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At El Hogar ProVegan, the health and well-being of all inhabitants are of equal importance
Your species doesn't matter, your rights do
Today we are changing the dressing on Loving the pigeon.
When Loving arrived
she
already had her left leg partly amputated.
We have been looking after her
but she has now developed an infection in her bone.
This infection has now spread
to her whole hip.
At present she is undergoing treatment, is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories
and will spend a fortnight resting.
To make her a bit more comfortable and correct the damage
to her right leg
I have made her a tiny prosthetic, a splint,
so that the leg stays straight
and to stop her from moving it.
First of all
we are going to clean what is left of the stump,
to make sure there are no open wounds or abrasions.
We will apply
a colloidal silver plaster
to avoid
further infection.
This will be worn like a shoe,
held on
by an adhesive bandage.
We have to do this every day to ensure the leg
is not inflamed,
and no unusual wounds appear, as bone infections are very dangerous and can be deadly.
When applying the bandage we have to be careful
to leave some space for movement,
as she has to be able to eat.
We try to make it as soft as possible,
as this leg will hold up part of her body weight.
Now we are going to put a splint on her right leg,
which has been affected
by the infection in her hip.
The correct anatomical position
would be perpendicular to her body,
but as
you can see, at the moment her leg sticks outward.
As we want to bone to heal,
we have to bandage the leg to her body,
so we measure carefully to avoid hurting her or causing any soreness,
as she's going to spend many hours with her leg like this.
We attach the splint with a bandage
or some gauze,
ensuring it doesn't bother her,
so she doesn't develop pressure sores.
We have to be a bit imaginative when making these splints, as there aren't any splints on the markets
for such small animals.
The easiest way to do it is to use a small piece of hard cardboard,
from
the bandage roll,
which we have cut to size.
Once the gauze and bandage
are around the splint we use adhesive bandage o keep everything together.
We are as careful as possible,
to avoid pressing too hard,
as we must ensure that the blood flow reaches her legs,
to avoid necrosis.
Now
you can see how the leg is set,
and we have to attach it to the body
so that the hip doesn't move when she tries to fly, or when she's eating.
To attach it we use a long adhesive bandage.
We always look for the normal anatomical position,
which is this one,
and we fix it to body.
Ideally, the gauze is passed under the wings,
because, even though she cannot fly,
birds need to stretch their wings,
and we don't want it to be uncomfortable for her.
We have to try to make her as comfortable as possible
for a fortnight to ensure she recovers perfectly.
As I said, we pass the gauze under the wings,
como he dicho antes intentando
without applying too much pressures, so she can breathe and eat normally.
We attach it and there it is: the correct anatomical position.
Now we are going
to give her an antibiotic.
Because she spends so much time
immobile,
we are also feeding Loving a reconstituted mash,
made entirely
from vegetables,
to give her energy
and keep her weight up
so she can recover
She has to take antibiotics twice a day
and an anti-inflammatory once a day.
The best way to feed her is with a feeding tube.
This needs to be done by an expert,
as she could choke,
but it is the most efficient way of feeding her.
We feed her 10ml twice a day
to make sure
she is well nourished.
And finally, to aid her recovery
we will have her hanging for 15 days,
until the leg finishes healing.
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