Arthritis & Other Joint Issues

[FoxersArtist]

Raising baby cockatiels, I have noticed that sometimes a chick will bump the outer digit on one of his toes and it may come out of joint and twist to the side. Chicks are born with soft bones and loose joints, so I gently reset the digit and keep an eye on it until the joints tighten up. If the problem is not caught in time, the digit will remain twisted when the bones harden. I have seen many birds with one twisted digit like this and assume that in many cases the injury must have occured before the bones hardened. It is important to notice though, that the rest of the feet are alligned normally and the bird has strength while standing or walking. What do you all think of this theory? Those of you who breed - have you ever had a similar experience with a chick? Do you know of anything that can help prevent joints from becoming dislocated so easily in chicks? Can it be linked to dietary needs? I have always been curious.

Here is a photo of one of our cockatiels, who had a twisted digit that was never reset when he was a young chick. We adopted him at 4 months old, but by this time, I could not get the digit to stay alligned with the rest of the toe.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Brag%20Photos/Feet001.jpg


Also, we have a very old amazon named Loretta who clearly has arthritis. There are multiple places on her feet where the bones twist and the bridge of her feet are sunken. You can also see that the joints are inflamed as her toes look lumpy instead of straight. Loretta spends her day shifting weight from one foot to the other, moves very slowly and takes her time to step up. Her grip is very weak compaired to our 15 year old orange wing amazon, PJ. We have wrappedher perches with a soft, padded material to help ease the pressure on her feet and I am thinking about buying her a heated perch to sleep on at night. Any other suggestions for her?

Here is a picture of Loretta's feet.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Brag%20Photos/Feet002.jpg

-Anna

[too&me]

Anna- have you considered Homeopathy? It either works or does nothing, no side effects. For arthritic feet I would investigate Rhus tox. in a low dose like a 6x or 12x. Disolve in water by stirring & let her drink it or by dropper into her beak. The heated perch may give her some comfort. It is just no fun when you know there is discomfort & you are wanting to help. I'm certain Don or Iti Hoas Mom can add some insight.

[Larry, Baby and Me]

I have found that the Budda Cumfy perches work well. I have several in Baby's cage along with wood perches. She prefers to sleep on the Cumfy perch but is on the wood perches during the day.

Since I put the Cumfy perches in her cage - I noticed the bottoms of her feet are nice and soft.

I hope this helps.:)