Toe Tapping in Indian Ringneck

rosiepaco

Member
Mar 24, 2022
10
27
Parrots
2 Indian Ringnecks
Hi gang, Iā€™m rly worried about my ringneck Rosie. She has been what looks to me like toe tapping since Friday and has been biting her leg as a result.
I took her to the vet two days ago and they checked her for mites and said they couldnā€™t see any but put a spot treatment on her anyway and have me a cream for her leg wounds.
From what Iā€™ve researched Iā€™ve found this toe tapping is mostly seen in eclectus parrots and is usually because of their diet and can be fixed if changed.
The only recent addition, recent being 3 weeks now, to her diet was a seed mix so Iā€™ve taken her off that and am now only feeding her fresh veggies and fruit in the morning and afternoon and then Harrisonā€™s adult lifetime pellets in the evening. I took her off the seeds a couple days ago and Iā€™m not sure, if it is a result of diet, when Iā€™m supposed to be seeing a change. Is there anything else it could be?
My thought is that she her tapping is involuntary and she is chewing her foot because she doesnā€™t know whatā€™s going on with it. Iā€™ve noticed itā€™s a lot more severe at night, literally looks like happy feet. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you<33 Iā€™ve attached a video too!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7785.MOV
    1.7 MB

BirdyBee

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2022
3,749
Media
34
Albums
6
8,080
South Africa
Parrots
Current birds:
John
Snowy
Pippen

Past birds:
Grumpy
Sunny
Griffen
Jeff
Gertjie
I can't give advice on the toe-tapping since I have little knowledge on that.

A diet change can take anywhere from weeks, months, to even years(in very severe cases). Her diet looks quite healthy..
 

LaManuka

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Aug 29, 2018
25,555
Media
26
Albums
1
33,188
Queensland, Australia
Parrots
Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Hi rosiepaco, welcome to the Forums, but I'm sorry for the rather distressing circumstances that you are going through with your Rosie!

Dietary change or insufficiency could be a contributing factor to the behaviour that you are observing, but as none of us here are avian vets it is very difficult to ascertain exactly what may be causing it. I wonder if your vet was an avian specialist? From your description it would appear that their examination of Rosie could have gone into a little more depth, particularly if she is biting her legs to the point of damaging them, although that may just be because not all details of the exam were included in your post. In any event, you may wish to consider taking her to an avian specialist, or seeking a second opinion from a different avian vet under the circumstances. The following resource should hopefully help you to locate an avian specialist near you ...


Thank you for reaching out for help for Rosie, and I hope that she makes a full and swift recovery! šŸ™
 
OP
R

rosiepaco

Member
Mar 24, 2022
10
27
Parrots
2 Indian Ringnecks
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
Hi rosiepaco, welcome to the Forums, but I'm sorry for the rather distressing circumstances that you are going through with your Rosie!

Dietary change or insufficiency could be a contributing factor to the behaviour that you are observing, but as none of us here are avian vets it is very difficult to ascertain exactly what may be causing it. I wonder if your vet was an avian specialist? From your description it would appear that their examination of Rosie could have gone into a little more depth, particularly if she is biting her legs to the point of damaging them, although that may just be because not all details of the exam were included in your post. In any event, you may wish to consider taking her to an avian specialist, or seeking a second opinion from a different avian vet under the circumstances. The following resource should hopefully help you to locate an avian specialist near you ...


Thank you for reaching out for help for Rosie, and I hope that she makes a full and swift recovery! šŸ™
Hi,
I did take Rosie to an avian specialist but when I mentioned the toe tapping he didnā€™t seem to think it was an issue and just said to come back if the biting continues. I also wasnā€™t allowed in the examination room as this vet still follows covid safety guidelines. But yes I will probably seek a second opinion, thank you!:)
 

LaManuka

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Aug 29, 2018
25,555
Media
26
Albums
1
33,188
Queensland, Australia
Parrots
Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Hi,
I did take Rosie to an avian specialist but when I mentioned the toe tapping he didnā€™t seem to think it was an issue and just said to come back if the biting continues. I also wasnā€™t allowed in the examination room as this vet still follows covid safety guidelines. But yes I will probably seek a second opinion, thank you!:)
Oh yes that's awfully frustrating! My avian vet has only very recently gone back to allowing human clients into his clinic so I understand how difficult it makes things not to be able to be in the room while the exam is being carried out.

