Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 4/4/2007

Question
I have a Rosy Bourke who all of a sudden keeps falling off of her perch and her wing seems to lay out instead of pulling it in close to her. I found a couple of drops of blood on the perch and her mirror but nothing on her at all.She also keeps pulling up one of her feet on the same side as the wing, as if the foot is hurt. As far as I know nothing has happened to hurt her unless she has done it to herself. Can you please help?

Thank you
Robin

Answer
Hi, Robin.  Thanks for posting!

The problem here is whether she has hurt herself because of inability to balance herself on her perch or whether she is having problems balancing due to an injury.  May not be an injury, but a broken blood feather or something else.  If the balancing problem came first, she will need certified avian veterinarian assistance to find the problem.  What bothers me is that even with injuries, most birds are able to still balance on their perch(es).

Does she have all of her toenails (are any missing or broken off)?  If blood is on the perch and her mirror, the blood could be coming from a foot/leg or some part of her wing.  Pulling up her foot could be related to discomfort/pain she might be experiencing on that side of her body (if it isn't a foot/leg).  Birds can get injured on things inside their cage easily.  Sometimes they can get their toes/toenails caught in toys or other, they can get stuck and in their haste to get free they can injure themselves...lots of possibilities.  However, with blood present, there has to be some type of injury or it could be a broken blood feather.  Sometimes you have to look very close to find broken blood feathers to the point of having to move feathers out of the way to look at other feathers.  

See if you can correlate the blood on her mirror with a location on the body.  In other words, if you found the blood on a part of the mirror where she puts her leg/foot, then an injury could be on that leg/foot.  

Chrys