# Young crow with an injured leg



## Lachtaube

Early this morning (probably around 6am) my mom saw a young crow out in the middle of the street with what appeared to be a broken leg. Unfortunately, before she could do anything about it one of our cats got out and scared him off. She figured he hopped over into our neighbor's garden.

Twelve hours later my parents and I were returning home when we spot the crow in our other neighbor's driveway. We gently picked him up with a rag and put him in a large cat/medium dog-sized pet carrier in our garage. We couldn't imagine what was going through his head but it was SO horrendously hot today (about 90 degrees F) and he was laying in the hot sun on the hot asphalt, so we had to move him.

I know absolutely nothing about bird development, but I do know that he has blue eyes, is about 2/3 the size of an adult crow, and the corners of his mouth look pink-ish ("clown mouth"?) I have no idea how old he is so I have no idea what we should be feeding him to keep him healthy in case he hasn't gotten any protein all day. I have two ferrets and I've seen on other threads people suggest feeding them mashed/moistened cat or dog food. The food we give our ferrets (Evo) is very high in protein, I'm assuming that would suffice for now? My mom cooked a little hamburger in the microwave and put it on a plate for him. Not sure if he's eaten any yet, but I'm nervous about potentially feeding him with a tube or anything because I don't want to damage his crop.

We have been giving him water, he goes BONKERS when we reveal the water-dropper. But I don't want to overload him with the stuff if it's only going to make him bloated and not hydrate him. In this case would pedialyte be best? It's memorial day weekend so our local wildlife rehab is closed for today and tomorrow.

A bit more about him: he is, obviously, exhausted, but when we took him out of the carrier to gently put some tape on his wounded leg for support he was very alert. Also, like I said, he is very alert when we're giving him water. He will grip my finger with his good foot, but doesn't move his injured leg much. The foot on his injured leg is constantly curled into a fist, his toes are never just hanging limp. Because his foot is always balled up, during the course of the day he managed to scrape his knuckles up good, but he isn't bleeding and I don't think it bothers him too much.

Again, I know nothing about bird development, so I have no knowledge about the different murders in my neighborhood, which family he could belong to, how he might have been injured, etc.

Help! D:


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## Pawbla

Ummm... I have no idea about food, but about the eyes: I read that in some species, blue eyes means a baby, where in other species blue eyes means adult.

Probably you can stuff food in his beak and he'll eat it. Most birds do. Just be gentle with that. Do crows have crop?

I'm not sure about the ferret food, but check the ingredients and compare them to dog food (you can find dog food ingredients on the web). If they are pretty much the same, it's possible that this could be better than the hamburger.

One thing. You put tape around the leg? I think it'd be best to remove it. Tape alone would do more possible harm than good. Maybe you can attach a little twig to it and then put the tape. Dunno about that either.

You said it appeared to be broken, but you did not say why. Does the leg _feel_ broken? Swollen? Does it have any visible wound? Does it have any string around it?


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## Lachtaube

Hmm, good question about crows having crops or not, I have no idea, haha. I just googled it and got mixed answers.

It appears to be broken because we saw no visible wounds (other than the scrapes on his knuckles from dragging his leg), but he would TRY to put pressure on it, flop over and flap his wings a bit for balance. I'm assuming his flying ability is limited because my mom never said she saw him fly, and when we approached him he made no attempt to flap his wings and fly away. I'm afraid to feel his leg because I don't want to cause him any more arm, but I heard that for an apparently-broken bird leg to put two pieces of tape on either side for a makeshift splint (a small piece of wood or anything else to support it is, from what I heard, unnecessary). He did seem to have white calluses on both of his hocks/heels, I have no idea if that's normal for a young crow or not.


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## Pawbla

Maybe he's just a baby so he can't fly well. Is he fully feathered?

Sorry I can't give advice on a lot of things because I don't have crows where I live. I don't know what is normal in these birds.

I'd recommend you to gently feel the leg (don't put pressure on it), because if not, we'll never know. Are you going to take it to the rescue when it opens?


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## Lachtaube

He is fully feathered, I'm sure he's a fledgling just about ready to learn to fly. He has just a few flecks of down poking out around his shoulders but other than that he has typical adult crow feathers.

I think tonight I am going to let him rest (I put a variety of foods in the carrier he's in, plus water). Tomorrow I'll ask my mom to gently hold him so I can get a good look at his injured leg and try to see if there is any bruising or swelling. If he doesn't seem to be a bit better by Tuesday when the rescue opens we'll take him there. If he seems to be on his way to recovery we'll probably just let him go.

Thanks for your help


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## Charis

If the baby turns out to be OK and you let him go let him go in exactly the same place you found him. Crows stay in family flocks for several years until they learn life skills from their parents. Parents are devoted to their babies and I'm very surprised you didn't encounter mom and dad when you picked the baby up.
You can feed him, dry puppy food that has been soaked to make it soft. Any that he doesn't eat, should be discarded because bacteria will set in rather quickly.
You may need to open the Crow's beak gently, with your finger nails, and put food at the back of the throat a few times until he starts to gape for you or eat on his own. Unlike pigeons, crows eat much more frequently.


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## Pawbla

Haha, no problem, sorry I don't have a lot of information. I'm kinda newbie at this.

Thanks for helping this little guy out. Keep us posted!


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## Lachtaube

... :/ I just went to check on him.

He died. *sigh*


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## TAWhatley

Lachtaube said:


> ... :/ I just went to check on him.
> 
> He died. *sigh*


I'm so sorry the youngster didn't make it. Thank you so much for doing what you could to help.

Terry


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## Pigeonlove

I'm so sorry. For what it's worth, baby crows are a lot more sensitive than baby pigeons and doves. It is a lot harder to keep them alive, even for people with more experience than you. Thank you for caring for this bird and doing all you could. Joni


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