Injured budgie

So I needed to separate one of my budgies from the other three he was housed with. As expected he wasn't co-operating and was fluttering all about the cage.

Totally wasn't paying attention to my dogs as they are usually well behaved when my JRT jumped up and grabbed a hold of the birds wing and partially pulled it through the bars.

The budgie has lost pretty much all of its primaries one of which was a blood feather. He was jammed between the grate at the bottom of the cage and the space where the tray comes out. It ripped up his side as well.

It's Sunday here so no vets are open. I've put cornflour on the wounds to stop the bleeding. Not much more I can do until the morning when the vets opens.

Hopefully he'll survive the night. I can't afford an emergency vet call right at the moment. As usual something goes wrong when I don't have the money.

What I'd like to know is what do you all think the chances that he'll be able to fly again? Not sure if the wing feathers will grow back properly.

He's a sweet little guy and I was planning on keeping him with my spare Bourke hen but if there is little chance he'll be able to fly I'll have to make alternative arrangements.

UPDATE: Poor little guy survived the night. The shock didn't kill him thankfully. Looks like no breaks or dislocations in the wing. Just had all the first several primaries ripped out and the injury to the side.

The injury to the side is much smaller than it looked now that there isn't blood everywhere. Hopefully some antibiotics and R&R will get him back on his feet.

Oh my god, the poor thing. I'm glad he isn't too badly off and I wish him all the best. Will he still be able to fly?

Vet can't say one way or the other until the feathers grow back. Going from the wingtip almost all of the primaries are gone. Only one or two left. Given the violent removal of the feathers there's no way to tell how they'll grow back.

Somehow the bird lucked out and only lost feathers and not the wingtip. No breaks or obvious fractures. No dislocation or any major injuries. Small scrape on side, some bruising, missing feathers and a bit of blood loss. Injuries looked so much worse with the blood everywhere.

Hoping someone on here has had a bird have feathers pulled in a similar way and can let me know how it went for them.

A horrible accident, thankfully your budgie has a strong constitution and has no apparent internal injuries. Hopefully you can get him to a vet during the week for evaluation.

I have not encountered similar situation so cannot offer guidance. Hopefully the feathers will regrow and he'll resume flight.

Emergency calls are super expensive and after dropping $1000 on the brakes on the car I just couldn't face the high emergency costs.

I was able to get squeezed in first thing this morning. Antibiotics and rest are the order of the day. The vet said he was amazed that the damage wasn't worse. He seems to think it'll all come good as the bird is only very young. However he couldn't say if the bird would be able to fly again until the feathers regrow.

Just a matter of time now.

Poor little bloke, I feared the worst after I read your first post and I’m so happy he pulled through. You got lucky there, i once lost a budgie to the snapping jaws of a chihuahua and will never trust another dog anywhere near my birds ever again!

I had a similar scare, my cockatiel decided to try to fly off of me with clipped wings, only to land on the floor in front of my mastiff mix, the dog pinned him to the floor with one fluid motion of his paw. Luckily he listens well and backed off the bird, injury free. But you can bet my cockatiel sticks with me now.

My daughter’s rat terrier is staying with us while she gets back on her feet and he does not listen when it comes to staying away from the bird cages. I have to watch him like a hawk when he’s in the room with my cage. This is my worst nightmare. So glad your budgie is okay!

Very lucky bird so far. I just hope he will fly again. No issues with bones or dislocations but x-ray can't tell me much about muscle or tendon. No idea if his feathers will grow back properly either. Only time will tell.

My dog has never shown interest in the other birds. My larger parrots have landed on the ground in front of her and she hasn't twitched. I'm thinking it was the panicked fluttering about the cage as I was trying to catch the budgie that set her off.

Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes. No matter how well behaved your dog or cat is at the end of the day they are predatory animals. Never know what will set of the instinct to kill. Lesson learned the hard way.