(Warning: Detailed description of incident follows. May be considered graphic.)
Hello everybody. I've had a bit of an unfortunate mishap with one of my partridge tonight. While putting them all away for the night (they haven't seemed to grasp the concept of going away on their own, so I have to catch each of them and put them inside the coop every night) I made the mistake of making a grab for the wing on one of my smaller ones. Most times I grab around the body or by the legs, but I was standing just below the door to the coop (it's about 4 feet off the ground) so I tried to just lift it by the wing and put it right in the pophole. About halfway up I heard a snap that made my blood run cold. I checked the right wing and found a bad break - the upper wing bone had split and was protruding through the skin near the elbow. It looks like the bone split down the middle in a wedge shape, and the end was very sharp. There was very little blood and seeing not much else to do, I popped the bone back in. It went in pretty easily and held well, leaving only a small puncture in the skin. Now because I was stupid and in shock I didn't bother to mark or band the bird and just put it away with the others, so for now it's out in the coop.
Anybody deal with this before? Do these types of breaks typically heal? Should I leave it and see if it heals or just cull the bird? I'm inexperienced with both gamebirds and wing breaks, so this will definitely be a learning experience.
Hello everybody. I've had a bit of an unfortunate mishap with one of my partridge tonight. While putting them all away for the night (they haven't seemed to grasp the concept of going away on their own, so I have to catch each of them and put them inside the coop every night) I made the mistake of making a grab for the wing on one of my smaller ones. Most times I grab around the body or by the legs, but I was standing just below the door to the coop (it's about 4 feet off the ground) so I tried to just lift it by the wing and put it right in the pophole. About halfway up I heard a snap that made my blood run cold. I checked the right wing and found a bad break - the upper wing bone had split and was protruding through the skin near the elbow. It looks like the bone split down the middle in a wedge shape, and the end was very sharp. There was very little blood and seeing not much else to do, I popped the bone back in. It went in pretty easily and held well, leaving only a small puncture in the skin. Now because I was stupid and in shock I didn't bother to mark or band the bird and just put it away with the others, so for now it's out in the coop.
Anybody deal with this before? Do these types of breaks typically heal? Should I leave it and see if it heals or just cull the bird? I'm inexperienced with both gamebirds and wing breaks, so this will definitely be a learning experience.
