# Possible Hurt Wing, Need Advice



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Joey had one of his worst night frights ever last night. He did quite a bit of crashing and thrashing at the bottom of his cage The only thing he could have possibly hit was his water and food dishes, but even those are a bit higher than he was. Once I got him settled, he seemed fine. This morning before we went to work he seemed fine.

When we got home, he seemed fine but has been making occasional squeaking/squealing noises from time to time. He seems to favor his right wing just a bit, but has been preening a lot (he is molting), has done his eagle wings several times, and made other movements that make it look like there is no way it could be broken. 


He hasn't flown, but that isn't unusual for him. He is more of a walking on the floor and playing with toys on top of his cage kind of guy, with a few flights a week. 

He is preening just fine, eating like his usual piglet self, drinking, his droppings are fine, and he is demanding scritches from tine to time. He hasn't come out of the cage all evening, but he doesn't every day. Some days he is content to play in the doorway. 

I called the nearest avian vet, over an hour away for advice. They didn't seem too concerned, with all the details I gave. When I called they were nearing closing time, but said if I felt the need I could take him to the emergency vet. I will if need be, but it is cold and I'd hate to get him out in it if he is okay, then make him ill from the cold.

Is it possible for them to bruise or strain the wing a bit during all the flapping about? He acted in a similar manner after his first huge night fright, minus the squealing noises. They aren't loud or long, but sort of what we'd do if we bumped a tender area.


----------



## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

Poor baby  he may have knocked some pin feathers a bit out of place. That can make them squeal. Or he could have bruised his wing.

I remember back to when Honey had a bad night fright and ended up with one of her wings caught awkwardly between the cage bars. She screamed and screamed but let me free her wing. She favoured that wing afterward and kept preening it, but soon recovered.

I hope Joey feels better soon.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Poor Honey, when she went through it. I have wondered about pin feathers, because he is currently overloaded with them. When he was demanding scritches the last few days, I worked on some of them on his head and neck.

Thanks, I hope he recovers soon too. He seems to be settled for bed now. I am sure I will sleep lightly tonight, listening for him though.


----------



## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

Aww, poor Joey. Hopefully he's back to normal tomorrow


----------



## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

Yes, it's possible. Last year Roo (my perpetual problem-child with vet things...) had a night fright where she got her wing caught between the cage bars. When she was still acting in pain (fluffed up, not interested in toys or food) after 24 hours, I took her to the vet and found out that she had a really nasty bruise and possibly some torn ligaments. The vet put her on metacam, and I actually ended up having to crop feed her because she's very sensitive to stress and will stop eating when anything is wrong. So it certainly is possible to have a wing injury from a night fright.

But, there's basically nothing to be done besides supportive care and time. If Joey is eating and acting relatively normal, then I don't think I'd be too concerned. If it seems like the pain is really bothering him, you might see if the avian vet is willing to consult with a local general vet to get some Metacam prescribed. I hope he feels better soon.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

Oh, Joey, what happened to you?

Maybe you can add some warmth to his cage area (safely) to help him mend - I've found that upping the temperature somewhat seems to help birds who are under the weather.

It's not always so easy to keep temps up around a bird's cage this time of year in the US Midwest where you are, or here in the Northeast, especially overnight when the coldest temps hit, but the added heat seems to help with the healing process of sick/injured birds- especially in Joey's situation if he has some wing issues that have to heal.

The main concern I have with this is to always be mindful of safety and don't do anything that could overheat him or result in fire/electrical overloads. You have to be really careful with supplemental heat sources.

I hope little Joey gets better soon!


----------



## Dislian (Sep 5, 2015)

I would put an eye on him but as you described, he seems fine. Just cuddle him and with time he'll be totally fine!


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Thanks everyone for all the kind words and great advice. We turned the heat up in the living room by a couple degrees to make it a bit warmer in here. (Always a comfortable warmth for him, but added a little extra for a day or two.) He is still favoring the wing a little, but we haven't heard him cry out since being home from work. He sort of did the bird equivalent of a whimper once, but nothing like last night.

