rhea eye injury

[clark-farm]

ive got a female rhea about 2 years old whos manage to cut her head open right close to her eye, and her eye has swollen up, now I have baytril and metacam (meloxicam) but cannot get anywhere near her to give it via mouth and shes refusing to eat food.

is it possible to inject this into the thigh area as she cant see via the one eye I can sneak around and quickly inject her.

can anyone give me some advise on how to inject etc?

 

[Calla]

Perhaps chop up lots of veggies very fine and add this medicine, that way she will get it....can you get her in some enclosure ? My Rheas always come in house for food, and if I want, I can shut them in... by pulling door close on a string in other end of shed.

 

[Ellamumu]

When my emu Ella scratched his cornea he received a shot of baytril in his thigh that the vet gave him and then i had to give him oral meloxicam and another antibiotic for quite a while. I put his pills in a grape and he took them no problem.

 

[smokeyjoe]

when my emu needed a shot of baytril I gave it to her in the hip she never seems to realize she ever got a shot , I had to use a large sharp needle as there flesh is tough but she didn't move , the first time I was terrified she would move and break the needle but not a problem , hope you have good luck . I forgot to mention that my emu are spoiled and will let me do whatever I want , I raised them this way just in case they got sick ,

 

[clark-farm]

Thanks for the advice, just as an update I'm nt sure if she was attacked by our other female rhea or caught her head on fencing etc? But I decided to wait for her to Lay down by night as she would not eat due to pain I would guess but because she could see with one eye I moved that side with a large jacket to hold her to the floor to avoid Injury, because it was dark she settled pretty quick, then a dose of baytril and metacam down her throat with a dose of vitamins.

A week later she's recovering her eye has changed from blue to a brown color now, but she can see me to a degree, what degree is unknown yet.

I also learnt to check out the others by using a Woolley hat, grab the neck throw the hat over the head and they will just stand still as long as you don't prod them to much and are very calm.

 

[Ellamumu]

Sounds like she scratched her cornea too, my emu never got his sight back in his left eye despite continued treatment , but he does just fine with one eye. I can hold a grape up by the barn and he'll come running from out back. The only time he has trouble is when he comes in from the outside to the barn, it takes longer for him to adjust to the light.

 

[clark-farm]

Her sight has improved she was turning in circles to see behind her but now she can see enough for me to walk her bad side an her walk In a line, I'm just glad I managed to save her. They are pretty stupid animals and not hardy when it comes to stress!