Nothing ruins a good Saturday like realizing you missed an injury

Poor Kiwi His human feels like below garbage right now. At the beginning of the week, he had an accident where he landed on top of a hot toaster oven. To clarify, the toaster over is normally located on the kitchen counter, tucked way under a cabinet in the very back corner in a spot he couldn't possibly get to. But due to our kitchen being all ripped out right now, I had carelessly placed the toaster oven on the dining table in the direct path of his cage without thinking about the danger since Kiwi doesn't normally fly. He also had most of his flight feathers as he has undergone a massive molt/feather regrowth since being treated for his kidney infection. Well, he got spooked and took off and attempted to land on the oven since it was right where he's been taught to land. Ugh, yes, I taught him through his flapping exercises that a good flight path was from that corner to the top of the dining table since it normally doesn't house anything dangerous. And because I apparently succeeded in his training, when he became scared and took off, the dining table where the oven was sitting as the highest point and shining metal beacon of "land here" is exactly where he attempted to land His feet were only in contact with the top of the oven for like half a second before proceeding to crash hard into a window. I was far more concerned about the head trauma at the time and watching for signs of concussion or worse. My husband did pick him up around the body so I could examine his feet, but I did not see anything noticeably wrong with them like blistering or obvious burns, but they did seem sensitive so I didn't mess with them too much. I had just gotten a minor burn myself a couple weeks ago and wrongly assumed that at worst he was feeling like I had- a little discomfort and stinging since I didn't see anything visible. We held his feet in a pan of cold water for a while and then I rubbed a little coconut oil on them. When I checked them out the next day and they seemed fine. He's been a bit testy for unclear reasons all week and we couldn't for the life of us figure out why.

This morning, he was raising his foot to get a ride and I was not fast enough so he raised it higher and much to my horror there are some patches on his foot that are darker than the surrounding skin. Hubby restrained him while I examined them and sure enough, it appears to be healing minor burns. I don't know when they showed up, because after nearly 24 hours when I re-checked those were not there. Poor little guy has had sore feet all week long. No wonder he's been such a jerk, he's finally feeling better, his world gets turned upside down because of a leak and then he burns the bottoms of his feet and his clueless humans didn't notice for a week. Fortunately, they look like it's pretty much all healed over and while his feet are pretty dark, there appears to be no redness or signs of infection despite taking no special sanitization measures on his perches this past week. I feel terrible though. Assuming he was just being a jerk and not thinking about his incident. Since it does appear to be healing well on it's own, I will just be watching them closely and if anything changes, I'll be contacting his vet of course. But right now I think he's going to be fine.

P.S. Kiwi does NOT appreciate being held around the body, hence the look of "just put me out of my misery now". Oh and his butt is still refeathering after the kidney infection and isn't back to 100% normal yet.

Don't feel too bad--- you are one of the ones that always stress that "birds wil try to hide every illness as long as they possibly can" and with everything else going on in your house ... .

The feet look like they are healing just fine- so an extra compliment to your skills in spotting his previous illness -> his immunesystem is (once again) fully operational!
This time he did not need any help.

and sorry- you made me laugh out loud with your " the look of "just put me out of my misery now" ".

Awe, it could happen to any of us...And though I've never seen a bird with a burn on it's feet, I have seen a Bearded Dragon with a burn on the bottom of his foot, and they are similar in their thick, dry, scaly skin on their feet, even more-so with birds because they are perching barefoot all day long...so being able to see that the bottom of a bird's foot has a burn on it would be very difficult, as that skin is not going to blister or slough-off like the skin on any other part of their bodies. So don't beat yourself up over that, you're the first person I would expect to rush your bird to the emergency vet the second you see something is wrong with him...Not your fault.

What I would suggest is to not put any more coconut oil or any other oil on the burns, as that is completely counterproductive to burn-healing. It's the same concept as how people used to think putting butter on burns was a good thing...In reality, the oils in the butter (or any other type of oil, like coconut oil) actually slow-down the healing of a burn significantly, because oil actually prevents the heat from being released from the skin, trapping it into the damaged skin, along with any bacteria. Burns so easily become infected because of the drastic damage they cause to the tissue, which significantly lessens the blood supply to the area, thus not allowing blood cells/oxygen to the area, while the normal bacteria that is on the surrounding skin is allowed to freely invade. So by applying anything that is "greasy" or oily, you're simply trapping-in heat and bacteria, and hindering the healing process.

This is why using the Silvadene cream (Silver Sulfadiazine cream), which is available over-the-counter now, is a wonderful cream to put on top of the burn, as in addition to having antibiotic properties, it allows the heat to escape the burn, and it increases the blood-flow to the area. If you don't have any Sulfadiazine cream to put on his feet, you can just use a triple-antibiotic cream like Neosporin on them, after washing them in cold water daily. It's tough because it's the bottom of his feet, and birds obviously don't have the cleanest feet, so it's a good idea to put some type of antibiotic on the burns daily to fight-off infection. He should be fine, just keep an eye on the burns and make sure they're healing.

Poor Kiwi! I’m glad he’s healing so well. Don’t beat yourself up-this could happen to anyone. [emoji3590]


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Aww poor Kiwi! At least he is healing very nicely! Things could have been way worse (i.e. infection). If we all had the gift of foresight, there would be no accidents. These things just happen no matter how good our intentions are.

I have to say, that's a cuddly and cute picture of Kiwi

Thanks everyone. I just feel bad he's been dealing with this all week and we've been growing impatient with him. He's such a good little bird, I should have known he did not suddenly pull a 180 and start being difficult for no reason.

