Wings are very important to birds, not only do birds use their wings to fly, but they also use their wings to protect their young, to keep themselves warm, and as a way of attracting mates during the mating season.
Unfortunately, bird wings can break. This article looks at how this happens.
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How do birds break their wings?
If a bird has a broken wing then the bird likely broke its wing while doing something related to flying. Here are reasons why a bird may have a broken wing:
It crashed into something:
Birds crash into windows quite often, in fact, up to one billion birds die every year in the US alone as a result of them flying into windows.
Birds can crash into walls, ceiling fans, windows, and mirrors. If this crash doesn’t kill them, the bird may break its wing or some other body part
Attacks from pets:
As much as we’d love our pets to get along, and love each other as we love them, some pets aren’t very interested or their natural wild animal instincts will kick in.
If your bird encounters another pet, like a dog, a cat, or a larger bird, then it may be attacked, this attack may break its wings.
Predators:
Predators in the wild are always on the lookout for food and birds are a common predator meal.
If the predator does not manage to catch and eat the bird, it may still harm the bird while trying to catch it. The bird may escape but its wing may become injured or broken as a result of the attack.
Hit by cars:
Cars can be quite dangerous to birds, a bird getting hit by a car can cause the bird to break its wings or even die. If the bird was hit by a car, then it is likely injured in other places as well.
Can birds with broken wings survive?
If the wing is severely broken then the bird will likely not survive. A severely broken wing cannot heal on its own, eventually, the bird will succumb to its injuries if it does not get care from a human.
If the break is minor then the bird has a greater chance of surviving
If a pet, or predator attack, caused the broken wing, then the wing can become infected. The infection can spread very quickly and this infection can be a death sentence if not tended to by a vet.
What to do if a bird breaks its wing?
If you notice that your bird has a broken wing you’d need to take the animal to the vet as soon as possible.
If you can’t take the bird to the vet immediately, then you may need to tend to the bird yourself. Start off by stopping the bleeding, do this by applying gauze to the wound site and applying pressure.
After the wing has stopped bleeding, you’d need to restrain the wing to prevent the bird from using it and injuring it even further. Do this by wrapping the bird’s wing. You need a wound cleaner, bandaging tape, and medical tape to do this.
Start by cleaning the wound and wiping all of the blood off of the wing.
Move on to wrapping the bandaging tape on the bird starting at the bird’s back, then wrap the tape over the injured wing, then on the bird’s chest, then under the uninjured wing, and then up to its back.
Wrap the medical tape over this to secure it
Note: When trying to tend to the bird, be careful not to strain the birds breathing. Also, make sure that you stay as calm as you can as you tend to the bird, it will not react well to you if you are stressed.
How to transport the bird to the vet:
If you can get the bird to the vet immediately then you’d need to transport it correctly to prevent it from injuring itself even more on the ride.
Do this by folding the bird’s wing to its natural position and then wrapping the wing in gauze using the method explained above, make sure that you don’t wrap the bird’s wing too tightly.
Keep your car at a comfortable temperature for your bird during the ride and keep a sock filled with microwaved rice, or a warm water-filled latex glove close to the bird if the bird can’t maintain its own body temperature
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Sulfur Dust For Chickens, Can A Bird’s Broken Wing Heal By Itself?, Can A Birds Broken Wing Heal On Its Own, How To Tell If A Bird Has A Broken Wing