In the meantime I hope that some others of our membership may be able to weigh in with some more insights for you. It must be a very distressing thing to see Rosie injuring herself in this way and I do very much hope that you are able to find an effective treatment for her very soon. :)
 
OP
R

rosiepaco

Member
Mar 24, 2022
10
27
Parrots
2 Indian Ringnecks
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #7
Oh yes that's awfully frustrating! My avian vet has only very recently gone back to allowing human clients into his clinic so I understand how difficult it makes things not to be able to be in the room while the exam is being carried out.

In the meantime I hope that some others of our membership may be able to weigh in with some more insights for you. It must be a very distressing thing to see Rosie injuring herself in this way and I do very much hope that you are able to find an effective treatment for her very soon. :)
Thank you so much <3
 
OP
R

rosiepaco

Member
Mar 24, 2022
10
27
Parrots
2 Indian Ringnecks
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #9
Hi! Iā€™ve been meaning to do a full length update with how we treated Rosie and how she recovered which I will upload soon incase anyone has the same problem. Her foot has been recovered for a month now and she is back to her usual self! :D
We went to another vet who said she had pododermatitis (bumble foot) and the toe tapping was because her feet were sore and hurt to stand on. We were given F10 germicidal ointment and spray which we applied to her leg wounds (which had gotten pretty bad at this point and I wasnā€™t feeling hopeful, will upload pics soon). And also 2 medicines to syringe feed her (1 pain killer and 1 to deal with bacteria) It was hard because at times we saw the wounds getting better but she picked them again and it was back to square 1. We kept going anyway and eventually we saw real progress and she is our happy Rosie again! Unfortunately we did have to catch her with a small blanket every time we had to treat her, as she would never let us handle her otherwise, which made her resent us for a while but she has since warmed up to us again. Again I will be doing a full length post of how we treated her because it will be helpful to someone as bumblefoot is pretty common!
 
OP
R

rosiepaco

Member
Mar 24, 2022
10
27
Parrots
2 Indian Ringnecks
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #10
How I Treated my Indian Ringneck Parrot's Pododermatitis (Bumble foot).

I just want to say I am not an expert on the topic! Just talking about my experience and how I treated my parrot.

Hi this is long overdue! This is how we treated my parrot Rosie's bumble foot. I hope this helps anyone who is dealing with bumble foot too. This is a link that explains what bumble foot is.

First symptoms I noticed:

tapping and shaking feet and biting her feet. Our vet told us she was tapping due to her feet being sore and it hurt to put pressure on them. She was biting at her sores I guess the same way we might pick a scab/wound. It was hard to prevent her from doing this. If you can you could wrap a bandage around the wound but Rosie kept taking hers off so we stopped trying that.

Treatments:
I will attach photos of everything. From our vet we were given f10 germicidal barrier ointment and f10 wound spray. Antibiotics given were Baytril to deal with the staphylococcus bacteria that Rosie was tested for. Also given Metacam as a pain killer and to help with inflammation. All treatments were twice a day, morning and evening.

How we treated her:
Rosie is a friendly parrot. She enjoys company but does not like to be held or touched. So I couldn't hold her to treat her feet or give her medicine so unfortunately we had to hold her against her will but for her own good. I was very hesitant to do this because I knew she would resent us for a while but it's more important that she's treated than whether she likes us or not. If your parrot doesn't mind being handled this will be a lot easier!
We got her in her cage and then slowly entered her cage with a blanket and gently took her and wrapped her round. We did have to chase her with the blanket a bit which is stressful but honestly we couldn't have treated her any other way. My dad held her while I treated her feet. First we clean the wounds with salt water. I also bought saline wipes for a better clean around the wounds. Then I sprayed the wounds with the f10 and applied the f10 ointment directly onto the wounds.
We syringe fed her medicine. We always put her back in the cage after this to let her settle and so we can give her a treat before letting her out.

