Case  Studies

Cockatiel with Burned Feet

Hi everyone, I don't know how many of you know about the rescue tiel I have. Well to summarize what's happening.  She was burned in a pan of boiling water, approx, 6 mos ago. The woman who had her didn't take her to the vet, after 6 weeks I finally "TOOK" her from her, and started  getting her to the vet,

Well she has come a long way since then, but her feet will never be the same, she will never perch again, and yesterday her "other" mother came to visit, and while she was2 holding her LC flew away from her, I thought it was because she got scared or something, so I picked her up and gave her to her again, well she took off the 2nd time, so I picked her up and put her on the playgym , Hubby made for her so she can play also, ANYHOW, a few hours later my son noticed her foot was now bleeding again, does anyone have any Idea's as to what I could use to help completely heal her feet, she walks a scabs.  It's not easy to put her feet in Iodine water to soak, because when she gets wet, she stays wet for hours.

If anyone has any Ideas can you also explain how to do it, and where to get the things I will need.

Thanks, and sorry its so long...
Sandy

From: "Garden"  

How about cutting open an aloe leaf and applying the gel.
anneh

I would use a poultice by wetting cotton in the solution then
wrapping the cotton around the injury, then covering with plastic
wrap, to hold the moisture in, and covering the plastic wrap with a
small piece of vet wrap.

Might want to give it a try, but with such a small bird it might be too
bulky.

Jackie

You might try those rope perches for this bird so she doesn't scrape off
the skin that is trying to grow back over the underlying tissue.  She may
be reopening the wounds before they completely heal over.  Scar tissue
tends to be more delicate than real skin, too, so if she isn't growing
real skin back  that explains why she keeps bleeding after all this time.
 Good luck!

Iodine is typically used to help disinfect a wound immediately after
injury.  It also causes tissue damage, so I would not ever use iodine
other than the one time.

Herbs that are used for burns and/or scalds: aloe, bee popolis, burdock,
calendula, chickweed, comfrey, goldenseal, marshmallow.

Marshmallow would make a good base for a poultice.  According to The Little Herb Encyclopedia: When marshmallow is used as a poultice with cayenne, it has been discovered as an effective treatment for cleansing infections such as blood poisoning, gangrene and to help the healing of bruises, burns, and wounds.

I would consider alternating poultice combinations. One day I would use
a poultice of marshmallow/cayenne..another day I would use
aloe/burdock/goldenseal, and another I would use
calendula/chickweed/comfrey.  St John's Wort is not targeted for burns
paticularly, but it is a great wound healer and helps to regenerate
nerves, so I'd add it to the marshmallow poultice.

How do you poultice the feet of a bird?  That will be a good trick, but
perching may be out of the question while you work seriously on healing.
For your bird's situation, you might consider a 'treatment tank' where
you place the bird in a small aquarium while it is having a poultice
treatment. It would be best if you just left the poultice on but this
will be difficult with this bird's problem.  Consider trying a
three-times-daily poultice of an hour each time.  Wrap with gauze. It
might take him an hour to work the gauze off.

Just do the best you can..

gloria

Recent studies have shown that Hypericium (St. John's Wort)
had antibiotic properties so it is a very good choice; as is Vitamin E
which I too have used for years for burns and tissue healing... However,
it must be stressed that only Natural Source Vitamin E -  d' alpha
tocopherol has healing qualities...
Synthetic Vitamin E (dl alpha tocopherol) is useless for healing
properties.

 I use Oxyfresh "Pet Gel", it's non toxic, non greasy and helps wounds to heal quickly.

Mary R

From: "RC Berger"  
 LANSINOH was very effective in helping CAG "Nelson" when he hurt his foot. It is available at any drug store. It is totally natural and therefore
completely safe. It will keep the skin and scab soft so that it does not
crack and break so easily and will assist the healing. It is often used by
breastfeeding mothers.

It was recommended to me by an avian vet and it worked excellent.

Sandy, the reason why LANSINOH worked for me was because it kept the healing skin supple so that the scab did not get dry and crack. In addition it removed the itching sensation and that kept Nelson from picking at it.

I found that an easy way to apply the ointment without causing Nelson any trauma was to put some on the end of my finger on one hand and offer Nelson a treat with the other hand. When his attention was diverted to the treat it only took a second to dab the ontiment onto the wound. I used the ontiment 3 times a day and within a week it was visibly very much better. Initially the wound which was on his toe was about 3/4" long and the outer layer of skin removed and the inner flesh showing.
 

