, i have a bird pigeon with a broken leg, i done a search to see what to do, but could'nt find the right answer, from pigeys skeleton diagram, it is broken at the fibula, what is the best way to splint this,

[jojo67]

Originally Posted by Pidgey
Reti,

That's one reason to clip the feathers real close. Anyhow, I did send an email with all the applicable pages on different splinting techniques. If it's uncomplicated, this is probably the best one though:

Pidgey

pidgey, i had put up a threads but then fond this post, the leg is broken high up on the fibula, will te same splint work for this, it seems to have broken at an acute angle just under the joint, where s the best position for the splints of wood, thanks for your help,

In the mean time i have tried my best to splint, the bird was a bit stressed so have left it to rest

[Trees Gray]

I will PM Pidgey in regards to your question

[eric98223]

best splinting method i have found about.

take a mcdonalds drinking straw (use these because they are bigger opening split it end to end place over the affected area and use a regular human size band-aid at either end. cut it off in 10 days to 2 weeks it works great!!

E..

[jojo67]

Originally Posted by eric98223

best splinting method i have found about.

take a mcdonalds drinking straw (use these because they are bigger opening split it end to end place over the affected area and use a regular human size band-aid at either end. cut it off in 10 days to 2 weeks it works great!!

E..

thankyou eric, that sounds good, i have it done now like pidgey explained, but i found it a bit fidgity, i cliped all around the leg and put a stick at both sides of the leg where it's broke, the break is high up on the fibula near the joint and seems to have broken at an angle, so don't know if i should undo this and try your method or just leave it as it is,
she is resting in the nest, i put food and water in with her and she eating ok but have not seen her drink yet, she is not on eggs by the way, i just weaned two of her two days ago, Im in two minds now what to do,

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by jojo67

thankyou eric, that sounds good, i have it done now like pidgey explained, but i found it a bit fidgity, i cliped all around the leg and put a stick at both sides of the leg where it's broke, the break is high up on the fibula near the joint and seems to have broken at an angle, so don't know if i should undo this and try your method or just leave it as it is,
she is resting in the nest, i put food and water in with her and she eating ok but have not seen her drink yet, she is not on eggs by the way, i just weaned two of her two days ago, Im in two minds now what to do,

If you've got the break secured and bandaged, I wouldn't go messing with it anymore. Just let it be for a couple of weeks and then check it. Just make sure it's not bandaged too tight. Is she in a small cage so that she can't move around very much? I had a cock bird come home with a broken leg last year. I bandaged it up and kept him in a small cage for about a 1 1/2 weeks. He was VERY unhappy about that, but he survived and is now on my race team, good as new.

[jojo67]

I put he back in the nest box renee in her nest though she would be happier there, i am watching her mate to see if her bothers her. ifhe does i will bring her in the house to keep an eye . i done it up the best i could. it was moving about badly but i think i have it as best as possible.
i have seen splints you can buy but they don't seem to go up the lg far enough for my purpose , the other thing i am worried about is if i don't have it in place right, she could end up with a bad limp, would this happen, thankyou for your reply renee,

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by jojo67

I put he back in the nest box renee in her nest though she would be happier there, i am watching her mate to see if her bothers her. ifhe does i will bring her in the house to keep an eye . i done it up the best i could. it was moving about badly but i think i have it as best as possible.
i have seen splints you can buy but they don't seem to go up the lg far enough for my purpose , the other thing i am worried about is if i don't have it in place right, she could end up with a bad limp, would this happen, thankyou for your reply renee,

Well, yea, if the bones aren't together exactly right, then they'll grow together wrong, but without a lot of moving the leg about and "feeling" OR having an x-ray, I don't expect it's possible to know whether you have it exactly right or not. Personally, I think that "close to right" is better than nothing and if she limps a bit, it won't really hurt anything. If the break was in the joint, then I'd probably say different, but where the break is isn't going to cause THAT bad of a limp, even if it's not perfect. I've only dealt with the one broken leg and we just sort of guessed at how to splint it. His bone was broken completely in half. It turned out fine. And, I wouldn't buy a splint. What you did is just fine. We actually used the straw and taped it up, but either way will work.

[jojo67]

Thankyou renee, i will leave it as it is and hopefully it turns out ok,
I though about taking her to a vet, but decided they could not tell me any different , from what i read on here and advice from yourselves, and also saves me a few $$$ but if really needed i would spend it,

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by jojo67

Thankyou renee, i will leave it as it is and hopefully it turns out ok,
I though about taking her to a vet, but decided they could not tell me any different , from what i read on here and advice from yourselves, and also saves me a few $$$ but if really needed i would spend it,

I think you'll be ok. Other than taking an x-ray, the vet couldn't do anything more than you've done. If it was life and death, it would be different, but it's not THAT serious and we just have to play doctor once in while when we can. Good luck and let us know how things go.

[Pidgey]

Sorry, just never made it online today until now. The fibula is more of a vestigial bone (somewhat uesless) and doesn't have a lot to do with the mechanical functioning of the leg. I'm guessing that if you went here:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/skeleton.html

...and looked at one of the lower drawings of the leg, you probably saw two names pointing to a portion of the leg, the "fibula" and the other the "tibiotarsus". The tibiotarsus is the real leg bone there and the fibula is actually more like a toothpick that lays alongside it. Anyhow, they'd both be broken if either one did.

The higher up it is, the worse it is. What'll help the most is to make a real soft nest out of a towel for the bird to recline it while it's healing for the next couple of weeks. It'll try to stand up to poop but if you make a hollow under the vent, it might keep that to a minimum. When you're taping one of them up in a splint, the wood is more of an afterthought--it gets most of the strength from the tape itself. The trouble with a break way up there is that the it's pretty tough to immobilize the true knee (where the patella is) seeing as how it's more encased in body skin that "out there" like ours is. They're kind of in a perpetual squat.

If you go to this one:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpo...5&postcount=14

...and look at illustration "A", you'll see a broken tibiotarsus (midshaft, by the way) that would be broken further down that what you appear to be describing.

Pidgey

[markymark]

you can buy plastic casts to put on i use them and always works ok for me in the past,

[jojo67]

Originally Posted by markymark

you can buy plastic casts to put on i use them and always works ok for me in the past,

Thanks mark, i seen them but i have it done up now with a splint, hope it works out ok,

[Lovebirds]

What happened to this thread? Where are all the posts that were made?

[jojo67]

Originally Posted by Lovebirds

What happened to this thread? Where are all the posts that were made?

renee it was my fault at the start, i put the thread on twice, the other thread i think is still there. by the way that hen laid an egg today.