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Broken breast bone? (Salomé)

2K views 14 replies 3 participants last post by  Hekie 
#1 ·
I'm utterly sick right now. Salomé has been with me since September 20. I removed a lot of hair from her leg and one toe was going to need amputation. I had a holiday booked and she stayed with my usual pigeon sitter who had an unusual number of birds, including those sick with pox. I was not happy about leaving her there but didn't have other choices, she was sure there would be no issue and - as I'd feared - Salomé contracted pox.

The necrotic toe has since come off, I've cleaned the injury and pox-affected areas twice daily for weeks and today the last pox scab fell off and I was finally ready to release her. I took her out on a practice flight as I always do to check that everything looked normal with her and she was ready, and she had a bad landing and I think must have broken something. It doesn't seem to be her legs or wings, and I'm concerned it's her breast bone. I cannot believe this. After everything, and on the cusp of release tomorrow morning, and she has yet another major thing to overcome and this one's hugely complicated. She's only a baby. It's just been thing after thing for her.

I've had vets consider euthanasia over this kind of injury due to its complexity. If it is indeed a broken breast bone or a different bone in the same place, has anyone had birds recover from this? Is there some kind of traction you can use? At the moment she's lying on her side and is quiet, but her eyes are open and not droopy. I've given her a heating pad and pain relief, and will go to the vet tomorrow.
 
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#2 ·
Salomé has made it through the night and following day. I was so happy the vet didn't say euthanasia would be the best, I really thought she was a case for it. He couldn't find anything broken but she's got some weakness on her right side. He suspects a spinal cord injury or similar and she's basically on bed rest which is all she can do anyway. We'll see how she goes.

She is alert but unable to move, though her legs kick well enough when picked up. She didn't eliminate any waste for a long time but finally, 30 hours post-injury, something has come out which is a huge relief.

From what I understand, getting past day 3 with injuries like this is the goal. So I'm crossing fingers.

I'm starting to wonder if there has always been some kind of delicacy about Salomé. She never flew very well and always hung out at one of the restaurants below my place. We put it down to the infection she had when losing her toe hut in light of her first flight going so wrong, I'm wondering if maybe it was more. Time will tell how she goes. I really, really hope she makes it and doesn't have any more complications.
 
#5 ·
No major changes for Salomé. The vet said not to expect any for at least a week so I'm trying to focus on that.

Reading more on spinal cord injuries (if that's indeed what is wrong) it seems there's not so much you can do to diagnose or treat, and it's a matter of waiting and seeing if swelling goes down and things improve. All other signs are positive - she can move her feet, is vocal and lively when I treat her, and is always alert so clearly no mental deficits. It's so weird seeing her just lying on her side.

I'll keep going. If there are no noticeable improvements by next Thursday when we go back to the vet, I'll need to consider euthanasia because she has no quality of life like this. Apparently it can take up to 6 months for improvement in these cases and I don't think that would be fair. But I'll wait and see. It's still early days.
 
#8 ·
Sorry for the delay in responding, it's been an incredibly busy few days with kittens, cats and pigeons!

I thought I was going to lose Salomé on Sunday and yesterday. She started bleeding heavily from her vent in big clumps and it wasn't continuous but it kept happening. I brought her vet visit forward and thought between the bleeding and the lack of major improvement in her movement, I'd have to consider euthanasia.

I am very happy to say that she is still with us. Through all of this, she has always been very alert and bright-eyed. We'll give it another week and see what changes, if anything. The cause of the bleeding turned out to be a combination of things I suspected but the main problem was that she hadn't been expelling all her poo and it fermented inside of her. Very gross. She's on an anti-hemorrhagic medication as well as the rest and the vet got all the poo and blood out. I'll give her a daily massage near the vent to ensure it keeps moving.

As to your question about propping her up, the issue is that she doesn't stay in one spot! I sometimes swaddle her, but trying to prop her up usually involves her pushing herself along with her feet and toppling off the pile and winding up half on her head. Yesterday I tried a kind of disposable muffin thing made of foil and she got herself out of it in 5 minutes. So it's general safer to have her on her side and switch her position up regularly.
 
#10 ·
I really hope so, too. She's full of personality and it sucks that she just can't move.

And no, she's not getting sunlight every day. Three days a week, yes. She's with me at work four days a week and I'm not taking her outside during my lunch break. Unfortunately with the seasonal change, it's dark when I get home now.
 
#11 ·
I have a (wonderful!) update on Salomé.

It felt very hopeless on and off and euthanasia was constantly on the table. I couldn't bring myself to do it with her being so otherwise fine and with no clear diagnosis. I spoke with a couple of pigeon people in the States who have had birds in a similar condition and it wasn't terribly positive - one was largely recovered, one was a year on and still not right, and another wasn't moving.

I got her off tube feeding and on to pecking on her own with me holding her in position (otherwise she'd tip over on her side). I also started doing some largely made-up stretching exercises, mostly with the wing on her weak side, and a bit with her tail and legs. Everything bore right, including her tail. So I was trying to re-centre things somehow. I had no idea if I was doing more damage than good. I also added calcium and vitamin D3 supplements to her diet (and later, two more). I read something about paralysis in birds sometimes being linked to deficiencies in these and it sparked something in me. Salomé was never a strong flyer even before I caught her. Most of the time in her cage, she didn't flap unlike most other pigeons. And I noticed during our many boring hours of holding her to eat that she was very picky, selecting only her favourite seeds with unerring accuracy. My theory now is that she has an underlying bone weakness or similar, caused by vitamin deficiencies, and that this is why a relatively benign landing has such an overwhelmingly bad outcome.

Anyway, to the point: Salomé began to walk slightly and bear her own weight at the beginning of December! She still relied on me to support her to eat and drink. Then, she started walking much better and sleeping upright on her feet instead of on her side. And just a few days ago, the final hurdle: she is eating on her own and entirely independent of me. It's an incredible outcome.

She's inside in her cage with me at night but spends the day in a big netted playpen on my terrace, visited by other pigeons and watching the world. She has much freer movement in there as well, and the lumpy blanket makes it challenging for her to walk which is exactly what she needs. She isn't flying yet but I still do the exercises and hold her while she flaps and she's perfectly capable, though her weaker left side doesn't get as much wing extension as her right. In any case, I have options now to find her a place in a sanctuary or home, and it's just an incredible outcome for something which felt so helpless.
 
#15 ·
Thank you both. Yes, she's lovely. And she's spent far too much time of her young life in a cage. She needs a place with other birds as soon as I can swing it. The difficulty is winter: with most aviaries being outdoor, I don't think it wise to fling her straight out into winter temps. Here in Barcelona the weather is lovely right now, but I'm likely to send her to Madrid and it's very cold there and will only get colder. I'll figure out how to best manage things.
 
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