Entertainment

[new 2 pfowl]

Go get 'em, Blu!

Sorry to go off topic, but I'm really impressed by how well Blu gets around.
I've been worried about Peggy's bad limp - it turns out that he had a femoral break sometime not too long before he came to me that didn't heal quite right.
But seeing Blu encourages me that Peggy can do OK even if he's a bit slow.

 

[Kedreeva]

Yeah, only having 1 serviceable leg doesn't seem to deter him at all. I keep a careful eye out for any problems with his good leg but so far so good. He's gotten a whole year past the incident now, which I count as an extra year of life.

And yeah the white one was a female and she wanted nothing to do with the male....

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Sorry to pursue this, but does Blu get along with the other peas?
Do they act differently towards him than each other?
Sometimes I think Peggy is getting picked on or excluded because of his injury (well it's hard for him to keep up, of course).
Of course I may just be reading more into pea relationships because I'm worried about the guy.

 

[Kedreeva]

No one picks on him, but he tends to be a loner too. He and his sister are both that way though, so I think even if he had both legs he wouldn't hang out. They do treat him differently, but it is with a certain amount of tolerance/patience. Like my other male will move out of his way and if Blu comes over to me for treats Octavian follows him over and eats near him, and will watch the other birds when they are near him. I have seen Octavian more than once attack roosters that were getting too close to Blu. Osiris, his sister, is the only one who doesn't care, she will still queen bee him if he gets too close to her treats. They all make room for him on perches and if he sleeps on a low one they will come down to where he is so he is not alone. It is sweet.

 

[zazouse]

Yeah, only having 1 serviceable leg doesn't seem to deter him at all. I keep a careful eye out for any problems with his good leg but so far so good. He's gotten a whole year past the incident now, which I count as an extra year of life.

And yeah the white one was a female and she wanted nothing to do with the male....

Well she fooled me i thought she had alot to say to him for not wanting nothing to do with him, just like a girl i guess.

 

[Lil Zoo]

Kedreeva, For us newbies what actually happened to Blue? It's amazing watching the vidio how fast he is just using his leg for support.

 

[Kedreeva]

Just over a year ago, Blu got an infection in his ankle, under the skin. At first I thought maybe he'd broken it, because it was really, really swollen, but it wasn't inflamed and I couldn't feel a break at all, and he could still move the leg. There was no entry wound at all to indicate that he'd hurt himself and let outside infection in. I lanced the bulge, and there was pus, so I took him to the vet. The lady that saw him hadn't ever dealt with peafowl before and the vet that had was on vacation. So she prescribed him some anti-biotics for him to take, hoping it would clear it up, and told me it was fine to drain out as much pus as I could. The bird vet would be back in a week, if the anti-biotics didn't work.

Well, they didn't work, and the "real" vet returned, and immediately had an x-ray done of Blu's leg. They found what seemed to be solid pieces (like of bone?) except that they were not FROM anywhere. Like, no bones were broken, no pieces missing from anywhere else, everything was intact, he just had these masses forming in his ankle. Eek! So I asked them about surgery to remove them, and he said it was going to be expensive and anesthesia and birds was always a big gamble. I told him, if Blu's willing to fight, I'm willing to pay for it, so do it. They went ahead and did the surgery (and Blu did great, he was a champ through all of this), and removed what they described as "solid packets of infection" that had "eaten into his tendons". They sent them away for analysis- and the postal service promptly lost the package and it was never recovered, so none of us have any idea what happened, or what it was, or why it happened, or if it is likely to happen again.

Blu underwent some amount of physical therapy to keep the motion he had left in the leg. He can't spread his toes anymore to stand on them, and his leg will not extend straight anymore, but he can pull it all the way up to his body. The infection cleared up immediately and his ankle returned to normal size and shape.

 

[zazouse]

I have put down a few birds threw the years that had developed boney growths.
I do not now what cause them kinda like there is a parasitic twin growing



Bird get all kinds of growths. i have a hen that has a ball of feathers (like a pom pom) growing on her abdomen.

 

[Lil Zoo]

Thank you for sharing. Unlike your story Mr. Gorgeous had the puncture wound which became infected. It's amazing how calm he remained when I worked on his wound sitting and soaking it in epsoms salts water, treating it and bandaging it. He has really become my buddy though through it and lets me get closer than any of the others. I'm very very lucky he has no damage at all as a result. Thank you for the pictures Zazoose we now can watch for this kind of stuff I'm sure many on here have more knowledge than we would get from the majority of our vets. I suppose like humans getting kidney stones birds have their unexplainable conditions also.