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Will the Bird Survive (and for How Long)?

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by AnaheimZoo, 10 Apr 2013.

  1. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    Earlier this evening, about a little less than two hours ago, I was out in my backyard, ready to play some baseball with my father. We were about forty seconds into our "game" when he asked me if I had seen "the bird that was stuck." I had not.

    Surely enough, there was a bird (I've been trying to identify this particular species for the longest) caught in an apple tree, with a pinkish string wrapped around its ankle multiple times, which my father later said must have been there for about half hour (why didn't he do something/tell me?!). The string was zig-zagging through many of the branches, so I figure that the bird must have been flying through and got caught, then started struggling to get off the branch. He began crying out and started flapping desperately a few times, til the point where he was hanging upside down.

    Watching him suffer was too much, so my father decided to grab a ladder, and we tried to get him out. We didn't want to injure him at all, so we cut the branch that he was stuck on, and cut some of the string as well. However, we quickly noticed that he had been struggling far too long, as his leg was literally shredded, mangled and twisted backwards. At this point, my uncle and father, after evaluating the injury, decided that the leg was of no use to the bird (which was too obvious) and cut it off with a gardening tool (the plier-looking things, the name escapes me right now). I wasn't really for or against it, I was in slight shock, as was the bird (he was totally "calm" at this point - I figured he was shocked having been in my father's hands for a few minutes).

    So, off went the leg, with his little bloodied bone sticking out. I was asking if there was a veterinarian nearby, which there was - but this option wasn't even seriously considered by my father or uncle (either because they simply didn't want to - they'd been working out back for a few hours - or because they thought "he would be okay").

    So we went and placed him down, and, after a few seconds which seemed to last forever, he emerged from his trance-like state and flew off into a bush across the yard, where he was greeted by a relative/friend who had probably been waiting for him after hearing his cries. You could clearly see him struggle to perch, land, and move from branch to branch, and, after visiting the bush a few minutes later, I saw him just with his broken leg dangling, while the other was nestled under his body. He was just sitting there. It was getting dark, so I had to go inside, and, to be perfectly honest, I was tearing up. I'd never been in a situation like that, and I thought the whole thing was poorly executed (but what could I have done? I had no clue what to do). So, I have a few concerns/questions:

    How hard is life for a bird with no leg (in this case, the bird is a passerine of some sort)? Could the injury be infected because a garden tool was used to "amputate" the leg? Will the injury properly heal with no bandages/immediate "cures" used? Does a bird bleed a lot when its leg is broken and, if so, can a bird die of blood loss? (I am very obviously not a bird person, I know relatively nothing about birds.) How long would you expect this bird to live? Once again, my father and I had no idea what to do, and my uncle is the type that just do something to get it over with, so I have no idea what was done right and done wrong. Thank you.
     
  2. jbnbsn99

    jbnbsn99 Well-Known Member

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    That's absolutely horrific. Why would you cut off the bird's leg! Sad to say that the bird will probably die a slow and painful death from infection from the amputation.
     
  3. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    I told you my father and I had no idea what to do, so it was out of my control! The decision was in the hands of my thick-headed, my-way-or-the-highway uncle! That just made the whole thing a lot more depressing.

    I knew I should've stepped in to say something...
     
  4. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    You know, that's common sense. Shows you how I get in these situations. Now that you said that, it makes perfect sense. Why make him suffer more by opening the wound, allowing germs to come in, rather than letting the leg heal naturally? I feel like an idiot now, and guilty...
     
  5. cleusk

    cleusk Well-Known Member

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    Don't feel guilty! How you reacted to the injured bird shows that you have compassion. Something that many people don't have. And don't be angry at your father. He did what he thought was best for the bird after assessing the situation. It may have been a bad decision, but at least he tried his best with the knowledge he had. Be thankful you have a thoughtful Dad willing to help free a bird for his son. And remember, nobody's perfect.
     
  6. nanoboy

    nanoboy Well-Known Member

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    The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
     
  7. cleusk

    cleusk Well-Known Member

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    AnaheimZoo, ignore the negative posts.


    Judging from the description, the bird wouldn't have had a chance to survive if you didn't intervene. And you don't know if the bird died or not because it ran away.

    You have a choice now. You can allow yourself to be dragged down by guilt, forever looking back with regret. Or you can look forward, knowing that you did the best you could under the circumstances. I commend you for your kind heart.
     
    Last edited: 10 Apr 2013
  8. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    I think the best thing to do in such a situation would be to remove the bird from the branch and remove the string if possible, and then evaluate how bad the injury is. If you could remove all the string and the wounds seem pretty superficial I would let it go immediately, but if not then put it in a small, dark box and take it to someone who knows what the best way to proceed would be (e.g. vet, animal rescue centre, etc). I definitely would not recommend operating on the bird yourself. Keeping yourself calm, and the bird in a quiet environment, i.e. not yelling, moving quickly or even talking around it, would be good too, as birds can quite easily go into shock from stress.