He's pooped like a champ today, judging by the paper in his cage, he is still eating like his piglet self, and drinking. He hasn't been out again today, but demanded scritches through the bars the same as last night. 

The vet called today just to check on him and I happened to be on lunch and able to take the call. I found that to be quite awesome, because Joey isn't one of his patients, and he has a busy enough practice he doesn't have to work on getting new patients. I will most definitely keep him in mind when I do need a vet, He spoke to me for a good length of time, asking if I noticed any improvement, what to watch for, etc. That is when you know a vet is in it for the love of animals.


----------



## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

Good vets are so amazing! Mine came in on his day off this week just to see Roo, who had to be hospitalized while I was out of town. I wish I could take him with me when I move for residency this summer.

It sounds like Joey is doing well and you're doing all the right things for him.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

enigma731 said:


> Good vets are so amazing! Mine came in on his day off this week just to see Roo, who had to be hospitalized while I was out of town. I wish I could take him with me when I move for residency this summer.
> 
> It sounds like Joey is doing well and you're doing all the right things for him.


It would be great if you could take him with you.  I am amazed at the difference between last night and today. He seemed better this morning but I was still wishing I didn't have to go to work and leave him. I have the feeling I will actually sleep tonight.


----------



## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

Yes, they heal amazingly quickly! Benefit of that super high metabolism.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

And now he is sitting on top of his cage watching tv. He came out a bit ago, did a bit of walking around, and moonwalking before settling in to watch some tv. Cracks me up, but he walks backward when he is on top of the cage, and now when I ask "are you going to moonwalk for me?" he will walk backward. 

The room is decently lit by lamp light, but pictures look a bit dark.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

Glad he is doing better!

Joey looks like me (except I don't have the crest) - he's glued to the tv, no doubt monitoring reports on the blizzard that's currently in progress to your east over here.  (You are lucky to be missing out on it in Indiana!)

While I have no place to bring Percy if there's a power failure from the storm, we would have to stay but I do have a small generator to keep the heat going and run a light bulb or two. Hope it doesn't come to that though.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Hope it doesn't come to that either. Much as I love (and I do mean _love_ snow), I am not upset about missing this one. Mom and dad are about an hour and a half south /slightly east of us, about 25 miles north the Kentucky border, and they got about 4 - 6 inches. We didn't get any snow yesterday.

I suppose you could get out the mousse, hair glue or whatever styling goop you wish, and design yourself a crest.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

TamaMoo said:


> Hope it doesn't come to that either. Much as I love (and I do mean _love_ snow), I am not upset about missing this one. Mom and dad are about an hour and a half south /slightly east of us, about 25 miles north the Kentucky border, and they got about 4 - 6 inches. We didn't get any snow yesterday.
> 
> I suppose you could get out the mousse, hair glue or whatever styling goop you wish, and design yourself a crest.


Lol - yeah that would just about do me in - now if they tossed me in an aviary and threw away the key, so to speak, I'd be happy - but it probably wouldn't be an aviary they'd toss me into 

I already have Percy's pic all over the place, especially on my cellphone, and get plenty of interesting reactions from people along the way. With my love of cockatiels and talk about how interestng and smart they are I'm not really surprised. Always funny to get ones that look at me with that "now let's just back away slowly and don't make any sudden movements to upset the bird nut" :rofl:


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Some people have Mohawks, why not a crest?  

Bird nut. Yep. People will talk about cats and dogs for hours on end, but mention having a bird, and they want to know why you'd want a bird in your house. You must be crazy. Birds aren't real pets.... So then you explain the talking, singing and intelligence and people seem a bit more politely interested. 

