Saggy Wing

(EDIT2: After consulting with my mother, she told me the fall occurred about a month ago, if that's an important factor.) (EDIT: Oh my gosh, it seems to be deleting my paragraph breaks every time I attempt to add them back. I'm sorry for the wall of text. I'm not sure how to fix it.) I went to Oregon on vacation and left my beloved cockatiel, Smokey, with my mom for six weeks. I told her to call me if anything was wrong, to take him out daily, how to clean his cage, how to prepare his food and such. At some point during my vacation, I got a call where my mom said he full during flight and it freaked me out. She said his wing might be broken; because he had his wings out, but Smokey is a clumsy bird and has taken a few small tumbles whole flying plenty of times and came out of it alright, so I told her to keep an eye on him and tell me if she thinks it's broken for sure. She called me back the next day and told me she saw him stretching, so was sure he was fine. I took her word for it. I came back from vacation to discover she left his perches caked with poo, didn't prepare his food correctly (only fed him seed! left the nutriberries and everything else!) and that his right wing is a little saggy. It doesn't drag along the ground, but sits markedly lower than the other wing. I know she didn't mean to neglect him, but needless to say, I won't be leaving him with her again... I don't know if it's broken? Because I've seen him stretch, he's taken off (when I was leaving the room, so I unfortunately didn't see him land or fly back to his cage, but when I poked my head back in he was back on his cage) and he doesn't appear to be in any pain whatsoever. I can't gage whether or not it hurts him when I touch it, because he doesn't let me touch him anywhere besides the head anyways. (He's about 13/14, so a middle-aged bird, and was adopted about a year ago.) He seems to have some troubles folding the lower part in, and it takes him a few tries. Unfortunately, this happened at the worst time. I'd otherwise just run him to the vet immediately to find out, but I'm about to move for college, and yes, he's coming with me. Rent's due, moving is pricy, I need furniture and such. My student loan doesn't come for another month. My vet fund is currently almost entirely depleted because of a URI my cat had a few months back. He's still playing and grooming himself normally and has an appetite as big as ever. I'm not sure if he has a break in his wing. I'm mostly just wondering if this would be something that could wait about a week or two to be checked out, as where I'm moving has a seemingly much more affordable and competent avian vet than where I am now. If it's actually an emergency, I won't hesitate to take him this week, because his health is important-- but I'd like to know if there are options. Sorry for the wordy post.

I am so sorry this happened to your baby. I know the timing is terrible for you, but if there is some kind of break, the longer you wait, the greater the chance that they won't be able to fix it. He could also be in pain.
Please keep us updated on how he's doing.

If I follow this correctly, its been somewhere around 4 weeks since the crash. If true, and if it was in fact a broken (separated bone break) it is likely past the point of surgically resetting without the intervention of an Avian Surgically Trained Vet. Yes I know, after seeing 'TV' Vets, one would naturally believe that any Vet can do highly specialized wing surgery.

The fact that your Tiel is flying suggests that it may have been a bone fracture and/or a pulled muscle. Whether one, the other or both, your Tiel would likely still be at some level of pain. So, limit flying for a few more weeks.

As stated above, I would also recommend that an Avian Vet looks at your Tiel. There is nothing better than highly trained eyes on your Tiel and not me guessing about limited information.

FYI: If your education is going to result in a Student Loan of size. Please assure that your course of study has the base wage to be able to repay it! Feel good education will not repay Student Loans and support even a most basic life style. If one of your two Majors (yes two majors) is not on the hard sciences, math, etc... side and the other is not part of the 'Main Street' side: Engineering, Law, Medical, Accounting, etc... You're going to find it difficult to get hired in today's World. Combinations that are really strong: Engineering & Law, Medical & Math, Science & English, etc...

Thank you for the replies - if that's the case, then I'll try to schedule a visit with the vet here as soon as I can. The problem is that my only form of car transportation is through my dad, and the avian vet is far out of the reach that I would be able to taxi. Hopefully he will understand the urgency.

I move in about 11 days, and is a fairly long drive-- do you folks think that if he requires some sort of surgery, the move would add a lot of additional stress while he was recovering?

And, I was admitted one of the best animation schools in the world - no exaggeration. And yes, my loan will be pretty sizeable by the end of it. I don't believe the "STEM or nothing" ideology. I appreciate the concern, but there is work to be found in fields outside the sciences. Graduates of my program are frequently employed before they even complete the degree.

Congratulations on getting into your animation school! How exciting you will be able to do what you love
As far as stress of moving right after a surgery, your vet would be better able to answer that after he has seen him. I am hoping it is just a sprain and you won't even have to worry about a surgery.
I'd love to see pictures of him!

Terry57 said:

Congratulations on getting into your animation school! How exciting you will be able to do what you love
As far as stress of moving right after a surgery, your vet would be better able to answer that after he has seen him. I am hoping it is just a sprain and you won't even have to worry about a surgery.
I'd love to see pictures of him!

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Fully agree with the above!

Animation is MainStreet and very happy to hear that you have been accepted. Please talk to them about supporting /enhancing Majors. Yes your course study is very active and looking for more people. It is also rapidly changing and chews though people rapidly as the technology changes. The second Major should be your edge in this fast pace industry.

Good luck. FYI, my son graduated from a top flight animation school, and after 6 yrs can still not find PAYING work. Plenty of apprentice stuff. And is paying off a student loan of 45k. He's working as a CAD draftsman, so using just a tiny bit of what he learned.

Hello - I have an update about Smokey!

Let us please not make this a debate about the merits of my scholarly choices. There are many things that factor into getting a job in the animation field, including portfolio skill, timing, who you know, and where you're located. You can still break in if you work hard. However, thanks to those who congratulated me. ^^

So I took Smokey in to the avian vet, and she told me that whatever thing may have happened to him, it seems mostly healed (it has almost full movement, or something to that effect?) and just mostly swollen. They cleaned his nares, clipped his wings and sent me home with some metacam for the pain. We'll be checking in again in two weeks to see if any further action is needed.

I'm going to buy an air filter for my tiny room and up his bathing from once a week to 2-3 times a week to cut down on the gunk he gets trapped in his nose. :S I think there's something crummy about the air and air flow in this apartment in general, but it frankly isn't something I'm going to investigate as I'm moving.

I wish I had a newer picture of him, but he hates the phone. Here's a picture of him from the last time he was at the vet: