EllenD
New member
- Aug 20, 2016
- 3,979
- 65
- Parrots
- Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
I'm copying my post from the general health forum because I don't want what happened to my Senegal parrot, Kane, this weekend to happen to anyone else's bird. I'm going to add photos of my dome top cage and what I'm talking about as far as the way the cages go together and where the space is that Kane got his toe stuck in, forcing him to chew off the end of his own toe, entire toenail, end of the bone, and all...
And I wasn't home to help him. I forget to put him back in his cage before running errands for an hour. Just an hour. I'm so thankful he didn't bleed to death, when you see the photos of the amount of blood he lost you'll wonder how he didn't die, as I do. I can say I had a horrible week, I was exhausted, stressed out, dealing with the death of my baby duck and the police and neighbors involved, the birth of my dog's 8 puppies at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and the death of the runt last night, my dad's heart attack and stent surgery, etc., but the bottom line is I messed up...
["Just to update this post, Kane is OK, but his injury was much, much worse than I initially thought that it was, and I wanted to put this up as a warning to other bird owners, or perhaps a reminder to us all that you absolutely cannot become complacent in supervising your birds when they're out of their cages, even if you've had them for years, they are well trained, and if they have never once had an accident or gotten themselves into trouble before. Stuff happens. Period.
After I first came home and noticed that Kane had blood all over his cage, and then saw that he had somehow ripped the toenail off of the toe that points backwards on his left foot, I posted on here immediately because as much experience as I have with birds and bird health/medicine in general, I had never had a bird of my own or seen a bird at the rescue who ripped a toenail completely out, and I wanted some advice. After I posted here I soaked his foot in a solution of warm, sterile saline and Hibiclens, which didn't seem to phase him at all. I thought the warm saline or the Hibiclens would sting badly and I was expecting him to scream, but he just stood there in the solution while I gently wiped away the huge clot of dry blood that had (fortunately) formed over what I thought was the end of his toe/nail bed...What I saw when the blood cleared and I could finally see his toe scared me to death. The entire end of his toe was chewed off! It was pretty obvious from the way the end of his toe was mangled, skin hanging with uneven edges and the exposed bone (which was actually much smaller than I thought it would be, I had never seen an exposed bird foot or leg bone before, only open wing wounds with exposed bone) that he had done this himself for some reason. I was horrified and scared to death. I've treated numerous animals, birds, and reptiles (as well as people) that have been seriously injured, but when it's your own loved one it's just different. Of course my avian vet wasn't in, it happened on Sunday, and the avian vet at the 24 hour animal hospital was not on call this weekend, so I had to wait until the next day. I called the hospital anyway, told them what the injury had turned out to be, and told them what I had done to treat it. They agreed that they could do nothing more to help him than I had already done, except for a culture, but I had already given him an injection of a broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used for wound infections and also given him Metacam for inflammation and pain. He seemed fine, though he was angry about the bandage/homemade cast I put over his entire toe and anchored around ankle and leg to keep it on him. He ate his dinner, preened a little, did his nightly chatter, and after another oral dose of Metacam mixed in some fruit punch flavored Pedialyte, he went to bed.
While it's not directly my fault that this happened, it absolutely is my fault in an indirect way. My female Australian Cattle Dog, Lola, had delivered 8 puppies over Friday night into Saturday morning, I'd been awake with her and the puppies from around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning until I saw Kane's injury on Sunday afternoon. And I had also gone through losing my pet baby duck, Slash, to a cat attack that week, and had to deal with the neighbors, police, and animal control all week. I was tired and just grumpy. And being preoccupied with the puppies all day Saturday and into Sunday I had forgotten to put Kane back into his cage when I ran out Sunday morning.
My birds are always out of their cages whenever I'm home, the only exception to that are my 7 budgies who have a very large flight cage in my living room, and get 3-4 hours out with me every afternoon/evening. Otherwise they stay in their flight cage because not only do I worry about one of them flying to one of the bigger bird's cages and getting hurt, but also because their flight cage is massive and they get to fly around and play all day long with ample room. That being said, whenever I leave the house, even for a 10 minute drive to the convenience store to pick up coffee, I put all of the birds in their cages. And I did this Sunday morning before leaving to run a few errands...Except I had forgotten to put Kane back in his cage. His cage is the largest of all the individual bird's cages, and it's in my dining room (which is open to my living room and maybe 20-30 feet from my other bird's cages in the living room). So somehow I forgot to put him in his cage. I was only gone for an hour tops, I don't think it was even that long, but it was long enough.
Judging by the mass amount of dry blood that was dripped all the way down the left side of his cage, at the very front of the left side, and that pooled on the floor below this area, my guess is that Kane got his foot stuck in his cage bars while climbing on the outside of it. His cage is a large dome-top cage, and it seems that he got his foot stuck between the cage bars where the dome top meets the top front of the cage. The space between the bars at that point where the two pieces meet actually narrows the further down they go. My guess is that he was climbing on the dometop, slid down the bars on the side of the dometop in order to get to the flat side bars (I say this because I've seen him slide down both sides of the rounded dome top bars before), and unfortunately he slid down with his foot inside the space that narrows...