Is the silvadene cream like a colloidal silver cream? I have a cream with colloidal silver but was wary to use since I was unsure of silvers toxicity to parrots. And to be clear, I only put the oil on once, right after it happened. Probably the worst time to apply that by the sounds of it, but other than that and soaking his feet in cold water afterwards, I haven't applied any other treatments because I didn't think it did any damage and because I witnessed how long his feet touched it for and it was just a split second before he panic flew into a window. Oh and yes, we clipped his wings again the next day and until this work is done, he hangs out in the office if the oven is being used/until it cools to the touch and as a double fail safe, I have placed bright red silicone waffle molds on top to scare him away and if he did land again, I don't think they'd get as hot as the metal.

I don't have experience with silvadene cream or colloidal silver although I'd be wary of the latter. How about good, old fashioned aloe vera? Straight from the plan if you have one.

So, with Julio view from my shoulder, I'm opening your Thread and there is poor Kiwi in a less then happy place. And with Amazon timing, Julio states WHO(?) as his eyes flash orange.

Poor Kiwi, he is recovering, his world is upside down, and a defined safe landing surface turns on him!

Happy to hear that he continues to recover. Everyone will be much happier when your household regains its safety and comfort!

Here's to that happening sooner rather than later!
Big Amazon Feather Hugs from Julio and his staff,

Awww poor baby. 💚

He looks good and is healing nicely. So, don’t beat yourself up. It could have been a lot worse. Lesson learned and you’ll never make that mistake again. 🖤
Luckily for us, they are very forgiving. 🙏🏻

I don’t know about those creams.

The over the counter Silvadene cream is only 2%, it is better than most other OTC burn ointments but not nearly as good as the prescription stuff. Go to your vet or primary care MD and ask for a script. If you have a good relation with either it shouldn't be a problem.

SailBoat said:

So, with Julio view from my shoulder, I'm opening your Thread and there is poor Kiwi in a less then happy place. And with Amazon timing, Julio states WHO(?) as his eyes flash orange.

Click to expand...

Not sure if the sting of embarrassment that his buddy Julio saw the above photo of him in a less than flattering position or the actual sting from having toasted toes is worse for him:33: I do bet Julio was glad it was Kiwi getting held in such an indignant way and not him!

Kiwibird said:

SailBoat said:

So, with Julio view from my shoulder, I'm opening your Thread and there is poor Kiwi in a less then happy place. And with Amazon timing, Julio states WHO(?) as his eyes flash orange.

Click to expand...

Not sure if the sting of embarrassment that his buddy Julio saw the above photo of him in a less than flattering position or the actual sting from having toasted toes is worse for him:33: I do bet Julio was glad it was Kiwi getting held in such an indignant way and not him!

Click to expand...

So, very true! Julio has been faced with more than his fair share of embarrassing moments as thus avoids comment when friends find themselves in like positions. If anything: " I Feel Your Pain Good Friend! 'or' Been There, Done That, Not Fun! "

As TiredOldMan said, no, colloidal silver is not at all the same thing as the Silvadene Cream...don't put colloidal silver on it...the Silvadene cream is a wonder-treatment for burns, especially for keeping out infection and encouraging healing...However, natural Aloe is also another way to go, as well as just plain old Neosporin. Because the burns are on the bottom of his feet and birds don't have the luxury of being able to "get off of their feet" at all, ever, I'd imagine that it is quite painful for him. So putting something like Silvadene, natural Aloe Vera, Neosporin, or even just a 4-5% Lidocaine cream that you can buy at any Walmart would make his feet feel much better. Plus their feet get dirtier than any other part of their body, so infection is a worry, especially with burns, so you want to make sure to keep them clean. Cold-water soaks will feel good to him and help to keep them clean, maybe put a little Betadine or Hibiclens in the cold water and let his feet soak in it for a few minutes to help with bacteria, fungi, etc. I always keep a tube of Lidocaine cream around, 5% is the strongest available over-the-counter (it is marketed as a cream for Hemorrhoids, lol, and they now sell a 4% Lidocaine cream that is specifically for burns as well, both available at Walmart). The stuff completely numbs everything for a good hour or two, and my CAV actually recommended it to me originally when my Senegal lost his toe. My CAV had made a skin-flap and sutured it over the "stub", and Kane absolutely would not leave the sutures alone. When I called the vet and asked if I should try putting a bandage on his foot, that's when he told me about the 5% Lidocaine cream that they sell as a hemorrhoid cream at Walmart. So I got it and first tried it on my own fingertip, and it numbed it completely. So I put it on Kane's "nubbin", lol, rubbed it in all over the half of his toe he had left and down into his foot, and he just stopped chewing on it and left it completely alone. So now I keep it around for me and the birds...I'm the one that has needed it, lol, I actually had a pretty bad hot-water "splatter" burn on my right hand not too long ago, and I'm a big baby when it comes to burns, they hurt so badly, but that cream completely took care of it.

He'll be fine...After all, this is the bird that lived with a severe kidney infection for a month without showing any signs of pain at all, except for a little "butt itching", lol. He's a tough little guy. I've had a bladder infection that spread and caused a kidney infection due to a kidney stone that is stuck right now in my urethra, and I'm seriously starting to lose my mind over it, it's a constant, sharp, horrible pain and pressure, I can't sleep, i'm going insane from it, not sleeping, etc. I'm a big baby...So you have one tough little bird!

Silvadene is indeed good for burns, but not if Kiwi is going to be licking or picking at the burns as they heal. Like everyone has said, this could have been a lot worse.

I spoke with Kiwi's vet this morning about the burns. Since they are minor and healing well on their own, she said to just leave them alone and to put nothing on them except cool water if they seem to bother him. The vet will take a look at them next week (if they aren't 100% healed yet) when he goes in for his (fingers crossed) final follow up/re-xray for the kidney infection.

All claws are crossed here for positive results!

I am sure everything will be just fine! Update us anyway