Toe paralysis

Very long shot here with what I think is an unusual condition!

12y/o peach-faced male; bacterial infection; rushed to vets and put on antibiotics & steroids.

Very much touch and go when we started the antibiotics (they're so good at hiding their sickness until it's critical!), and pulled through, but developed what I can best describe as 'toe paralysis' at the peak of the infection; it's been a month now and there's possibly some recovery but it's hard to quantify.

Leg (up to and including the ankle joint) movement is fine - the little guy can stand, fly, and has been amazing us with his adaptivity and resilience. He's definitely over the infection (behaviorally he's eating & tweeting, and a clear Gram stain).

We've run through the possible causes (no situation where an injury was noticed; potentially stroke - but unusual it's bilateral - so seems infection-related?). There's very little grip in his toes (the back two are pointed forward all the time); whilst he's re-learnt perching on flat feet, I'm just hoping anyone has had a similar case and can give some advice. This seemed new to the vet, so whilst he's got the best care possible in terms of obvious things (temp/humid/feed/lots of foot rubs!), I'm just wondering if any other owners have ever experienced anything similar?

Any chance there is any abnormal swelling or discoloration around the area? At 12 years old, there could be arthritis, gout or perhaps something else going on.

Thanks for this.

I'd kinda ignored arthritis as a possibility due to the sudden onset (his feet aren't swollen either), but after some research a lot of the symptoms add up. The form of the toe paralysis (back toes curled forwards), and apparently that it can be caused by infection (which I didn't know!), plus his age.

He's also started visibly being in pain when his toes are massaged, which doesn't make paralysis due to injury/stroke impossible as a diagnosis but does make it less likely.

This sadly means it's possibly going to be a lifelong condition, but he's on the right medication (NSAIDS), and has a newly set-up environment to accommodate his more limited perching ability, and seems happy.

It's still impossible as ever to be completely conclusive, but it's helping work out the best treatments; basically a broad spectrum of 'try anything that probably won't help but won't harm' )

At this point one can speculate until mornings light and it will make little to no difference as it is what it is at this point.

- Junk the dowel style perches!
- Upsize the natural branch perches and consider using a sport /vet rap to cushion the perch.