Hello all, I have a question. Yesterday I found an abandoned baby Blue Jay far from the nest and surrounded by cats. I took it in and checked it out, all seemed good, no visible wounds. I fed it small pieces of softened dog food through the rest of the day and noticed it slept a ton and was not super active and was having trouble standing (it had a decent amount of feathers growing in so I assume it was about old enough to leave the nest). Slept great through the night and ate fine. I worked with it on standing some and it was standing and chirping pretty well in the morning, however I noticed it flap its wings wildly and then fell over. Its head went limp and it started looking up and sideways. I knew something was off so I looked it over and saw a large air bubble forming under the skin by its left leg. I have chickens and I am slightly familiar with this, so I proceeded to puncture the skin with a sterile needle and massage the air out. The bird began to move again and fixed its head and chirped, but then started gaping its mouth and moving its tongue in and out. My first thought was “It can’t breathe!” But I had no idea where to go from there and within the minute the poor baby passed. My question is, what did I do wrong or could have done differently to save it? Also, what did the gaping mean? I have read that a ruptured air sac is not fatal, however I don’t know how serious it is for a baby bird.
Sorry for the long story, and thank you in advance for any help on my situation.
Sorry for the long story, and thank you in advance for any help on my situation.
