Urgent Severe foot chewing

[Love My Zons]

Kazoo's left foot. Just took the picture. See how there is scalloped curves along the toe towards the bottom?

I think the straight look of Puffs toe suggests swelling due to arthritis and those wounds. They look like they can be bites too. Are you seeing him chew his feet?

 

[Hankmacaw]

I can't copy your pictures (too large), but the knobs on his joints are very obvious in the second and fourth pictures. Look on the right foot and the toe nearest the camera. The swelling in that same ankle is also obvious.

I never use cayenne pepper. My vet told me ages ago to never use it on a bird, when I asked. It does burn tissue. Others have a different opinion - but I never have ad never will use it.

 

[Love My Zons]

An old read here.

My CAV's position on the use of Cayenne pepper

I do think some over do it with the cayenne pepper. I feed it moderately and use flour for clogging wounds. Cayenne pepper HURTS my skin. I'm personality allergic to it and all dehydrated red peppers. The dry form is such an irritant to my skin. I don't use it on my bidds unless I have to. My...

forums.avianavenue.com

I have used it twice on the past for 2 injuries here. Bird bites to the foot on both Hoosier, and Kazoo. It helps manage pain, and helped healing begin.

Another natural remedy to help arthritis would be ginger. It's a good anti inflammatory.

 

[PufF]

I never use cayenne pepper. My vet told me ages ago to never use it on a bird, when I asked. It does burn tissue. Others have a different opinion - but I never have ad never will use it.

I’m more inclined to not use it now since after I accidentally cut my finger with a knife while making food, I decided to tru cayenne pepper out myself.
It hurt terribly. More than the alcohol swab I used at first did. I don’t know how much use it actually has but I bet Yeo is gonna hate me for it.

I think the straight look of Puffs toe suggests swelling due to arthritis and those wounds. They look like they can be bites too.

You mean Yeo right? And yes I do believe Yeo chews his feet. A lot. I know that Puff sort of beak fought with Yeo before but I doubt he did that to Yeo if that’s an idea.
Also about turning black I’m afraid I saw some patches of black. In fact I think I showed some of the patches on camera but the lighting makes it look like dark brown.
I seriously might need to convince the owner to get Yeo a vet or at least use cayenne pepper as a last resort.

 

[PufF]

Also thanks for both of your replies!

 

[PufF]

Update- sleeping soon but here’s what I’ve got for tomorrow

-Cayenne pepper
-Vit E oil
-Water and mist bottle
-Gauzes and bandages (like those long rolled up ones for anything not band aids though I have them too)
-Aloe vera gel
-Tweezers and a pair of small scissors
-Cotton swabs
Anything else I missed? I’ll be checking in again about 7-9 hours later to do a last check.

edit- I don’t plan to use the tweezers, scissors, aloe vera and gauzes/bandages just there in case

 

[Love My Zons]

Those wounds look like they are no longer weeping. They appear dry and healing but need some help.

The Cayenne does numb pain due to the capsicum in it. If made with just alittle, it can help. Just mix a tiny amount with the vit E. But truly this bird should see a Vet.

 

[PufF]

Went there. Owner told me that Yeo apparently had mites and sprayed him with some mite/insect infestation insecticide which I did not take a picture of. He poured maybe a cup of it into a spray bottle and proceeded to spray both Yeo’s leg and body.
I don’t know whether or not Yeo has mite infestation as he had his feather chewing issue since last year (maybe longer but I only went there last uear) but his leg chewing only started two three weeks back.
The upside is that his feet soles are perfectly healthy and that I managed to convince him into putting the cayenne pepper paste.
The bottle with the medicine will be posted below as well as his foot before I put cayenne pepper paste (cayenne pepper plus vit E oil) and after (which will be attached in another reply to not confuse the two)

 

[PufF]

After putting the paste. He stopped chewing his feet after I put it and rested with one foot raised but I’m unsure if that’s due to his medicine or the pepper paste.
Another thing to note is that he said that he saw someone (did not specify who and if said person is an Avian Certified Vet) who prescribed him the mite medicine but the bottle looked quite old so he probably got it before this feet issue.

 

[PufF]

The brown feathers are due to the medicine (whose packaging I am still finding online) and the cayenne paste I made isn’t really consistent as in the pepper wasn’t like dissolved or something but they were evenly spread out. I applied the paste with a clean cotton swab.
I will be visiting again tomorrow.

 

[PufF]

I found the product (realised I have been googling wrong keywords)
Edit- I don’t think I saw any mites on or around Yeo though the reviews online do say that it is rather effective for pests.

 

[Love My Zons]

Good job! It's sad and totally disgusting this bird sits tethered to a metal hardware rod!

This Man is cruel, and should do the right thing and allow these birds a new, and well cared for life!

 

[PufF]

I don’t really know to be honest. It’s actually quite a common thing here in Singapore. Tethered birds on even worse perches or dowels are so common. Most don’t bother enough to search online and for the right information. They just take what the staff says and keep it that way.
When I first started I knew nothing as well. I really hope that more people could bother to go to forums like AA or just find some reliable sources online to do the job for them. Anyways, I’ll update.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

I don’t really know to be honest. It’s actually quite a common thing here in Singapore. Tethered birds on even worse perches or dowels are so common. Most don’t bother enough to search online and for the right information. They just take what the staff says and keep it that way.
When I first started I knew nothing as well. I really hope that more people could bother to go to forums like AA or just find some reliable sources online to do the job for them. Anyways, I’ll update.

Sounds a lot like here in my country small birds tend to get packed in small cages. When I got Baylee’s cage the guy asked me how many lovebirds I was going to put in the cage (24x22x20) I said only one and he was like but you can fit like 10 in there so to not insult him I looked around breathed in and out and asked him for some calcium blocks and water bottle and then paid and left.This was in 2014.

 

[PufF]

Update-
Owner still sprayed the medicine but did tell me that the paste seemed to be effective and told me to put it again.
Here’s the pics today of Yeo’s feet after putting the paste again.
For the brief time I was there today I did notice that Yeo seems to stop biting his feet. On another note the owner suggested for me to pluck his chewed feathers again because “If you don’t pluck them he will chew the new ones” when I told him that the feathers will moult.

 

[PufF]

Is healing.
Yeo got some of the paste on his beak though (he didn’t want me to put it on his feet). Just want to reconfirm but pure Vitamin E oil is safe for consumption right?
Also while it still looks bad in the pics it is actually much better. The pink skin is coming out for the most part. It’s just the red pepper paste that makes it look bad.

 

[Hankmacaw]

Vitamin E is perfectly safe and is part of the human and bird metabolism. Like almost everything, too much is too much.

 

[PufF]

Pics of healing leg before I applied the paste today. The skin is really coming in well. I’ll be going there two days later after today. By that time the front skin should have healed quite a bit and the little remaining bits of brown scab at the back should also become pink skin as well.

 

[Shezbug]

The skin is looking better than the first few pics

Does not really look like the band is a good fit anymore. How tight is that leg band?

 

[PufF]

The skin is looking better than the first few pics

Does not really look like the band is a good fit anymore. How tight is that leg band?

Which one are you referring to? The tether or the band with a number (likely the serial number or something of Yeo). The band is fine, there is space to move around inside the band albeit little (still enough so not as much as an issue)
The tether is more restrained and more tight fitting but I won’t say that it is hurting Yeo. More like a tight ring attached to your finger. You can twist it if you use some force but if not it will stay there in the same position.