He got stuck, I wasn't home to help him, and he chewed the end of his own toe off to free himself.
This is warning to people about not only leaving your birds out of their cages unsupervised, but also a warning about dome top cages. Kane loves his cage, as do I. I actually have 2 of them, Kane's, which is white, and my Quaker Parrot's, which is nickel. They are both the same cage, made by YML, and I was thrilled when I found them on sale. Historically I've always purchased cages made by either Prevue Hendryx or Hagen/Vision, and all of my other current cages, including the budgies large flight cage, are one of theses two brands. I absolutely love the Hagen/Vision cages with the clear, plastic bottoms that just pop off, I have 3 of the L02 model, which is the large size that is double tall, for my Green Cheek Conure, my cockatiel, and one I'm not using right now but was my Quaker Parrot's cage until I went shopping for a larger cage right before I brought home my Senegal parrot. The retail on these YML dome top cages was $250 and I got 2 open box floor models for $90 a piece. That's why I bought 2 of them, I thought at that price my Quaker parrot could get a little larger cage too, not that he needed one, the large/double tall Vision cage is large enough for even the Senegal, but I just wanted to try a larger, different cage. My bad.
I don't think this is a YML brand problem, I think it's a dome top cage problem. The cage itself got top reviews on every site I found it on, from Amazon to eBay to PetSmart to Chewy. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time looking at other dome top cages that looked very similar to mine but that were made by other manufacturers, and from looking at a lot of them they all go together the same way as mine, with a narrowing bar space between where the dome top meets the top front piece on both sides. So if your bird happens to be climbing on the outside of their cage and just happens to be on the arched dome top piece, has their foot in that particular bar space where the top meets the front, and they slide down the top, they can very easily get their foot stuck. I'm absolutely horrified that Kane chewed off the end of his own toe. My CAV agreed with me when he saw him, and after I emailed him photos of the cage and what I was talking about along with the blood evidence, he totally agreed that it's a very bad design and is dangerous.
I'm going to add photos of what I'm talking about when I get home, I put them on my laptop when I emailed them to my CAV, and I want everyone to know what I'm talking about as a warning. Kane will be fine, but he'll be missing half a toe for the rest of his life, and that's in addition to the fact that he chewed off his own toe...I don't want anyone to feel as guilty as I do right now.
Anyway, just a heads up to everyone, about both the dome top cages and why you should not leave your bird out of it's cage if you're not home. I've seen people write about leaving their bird out of it's cage all day long, every day, even when they are at work, and they've asked why not just let them live outside of their cage full-time...Well, here's why."]
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
And I wasn't home to help him. I forget to put him back in his cage before running errands for an hour. Just an hour. I'm so thankful he didn't bleed to death, when you see the photos of the amount of blood he lost you'll wonder how he didn't die, as I do. I can say I had a horrible week, I was exhausted, stressed out, dealing with the death of my baby duck and the police and neighbors involved, the birth of my dog's 8 puppies at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and the death of the runt last night, my dad's heart attack and stent surgery, etc., but the bottom line is I messed up...
["Just to update this post, Kane is OK, but his injury was much, much worse than I initially thought that it was, and I wanted to put this up as a warning to other bird owners, or perhaps a reminder to us all that you absolutely cannot become complacent in supervising your birds when they're out of their cages, even if you've had them for years, they are well trained, and if they have never once had an accident or gotten themselves into trouble before. Stuff happens. Period.
After I first came home and noticed that Kane had blood all over his cage, and then saw that he had somehow ripped the toenail off of the toe that points backwards on his left foot, I posted on here immediately because as much experience as I have with birds and bird health/medicine in general, I had never had a bird of my own or seen a bird at the rescue who ripped a toenail completely out, and I wanted some advice. After I posted here I soaked his foot in a solution of warm, sterile saline and Hibiclens, which didn't seem to phase him at all. I thought the warm saline or the Hibiclens would sting badly and I was expecting him to scream, but he just stood there in the solution while I gently wiped away the huge clot of dry blood that had (fortunately) formed over what I thought was the end of his toe/nail bed...What I saw when the blood cleared and I could finally see his toe scared me to death. The entire end of his toe was chewed off! It was pretty obvious from the way the end of his toe was mangled, skin hanging with uneven edges and the exposed bone (which was actually much smaller than I thought it would be, I had never seen an exposed bird foot or leg bone before, only open wing wounds with exposed bone) that he had done this himself for some reason. I was horrified and scared to death. I've treated numerous animals, birds, and reptiles (as well as people) that have been seriously injured, but when it's your own loved one it's just different. Of course my avian vet wasn't in, it happened on Sunday, and the avian vet at the 24 hour animal hospital was not on call this weekend, so I had to wait until the next day. I called the hospital anyway, told them what the injury had turned out to be, and told them what I had done to treat it. They agreed that they could do nothing more to help him than I had already done, except for a culture, but I had already given him an injection of a broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used for wound infections and also given him Metacam for inflammation and pain. He seemed fine, though he was angry about the bandage/homemade cast I put over his entire toe and anchored around ankle and leg to keep it on him. He ate his dinner, preened a little, did his nightly chatter, and after another oral dose of Metacam mixed in some fruit punch flavored Pedialyte, he went to bed.
