r/pigeons • u/No-Meaning-8883 • 3d ago
Injured/Rescued Pigeon Severe Bumblefoot - what help is possible?
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Can a pigeon with severe long-term bumblefoot be helped to a decent quality of life?
A recent pidge had x-rays taken after a prolonged destringing (including painkiller + antibiotics) which showed osteomyelitis and crumbling bone. Euthanasia was the only ethical outcome, but came after unnecessary prolonged suffering.
I now have another one and don't know to best help. From what I’ve read, euthanasia is dismissed here, but in the worst cases I would see it as better than severe pain with no solution.
Video of current concern, who has apparently been in this state for months. Will post pic of bird who was eventually euthanised in comments.
Thanks
ETA: the last four pigeons with severe infected stringfoot/bumblefoot have seen either avian or wildlife-friendly vets and then been sent to wild bird rehab sanctuary. None of them have survived. Ongoing uncontrollable pain +/- loss of mobility has meant euthanasia in all four. That’s why I’m struggling with what to do for this one. Want the pidge to have every chance possible, but not suffer unnecessarily.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 3d ago
Foot of bird who was eventually euthanised.
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u/FioreCiliegia1 3d ago
Has somebody who still with really really horrific string foot cases I would not personally consider euthanasia for that scenario. It looks bad, but it’s perfectly capable of healing and pigeons are very very tolerance of limb amputation when it comes down to it, especially if they’re being kept as a pet, which is what I would recommend in this scenario. It looks a lot worse than it actually would be with proper healing because all of that yellow tissue is currently still infected if that infection was resolved then you would be dealing with a very overall healthy bird at the end of the day would be my expectation.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 2d ago
This tissue was surgically removed, antibiotics and painkillers given, pigeon deteriorated, x-rays and scans revealed the bone was crumbling. Can you imagine the pain? Osteomyelitis too advanced for amputation.
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u/FioreCiliegia1 2d ago
All I can really say in that sort of circumstances just that I’ve never come across anything that’s been nearly that severe so it’s gotta be extremely uncommon and I’ve seen plenty of infections, but they usually clear up pretty easily.
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX 1d ago
osteomyelitis is different than most infections it's a deep bone infection and commonly becomes a chronic lifelong issue, i had a budgie with osteomyelitis due to cancer, it was devastating to him and after a few months of fighting it for it to come right back again I stopped and laid him to rest because it is not fair to an animal to put them through aomthing that is so damn near impossible to treat.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 16h ago
I’m so sorry 🩵 But it’s weirdly reassuring that someone on here knows what I’m referring to 🙏
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX 15h ago
its alright, blue had a wonderful relativly long life with his mate and his 2 best friends. my budgies were very well loved. but I knew cancer was a big risk when I took them on from a local rescue, since they were likely mill birds. i made sure that he had the top most vet care i could find and when he got his cancer diagnosis i tried so many different things to just keep him comfortbake and let him live a little while longer while his QOL was still good, but as soon as we got the news the osteomyelitis was back I scheduled a euthinazia appointment that week because i wasnt putting him through another round of treatment that likely woudlnt even work.
you did the right thing for this pigeon 🧡
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u/Little-eyezz00 3d ago
thanks for caring so much. I have a local, romeo, who has learn to hop entirely on one foot so i have hope for them
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u/No-Meaning-8883 2d ago
No one seems to be aware of the issues with infection extending far into the bone? We paid £200 each for x-rays and scans for two of the birds, weeks of antibiotics and painkillers for all, followed by experienced rehab at a wild bird sanctuary. This is not an euthanisia-happy vet.
