Poorly Perry

Perry not feeling well

Last Sunday (6th October), Perry seemed a bit quiet & not his usual self.  The next morning he was no better, in fact he was worse.  He was very quiet with not a peep out of him, not even when Dalai called to him (before I unlocked their cages).  He sat in the same spot for some time, sleeping although not fluffed up.  He did not go down to his seed pots either.

I let Lennie out so he & Dalai could play & Perry could continue to rest.  Millet was gratefully received by Perry & he was able to eat quite a bit without having to fight Lennie for it.  When he jumped to another perch he seemed to stumble a bit so I wondered if perhaps his lump was starting to impact on his leg.  With these concerns, I rang the vet & booked an appointment for the following morning (Tuesday 8th October).

By about midday, Perry decided he wanted a change of scenery & wanted to come out.  For the rest of the day he sat in with Dalai & Lennie, still very quiet.  When the others were otherwise engaged, I would slip Perry some millet.

Although Perry had improved by the next morning (eating by himself & more vocal), I kept the vet appointment.  The vet examined him & noticed bruising on his upper left leg, opposite to the lump.  We assume this is why he was off-colour & also why he had improved.  His lump is still growing & is currently growing outwards & downwards.  The vet thinks it will affect his leg at some point & start causing mobility problems.  Whilst he is coping fine now, I will gradually start to adapt his cage & hopefully they will accept the changes without any fuss!

Perry

 

Do-si-do

You may remember that just before Christmas Cagney hurt his leg.  To help him recover I temporarily put him & Bezukhov into the folding cage as there would not be so far to fall if he lost his footing.

Naturally, those Toyboys had other ideas.  They did NOT want to be in that cage & wanted their Manor back.   Tout suite!

How did they indicate that?  Panic.  They are good at showing different levels of panic when things are not as they should be.  Here they are involuntarily doing the Do-si-do on the platform perch:

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Yes, the Manor was returned to them the very next day!

And yes, this is a good example of a bird hiding its injury as you barely notice a limp with Cagney’s need to get the steps right!

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Under Pressure

It has been two weeks since Cagney bruised his right leg.  The exotic vet visit was brought forward a day which suited us better.  Cagney was still not using his right leg although he was now stretching it out behind him when stretching his wing out which he was not doing before.

The added problem now was the pressure sore on his left foot as a result of not being able to rest it due to the gammy right leg.  This was getting him down somewhat.  When resting, he would hold his right foot up but slump to the left in a way that I assume he could take pressure off the left foot sore.  He looked rather sorry for himself.  He did not seem to be feeding Atilla as often but would go to her regularly for head preens, like he needed some extra comfort & tender loving care.  Atilla, even though still weak, would always give him a thorough head preen, complete with pulling out feathers that Cagney would want to check before she flung away.

After a bit of a chase, Mr Exotic Vet was able to examine Cagney & confirmed he had a superficial pressure sore.  He said to give him antibiotics for the next five days to prevent infection.  He agreed that he was slowly regaining use of his right leg.

Mr EV also checked out Atilla & said she was looking better than when he last saw her.  That day was indeed an “up” day for her, where she was accepting seed from me & actually three times that day went down to get seed herself. 🙂  Mr EV advised that on her “down” days to give her some painkiller/anti-inflammatory medication.

The invalids:

Hopalong Cagney

Cagney holding his right foot up slightly

Yesterday morning, when I woke Atilla & the toyboys up, I was alarmed to see Cagney stumbling about.

When I stopped to observe him, I could see he was struggling to put weight on his right leg.  It did not look red or swollen.  However, he was not able to stretch his left wing out as that would mean having to balance on his right leg to allow his left leg to stretch out behind him. When walking along the perch he limped.

He seemed in good spirits though.  Atilla was still “in bed” (on the bedtime swing) & in fact, got up much later than usual but Cagney still managed to supply her with breakfast in bed…. several times.  When she finally got up, Cagney managed to persuade her to partake in some hanky-panky, so his dodgy leg was clearly not holding him back in that department.

By chance, I was not able to let them out for a fly during the day which I think was a good thing as it gave Cagney a chance to rest his leg.  Whenever sat still on the perch (not that often, to be honest….) he would hold his right foot up. 

Hanky-panky still possible

Early evening, they were let out & Cagney had a good fly around as usual.  He seemed to be landing without any problems, but was still holding his foot up & limping when walking along.  When he sat on my finger, I could feel him resting his right foot lightly on my finger.  It certainly was not gripping tightly like his left foot.  More rest needed, I thought.

An early night was in order, so I locked them up fairly early.  At one point, when I came out the kitchen, Cagney was on the platform perch, looking at me with a pleading & slightly panicky look in his eyes. I opened up the Manor door & he came out & did about 8 or 9 mad laps of the room & went back in again.  Clearly, he was not quite ready to be locked up for bed.

Dodgy right foot

To me, it looks like Cagney has fallen or landed awkwardly on his foot & has sprained it.  Something similar happened to Raspy & after a few days she was fine.  Hopefully Cagney will be back to normal soon.