Chingdevil:
Odd stuff does seem to happen to me more than most, well, my friends seem to think so. I'm a contract IT chappy, so go to a new job every few months. When I'm first getting to know people, they never really believe what my stories, but then equally odd stuff happens around them and they believe me. It has been suggested that I might have been a Mime in a previous life, and this is civilisations revenge on me.
Sheerline:
Procedure for sorting out a birds wing ( which is the same as dealing with a member of the parrot family that is pulling out all it's feathers (becuase it's been fed on junk food, has developed a salt addiction, and is getting at the salty fat at the base of it's feathers ))
What you do is get a piece of thin but tough material, such as a piece of chamios leather or kid skin leather ( SWMBO's gloves may have to be sacrificed ).
Then you make a "glove" for the bird out of it. This is fiddly, and you get pecked a bit, but the idea is that you make a pretty tight fitting jacket that enclosed the birds body and wings. you leave a hole for it's head to come out of the top, and another hole for it's legs, bottom and tail to stick out of.
You then sow the bird into this jacket, using strong thread, from the back, to avoid another pecking.
with a broken wing, you get the bones aligned roughly in the wing (gently - otherwise it'll die in your hands), and then very gently fold the wing back as if the bird had tucked them away when it had landed on a branch. Then you put the jacket on. Use a hole punch to make a series of small "breather" holes in the jacket, especially around the wing space ( before you put the jacket on, otherwise you'll have an exceptionally annoyed bird and blood on the carpet).
If there is blood and ooze from the broken wing, you need to ensure that no infection is present, so you let any bad cuts etc scab over first ( takes a day or two), and touch on a little neat "melafix" (from aquarium shops), using one of those things you clean your ear with to the wound to kill infection ( it's just tea tree old in a very pure, usually gel, form ).
The whole procedure annoys the hell out of the bird but in a few hours it's bouncin about looking for food, and doesn't seem overly bothered, and within a few weeks (depends really on the size of the bird ) the jacket can come off, and within a few days the bird is using it's wing again. A week later you can set it free.
Oh... and get a bowl with some "chincilla dust" or just some dusty soil if it's summer time. The bird needs to keep itself clean, and the dust is used as a substitue for water.
Second Oh: don't forget to feed and water it as well, other wise it defeats the point. The bird moves about fine in their jacket, so I feed live meal worm and mixed seeds to get plenty of good food into them. Try to make the bird keep working for food ( hide it behind twigs etc ), otherwise it gets tame, and it won't survive in the wild. And don't handle it too much, or leave it in your living room where it can get too used to humans. If I'm looking after a bird, the cage goes in the loft with a heater and the light on a timer to roughly replicate daylight hours. Most birds need to feed about 1/4 of their body weight a day.
Third Oh: If you find an injured bird, firstly make sure it IS actually injured. A number of birds, like blackbirds, partridges, robins etc, will imitate a broken wing in order to get the threat ( i.e you ) away from it's nest or chicks. at least 1/2 the "injuried" birds taken to vets are perfectly fine, but the chicks doe becuase of being seperated from their mother. And if it *is* injured, leave it in a cardboard box outside ( with some air holes ) for 24 hours, as many will die quickly anyway, and if you try to help them, it only makes them go quicker. If it makes it through 24 hours, then start to think about patching it up.
For broken legs, a wee piece of kebab skewer ( the stuff made out of bamboo ) and thin stips of electricians tape work just fine. ( still needs a jacket otherwise the bindings are cut off within minutes.)
Broken beaks: sadly, can't be fixed and usually the bird will starve if it's severe, so usually better to put it down.
Putting a badly injured bird down. Pick it up and hold it between each hand, as if you were catching a cricket ball. apply VERY gentle pressure, like you are holding a kitten or a half-cracked egg, and be more gentle than that. Just make a cacoon out of your hands. Bird will pass away in peace within a minute or two. ( works on injured mice etc that the cat brings in as well )
Why do I know this? My grandad used to look after virtually all the injured or mistreated birds within a 20 mile radius of southport. He converted his entire house ( a big victrorian 3 storey fella that is endemic to southport ) into avaries, and lived in two rooms on the ground floor. The RSCPA, along with all the local vets used to send birds of all sorts to him constantly. He patched up a bald headed eagle from a zoo once. There used to people coming to him at all hours of the day and night. ( If you lived in southport between 20 and 10 years ago, you will probably have read about him in the local paper, as he was in it quite a lot ). Anywho, much of my summer holidays for years were spent looking after all the birds while grandad went fishing.
As for your dog, you have my very deep sympathies, loosing a friend is horrible. However, I would say that it is important to remember that if you get another dog, then your not replacing, in any way, your previous one. A new cat is coming soon, but it won't replace Cat-2 who died recently, as no other cat is ever going to get in the bath or shower with me, or sit on my shoulder all day when I work from home and "help" me by clawing at my ear when it desired food or to look out of the window. Cat 3 will be a different cat, with a different personality. In no way will he fill a gap or be a replacement, but he will be a new friend, living in a better home than the shelter.
DickyD
thanks for that. Well, I have plenty of crayfish on tap for my fish. Also got a bed of green lipped mussels in a tank, so will see if it wants to break open a few of those. Mrs Steve has a horrific phobia of frogs, so probably won't try those. Have been doing some reading. Think I am going to "borrow" my god childrens blow up swimming pool and let it have a swim when it gets to it's fortified stockade.
Steve