Possible wing injury? Very scared!

SafamirzašŸ¤

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Hello šŸ‘‹ have a male cockatiel named Kiko.

I posted a while back about Kiko not being well. We went to the vet and were given an antibiotic to be used for 10 days. Luckily, kiko started to feel a lot better around 5 days into the medicine and after 10 days he was acting like himself; eating, drinking, and talking. However, ever since we went to the vet, Kiko is not flying. Everytime he opens his wing he is only able to open it half way and after that he screams and stops. I was unable to restrain him to examine his wing myself so I had my moms friend who knows a lot about birds to come and do the job. She felt his wing and couldnā€™t feel any dislocation or broken bone. She did however say that she can see some overlapping of feathers in his wing. She said that he is molting and there might be alot of overlapping of small feathers we canā€™t see which is causing him discomfort.

I called the vet as well and I was told that they can give him an X-ray but they canā€™t do anything about fractures. What should I do? I have been told by a lot of people to let him rest and heal by himself. I also donā€™t know HOW he did this to himself because I have not seen him hit anything or crash that would injure his wing. His cage is also not big enough for an injury to be caused. Should I let him be and see what happens? Because his behaviour is very normal itā€™s just that he looks in discomfort with his wing and wonā€™t fly.

Thanks to anyone who replies šŸ’•
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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Hello šŸ‘‹ have a male cockatiel named Kiko.

I posted a while back about Kiko not being well. We went to the vet and were given an antibiotic to be used for 10 days. Luckily, kiko started to feel a lot better around 5 days into the medicine and after 10 days he was acting like himself; eating, drinking, and talking. However, ever since we went to the vet, Kiko is not flying. Everytime he opens his wing he is only able to open it half way and after that he screams and stops. I was unable to restrain him to examine his wing myself so I had my moms friend who knows a lot about birds to come and do the job. She felt his wing and couldnā€™t feel any dislocation or broken bone. She did however say that she can see some overlapping of feathers in his wing. She said that he is molting and there might be alot of overlapping of small feathers we canā€™t see which is causing him discomfort.

I called the vet as well and I was told that they can give him an X-ray but they canā€™t do anything about fractures. What should I do? I have been told by a lot of people to let him rest and heal by himself. I also donā€™t know HOW he did this to himself because I have not seen him hit anything or crash that would injure his wing. His cage is also not big enough for an injury to be caused. Should I let him be and see what happens? Because his behaviour is very normal itā€™s just that he looks in discomfort with his wing and wonā€™t fly.

Thanks to anyone who replies šŸ’•
I also wanted to say this wing is his troubled wing. He is ALWAYS having issues with it and I think it might be a birth defect or something because he was constantly breaking blood feathers in that one wing (doesnā€™t anymore :))
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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I also wanted to say this wing is his troubled wing. He is ALWAYS having issues with it and I think it might be a birth defect or something because he was constantly breaking blood feathers in that one wing (doesnā€™t anymore :))
Also, his wing isnā€™t completely dropped but he isnā€™t securing it close to his body like the other one.
 

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Itā€™s possible he has some uncomfortable feathers but Iā€™m not sure that would make him stop flying.
Maybe an x-ray would be the best thing?
If he had an X-ray it would rule out a fracture or anything similar, though, I feel if he had a fracture he wouldnā€™t be able to hold his wing normally. Iā€™ve never experienced this before.
How long has he been acting like his wing hurts?
 

DonnaBudgie

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Hello šŸ‘‹ have a male cockatiel named Kiko.

I posted a while back about Kiko not being well. We went to the vet and were given an antibiotic to be used for 10 days. Luckily, kiko started to feel a lot better around 5 days into the medicine and after 10 days he was acting like himself; eating, drinking, and talking. However, ever since we went to the vet, Kiko is not flying. Everytime he opens his wing he is only able to open it half way and after that he screams and stops. I was unable to restrain him to examine his wing myself so I had my moms friend who knows a lot about birds to come and do the job. She felt his wing and couldnā€™t feel any dislocation or broken bone. She did however say that she can see some overlapping of feathers in his wing. She said that he is molting and there might be alot of overlapping of small feathers we canā€™t see which is causing him discomfort.

I called the vet as well and I was told that they can give him an X-ray but they canā€™t do anything about fractures. What should I do? I have been told by a lot of people to let him rest and heal by himself. I also donā€™t know HOW he did this to himself because I have not seen him hit anything or crash that would injure his wing. His cage is also not big enough for an injury to be caused. Should I let him be and see what happens? Because his behaviour is very normal itā€™s just that he looks in discomfort with his wing and wonā€™t fly.

