- Jun 23, 2013
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So one of my quail roosters has been having problems with his feet recently, and it's a good thing too! I was asking on the forums about advice for his arthritis/stiff, swollen joints, and needed to post a picture so when I got home I looked at his feet and saw that there was a human hair tightly (SUPER tightly!!) wound around his thumb and inside toe. He must have walked through it and been unable to detect or detach it on his own. The toes themselves had gone grey and cold, and it had been 8 hours since I last looked at his feet, meaning the toes could have been strangulated for up to 8 hours!! If I hadn't been looking to photograph his feet, it could have been even longer! 
I removed the hair, and tried to rub back life into his feet. No avail, there was no blood flow. Thinking back to everything I had read about detatched/re-attached and otherwise strangulated limbs, leeches had been used to draw blood back into the vessels. Well, I had no leeches so I did the only thing I could think of, washed and sucked on this little bird's toes.
I did this repeatedly until, after pinching, the pinkness quickly returned to his skin. Success! But returned bloodflow does not equal living tissue.
Fearing the worst, I started him on a course of antibiotics and started soaking his feet 2 or 3 times daily in salt water. Of course, the tissue was dead and turning green in places, I debrided daily after soaking, dusted with quik stop, and bandaged. It's been almost a week now, and I'm happy to say that his toes have been saved.
He lost the thumb nail claw, and his inside toe has essentially been gradually degloved, but it's pink and alive with no signs of infection or gangrene. The entire toe is scabbed over and healing, and he seems not to have been bothered by ANY of this except for having his toe in some crazy person's mouth.
If you or anyone you live with has long hair, please please PLEASE be VERY diligent in checking the feet of your animals, especially if they are ever allowed to roam freely indoors! Birds' feet may look armor plated but they can still be completely destroyed in a matter of hours by something as simple as a strand of hair.
I removed the hair, and tried to rub back life into his feet. No avail, there was no blood flow. Thinking back to everything I had read about detatched/re-attached and otherwise strangulated limbs, leeches had been used to draw blood back into the vessels. Well, I had no leeches so I did the only thing I could think of, washed and sucked on this little bird's toes.
I did this repeatedly until, after pinching, the pinkness quickly returned to his skin. Success! But returned bloodflow does not equal living tissue.Fearing the worst, I started him on a course of antibiotics and started soaking his feet 2 or 3 times daily in salt water. Of course, the tissue was dead and turning green in places, I debrided daily after soaking, dusted with quik stop, and bandaged. It's been almost a week now, and I'm happy to say that his toes have been saved.
He lost the thumb nail claw, and his inside toe has essentially been gradually degloved, but it's pink and alive with no signs of infection or gangrene. The entire toe is scabbed over and healing, and he seems not to have been bothered by ANY of this except for having his toe in some crazy person's mouth.If you or anyone you live with has long hair, please please PLEASE be VERY diligent in checking the feet of your animals, especially if they are ever allowed to roam freely indoors! Birds' feet may look armor plated but they can still be completely destroyed in a matter of hours by something as simple as a strand of hair.