We did this everyday for 3weeks to a month. Yes it is awful but Rosie doesn't hate us anymore.

Another thing is that Rosie had a ring around her foot with an identification number. Our vet cut it off, it was uncomfortable due to the swelling.

Other things to help with healing:

I wrapped all the perches with vet wrap. Vet wrap is super easy as it sticks to itself and is good padding. I'd replace the vet wrap as needed. She slept on a rope swing which is soft anyway but I did wrap it anyway for a cleaner surface. I bought f10 disinfectant spray to disinfect the cage/perches as needed. She also likes to stand by the window so I put a rope perch there as it's softer than sitting on the wooden sill.

Spot cleaning the cage everyday and a deep clean at least once a week. making sure there isnā€™t any poo on perches. The staph bacteria can be found in poo so itā€™s really important their area is clean and disinfected with a bird safe disinfectant like F10.

Have perches of varying sizes, this is important to exercise the feet and so pressure isn't always in the same place on their feet. Avoid sanded/rough perches. I am hopefully going to be buying a wider cage so I can fit in more perches of various sizes. I underestimated how important this was.

Good diet is always important! Fresh veggies and some fruit everyday and good quality pellets. Harrison's Lifetime Pellets are organic and approved by vets. I've now started leaving a couple tablespoons out all day as appose to just the evening and my parrots will graze on them. Remember seeds are not a parrot's main diet and shouldn't be fed as a meal.

I'm from the UK. Northern Parrots is an excellent website and where I buy all my perches, pellets and seeds (tidy mix).

Honestly I was reminded to make this post because Rosie has got bumble foot again after having recovered for a couple months. But now I have experience and I hope it shouldn't get to the point it was before as we are treating her foot early (still have the f10 stuff). She seems okay, still singing and flying but I will monitor her and if needed will contact my vet to pick up the same antibiotics as before. I am going to make changes to her cage and get more perches, admittedly I have few.

And parrots are different. I have another ringneck, Paco who hasn't had bumble foot before despite him being in the exact same environment as Rosie.

seriously if you are considering getting parrots please take into account how expensive they are and how stressful it can be to deal with things like this for both you and the bird. This is the case with any pet but omg are parrots way more complicated than my bunnies!

Also found out Rosie is actually a boy! Her ring came in a little after she turned two! I'm still going to say her cause I'm so used to that and she doesn't care lol.

Please let me know if this has helped you or if you have any questions. Again not an expert just sharing my experience. :)

Photos attached are:
- sterile wipes
- Rosie in the blanket
- Rosie's foot wounds. I believe the first pic is from when it was quite bad and then following pics are her foot recovering.
- f10 ointment and spray
 

Attachments

  • 10a7e4cf-06da-49e6-9b1e-e47f0809bdc9.JPG
    10a7e4cf-06da-49e6-9b1e-e47f0809bdc9.JPG
    163.1 KB · Views: 58
  • 91dab7c5-85c7-46a0-9c57-22f005b7e158.JPG
    91dab7c5-85c7-46a0-9c57-22f005b7e158.JPG
    74.5 KB · Views: 67
  • 7183bda9-793c-40bf-bf38-988c099bccfc.JPG
    7183bda9-793c-40bf-bf38-988c099bccfc.JPG
    97.9 KB · Views: 68
  • b9d301f3-8744-47d4-97bc-073c4912b451.JPG
    b9d301f3-8744-47d4-97bc-073c4912b451.JPG
    116.9 KB · Views: 70
  • b110dcd7-e87e-4087-a7f3-e7c90ef356e2.JPG
    b110dcd7-e87e-4087-a7f3-e7c90ef356e2.JPG
    119.3 KB · Views: 63
  • IMG-9900.PNG
    IMG-9900.PNG
    339.4 KB · Views: 65
  • IMG-9901.PNG
    IMG-9901.PNG
    394.1 KB · Views: 59
Last edited:

Cottonoid

Supporting Member
Parrot of the Month šŸ†
Feb 20, 2022
3,131
10,896
Your write up was well worth the wait! Thank you for taking the time and for the photos!
 

Most Reactions

Latest posts

Top