Budgies foot is sore. help

[Horus369]

So I recently noticed my budgie nursing his right foot and not using it as often. I switched out the cotton rope perch he was using for some plastic one and that seemed to help as he was using his right foot more. Then sometime during the night he fell off his perch. It woke me up so I immediately checked on him and noticed that the bottom of his left foot that he’d been bearing most of his weight on and spending majority if his day on was red and rubbed off. I took him to an avian ER the next morning for them to tell me he’s perfectly fine just has some inflammation and he was probably nursing his right foot because he pulled a muscle or got caught on something. I tried to address the left foot and how rubbed off it was and they didn’t seem concerned by it at all. They sent me home with an oral anti inflammatory medication. He’s had about 2 doses…he’s using his right foot more it looks like and I put the rope back in, but he prfers the plastic one still. However he fell off again tonight and his left foot is still red. I don’t know what to do. I dont know how to help him or comfort him or prevent his left foot from getting worse and opening.I’ve had him for 2 years and he’s never fallen off or had any other medical issues ever. He’s clearly still hurt but the er vet said he’s fine.

 

[Shezbug]

Can you give him a platform perch and maybe pad up his other perches with vet tape to help for comfort and grip.
Hopefully some others like @Ripshod @Zara @Mizzely will be around to offer some further advice soon.

 

[Zara]

A platform perch is a good option like Shez said. I don´t know why redness would appear if he was using cotton perches though.

I think I would try finding a second vet for a second opinion if you think the problem is not getting better with those meds. But remember, you must continue the full coarse of medicine and it can take some times to see results.

 

[Mizzely]

How old is he? You said you've had him 2 years wasn't sure if that was his approximate age or not.

What's his diet like?

Is the ER vet a bird vet?

 

[Ripshod]

I can see a small mark on his right foot. This may be why he was favouring it, but it's not in a place that would cause pain when he uses it - just discomfort.
His left foot does look like it could cause some pain on the tender area.
Neither of the above would explain the fall though. Maybe a night fright?
I'm also in agreement with the platform suggestion. But I notice you do have a dowel perch in the cage. Are all the higher perches dowel? These can cause foot problems and really should be replace with natural perches, or reshaped with a knife and sandpaper. In the meantime you could wrap the perches with vet wrap (steroban) to give his feet a better surface to rest on.

He's a beautiful colour

 

[Horus369]

I’m going to petco to buy vet tape today. I dont know if they have a platform perch, but if not, Ill have to find one online and just wait for it to ship. Thank you for the advice on perches I think that’ll help a lot! I’ll continue to give him the medication but it’s hard as it’s oral and I never trained him to let me grab him. He’ll step up on my finger but as soon as I try to grab him he just flies away. So I’m not giving it to him as often as I should I think. As far as his diet goes I give him a variety of different seeds: millet, hemp seed, sesame seed, anise seed… to name a few. I haven’t started making chop(will be incorporating soon) but I still give him at least one vegetable a day usually spinach since that’s his favorite sometimes carrot or broccoli. He was less than a year old when I got him maybe 6 months, so he’s about 2.5 years old.

 

[Horus369]

He sleeps on his left so I thought he was falling off because he couldn’t bear weight on his left foot anymore…but I dont know if that makes sense anymore since he has stopped nursing his right foot significantly. I had a corner perch made of wood that was higher up and a natural twig like perch, but I thought maybe because the twig one was sharp that’s how he hurt his right foot and when I soaked the wood corner with his rope (when I’d taken it out and cleaned them) the glue dissolved and it fell apart so I threw his two wood perches out. As of right now all he has is the plastic perches the cage came with and the rope but I ordered some wood perches made of manzanita wood. Should I put those in right away or should I just wrap the plastic perches with vet tape and wait for him to get better before putting those in?

 

[bonjourtok]

A platform perch is a good idea anyway as a place to give their feet a rest. I got mine off amazon, as I couldn't find any local.