not sure if my Emu broke his leg

mamaluvschick

In the Brooder
7 Years
Feb 26, 2012
52
0
41
Kersey Colorado, USA
We have had our Emu for about a year now. He seems to get freaked out when the wind starts, which I am not sure if that is normal or not. Something really got him worked up last night and he was running up against the fence and jumping over anything in his pen. Really scary but there was nothing I could do to calm him down. This morning his foot is really swollen and he hobbles on it. I can't tell if its broken or not. I called our vet, but unfortunately he doesn't know much about emus. What should I do? Can anyone help?
 
Could your farm vet take an xray? weather or not he knows much about emus, its a bird foot and he could tell you if its broken or not.
 
how is the leg doing , it would be good if you could get a bottle of Dexamethasone from the vet it serves a couple of uses with emu when they are injured it will calm them down and keep them from going into shock and it seems to keep there legs from turning after shock this is a steroid so should not be used often just in extreme cases when the bird seems to limp after getting injured or if they just don't seem to calm down , I am not a vet I just have used this with my vet and it works for me good luck hope the emu is better ,and you don't have to use anything .
 
Some 3 years ago, I had one of my rheas 2 yr old, limping, it was summer and high grass, so not easily to detect . As they are more skittish then the emus, I kept her in shed while eating her veggies, so I could examine the foot, she had a piece of electric fence wire round her toes, ( God knows how this got there ) and as she walked, it kept going more and more into her bone. Impossoble to do on my own.
I called the local Farrier who did my shetlands, he came at once with his grand son and with the 3 we could easily deal with this...if not, it could have gone septic and probablay would have lost her with this heat we had at the time.
 
Sounds like you have had your hands full, I also had a similar problem with one of my emu , it is sometimes hard to figure out what is wrong , it is good to have the dex on hand if you can get it as most knows that when an emu gets stressed after an accident or attack there legs can start to turn in and cause a lot of problems later so I keep it here then if the time comes I just give a shot to them ,A friend and neighbor had two emu get in a fight and one was hurt really bad couldn't walk and had stopped eating with huge cuts and started getting worse I went down and gave her a shot and left another to follow up and they said by the next morning she was walking normal ,and not limping and was eating. I keep it on hand , of course I have a good vet who is trained with Emu and all types of large birds and small she is the only vet that is trained with emu anywhere in the area so I feel lucky, she works with me and helps me out at low cost due to the fact that I rescue all types of feathered critters lol big and small .
 
Hi, my young Emu (4 months) was attacked by a dog recently, really nasty wounds treated a week ago. It was touch and go I think, but now healing ok and he/she is eating, but has started limping badly for no reason. Can't feel any break, no visible injury. This is the third day of the limp. Any thoughts ?
 
your baby may just have stress related to the injury , when they have been through what your baby has they get stressed and there legs will draw inwards you need to get deximethazone sorry cant spell but if you don't the legs will draw inward and cause it to be cripple for life , a shot or two should stop this if the leg is not broken , I hope this helps
 
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your baby may just have stress related to the injury , when they have been through what your baby has they get stressed and there legs will draw inwards you need to get deximethazone sorry cant spell but if you don't the legs will draw inward and cause it to be cripple for life , a shot or two should stop this if the leg is not broken , I hope this helps
Hi Smokeyjoe... I haven't heard of deximethasone before (I quickly googled, it, though) but I'm intrigued. Could this be purchased from a vet for an animal with nothing wrong (for my emergency first aid kit) or does it have to be vet-prescribed? I'm in upstate NY, so I'm sure that they're going to be pretty strict about it... Could you give this to an emu just to relax it for transport? How many cc's would you give to a year-old emu?

Sorry about all of the questions, lol... thanks in advance!
 
OK one question at a time , you do have to get it from a vet , but if you let them know you had a stress related accident and now you are having the problem with the leg they should prescribe it and the dosage for the bird , as far as giving it to relax them for traveling I wouldn't , they travel really well I have rode in a horse trailer just to see and as lone as the trailer is wired all the way the way so if spooked the emu want try to escape and get hurt , outside of that they ride well without anything , this is a med that you only want to give in stress related cases due to injuries, my emu travel much better without med then with , a learned lessen . I hope I have answered all your questions if you have any more just let me know and if I can help I will be happy to try . most vet's are limited in emu so they should look it up and have no problem with you getting the med .
 
OK one question at a time , you do have to get it from a vet , but if you let them know you had a stress related accident and now you are having the problem with the leg they should prescribe it and the dosage for the bird , as far as giving it to relax them for traveling I wouldn't , they travel really well I have rode in a horse trailer just to see and as lone as the trailer is wired all the way the way so if spooked the emu want try to escape and get hurt , outside of that they ride well without anything , this is a med that you only want to give in stress related cases due to injuries, my emu travel much better without med then with , a learned lessen . I hope I have answered all your questions if you have any more just let me know and if I can help I will be happy to try . most vet's are limited in emu so they should look it up and have no problem with you getting the med .
Yes! That was very very helpful!
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Sorry for all of the questions, lol. I don't want to medicate them for travelling, but I wasn't sure if it helped. My girls tend to freak out over the slightest change of scenery, so I worry about when the day comes where we get to move... prolly in 2 years or so. But I'll see if I can't get some of those meds for accidents... knock on wood...

Thanks!!!
 

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