Rudi's Story - severe string injury

On the 27th of July we got a new patient - a cock with terrible string injuries. I have never seen in my life such bad injuries through human hair and some nylon thread. Not only that on both feet the hair and the threads cut very deep into the flesh of the poor pijjie, the feet were additionally bound together

He must have had terrible pain because both feet were terribly swollen and looked rather like club feet than normal pijjie feet. It was a nightmare to watch this poor pijjie how he tried to move forward but could only hop on both his feet and then had to lay down again because he was so exhausted.

Luckily the pigeon flew on my balcony and I tried to lure him with food on the floor and he landed there eventually but unfortunately I missed twice to catch him with a piece of cloth. He was still too fast despite his injured feet. I was very much afraid now that he would not return again after I tried this in vain and I feverishly tried to find an idea how I would be able to catch this poor bird.

As you possibly remember I had some problems with a stupid neighbour some time ago because of the pijjies on my balcony so I decided to enclose part of it in a net in order to reduce the quantity of the traffic on my balcony.

Now this net proved to be good in a second way: to catch a pijjie. I was sure that the injured bird must have been awfully hungry and what could lure a bird more than sunflower hearts? He still was sitting on a neighbour's balcony so I put a small heap of food on the balustrade in order to gain his trust a bit again and so that he could see it from afar. After a while he landed and ate the seeds.

I then opened the net a bit near to the place he had landed and put another little heap of food behind the net on the wooden board on the wall so that he was able to crawl through that hole to get to the food. Now I waited. And he did! I was calculating that when he saw me approaching he would be in a panic and would not find the hole immediately again - so there would be a chance to catch him. My calculation worked - I caught him easily and put him immediately into a cardboard box with some soft paper on the bottom, which I covered to make it dark and gave him an hour to calm down and get used to our voices before I started to examine him etc.

Unfortunately I forgot to make some fotos of the mess his poor feet were in - only after the treatment I finally remembered the camera. Here they are. Strangely I find the fotos do not look as bad as reality. It took us more than an hour to get rid of all the threads and hair.











(will be continued soon)

Oh my goodness! Poor bird. I'm glad you caught him. I agree that he must have been in excruciating pain.

I am so glad you were able to catch Rudi, Petra. Bless his heart.

I know removing string, hair, etc., can be an extremely trying task.

Yes, please do post updates as time permits.

Yes, Charis, it hurt ME when I looked at him but I was so glad that I had him in!

After we had managed to cut and pull out all the hair and threads - I even used a magnifying glass to make sure that everything came off - I cleaned his feet with some wet cotton wool. I then soaked cotton pads in arnica pain fluid and washed his feet with this solution. This does not only help to desinfect the injuries but also helps against the pain poor Rudi must have felt. Also the fluid helps to cool the inflammated areas - I could feel that his feet were terribly hot.

After a while holding his feet in the soaked pads I finally poured Bachflower Rescue drops over both feet and finally brushed some holy ashes from Sai Baba over all parts which were inflammated (these ashes contain a lot of minerals, draw out the infectious fluids and set off the healing process - I have used this many times on myself, on injured areas and especially on burnt or inflammated skin - Priya will probably know this!). I then took another cotton pad and some band-aid and made him a bandage on both feet so that he would not get any dirt or worse poop on his injured feet. It looked very funny when he had those bandaged feet and of course he had to get used to it first but then I realized that he apparently was feeling less pain with the bandaged feet. And he could walk a bit again. So this definitely helped a lot.

From now on Rudi's feet were treated each day as described above and the swellings became better slowly. After 2 weeks I could take off the bandage on the "better" foot but left it on the second which looked still very bad. It went up and down. Sometimes he could stand on both feet and sometimes it would still hurt a lot so that he perched in his box most of the time. I had put some airbubble plastic layers inside beneath the kitchen paper so that he would have a soft floor and I also taped some batting on the side wall so that he could lean against it (I have added some pics below). The poor bird often used his wing to support himself.

