- Jul 13, 2012
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Angel Wing is a crooked wing malfunction common in waterfowl. When a bird has Angel Wing, the last joint in the wing becomes twisted, causing the feathers to stick out from the bird's sides instead of laying flat against its body like it should. Angel WIng is aquired in young birds, usually because of a high calorie/ protein diet or simply can be a genetic that causes unusual development in the wing. if the joint is allowed to continue growing at this angel, it may cause the bird to become partially or completely unable to fly and will usually result in increased disease and early death of the bird. most common in males, and if it only appears in one wing, it is usually the left wing. there is no medicine that you can give the bird to cure it, but there are ways to fix and prevent Angel Wing.
first of all, to try to prohibit Angel Wing from forming in the first place, regulate the protein/calorie/sugar intake of the bird. it is advised that you do not feed waterfowl bread or chicken feed, because this will often result in the development of angel wing. however, it can be genetic and form despite any precautions. if this does happen, here is how to fix it:
When my mallard duckling, Joey, was only a few weeks old, i started noticing something odd about her left wing. it was crooked, and she couldnt fully streach it out this was her when i first noticed:
i was confused, but i brushed it off my mind, assuming it was normal. a few weeks later, as her wings started to develop feathers and joints, i saw that one of her wings laid flat against her side, while the other stuck awkwardly out. after doing a lot of research, i came to the conclusion that she had Angel Wing
see the blue part sticking out in the picture above? that was the strange wing. Thats what Angel Wing looks like when it begings to form. however, it was still too small for me to wrap up to begin to fix it, so i had to let her wing continue to grow. whenever she flapped her wings, you could see that the odd wing was still crooked and twisted.
finally, her wing had grown enough. this is her right before i started to fix her Angel Wing problem. see how the wing in the back is sticking out while the one in the front is laying flat?
in order to fix Angel Wing, you wrap the wing up into the position in which it is supposed to be. make sure this is one while the joints and feathers in the wing are still developing.
here are some pictures of Joey after i wrapped up her wing:
the material i used to wrap up her wings was the same that i used to bind the cast to my dog's leg when he broke his paw a few months earlier. its simply waterproof medical tape. yes, the birds WILL complain when you bind their wings and they will slightly be off balance at first because they are not used to not being able to move their wings. but dont worry, they are fine. having their wings bound for a few days is much better than having an awkwardly jutting wing for the rest of their lives. you leave the medical tape on until the feathers have developed properly and the wing no longer looks odd. this can take anywhere from a few short days to a couple of weeks. here is my duckling when we removed her bandages:
her wing finally laid flat against her side when it should and was not crooked when she moved it. during the whole fixing-of-the-angel-wing with Joey, i cut down on the food i had been recently giving her and started instead feeding her other foods such as grass, iceburg lettuce, carrots, and other greens. Today, she is a happy healthy young duck and has no problems with her once-crooked wing
i hope this thread helped anyone having problems with angel wing!!!!
first of all, to try to prohibit Angel Wing from forming in the first place, regulate the protein/calorie/sugar intake of the bird. it is advised that you do not feed waterfowl bread or chicken feed, because this will often result in the development of angel wing. however, it can be genetic and form despite any precautions. if this does happen, here is how to fix it:
When my mallard duckling, Joey, was only a few weeks old, i started noticing something odd about her left wing. it was crooked, and she couldnt fully streach it out this was her when i first noticed:
i was confused, but i brushed it off my mind, assuming it was normal. a few weeks later, as her wings started to develop feathers and joints, i saw that one of her wings laid flat against her side, while the other stuck awkwardly out. after doing a lot of research, i came to the conclusion that she had Angel Wing
see the blue part sticking out in the picture above? that was the strange wing. Thats what Angel Wing looks like when it begings to form. however, it was still too small for me to wrap up to begin to fix it, so i had to let her wing continue to grow. whenever she flapped her wings, you could see that the odd wing was still crooked and twisted.
finally, her wing had grown enough. this is her right before i started to fix her Angel Wing problem. see how the wing in the back is sticking out while the one in the front is laying flat?
in order to fix Angel Wing, you wrap the wing up into the position in which it is supposed to be. make sure this is one while the joints and feathers in the wing are still developing.
here are some pictures of Joey after i wrapped up her wing:
the material i used to wrap up her wings was the same that i used to bind the cast to my dog's leg when he broke his paw a few months earlier. its simply waterproof medical tape. yes, the birds WILL complain when you bind their wings and they will slightly be off balance at first because they are not used to not being able to move their wings. but dont worry, they are fine. having their wings bound for a few days is much better than having an awkwardly jutting wing for the rest of their lives. you leave the medical tape on until the feathers have developed properly and the wing no longer looks odd. this can take anywhere from a few short days to a couple of weeks. here is my duckling when we removed her bandages:
her wing finally laid flat against her side when it should and was not crooked when she moved it. during the whole fixing-of-the-angel-wing with Joey, i cut down on the food i had been recently giving her and started instead feeding her other foods such as grass, iceburg lettuce, carrots, and other greens. Today, she is a happy healthy young duck and has no problems with her once-crooked wing
i hope this thread helped anyone having problems with angel wing!!!!
