Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/25/2006

Question

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

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Hi Karen,

I have been reading a lot about blood feathers, but feel my cockatiel (Sunny) is beyond one simple blood feather.  He has never had healthy feathers, but now he is getting worse.  I recently had a tragedy in the family and Veterinary care is not in my budget.  Sunny has a huge blood clot on his wing that has about 6 or 7 Blood feathers in the same area. I am afraid to pull them all out at once.  Should I do a gradual every other day thing?  I have had Cockatiels for over 13 years now and have never experienced anything like this one.  He is always restless, and paces the cage constantly, even after you play with him for hours.  When I did allow his feathers to grow out he always flew backwards, injuring more feathers.  

I came home the other night and it looked like a blood bath in is cage.  I cleaned up his cage and checked his wing and that is when I noticed a bulge which appears to be filled with blood around that bunch of feathers. It's approximately the size of a pinky fingernail (which is big for a bird). He is still whistling and singing to me, still squawking and full of energy.  Please let me know what I should do or if you have any suggestions.  Thank you so much for your time and Happy Thanksgiving.

Lori Nicol
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Hi, Lori.

Did you intend for me to get your post or someone named Karen?

Chrys

Answer
Hi, Lori.  My name isn't Karen, but since you sent this again, I'm assuming you want me to try and answer.

I don't know exactly what this is by your post, but what you need to do is hold your bird and run the wing/this area under warm water in a sink so you can try to see exactly what's going on at this location.  If it's a group of broken blood feathers, you'll need to identify and pull each one out separately.  I recommend you remove as many as the bird will allow you to remove at one time, as repeated attempts to do this will cause stress for your bird.  However, your bird is under stress by the mere fact that this problem exists.  Sometimes it's best to do all the work at one time, sometimes it's best to do some now, the rest later.  Depends on the bird involved and your skills.  As I'm sure you know, for each broken feather that you remove, your bird will be better off.  

I'm concerned about your description of your birds feathers.  This is not good.  What type of daily diet is this bird on?  Do they have proper lighting?  Feather quality is directly related to diet, lighting, bathing, stress.  Something isn't right here.

Come back with any questions.

Chrys