I cannot remember when Pina actually started to be interested in him - in any case she started to visit him whenever she was running around inside, was sitting outside the box at his side and apparently they started to talk to each other. I forgot to make a photo - it was so sweet. Maybe she tried to comfort him. They greated each other each time they saw one another and Rudi started to coo. Pina of course tried to kiss with him through the plastic wall and I would have loved to let them both together but I was afraid that he would hurt and stress his feet too much. So they had to wait.

Here is Rudi in his hospital box:

The pictures of Rudi are great, Petra. You did a fine job bandaging his feet and creating a comfortable, safe place for him to convalesce. A testiment as to how to do it.

Rudi The Great!

Pigeon writer,
Can I grab one of his fotos and post it in my facebook?

Thanks,

Tech

Thank you so much, Charis, this is a very fine compliment from someone like you This little guy is such a dear friendly soul with an adorable character!

Tech - of course you can!

You have done a wonderful job with Rudi, Petra.
And I agree, the pictures are first class.

I love Rudi's story Petra. What an exceptional job you have done with him. The pictures are great. Wonderful that he and Pina have become attached


Louise

Thank you Cindy and Louise!

But not everything went so smooth and easy. On one day I put Rudi into a round salad bowl with handwarm chamomille tea and I covered the whole thing with a sieve the same size so that he could not jump out of the bowl and hurt himself. I thought this would clean his feet better and also help with the healing process. At first he was very reluctant but then he seemed to love that bath because he could float in it and it took the stress from his feet.
After a 1/4 of an hour or so I took him out, wrapped him up in a towel until he was relatively dry and put him back into his box so that he would not catch any draft.

Two days later I repeated the whole thing but this time he suddenly started to bleed like crazy. The blood was really gushing from his bad foot and I took him out of the water immediately. I don't know what had happened - maybe he had been pecking at his feet or one of the crusts got loose - anyway the blood came running out of his foot really badly. I tried to stop it, pressing a piece of paper towel against the area but it did not stop. I was in panic. Then I remembered Charis' advice from one of the threads when we were talking about cutting nails that baking soda stops bleeding. Thank goodness I had some baking soda in the kitchen. So holding the poor bleeding bird in one hand I desperately tried to find the baking soda with the other and finally succeeded. I tore the package open with my teeth and poured the powder over the bleeding area. The bleeding stopped immediately! This was really close!! And I was trembling allover.

After that incident there was even something good coming out of this. Apparently the bleeding helped to get the infection out of the foot much quicker because the next day the swelling had gone down considerably. Rudi himself apparently did not make afuss about the bleeding. He was stoic as always, totally calm during the whole ordeal. Apparently he has the better nerves than me

I think this example shows how well we can learn from others. If I had not been in this forum for a while already the poor bird possibly would have bled to death - I don't know - i.e. I would not have been able to help this bird at all. So exchanging experience and talking about it is the best thing one can do. Also talking about the mistakes of course and how to avoid them...

Gosh Petra i just saw this thread on Rudi. Thank God you were able to take him in and treat him on time

You've done a great job with him Poor Rudi, must have suffered a lot with that awful string/thread around his feet :(
Was really scared when i read the part about the blood gushing out :( but i'm glad you stopped it in time and things are in control

And yes i totally agree on using Sai Baba's holy ash

Love the pics

This makes me want to share with you all,
there is this pigeon in my apartment complex that comes to feed which has some sort of thread wound around one of its legs pretty bad
I have been observing it since a month. The poor bird is living with that and i dread to think how much pain it would be causing. It looks more like some sort of a thread rather than string. I don't want that this leads to some sort of an infection, which i am scared might happen :(

Wondering if i will be able to catch him at all :( As the only place i can catch them is from my window ledge and it would be very difficult as the moment i go there, the birds take off. The balconies are always closed with sliding doors as i don't want my cat to get to them and in any case the pidgies don't come to the balcony.

So, wondering how to catch him :( But i desperately want to help the poor fella :(

pigeonwriter wrote:

Thank you Cindy and Louise!

