Lisa Shea Forums Parakeets Keet Stories and Photos WHY??? Her foot is deformed now????

I've been very depressed over Sky's condition for the past weeks...I took her to the vet regarding to her swollen foot almost immediately a while ago. The oilment helped a lot, and her foot seem to heal quickly after that.

But since then, it's just not the same anymore. Her foot is no longer swollen...but it's like already deformed. She perches and climbs alright, but when she walks, it's like she cannot flat out her claws anymore... It breaks my heart when I see her hopping around the cage, my poor little baby . She used to be the most active one, always running around, kicking the other ones and chase them around. Now she's not even together with the them for a while. The cage is too big & it's a lot harder for her to move around. I don't want her to rely mainly on her beak

You should put her into a quarantine with a hospital cage, either a smaller cage with no perches or a 10G aquarium. If you don't have either, you can improvise. Both Sunny and Ace have had problems with their legs and feet and I was told by the breeder to keep them from perching. To me it sounds like she had a tendon problem and as it healed the tendons tightened up and it's causing her to not be able to extend her toes properly. It's not too late. Take her perches away ASAP, continue with the prescribed ointment or betadine worked wonders on Ace, give her some extra calcium, and leave her without perches for at least 2 weeks. If you use betadine, massage it gently into her foot for a minute and leave on, don't rinse. It tends to stain everything, including feathers. Good luck!!

I think that sounds like an excellent idea. Having tendon problems with my own feet I know how this feels for her. When I wake up in the morning, from having my toes pointed all night, my tendons are too tight to flatten my foot comfortable so I have to stretch for a while before I can put weight on my feet. If i had the time to continuously stretch it would make it all better though so i think its a good idea to force her to stretch that foot...

I have tendon problems too and stretching realy is key, as is preventing overuse while healing. If this where my bird, I'd probably take away perches and get her to move her foot arount (stretch), 2-3 times a day for 10 minutes a go.

Thank you so much for your information!!! The vet prescribed her with Panolog which has quite a few side affects if ingested. I didn't know that until recently when I searched for it on one of these websites. Among them are polydipsia, diarrhea, and polyuria - which have drained her energy tremendously. I tried to take away all the perches this morning, just leaving a few food cups, water, calcium block and toys. The thing is she's still having quite wet drops (currently on med too), and when she walks on the floor it's very messy. She tends to either perch on her food/water cups or on the calcium block most of the time though...I felt so sorry for her so I put a small ladder in there...:(

BTW, can I get betadine from a local drugstore and use it on her, is that ok too or does it have to be obtained from the vet?

ask your vet if he can recommend another option. I cant ell you from experience how much her foot is killing her she needs to stretch it... maybe at play time only allow her to play with toys on a solid flat table? she'll be annoyed for a little while (cuz stretching it hurts even more) but after a little while she'll see its helping... or maybe try offering her like... macaw sized perches? they're till round but the diameter is too big for budgie feet to completely wrap around, she'll be off the ground so happy but still stretching it out.

poor baby,I hope all the advice works well for he.snuggles hurt his claw awhile ago and it ook over a week too heal.he had touble getting around.but he would climb on dfferent perches wooden and rope and after week and a half he startd moving a little better now he's his old self.

You can get betadine in your local pharmacy. It is iodine, with a brand name.

Allowing her to perch at all is not going to help her foot. As long as her foot is wrapped around something the tendons are going to continue to tighten and take on the shape of whatever it is she's perching on. I'd say a ladder is even worse than a perch because generally the rungs are even smaller in diameter.

Heather brought up a good option, get her a large diameter perch if she HAS to have one because of loose stools, the bigger, the better, you want her toes to be as extended as possible, her foot as flat as you can get it. Allowing her to play on a table or the floor covered with paper towels, newspaper, or the like, for as much time as you can manage everyday would also be very therapeutic.

Ok, the ladder is a no no then...I've noticed that when I let her outside to play on a flat surface or when she's walking on the floor of the cage, her feet are all curled up most of the time....and for a long time too. That's how she was the entire time when I took all the perches away yesterday. Is that too late, it's like she doesn't want to stretch or anything with that foot now

Her stool is still wet and she is drinking a whole lot of water. I'll try the bigger size perch for now and let her walk on flat surface whenever I'm home. Thanks again for all your freat advices!!! She's been going through so much that she's even smaller than she already was. Good thing that she's starting to eat a lot lately, plus those extra treats I got too .