Good Luck

Roy

From: "Marnie" <>

 What I would do is take some liquid St. John's Wort (hypericium) or
crush a pill and add it to some Calendula oil or olive oil, vitamin E,
or a bit of lard (used as a salve base for many herbal recipes)  I have
my own Calendula Oil.... basically you just infuse Calendula  (a type of
marigold.  On a couple of my herb lists several people say they use just
regular garden variety marigold is just as effective... I plan to try
that out this year! ) heads in olive oil for 6 wks or so.
This would be safe for the bird, should he eat it... soak his bandage in
it or just rub on his feet.

From: Debbe  

I missed the thread about the bird with the burned feet but I had
a neighbor with a quaker and the bird loved to perch on a lamp shade
one night it fell onto the hot light bulb and got caught... a friend
recommended a light vinegar and water wash to help kill any
bacteria and avoid a secondary infection..  it was a pretty bad blister but the vinegar helped and then we used aloe sprayed on several times a day... I was really surprised how fast it healed and the little bird bounced back just fine...with no infection and no problems...

Debbe

 In Chinese medicine there are a couple of alternatives.  Not sure the
 degree of the burn but the following are aids in healing burns:

 Carrot Juice applied to the burn is one method.  That would be fresh
 carrot juice and the pulp.  Honey is another healing aid.  Also,
 Cucumbers are good for burns and healing too.  Of course all of these
 remedy's are extremely challenging for birds. I would mix the honey with  a little bit of cucumber juice.  That would be easier for birds since
 they would like the way it tasted and it would stay on better -  as long
 as they didn't eat it all<g>  Good luck with it and for goodness sake,
 save the Oxyfresh for cleaning cages.  One thing I know for sure is
 that, chemicals *are* absorbed through the skin.  You may not have short  term effects now, but later, you are asking for major problems.
 Oxyfresh is not something that is natural to our birds, so why use it on
 them.  People are dying every day from cancer.  Why??  Because of the  long and short term use of chemicals and polluting their bodies with
 food laced with chemicals over the years.  Unless you want your bird to
 end up in their later years with Cancer, growths and tumors, better
 start paying attention to these ingredients.  These little things do
 damage, especially to our birds. Their bodies are soo fragile in the
 world's we have created for them to live in.
 --
 CyndiL 

> Geeze with all of this conflicting advice, maybe I'll stick to neosporin, I
> am really getting confused on  this, some say its good others say don't >use  it.  Who Knows....

Sandy, it's not conflicting at all.  There are so many ways of healing.
You just have to do what works for you in your situation.  My Chinese
doctor tells me this all the time.  Save your life first, then balance
your body.  As an example, some people are terrified of antibiotics and
won't use them at all, no if's, and's or but's.  Some of these people
are also the ones that have complications and end up being hospitalized
or the situation getting worse or death - I've been there believe me.

The key to all of this, is if you have to use conventional treatments to
save your life, so be it - they won't kill you.  Afterwards you can
balance your body with natural herbs and other techniques.  Most
holistic and TCM medicine work slowly, where Western medicine works very fast because it is very powerful. That can be good and it can be bad.

I'm lucky because I work closely with a TCM doctor who understands
Western medicine.  If you think dealing with birds gets complicated, try
dealing with children in this crazy society.  My 7 year old and I have
been through so much.  I can't even begin to talk to her pediatrician
about TCM, they just don't get it.  It's scary and sad that the doctors
here have completely blown off the function of the human body and
prescribe their *nasty* chemicals as a cure all, when so many people
actually rely on *everything* their doctors tell them to do. I know
Mother's who have to get permission to take care of their newborn babies - that is sick.

Sooo, as far as the other remedies I gave you.  Your probably long past
the burn stages.  What you need now are remedies to heal the skin.  One of the TCM combinations I have used successfully are:  Lithospermum, Lonicera, Cimicifuga, Oyster Shell, Astragalus, Tang-kuei, Peony, Cnidium, Rhubarb, Licorice.  This is a product prescribed by my TCM doctor in a capsule form.  I take the capsule or a couple of them, and mix a small amount of water in to make a paste, and apply it directly on the skin and cover with a loose bandage.  Do you have a TCM doctor in your area??  If you do, ask them about this combination, it's very common and they would know.

P.S.  Don't use the neosporin on your bird.  My pediatrician doesn't
even use that stuff anymore.  Polysporin is the better choice.  However,
none of them are going to help your situation.  Your bird's body needs
to be balanced not only externally, but nutritionally as well.  With the
ordeal your bird has been through, I'm almost certain your bird's immune
system has been compromised - it takes lots of extra energy to heal a
wound.  In the wild your bird would not have survived.  Good luck to
you.

Cyndi