But not everything went so smooth and easy. On one day I put Rudi into a round salad bowl with handwarm chamomille tea and I covered the whole thing with a sieve the same size so that he could not jump out of the bowl and hurt himself. I thought this would clean his feet better and also help with the healing process. At first he was very reluctant but then he seemed to love that bath because he could float in it and it took the stress from his feet.
After a 1/4 of an hour or so I took him out, wrapped him up in a towel until he was relatively dry and put him back into his box so that he would not catch any draft.

Two days later I repeated the whole thing but this time he suddenly started to bleed like crazy. The blood was really gushing from his bad foot and I took him out of the water immediately. I don't know what had happened - maybe he had been pecking at his feet or one of the crusts got loose - anyway the blood came running out of his foot really badly. I tried to stop it, pressing a piece of paper towel against the area but it did not stop. I was in panic. Then I remembered Charis' advice from one of the threads when we were talking about cutting nails that baking soda stops bleeding. Thank goodness I had some baking soda in the kitchen. So holding the poor bleeding bird in one hand I desperately tried to find the baking soda with the other and finally succeeded. I tore the package open with my teeth and poured the powder over the bleeding area. The bleeding stopped immediately! This was really close!! And I was trembling allover.

After that incident there was even something good coming out of this. Apparently the bleeding helped to get the infection out of the foot much quicker because the next day the swelling had gone down considerably. Rudi himself apparently did not make afuss about the bleeding. He was stoic as always, totally calm during the whole ordeal. Apparently he has the better nerves than me

I think this example shows how well we can learn from others. If I had not been in this forum for a while already the poor bird possibly would have bled to death - I don't know - i.e. I would not have been able to help this bird at all. So exchanging experience and talking about it is the best thing one can do. Also talking about the mistakes of course and how to avoid them...

I think Rudi was displaying typical pigeon behavior, which is to pretend everything is okay, even when it may not be okay.
I'm glad you remembered the soda trick and stopped the bleeding in time. There is nothing more frightening than those incredibly close calls.

priya wrote:

there is this pigeon in my apartment complex that comes to feed which has some sort of thread wound around one of its legs pretty bad
I have been observing it since a month. The poor bird is living with that and i dread to think how much pain it would be causing. It looks more like some sort of a thread rather than string. I don't want that this leads to some sort of an infection, which i am scared might happen :(

Wondering if i will be able to catch him at all :( As the only place i can catch them is from my window ledge and it would be very difficult as the moment i go there, the birds take off. The balconies are always closed with sliding doors as i don't want my cat to get to them and in any case the pidgies don't come to the balcony.

So, wondering how to catch him :( But i desperately want to help the poor fella :(

Priya - sorry I forgot to answer this one.
You can make a pigeon trap very easily by yourself without spending any money - just with a cardboard box. I have added a sketch below - I can tell it works perfectly. This way you could try to catch your injured bird. You can lure it into the box with food but you have to sit and wait:



The best thing is to put something heavy on top of the box so that it cannot move when you pull the string to close the box. At all three spots where it says "fix here" I have made little holes into the cardboard so that the string stays in place. Best is also to use a box which is quite deep so that the bird cannot reach the food without stepping completely inside and even move a bit forward. This also gives you more time to react and make sure that the string is running easily through the holes. I used a nylon string for hanging pictures. If you do not want another bird to come in just move the "door" a little bit by pulling at the string and it will shy away. The longer the string is the better - you could sit a little bit out of sight when "your" bird comes near.

Good luck!!!

Petra............I just saw your update on Rudi. Wow......what a scare you must have had Glad it all worked out well for the both of you Just for information, flour can be used as well to stop minor bleeding in the absence of baking soda. I am so happy that Rudi is now doing so much better.


Pirya............I sure hope you are able to catch the string injured bird you speak of. Petra's sketch seems like it should work really well..........Good Luck!!!


Louise

Matilda wrote:

I'm glad you remembered the soda trick and stopped the bleeding in time. There is nothing more frightening than those incredibly close calls.

I can only say that I was very grateful for your advice, Charis. I really don't want to think of the alternative...

