- Joined
- 3/7/19
- Messages
- 672
Hi All,
This is going to be a bit long, but I want to make sure I cover the details.
My TAG came to me fully feathered, but overweight and unable to fly. She's been checked out by a vet, and has no physical issues (apart from severe muscle atrophy) that would prevent her from learning to fly.
Thanks to lots of climbing over the past year, she's lost the flab, but her wing condition has barely improved at all, because she only flaps when she's falling and/or terrified. In the time I've had her, she's managed to maintain height for a few feet before fluttering to the floor, but that appears to have been a fluke. She did it three times over the course of a couple weeks, but appears to have backslid ever since. She NEVER uses her wings in her daily activities, not as a little boost to gain that last inch climbing, not clinging to/dangling from something and flapping for fun, even when she bathes, she may hold them a bit out from her body, but nothing more. I don't think I've ever even seen her do that thing where they stretch their wings straight out from their back (she does do the sideways "one wing, one leg" stretches). If I had to guess, I'd say she was probably clipped before she ever learned how to fly, and after 11 years her wings are so weak and thin that flapping actually makes the feathers get all jostled and poke out weird, because they're basically sitting on skin and bone.
I've tried flapping exercises with her (putting her on a perch or my hand and moving her up and down/forward to encourage the behavior). It never ends well. If I move her around in a way that keeps her stable, she refuses to flap. If I move her her in such a way that it destabilized her, it works once because she gets frightened, but she'll (quite understandably) do anything to avoid repeating the experience.
Now the GREAT news.
I've recently earned her trust enough that she'll actually let me handle her wings. I can lift them up and stretch them out and place them back down, and she's cool with it.
This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for physical therapy that might help her reach a point where flapping itself becomes easier for her. I can do stretches, maybe wing massage, whatever might help her slowly build her wings back up to a minimally healthy condition.
It appears that the next step after stretching and range of motion exercises would be exercises with gentle resistance... but that's where I'm kind of stumped. I might finally be able, with a bit more training and stretching, to teach her to spread her wings on command, but that will only exercise the muscles used for outward and upward motion, not the ones used for downward/closing motions.
What's the flight equivalent of "push against my hand," or assisted standing, or water therapy? How do I cross that gap between "can barely move wings" and "flaps comfortably enough to move forward with more advanced exercises?"
This is going to be a bit long, but I want to make sure I cover the details.
My TAG came to me fully feathered, but overweight and unable to fly. She's been checked out by a vet, and has no physical issues (apart from severe muscle atrophy) that would prevent her from learning to fly.
Thanks to lots of climbing over the past year, she's lost the flab, but her wing condition has barely improved at all, because she only flaps when she's falling and/or terrified. In the time I've had her, she's managed to maintain height for a few feet before fluttering to the floor, but that appears to have been a fluke. She did it three times over the course of a couple weeks, but appears to have backslid ever since. She NEVER uses her wings in her daily activities, not as a little boost to gain that last inch climbing, not clinging to/dangling from something and flapping for fun, even when she bathes, she may hold them a bit out from her body, but nothing more. I don't think I've ever even seen her do that thing where they stretch their wings straight out from their back (she does do the sideways "one wing, one leg" stretches). If I had to guess, I'd say she was probably clipped before she ever learned how to fly, and after 11 years her wings are so weak and thin that flapping actually makes the feathers get all jostled and poke out weird, because they're basically sitting on skin and bone.
I've tried flapping exercises with her (putting her on a perch or my hand and moving her up and down/forward to encourage the behavior). It never ends well. If I move her around in a way that keeps her stable, she refuses to flap. If I move her her in such a way that it destabilized her, it works once because she gets frightened, but she'll (quite understandably) do anything to avoid repeating the experience.
Now the GREAT news.
I've recently earned her trust enough that she'll actually let me handle her wings. I can lift them up and stretch them out and place them back down, and she's cool with it.
This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for physical therapy that might help her reach a point where flapping itself becomes easier for her. I can do stretches, maybe wing massage, whatever might help her slowly build her wings back up to a minimally healthy condition.
It appears that the next step after stretching and range of motion exercises would be exercises with gentle resistance... but that's where I'm kind of stumped. I might finally be able, with a bit more training and stretching, to teach her to spread her wings on command, but that will only exercise the muscles used for outward and upward motion, not the ones used for downward/closing motions.
What's the flight equivalent of "push against my hand," or assisted standing, or water therapy? How do I cross that gap between "can barely move wings" and "flaps comfortably enough to move forward with more advanced exercises?"