injured parakeet

Question
I have had my parakeet for about 4 years. He has not had any problems, until now. Yesterday i noticed that he is not using his left leg. It is just hanging and his claws are all bunched up together. I am not sure if it is broken or it is paralyzed. I have twins and i wasn't sure if one of them threw something at the cage and scared him and he fell. I don't know if it is that or a illness. If you have any information that could help me, please let me know. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Karen,

The best advice I can give you is to get your little budgie to a good avian vet to be examined.  It's hard for me to say what the problem is if you're not sure how he was injured.  It could be that he injured the leg somehow in his cage (if he was startled, fell, or caught it in something in his cage) or if he's suffered a stroke and is no paralyzed on that side of his body.  I would check all the perches and toys in his cage to assure that he cannot get his leg caught in any of them and would definitely keep his cage out of the reach of your children.  

Again, I would strongly urge you to get your guy to an avian vet for evaluation.  If his leg is injured, it's likely he's in pain and will need some pain medication so he doesn't suffer.

Good luck.