Ruptured air sac not healing

[MagpieSquares]

I’ve been trying to get advice for this though my usual alleys but I’m not getting the information that I need so I’m trying a parrot forum instead. Birds are birds right?

I have a baby chicken with a ruptured air sac which I have been treating for WEEKS now and it just isn’t healing. We went to a vet first thing and she said to just drain the air a few times and it should heal within a week or so. It’s not healed.
The chick was two weeks old when we noticed she was inflating and she’s four weeks today. She hasn’t showed any signs of struggle in any way apart from her side becoming grossly inflated. She eats, she drinks, she poops, and she crawls all over her foster mom, she’s very happy and healthy apart from being a tiny balloon.

This is a picture from when we first noticed it.

We’ve been trying different things to keep the inflation down. Lately she’s been wearing a little vet wrap bodysuit since I discovered that the swelling would slowly go down as she breathes as long as there’s pressure on it.

Picture of her at 3.5 weeks in her first wrap. You can see some swelling on her leg starting.

Picture of baby at four weeks in her wrap.
I’ve had to slowly add to the wrap as well, when I restricted the inflation around the torso it just started stretching the skin in other places like her leg and bum. I have noticed when I change her wrappings, the skin that was compressed is not as stretched out but that’s about the only improvement we’ve seen so far.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this? I’m running out of ideas and I’m seriously worried that as soon as she starts to actually decline, she might crash and we could loose her.

 

[zERo]

I’ve been trying to get advice for this though my usual alleys but I’m not getting the information that I need so I’m trying a parrot forum instead. Birds are birds right?

I have a baby chicken with a ruptured air sac which I have been treating for WEEKS now and it just isn’t healing. We went to a vet first thing and she said to just drain the air a few times and it should heal within a week or so. It’s not healed.
The chick was two weeks old when we noticed she was inflating and she’s four weeks today. She hasn’t showed any signs of struggle in any way apart from her side becoming grossly inflated. She eats, she drinks, she poops, and she crawls all over her foster mom, she’s very happy and healthy apart from being a tiny balloon.
View attachment 50154
This is a picture from when we first noticed it.

We’ve been trying different things to keep the inflation down. Lately she’s been wearing a little vet wrap bodysuit since I discovered that the swelling would slowly go down as she breathes as long as there’s pressure on it.
View attachment 50157
Picture of her at 3.5 weeks in her first wrap. You can see some swelling on her leg starting.
View attachment 50155
Picture of baby at four weeks in her wrap.
I’ve had to slowly add to the wrap as well, when I restricted the inflation around the torso it just started stretching the skin in other places like her leg and bum. I have noticed when I change her wrappings, the skin that was compressed is not as stretched out but that’s about the only improvement we’ve seen so far.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this? I’m running out of ideas and I’m seriously worried that as soon as she starts to actually decline, she might crash and we could loose her.
View attachment 50158

How terrible! She’s such a pretty little chickie!

I don’t have any experience with this sort of problem.
Hopefully someone else who has will respond.
Are you going to take her back to the vet? Maybe they have something else they can do.

 

[MagpieSquares]

How terrible! She’s such a pretty little chickie!

I don’t have any experience with this sort of problem.
Hopefully someone else who has will respond.
Are you going to take her back to the vet? Maybe they have something else they can do.

I thankfully have the vet’s number and have been keeping her updated but she’s not familiar with tears like this that just won’t heal. She said that we could possibly put a stent in but she’s a farm vet so a baby chick is too small for her to really operate on and she’d need to refer me to a specialist (most likely an exotic avian vet), I know where she’d likely send us and they’re excellent, I take my parakeets to them, but it would mean antibiotics and a hole in her side. She’s so young, I really want to avoid any surgery or antibiotics.

 

[zERo]

I thankfully have the vet’s number and have been keeping her updated but she’s not familiar with tears like this that just won’t heal. She said that we could possibly put a stent in but she’s a farm vet so a baby chick is too small for her to really operate on and she’d need to refer me to a specialist (most likely an exotic avian vet), I know where she’d likely send us and they’re excellent, I take my parakeets to them, but it would mean antibiotics and a hole in her side. She’s so young, I really want to avoid any surgery or antibiotics.

I wish I could be of more help.
Hopefully you and the vet are able to come up with a way to help your little chicken.
Keep us updated!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I thankfully have the vet’s number and have been keeping her updated but she’s not familiar with tears like this that just won’t heal. She said that we could possibly put a stent in but she’s a farm vet so a baby chick is too small for her to really operate on and she’d need to refer me to a specialist (most likely an exotic avian vet), I know where she’d likely send us and they’re excellent, I take my parakeets to them, but it would mean antibiotics and a hole in her side. She’s so young, I really want to avoid any surgery or antibiotics.

How does a chickie (or any bird) rupture an air sac?

 

[MagpieSquares]

How does a chickie (or any bird) rupture an air sac?

It’s as easy as getting bumped too hard in just the right spot for baby birds, from what I’ve heard at least. It’s a lot more serious if it happens to an adult

 

[MagpieSquares]

I wish I could be of more help.
Hopefully you and the vet are able to come up with a way to help your little chicken.
Keep us updated!

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
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That is one lucky chickie to have you take such good care of her!

 

[zERo]

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
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This is wonderful news!
The second picture of her with the other chicken is so cute!
Is that her mom?

 

[Mina_68a]

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
View attachment 50663

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
View attachment 50663View attachment 50664

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
View attachment 50663View attachment 50664

It looks like I was on the right track all along. It took much longer than it was supposed to but we got there and she’s been better for about a week with no signs of relapse.
We made a pretty elaborate wrap that covered the whole side that was inflated as well as the leg on that side and the bum while being careful not to cover the vent. We changed the wrap every 3-4 days and made sure to drain the air before wrapping her. Eventually when we went to change her wrap, she wasn’t inflated anymore, not even loose skin where she had been. We kept her wrapped for a few more days just to be safe and now she runs (and flies!) free from her purple restraints!
View attachment 50663View attachment 50664

hello can you help me please? my cockatiel has this problem and I tried a lot of ways and veterinarians couldn't help us, can you explain what did you do for your bird with details? Is that purple thing fiberglass plaster? did you use anything under it?

View attachment 50664

Hello my cockatiel has this problem and i tried a lot of ways and veterinarians couldn't help us can you please explain me what did you exactly do for your bird?

 

[SailBoat]

Congratulations on your success as air sack injuries are so commonly life threading.
Your intervention and ongoing efforts saved your chick!

The ever increasing number of homes that have chickens, as pets, have increased the need for life care of chickens as they are showing up a Farm Vet and Exotic Vet Clinics.