While it's not directly my fault that this happened, it absolutely is my fault in an indirect way. My female Australian Cattle Dog, Lola, had delivered 8 puppies over Friday night into Saturday morning, I'd been awake with her and the puppies from around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning until I saw Kane's injury on Sunday afternoon. And I had also gone through losing my pet baby duck, Slash, to a cat attack that week, and had to deal with the neighbors, police, and animal control all week. I was tired and just grumpy. And being preoccupied with the puppies all day Saturday and into Sunday I had forgotten to put Kane back into his cage when I ran out Sunday morning.
My birds are always out of their cages whenever I'm home, the only exception to that are my 7 budgies who have a very large flight cage in my living room, and get 3-4 hours out with me every afternoon/evening. Otherwise they stay in their flight cage because not only do I worry about one of them flying to one of the bigger bird's cages and getting hurt, but also because their flight cage is massive and they get to fly around and play all day long with ample room. That being said, whenever I leave the house, even for a 10 minute drive to the convenience store to pick up coffee, I put all of the birds in their cages. And I did this Sunday morning before leaving to run a few errands...Except I had forgotten to put Kane back in his cage. His cage is the largest of all the individual bird's cages, and it's in my dining room (which is open to my living room and maybe 20-30 feet from my other bird's cages in the living room). So somehow I forgot to put him in his cage. I was only gone for an hour tops, I don't think it was even that long, but it was long enough.
Judging by the mass amount of dry blood that was dripped all the way down the left side of his cage, at the very front of the left side, and that pooled on the floor below this area, my guess is that Kane got his foot stuck in his cage bars while climbing on the outside of it. His cage is a large dome-top cage, and it seems that he got his foot stuck between the cage bars where the dome top meets the top front of the cage. The space between the bars at that point where the two pieces meet actually narrows the further down they go. My guess is that he was climbing on the dometop, slid down the bars on the side of the dometop in order to get to the flat side bars (I say this because I've seen him slide down both sides of the rounded dome top bars before), and unfortunately he slid down with his foot inside the space that narrows...
He got stuck, I wasn't home to help him, and he chewed the end of his own toe off to free himself.
This is warning to people about not only leaving your birds out of their cages unsupervised, but also a warning about dome top cages. Kane loves his cage, as do I. I actually have 2 of them, Kane's, which is white, and my Quaker Parrot's, which is nickel. They are both the same cage, made by YML, and I was thrilled when I found them on sale. Historically I've always purchased cages made by either Prevue Hendryx or Hagen/Vision, and all of my other current cages, including the budgies large flight cage, are one of theses two brands. I absolutely love the Hagen/Vision cages with the clear, plastic bottoms that just pop off, I have 3 of the L02 model, which is the large size that is double tall, for my Green Cheek Conure, my cockatiel, and one I'm not using right now but was my Quaker Parrot's cage until I went shopping for a larger cage right before I brought home my Senegal parrot. The retail on these YML dome top cages was $250 and I got 2 open box floor models for $90 a piece. That's why I bought 2 of them, I thought at that price my Quaker parrot could get a little larger cage too, not that he needed one, the large/double tall Vision cage is large enough for even the Senegal, but I just wanted to try a larger, different cage. My bad.
I don't think this is a YML brand problem, I think it's a dome top cage problem. The cage itself got top reviews on every site I found it on, from Amazon to eBay to PetSmart to Chewy. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time looking at other dome top cages that looked very similar to mine but that were made by other manufacturers, and from looking at a lot of them they all go together the same way as mine, with a narrowing bar space between where the dome top meets the top front piece on both sides. So if your bird happens to be climbing on the outside of their cage and just happens to be on the arched dome top piece, has their foot in that particular bar space where the top meets the front, and they slide down the top, they can very easily get their foot stuck. I'm absolutely horrified that Kane chewed off the end of his own toe. My CAV agreed with me when he saw him, and after I emailed him photos of the cage and what I was talking about along with the blood evidence, he totally agreed that it's a very bad design and is dangerous.
I'm going to add photos of what I'm talking about when I get home, I put them on my laptop when I emailed them to my CAV, and I want everyone to know what I'm talking about as a warning. Kane will be fine, but he'll be missing half a toe for the rest of his life, and that's in addition to the fact that he chewed off his own toe...I don't want anyone to feel as guilty as I do right now.
Anyway, just a heads up to everyone, about both the dome top cages and why you should not leave your bird out of it's cage if you're not home. I've seen people write about leaving their bird out of it's cage all day long, every day, even when they are at work, and they've asked why not just let them live outside of their cage full-time...Well, here's why."]
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
