To euthanase this bird

[sk1pper]

I am mainly posting here for traffic as it's an emergency. My cat bought in a house sparrow about an hour ago. I managed to prise the poor thing from her jaws but there is a break in it's wing and a fair bit of blood. I cleaned the wound with an antiseptic wipe and stopped the bleeding with some baking soda and put it in a shoe box with some bedding. I know the best thing to do would be to take it to a wild animal rescue centre but there are none close by, and the nearby vets are either closed or don't accept wild birds (I've called 7 places!)

I know cat bites are toxic to birds, and Im worried that if I leave it, it could die from shock or septicaemia (or both). I'm not even sure that bird wings can heal on their own, online resource is conflicting. I don't want to kill it if there is a chance though.

What do you guys think?

I wouldn't put a cat on a collar. Collar injuries are too big a risk. Glad the vets can see it. Mine rarely bring things home. I rescued a shrew a few weeks ago though. Not a mark on it.

Update please OP!

Sorry, thanks for all your comments. I will try my cat with a collar, because the whole experience was unpleasant.

The vet took the bird, amazingly they haven't euthanised it yet. They called me late last night and said the break could heal given time and they are going to see how it handles captivity. If it appears overly stressed they may need to put it down anyway. It had been given some antibiotics too.

Well done for giving it a chance OP.

Re collars and bells. The quick release ones are safe for cats. The ones from Pets at Home would release too easily and our cats kept losing them. The ones from Sainsbury's are better. We take them off while the cats are indoors and put them back on when they go out. We have put three bells on each of them. This really helps the birds (not so much the rodents but still gives them more of a chance to get away). We always keep them in at night and as much as possible during dawn and dusk when the wildlife is more active. Finally, we feed them at set times so they are never far away and can be easily called in for meal times. I can bribe them indoors with Dreamies too if necessary.

They do still bring things home occasionally but it's much less than it used to be.

I wouldn't collar a cat. Quick release can still fail, and cats hang themselves from branches or get stuck.

No. I wouldn't use a collar. They don't always release. Cats can get trapped or hung or lose a leg.

As far as I know a lot of vets do NOT recommend using collars on cats because of the chance of it getting caught on fences/trees etc. and the cat being stuck or injured. Back when we first got cats (and I was unaware of this advice) we tried collars with bells and in order for the collars to be loose enough to release if the cat got stuck they were also loose enough for the cats to remove (sometimes it took a few hours but they always managed.