Secondary Intention Healing

Little Gracie is a very lucky 2 year old budgie hen who has tempted death and strutted away to tell the tale.

In late April, Gracie and her friend Pauly had been left outside in their usual cage for some fresh air. Gracie’s owner was alerted by their vigilant guide-puppy-in-training that there was something wrong. She went out to find the budgie cage on the ground and Gracie badly injured.

Gracie was immediately raced down to the practice and Dr. Adrian determined that she had sustained a complete degloving injury from her right elbow joint to the tip of her wing. Gracie was missing most of the skin and feathers from the end of her right wing. She had lost a lot of blood and was in considerable pain, however Gracie was trying her best to put on a brave show. Analgesia, fluid therapy, antibiotics, bandaging and supportive care with heat and forced feeding resulted in a rapid return to function.

The healing power of birds is well documented, however even we were amazed with Gracie’s recovery. With Dr. Kathryn performing regular dressing changes under anaesthesia and her devoted owner providing lots of TLC, Gracie was slowly nursed back to health.

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She is now busy regrowing most of her primary flight feathers, and has just been given the all clear to be returned to Pauly. Pauly had been most concerned about her injured wing and had to be moved into adjacent temporary accommodation so that Gracie’s bandages remained intact.

We think Gracie is an inspiration – how about you?