    Now that it has been done, I wouldn't dwell on it as that won't achieve anything, and remember that you did the best that you could. Try and learn from the experience so that you know what to do and where to take a bird (or other animal) if the situation occurs again. Spend some time online now, looking up the closest help to your house and other advice on what to do with injured/sick wildlife.

    I would also be interested to know what species it was, so if you figure it out, please post it on here.
     
  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    there's no way of knowing whether the bird will survive or not unless you find its corpse or see a little one-legged bird flying around. Birds can survive perfectly well with one leg so that's not a huge factor. In fact if the leg was twisted backwards then having that as a handicap would make it even less likely to survive than being one-legged. They do have very little blood in their bodies though (what with being small and all) so even a small amount of blood loss can be seriously detrimental. However if it flew off into the bushes and you saw it was still alive after quite a while (until it got dark as you said) then its probably safe to say it didn't bleed to death.

    Basically, if it doesn't get an infection in the wound then it will probably survive.
     
  10. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the responses, everyone. And yes, nanoboy, I am well aware that some of the worst things were done with the best of intentions (Jurassic Park :p). I didn't really have a say in the final decision, but I knew that removing the leg was wrong... especially with a gardening tool of all things! I was leaning towards vet, but nobody, as I said, was seriously considering it. My uncle is pretty heartless when it comes to these situations (he won't even think twice about stopping for a skunk on the road), and he thinks he knows a little more than he really does, and my father was just a bit clueless, so the decision was basically left in the hands of the completely wrong person. In my opinion it was all just really poorly executed. I guess the guilt is from not speaking up and suggesting a better solution, but there's no point in dwelling on it now, I guess.
     
  11. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    Another note, the bird literally tore his own leg up. You really couldn't even tell that it was a leg until you saw the foot, which was hanging by a few (ligaments?). The entire leg was bending about in the same direction as his tail; he was desperately trying to get out. According to my father the bone was actually split, which I got on video but didn't notice (because I was in shock). My father is assured that what we did was the right thing, but still can't help but think what could've been done differently.
     
  12. Zooplantman

    Zooplantman Well-Known Member

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    IMO you can do nothing about the bird, its future, or what happened.
    You can, though, benefit greatly from considering how this bully uncle and complicit father forced a decision that no one liked and no one put up any strong resistance. You trusted these men (or are afraid of them?) and deferred to them and they did not deserve such support from you.
    If you can really take that in, and how that happens everyday all around you, then you will perhaps take a great step forward as a result of this.
    After all, you are young but you are not a child. You had more say then you are perhaps willing to acknowledge.
     
  13. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    The bird is still alive! My uncle sent a picture to me a few minutes ago which he took right after I left for school. It was resting on a fence, surely enough, with his left leg missing.

    Of course, we don't know how long he'll last. But at least he's survived this long.
     
  14. Zooplantman

    Zooplantman Well-Known Member

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    Well that IS happy news.
     
  15. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    That's great that the bird is alive!:)

    This reminds of the time I found a deer fawn laying down alone covered in ants against my house. While my Mom went inside to get the number for animal control my Dad went to try to get some ants of which scared the poor baby and it got up and ran away into the woods. Unlike in this story the deer probably died as it was motherless and seems to have been recently born. The only way I can see it surviving was if it somehow found its mother but I doubt that because, based on its condition, it had been there for a very long time...:(

    Best of luck to you little bird!

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  16. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    As of May 3rd, 2013, our friend is still alive, and he/she looks well. :)
     
  17. AnaheimZoo

    AnaheimZoo Well-Known Member

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    I've just found out which species the bird is.

    Despite all of the times I'd looked up this particular species in the past when creating my imaginary exhibits, I never once figured out that the birds right in my backyard were the same species!

    It is a Mimus polyglottos, or Northern mockingbird. :)
     
  18. Monty

    Monty Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Basically this quote sums it up. Wild animals do occasionally get serious injuries and I am amazed what they have continued to survive with. I once shot a fox that was carrying a lamb it had killed. When I got to it I found it had a front leg missing right at its chest, not even a stump. It had probably been shot in that leg years before and the leg had gone gangrenous and eventually dropped off. It would have lived happily with 3 legs for years if it had not been killing my lambs.

    That fawn would have likely been found again by its mother and been fine. The does hide their fawns as soon as they are born and only return a couple of times a day to feed them. Very young fawns will play dead and the most some will do is scream for their mothers when they are picked up. I think many more fawns are killed by people thinking they are abandoned and trying to help them, than the numbed that die due to being abandoned
     
  19. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Great to know!:) I'll keep that in mind shall I find myself in a similar event. I would have just left it alone for the mother to return if it wasn't crawling with ants which led to my thinking it's abandoned.

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  20. Rookeyper

    Rookeyper Well-Known Member

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    There was a bird at the zoo that came to us with only one foot. He was still doing well when I left in January and had been at the zoo for several years. He had no difficulty getting around!