Teeny-Tiny Injury at My House

Yesterday I cleaned the birdcage, a common event. When I do this the birds flap and flop and fly all over the place while my hands are going in and out of the cage. They often end up on the bottom of the cage or clinging to the side. I'm pretty used to that.

When I was finished I put the cage back in its place, and went about my business. A couple hours later I noticed that one of the spice finches was on the floor of the cage. Not unusual, except that the others seemed to be calling to him. I watched a few minutes, and he never got off the floor. Now, that is unusual. He seemed to be stretching up, as if trying to get off the floor, but he didn't spread his wings. I left it alone for a while, just observing. His buddies continued to chirp at him, hopping from perch to perch, often going to the lowest one and watching him.

Finally, I tried to lift him to a low perch, but I only scared him into climbing up the side of the cage, and I worried about him falling again. He wasn't using his wings, just climbing. So I left him alone on the floor.

I realized he had probably been there several hours by this time as he had likely injured himself in the flapping while I cleaned the cage. This meant he was without food or water, so I put a little lid with seed and a small container of water on the floor of the cage and left him to eat. He did. He was apparently very hungry, poor little guy. I watched for another hour or so while his friends came down and visited and encouraged him, but he stayed on the floor, repeating the stretching action over and over, but never leaving the floor.

Then I left the room for a couple minutes, and when I came back .... he was on the very top perch with the others!! Snuggled together as is usual for the night! I don't know how he got there, but he had to use his wings, so I felt that he didn't have a broken wing, just injured or sprained. Thank goodness. But I had no idea how to treat it.

This morning the poor baby was on the floor again. I called the vet's office. His tech used to raise finches, and I knew she could advise me. I was right; since he got to the upper perch she agreed that there is probably a sprain or strain in a wing, not a break. He has to be kept quiet and not have the urge or encouragement to hop to the perches, so as of a couple hours ago, the little spice is in his own cage, a smaller one I bought for transporting finches home after purchase. There are no perches in it. I spread some grass on the bottom of the cage for him, and I put the food and water on the floor of the cage where he can reach them. The cage is in the bedroom, away from his buddies, as directed, and the radio is playing Oldies, a substitute for his feathered company!




He seems to be fairly content. The dishes look like they are high, but it is just the angle.
















Quiet time.















You can see that he has company watching over him. The cage is on my dresser with several Emmett Kelly musical figures in the background.

The dogs are confused about the two cages. They have gone to the bedroom and back to the living room, then they look at me like "Whaaaat?"

I think it is going to be a long two weeks for all of us.