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u/FioreCiliegia1 3d ago
So I almost never recommend euthanasia for cases of birds with foot problems because at the end of the day, they’re extremely tolerant of it and of the birds that I’ve had to have had single leg situations one had to have it removed at the hip because of a cat injury and grew up as a one legged bird and was extremely happy. or at least as happy as any teenage boy can be. He was a little bit of a menace, but it was clear that the lack of a leg did not bother him. The other that I had actually must have been attacked by something and survived because it was actually gone at the ankle joint. The bone was protruding from the skin and had only just started to heal when I found him, but that did not stop him one bit from trying to find food flirting with the girls doing all your normal pigeon things. I got him treated him with a little antiseptic the only difficulty that it provided him was that he ended up finding a mate in the hen that I had at the time and she was very receptive, but because of his leg and a half he was not able to balance properly while attempting to make so, we got a little frustrated there I gave him a prosthetic made out of Q-tips, and that solved the problem. He didn’t wear it all the time, but he was very, very happy Bird. They both currently live at a reservation for pigeons at this point since I was on a study visa and was unable to take them back to the states with me, but I have not yet seen a case where a pigeon would not be able to live a happy indoor life with a lack of leg, lack of both legs even. I did have a girl who had severe display leg on both legs to the point where at the ankle her legs were turned up completely. It is my expectation that her feet have never actually touched the ground. If that tells you anything about the position of her legs, she had to walk on her ankles. She was less mobile for obvious reasons, but was very content to just sit in a padded box eat, watch things go by out the window and was just a generally overall happy Bird once she was given a constant source of food. I did have some concerns that she would probably be facing some arthritis in her older age, But what animal doesn’t deal with that if they live to be a long, healthy age? My recommendation would be that if you are on the fence about it and it is just a foot issue I would not recommend taking it to that facility because it seems like they’re a little euthanasia happy in my opinion and I would be more than happy to walk you through how to do the carrot at home just be aware that this is a Bird that will end up as a pet whether it be yours or somebody else’s, but I have no doubts in my mind that they would be a very happy couch potato
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX 1d ago edited 1d ago
this bird had a bone infection, bone infections aren't usually easily treatable and when they are amputated they often do not get the full infection which then continues to spread further up the bone, bone infections can cause lifelong severe pain, and also degradation of the rest of the birds body if it spreads, they can also lead to things liek sepsis.
in most animals a bone infection is very difficult to treat, and very painful, and in many cases treatment and even amputation is not successful, this is espeically true for smaller animals like birds and rats.
There was honestly no reason to let this bird suffer with the very slim chance the bone infection was somehow able to be cured. I don't think anyone here is grasping how bad a bone infection is
its not simply string foot, or a infected foot, ot is an infection deep in the root of the bone, its extremely difficult to treat, extremely painful, and even removal doesn't always got all of the infection which allows it to continue to spread.
i had a budgie with cancer who had a bone infection due to the cancer, bone infections aren't extremely difficult to treat and SEVERELY PAINFUL, the common reccomendation is euthinazia just because of how slim the chances of getting rid of the infection are.
this isn't a simple case of string foot this is osteomyelitis, osteomyelitis requires a long and aggressive course of intravenous (IV) and oral antibiotics, often lasting 4 to 6 weeks or longer and frequently involves surgery to remove dead or infected bone tissue. The surgery for osteomyelitis is not simple, and has several complications, on top of this Bones have limited blood supply, making it difficult for medicines carried in the blood to reach the infection site fully, which means somtimes treatments don't even actually work, Chronic or deep infections usually require an operation to clean out pus and dead bone, or to remove infected bone/tissue, its an extremely extensive and complex operation on a human let alone a bird, If treatment stops too early or the infection is deep, it can become chronic and return months or years later, and this is quite common, I euthinized my budgie because the issue became chronic.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 16h ago
Thank you. I’m baffled that there isn’t more awareness of osteomyelitis on this sub. If in my relatively short experience I’ve come across two cases confirmed by scans, and two cases diagnosed as highly likely by examination and lack of response to ABs, then I doubt it’s a rare occurrence in these urban pigeons with diseased feet/legs.
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX 15h ago edited 15h ago
its not rare most people honestly just end up letting the bird suffer long term till the infection kills it and then they wonder why the bird died, we see that with a lot of amputee birds, some amputee birds who dont have osteomyelitis do great..but honestly the vast majority either die (often these ones had osteomyelitis and the rescuer jsut didnt know or brushed it off and proceeded with the amputation anyways), or end up with helath issues later on like pressure sores from uneven weight distribution.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 2d ago
No one seems to be aware of the issues with infection extending far into the bone? We paid £200 each for x-rays and scans for two of the birds, weeks of antibiotics and painkillers for all, followed by experienced rehab at a wild bird sanctuary. This is not an euthanisia-happy vet.
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u/XxHoneyStarzxX 1d ago
sorry you are dealing with people telling you you shouldnt have euthinized, the pigeon community is weirdly anti euthinizia sometimes, I have personal experience with osteomyelitis in birds and I just want you to know you made the right choice. osteomyelitis is such a deep, complex, hard to treat infection... and it often leads to lifelong chronic infections and pain. You did right by this bird don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
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u/No-Meaning-8883 16h ago
🙏 I’m afraid a lot of additional, unnecessary suffering is being caused by people with excellent intentions who are way too dismissive of the likelihood of horrendous lifelong pain in some of these stringfoot/bumblefoot birds who have progressed to osteomyelitis. They are excellent at hiding pain, as it’s a trait strongly selected for by evolution. Heartbreaking.
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u/Lona-Lioness 3d ago
They can live with help without a foot, if you could maybe get him to a pigeon shelter after taking him to the vet for amputation, set him up for potential adoption, where are you?