I'm quite content with being a bird nut who posts millions of bird pics on FB and Instagram and has a phone clogged with bird pics.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

Joey had a bit of a fly just a bit ago. I think it is safe to say he is going to be fine. Phew! He still favored the wing a tiny bit this morning, but by this afternoon he seemed to have forgotten about it.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

TamaMoo said:


> Some people have Mohawks, why not a crest?
> 
> Bird nut. Yep. People will talk about cats and dogs for hours on end, but mention having a bird, and they want to know why you'd want a bird in your house. You must be crazy. Birds aren't real pets.... So then you explain the talking, singing and intelligence and people seem a bit more politely interested.
> 
> I'm quite content with being a bird nut who posts millions of bird pics on FB and Instagram and has a phone clogged with bird pics.


Some seem to think your interest in a bird (especially the little ones) is about as sensible as having a cactus you think is your friend  But they do usually take notice when you talk about birds' intelligence, attachment to people, etc.- at least, as you say, they may be politely attentive even for a moment. Reactions are amusing.

I'm glad Joey is doing better - any ideas on cutting his night fright episodes? I usually increase room lighting to deal with this when it's a problem. So far that's worked for me - and the birds sleep just fine and seem calmer since the light lets them see that nothing's creeping up on them.

As for our storm - we did get a couple of feet of snow (a lot for us considering weather here is moderated by the ocean) and there were high winds but the power (and therefore the heat) remained on the whole time. This was our first snow of the season so there was no easing into it this winter.


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

I agree, reactions are usually very amusing.  

He doesn't have many night frights at all, and they are usually caused by a loud noise in the night. The first one was when the shampoo caddy (suction cupped to the shower wall) fell. This last one was caused by our London Underground map poster (55in by 39in) coming loose from the wall. We had it on the living room wall, about 4 feet from his cage. It was rather securely held by poster putty, but decided it didn't want to be on the wall anymore. It is down now, and will stay down until we find a better way of hanging it. 

He flew more yesterday than he has in ages. I'd say he is mended. 

I've seen some coverage of the snow in your area. Impressive amounts. Glad you kept your electricity and heat, That is always the big worry.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

Glad the little boy is back to himself. It's good that he seldom has night frights and the ones you mentioned are accidental. If he's in his cage and one of those 'triggers' happened, he'd probably thrash just the same - can't be helped.

I really bought the generator for Percy's sake. If the power goes off it could get chilly very quickly for him; it would take an extended outage lasting many hours (not likely to happen) for it to get cold enough in here to pose a frozen pipe threat or to lose food in the refrigerator. With the heat quickly restored and some light near his cage, I'm basically set for the important one (Percy). Also, I've noticed that the power is much more reliable since repairs were made to the power grid after storm Sandy did so much damage in 2012. That's the upside of an otherwise disastrous storm.

Hooray for Joey!


----------



## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

He has had frights and thrashed and crashed during the day a couple times. They were very short lived but were caused by the silly things he is scared of, such as fly swatters. Loves the vacuum, terrified of a fly swatter. That's my boy.  

It is good your grid is more stable. Still, the generator is a good idea.


----------



## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

Percy's the same way - loves the vacuum; and it's a good thing, too, since it needs to be on all the time to clean around his cage 

He also panics when he sees any waving/swatting motion. Definitely a fly swatter would be no good, or a duster, and you can never 'talk with your hands' by waving them around.

When I used to use a vacuum that had a hose attached (as opposed to the standing push type I use now), my previous tiels hated it. I wondered if the hose attachment scared them because of their natural wariness of snakes, since I would guess that some snakes would try to feed on the ground-feeding cockatiels in the wild if they could. Even the sight of that vacuum would scare them without it being on.

The upright push types make a loud roar but that seems to be ok.

I discovered another thing just recently that scares Percy - plaid shirts! A few weeks ago one of his favorite people came into the room wearing a plaid red shirt ('lumberjack' type, if that means anything) and he went into a fright. It happened again with someone wearing a different color shirt of the same pattern. Plaid shirts have now been banned in Percy's presence.

These little birdies are complicated critters - you never know when you will learn something new about them


----------