Here is a new update on Rudi:


Midth of August I am still bathing Rudi's feet every morning because they are caked in poop. This does not help the healing. So I have to do the extra work for him. But he seems to be in a good mood, is preening regularly and tries to stand on his feet. Besides his feet he is absolutely healthy, is eating and drinking well and makes good

Rudi is standing now more often. His former "good" foot (I named his foot with all 4 toes standing correctly the "good" foot and the one where probably one toe was broken and cannot be moeved backwards again the "bad" one) which was newly inflammated again looks a bit better now after I have treated it with arnica again and ashes and Rescue drops - but it is still quite swollen and I still do not know whether he will lose some of his toes. It takes time until these things are healed. From time to time I am bandaging this foot again in order to protect it against the poop.

It is already a miracle anyway how his feet look now in consideration of the original condition where his "bad" foot was completely bent backwards due to the strings. It looked as if a human being tried to walk on backwards bent feet. Reminded me of the bandaged feet of Chinese women 2 centuries ago. It was terrible.

It happened probably then when he tried to get rid of the strings - or maybe he was even caught in a net - when he broke his back toe and now this toe has healed but is directed forward instead of backwards. Very carefully I have tried to bend his toe backwards again to see whether there is a possibility for splinting but it does not move a milimeter. So I rather leave it as it is. Apparently he has managed to cope with it as it is. Only the swelling has to go down considerably and as long as it is hot I know the infection is still there.

As often as possible (when it's sunny) I take Rudi with his box out on the balcony for the whole day and he enjoys the sun and fresh air very much. This way he has contact with the other pijjies and is not lonesome. Pete often jumps on his box and has a chat with him. Isn't that cute? Just the same way when Willy and Winnie and Pina were sick and on the balcony in their boxes.

And Pina of course often jumps from her nest and visits Rudi outside for a minute or so and then runs back to her eggs with her typical quick little steps. Her egg duty should be over in a couple of days.

Finally on the 23rd of August, after Rudi was on the balcony for the whole morning, I decided that he was fit enough to leave the box (inside of course) for the first time. I put the box on my working table and Pina was already standing beside the box. I opened the cover and Pina jumped into Rudi's box quicker than I could react. You would not believe how they greeted each other. Pina immediately started to groom him heavily and he could hardly believe his luck. He was in ecstasy. Both were so incredibly happy. And I missed to document this moment with my camera again!!!!!

I was also glad that the swellings on Rudi's feet had come down significantly so that he could even walk - was not hopping any more - on his feet. He also started to helicopter to train his flight muscles. Woa - he had quite a power and I realized for the first time that he was not a small bird at all but rather broad-shouldered like Pete.

After a few days - since he was out of the box - he also took possession of Pina's cardboard box on the closet. He still had some problems to climb into that box but see how cheeky he looks from the edge:

That's an amazing update Petra Very happy to read about Rudi's progress
I love the way you've described their little precious moments, how Pina and Pete interact with him and the way Rudi has taken possession of your balcony
I can almost 'see' it in my mind Love to hear such happy updates!

And the pics are stunning as usual Rudi is one handsome fella!

An absolutely wonderful update Petra

I absolutely love your discription of how Rudi & Pina have greeted eachother I know both birds must be truly happy.

That Rudi would stand on the edge of Pina's cardboard box with his injured feet is true testament to their devotion

Louise

Thank you Priya!!!

Btw - did you see the sketch I made for you in this thread for the pigeon trap? You were talking about an injured pigeon you wanted to catch?

Ah Louise - isn't it like that? They are soooooo humanlike sometimes - those little feathered angels....

Thanks for the wonderful update on Rudi, Petra.
You have done a fabulous job with him.

He's looking great.

pigeonwriter wrote:

Ah Louise - isn't it like that? They are soooooo humanlike sometimes - those little feathered angels....

pigeonwriter wrote:

Thank you Priya!!!

Btw - did you see the sketch I made for you in this thread for the pigeon trap? You were talking about an injured pigeon you wanted to catch?

Thanks a ton for that I will be trying to make something like that very soon. Just hoping that it comes out neat. Will PM you incase i have any doubts. Thanks a bunch again :)

Priya - you are very welcome. I am happy if I can help! Good luck with your "hunt".

Great job! I hate to think of Rudi's fate had you not helped him.