Thanks to anyone who replies šŸ’•
It may be broken, and he will probably be fine, but may not be able to fly again. You really need to get an x-ray to find out for sure. Maybe he just strained something. I had a budgie, Buddy, sustain a severe wing fracture many years ago. A rat had gotten into his cage at night and scared the heck out of him. I think what happened is he flapped like mad, getting his wing caught on something in the cage breaking a major bone. I heard him flapping and screaming and ran into the room. There was a rat turd inside his cage and a sliding food door was open. Buddy was on his swing with his wing drooping and dripping blood. The bone had actually punctured his skin and was bleeding. I rushed him to an excellent CAV and since a budgie is so small they couldn't do any more than diagnose the fracture by x-ray and stabilize the fracture by taping his wing around his body for several weeks while it healed. I kept him hospitalized for a week so they could medicate him for pain and prevent infection. The fracture healed but Buddy was never able to extend that wing again and obviously could not fly, but he happily lived for seven more years after that so it wasn't a huge tragedy.
I recently had a budgie suffer a broken femur which I was more concerned about than a broken wing because the femur is deep inside a bird's pelvis and supports the bird's body weight. The vet considered her condition to be guarded. After about a month in a padded plexiglass cage with very low perches her fracture healed and she does not appear to be disabled though I still have her perches low in case she falls.
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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Itā€™s possible he has some uncomfortable feathers but Iā€™m not sure that would make him stop flying.
Maybe an x-ray would be the best thing?
If he had an X-ray it would rule out a fracture or anything similar, though, I feel if he had a fracture he wouldnā€™t be able to hold his wing normally. Iā€™ve never experienced this before.
How long has he been acting like his wing hurts?
Iā€™m not sure but itā€™s almost been a month :(
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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Itā€™s possible he has some uncomfortable feathers but Iā€™m not sure that would make him stop flying.
Maybe an x-ray would be the best thing?
If he had an X-ray it would rule out a fracture or anything similar, though, I feel if he had a fracture he wouldnā€™t be able to hold his wing normally. Iā€™ve never experienced this before.
How long has he been acting like his wing hurts?
Itā€™s VERY strange because he is able to stretch his wing almost all the way and we cannot see or feel anything broken or dislocated
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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It may be broken, and he will probably be fine, but may not be able to fly again. You really need to get an x-ray to find out for sure. Maybe he just strained something. I had a budgie, Buddy, sustain a severe wing fracture many years ago. A rat had gotten into his cage at night and scared the heck out of him. I think what happened is he flapped like mad, getting his wing caught on something in the cage breaking a major bone. I heard him flapping and screaming and ran into the room. There was a rat turd inside his cage and a sliding food door was open. Buddy was on his swing with his wing drooping and dripping blood. The bone had actually punctured his skin and was bleeding. I rushed him to an excellent CAV and since a budgie is so small they couldn't do any more than diagnose the fracture by x-ray and stabilize the fracture by taping his wing around his body for several weeks while it healed. I kept him hospitalized for a week so they could medicate him for pain and prevent infection. The fracture healed but Buddy was never able to extend that wing again and obviously could not fly, but he happily lived for seven more years after that so it wasn't a huge tragedy.
I recently had a budgie suffer a broken femur which I was more concerned about than a broken wing because the femur is deep inside a bird's pelvis and supports the bird's body weight. The vet considered her condition to be guarded. After about a month in a padded plexiglass cage with very low perches her fracture healed and she does not appear to be disabled though I still have her perches low in case she falls.
I am very very scared if he wont be able to fly again. He had recently started to fly so well after all of his flight feathers came back. I would be heartbroken if he canā€™t fly again :(( what I am confused about the most is HOW this happened. His cage is too small for him to have an injury, I see no blood or wound anywhere, and he is able to stretch his wing to an extent.
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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It may be broken, and he will probably be fine, but may not be able to fly again. You really need to get an x-ray to find out for sure. Maybe he just strained something. I had a budgie, Buddy, sustain a severe wing fracture many years ago. A rat had gotten into his cage at night and scared the heck out of him. I think what happened is he flapped like mad, getting his wing caught on something in the cage breaking a major bone. I heard him flapping and screaming and ran into the room. There was a rat turd inside his cage and a sliding food door was open. Buddy was on his swing with his wing drooping and dripping blood. The bone had actually punctured his skin and was bleeding. I rushed him to an excellent CAV and since a budgie is so small they couldn't do any more than diagnose the fracture by x-ray and stabilize the fracture by taping his wing around his body for several weeks while it healed. I kept him hospitalized for a week so they could medicate him for pain and prevent infection. The fracture healed but Buddy was never able to extend that wing again and obviously could not fly, but he happily lived for seven more years after that so it wasn't a huge tragedy.
I recently had a budgie suffer a broken femur which I was more concerned about than a broken wing because the femur is deep inside a bird's pelvis and supports the bird's body weight. The vet considered her condition to be guarded. After about a month in a padded plexiglass cage with very low perches her fracture healed and she does not appear to be disabled though I still have her perches low in case she falls.
Did your bird ever scream in pain or anger? Kiko lets out a screeching sound every time he stretches his wing, and I donā€™t know if itā€™s because of pain or heā€™s just mad? I also donā€™t know why heā€™s constantly stretching his wing if itā€™s hurting.
 

DonnaBudgie

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Did your bird ever scream in pain or anger? Kiko lets out a screeching sound every time he stretches his wing, and I donā€™t know if itā€™s because of pain or heā€™s just mad? I also donā€™t know why heā€™s constantly stretching his wing if itā€™s hurting.
Yes but only right when and after it happened but it was taped right to his body for over a month. Once it was untaped he didn't seem to have any more pain- he just couldn't extend his wing at all. Your bird's wing is probably sore. How long has he been like this (wing appearing painful)?
 

DonnaBudgie

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Yes but only right when and after it happened but it was taped right to his body for over a month. Once it was untaped he didn't seem to have any more pain- he just couldn't extend his wing at all. Your bird's wing is probably sore. How long has he been like this (wing appearing painful)?
I doubt he's screaming because he's mad.
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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Yes but only right when and after it happened but it was taped right to his body for over a month. Once it was untaped he didn't seem to have any more pain- he just couldn't extend his wing at all. Your bird's wing is probably sore. How long has he been like this (wing appearing painful)?
Itā€™s been almost a month.
 
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SafamirzašŸ¤

SafamirzašŸ¤

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It shouldn't still hurt unless it's some sort of sprain that's slow to heal. You really should get an x-ray so at least you can rule out a fracture. Do you have access to an avian vet?
Yes we do. I think you are right and we should take him for an x-ray. Thanks for your help šŸ˜Š ā¤ļø
 

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