ringneck lost his leg, help?

cassiepengo

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my darling lovebird
my friend has this ringneck, who has only one leg. she says that around 4-5 years back, he developed some kinda disease and one of his leg started rotting away. she took him to a vet and got some medicines but it dint work and one final day she just found his whole limb on the floor. well the ringneck was in extreme pain but since that was 5 years ago, he's learnt to live with it. his limb has formed a little, but his claws wont come back. he was okay with it, but hes getting old now and its hard for him to move around to get to the food and stuff. i was wondering if there is any way to grow his claws back?

please try and figure out something hes very very old and i really want to help him :(:( pweeeeease???
 

Grimace

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Wait...what?
Are you saying your friend told you their bird had an entire lib rot off and then grow back?
Birds don't grow limbs back.
So no, theres no way to get the claws back, but he didn't reform any of his limb either.
 

Kalidasa

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Hi Cassie the only things birds grow back is feathers. I think either your friend is lying, or someone was lying to your friend about what happened to the bird. What your friend described to you is impossible. If the bird has one leg, that's all he will have. Limbs do not "re-form". Something bad happened to the bird, and either someone is trying to cover it up with wild, impossible stories, or they simply don't understand what's going on.
Unless you are prepared to adopt the bird and nurse him back to health, there not much you can do. 5 years old is not old, it's young. And a bird can adjust fine to life with one leg, so if the bird seems in pain and struggling, there's much more going on than a missing leg.
 

Kiwibird

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Limbs do not "grow back", but they do heal over eventually, and if the bird survives loosing a limb, it can adapt to the disability and live a long and happy life. All creatures slow down with age, and his disability probably makes his old age a little more difficult as he has ben overusing the remaining leg since he lost the other one. You can't make his leg or his foot grow back, but you could try rearranging his cage in such a way it makes it easier for him. Give platforms instead of perches, offer ladders instead of just having him climb up the bars, buy the adjustable height dishes and put them at his level for easy reaching ext... There are ways to accommodate his disability, you just need to use some common sense of what is becoming really difficult for him and how you can make it easier.

However, this particular situation sounds like your friend isn't being entirely truthful OR did not understand what happened to her bird. An infection so severe a leg "dropped off" would have killed the bird LONG before it ate through the leg. Perhaps the bird chewed it's own leg off (animals have been known to do that), but again, if it had that severe of an infection and was not treated with antibiotics by a vet, that would pretty much be a billion to one scenario that it survived all that.
 
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cassiepengo

cassiepengo

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okay, this is confusing.
first, she is not lying. I've been to her house to look at him, and very honestly, he has only one leg. she dusnt know what exactly happened but they are guessing that a mouse bit his leg off. i dont know if that is possible, but thats what she thinks.
secondly, his limb is there!! the whole part is there covered with feathers except his claws.it might be possible he dint entirely lose his limb, it might be possible she was just talking about the claws, not the limb.

and the bird is not 5 years old, i meant he lost his leg 5 years ago. now his age might be around 19 or 20.

i guess i'll check out with her and ask her what really happened.
is there NO way he can grow his limb back?
i really wanted to help him, thats all. she says it is hard for him to walk or move around a lot. i was hoping there was some way i could heal him. i feel so sorry for that birdie. :52::52: please please please is there anything i could do? are you sure it cant grow in again?:(
he's such a sweetie:p he used to be like the center of attraction in their house, but then they got him a huge cage to hang outside, and everyone is busy and this poor guy is been ignored and put outside alone. i really want to help him, poor little parrot :(
 

Mekaisto

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It's very unlikely a mouse bit his leg off, he would have had to sit still while it happened. It is more likely that his leg became infected with some sort of bacteria.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no way for his foot to grow back - if your hand was chopped off, would it grow back?

At that age, he would be getting slower and a bit more sore even if he had two legs. He may be getting arthritis, which can be helped a little by keeping him warm, but at the end of the day he is an old bird and has had a long life. It is just one of that facts of life, unfortunately.
 

Grimace

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Yeah, whatever state his leg is in is however badly damaged it was in the first place. Birds can't grow body parts back any better than a human can.
 
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cassiepengo

cassiepengo

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okay well then... im so sorry for that guy. turns out her dad had tried making an artificial leg for him but he wasnt comfortable with it. i suppose he'll have to live with it then *shrug*
 

Terry57

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Cassie, I currently have 2 finches that are missing 1 leg, and another that has a leg that doesn't work and he drags it behind him. They are happy little guys, and I put some shelves in their cage so they have somewhere to rest besides perches. They also have a couple of perches that are flatter and wider for them to rest on. Birds adapt remarkably well:)
 

MikeyTN

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My theory is that leg probably had a leg band. Ask your friend if the lost leg had a band. They're not like lizards that grows back body parts as they're like us, once a limb is gone it's gone. Unless you meant the talons have been ripped off instead of the limbs?
 

goalerjones

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My theory is that leg probably had a leg band. Ask your friend if the lost leg had a band. They're not like lizards that grows back body parts as they're like us, once a limb is gone it's gone. Unless you meant the talons have been ripped off instead of the limbs?

Unless of course, he combined lizard DNA, like in the last Spider-Man. :)
 
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cassiepengo

cassiepengo

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haha!! :) lol okay guys thanks a ton. i think i should just let him be then :) :)
 

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