narangasket
Hatching
- Jan 16, 2024
- 2
- 9
- 6
I had this issue a while back and my bird made it through, he's now a healthy pet who will never go to freezer camp. Thought I'd share and help others in this emergency.
Unbeknownst to me my juvenile turkeys were roosting on the edge of their water bucket because it was slightly higher than the roost I had set up for them. The problem was raccoons could reach the water bucket, which I learned the hard way when I found two survivors and a LOT of turkey parts first thing one morning.
One of the surviving turkeys had his wing ripped completely off and his entire side was skinned. It was not clean in any sense of the word- flesh shredded, bones sticking out with shattered points, shoulder joint visible, bird clearly in shock. I said aloud "oh man I wish you had just died," and got to work immediately. Here's how I saved him:
Step 1. Immediately drenched the bird in iodine, even the feathers around the wound. Brought him and his friend into the house to keep the bugs off as it was summertime.
Step 2. Offered cool clean water and scrambled eggs. You want your bird to have a friend because if it is in shock it may refuse to eat or drink independently, but having some competition MAY help the injured bird pull through and decide to eat.
Step 3. Gloved up and covered the wound- entire left side of my bird- in regular neosporin. Remember neosporin with pain control will kill your bird immediately. If you're looking to euthanize your bird consider that route, otherwise use original.
Every day for about a month I offered the bird eggs once just to help keep him on the right track. Every morning I coated the wound in neosporin, and every afternoon I used a spray bottle of zinc wound wash to gently rinse any debris accumulated throughout the day (mainly food). I only picked him up once a day to apply ointment, as handling caused distress and pain. I never tried to stop him from eating some of the neosporin off his wound, I figured he was likely dead anyway and at that point it could only help. I also never tried to wrap him or cover it. Both birds stayed inside for the entire month. I made sure to put up a barrier so that the birds couldn't see my family or dogs, because we are predators and we would only stress them out.
Once I transitioned them back out into a new and improved enclosure, I bought a bottle of vetricyn to spray the healing side with daily just to rinse off debris and help prevent infection.
Eventually the dead bones fell out of the wound site, which fully closed up and now is feathered over so that no one knows he's missing a wing unless I point it out.
This protocol worked a miracle on that bird, I fully believed he had next to no chance of survival when I found him. I've read a lot of incomplete threads about helping a bird pull through a massive predator wound and shock so I wanted to share something that worked. Hopefully it helps someone else.
Unbeknownst to me my juvenile turkeys were roosting on the edge of their water bucket because it was slightly higher than the roost I had set up for them. The problem was raccoons could reach the water bucket, which I learned the hard way when I found two survivors and a LOT of turkey parts first thing one morning.
One of the surviving turkeys had his wing ripped completely off and his entire side was skinned. It was not clean in any sense of the word- flesh shredded, bones sticking out with shattered points, shoulder joint visible, bird clearly in shock. I said aloud "oh man I wish you had just died," and got to work immediately. Here's how I saved him:
Step 1. Immediately drenched the bird in iodine, even the feathers around the wound. Brought him and his friend into the house to keep the bugs off as it was summertime.
Step 2. Offered cool clean water and scrambled eggs. You want your bird to have a friend because if it is in shock it may refuse to eat or drink independently, but having some competition MAY help the injured bird pull through and decide to eat.
Step 3. Gloved up and covered the wound- entire left side of my bird- in regular neosporin. Remember neosporin with pain control will kill your bird immediately. If you're looking to euthanize your bird consider that route, otherwise use original.
Every day for about a month I offered the bird eggs once just to help keep him on the right track. Every morning I coated the wound in neosporin, and every afternoon I used a spray bottle of zinc wound wash to gently rinse any debris accumulated throughout the day (mainly food). I only picked him up once a day to apply ointment, as handling caused distress and pain. I never tried to stop him from eating some of the neosporin off his wound, I figured he was likely dead anyway and at that point it could only help. I also never tried to wrap him or cover it. Both birds stayed inside for the entire month. I made sure to put up a barrier so that the birds couldn't see my family or dogs, because we are predators and we would only stress them out.
Once I transitioned them back out into a new and improved enclosure, I bought a bottle of vetricyn to spray the healing side with daily just to rinse off debris and help prevent infection.
Eventually the dead bones fell out of the wound site, which fully closed up and now is feathered over so that no one knows he's missing a wing unless I point it out.
This protocol worked a miracle on that bird, I fully believed he had next to no chance of survival when I found him. I've read a lot of incomplete threads about helping a bird pull through a massive predator wound and shock so I wanted to share something that worked. Hopefully it helps someone else.
