Lullx
New member
- Mar 6, 2015
- 299
- 1
- Parrots
- Nephele - Baby CAG | Genevieve & Phaedrus - Green Cheeks | Lucy - Lutino Cockatiel | Ludo, Zero & Anzu - Budgerigars
Four days ago, I experienced the scariest ordeal yet in my adventures as a parrot owner. Genevieve, my green cheek conure, was inside of her cage while I went to take laundry out of the dryer. I came back to find her stuck to the side of her cage, with a quick link lodged in her beak.
I thought the link was just caught under her beak, but she somehow managed to pierce the soft skin under there, and the quick link went all the way through and was coming out of her mouth!
There was thankfully no blood, and she didn't seem too scared or in pain; she honestly just seemed very annoyed with this thing sticking out of her face and wanted it off.
After realizing I wouldn't be able to safely remove it myself, I called the vet and asked my boyfriend to drive me, as it was 40 minutes away and I needed to keep an eye on her. She continuously was getting the link hooked on the travel cage bars and would get stuck, so I sat with the travel cage on my lap the entire time so I could comfort her and keep her from causing more physical trauma.
Luckily, the vet was able to easily cut the link off with bolt cutters, and Genevieve did wonderfully during the very quick procedure. I was given a round of antibiotics to give her twice daily, and she is doing great, but this could have easily been much, much worse.
I'm still not 100% sure where she got the loose link from, and even the vet has no idea how she managed to spear herself with it like this.
I took a couple of pictures to document what happened, and so that people can see how serious this could have been. I apologize if these are disturbing, but they are not graphic and I feel like they are very important to get my point across. Before you see these, I want to stress that she is doing fine and managed to not damage anything. She's also taking her medicine like a champ and being as sassy as ever. This horrific event seems to have barely upset her at all.
Left is her inside of the vet's office. Poor thing was so tired. I imagine the link was very heavy for her little gremlin head to hold up all that time.
Right is on the ride there. I managed to get a good side shot of her, where you can see the end of the link inside of her mouth.
The link on the right is the one that was removed from her jaw. On the left is just a similar one for sake of clarity.
Please check your links to make sure they are always securely closed. I flip mine upside down to have gravity help. Never let your bird intentionally play with quick links, as unscrewing the clasp is pretty fun for them. I'm looking into safer alternatives to hang their toys from, perhaps plastic C links of a proper size. I use baby links outside of the cage to hang up many of their play stand toys, but they could potentially get stuck inside if it's left in their cage, unsupervised.
I thought the link was just caught under her beak, but she somehow managed to pierce the soft skin under there, and the quick link went all the way through and was coming out of her mouth!
There was thankfully no blood, and she didn't seem too scared or in pain; she honestly just seemed very annoyed with this thing sticking out of her face and wanted it off.
After realizing I wouldn't be able to safely remove it myself, I called the vet and asked my boyfriend to drive me, as it was 40 minutes away and I needed to keep an eye on her. She continuously was getting the link hooked on the travel cage bars and would get stuck, so I sat with the travel cage on my lap the entire time so I could comfort her and keep her from causing more physical trauma.
Luckily, the vet was able to easily cut the link off with bolt cutters, and Genevieve did wonderfully during the very quick procedure. I was given a round of antibiotics to give her twice daily, and she is doing great, but this could have easily been much, much worse.
I'm still not 100% sure where she got the loose link from, and even the vet has no idea how she managed to spear herself with it like this.
I took a couple of pictures to document what happened, and so that people can see how serious this could have been. I apologize if these are disturbing, but they are not graphic and I feel like they are very important to get my point across. Before you see these, I want to stress that she is doing fine and managed to not damage anything. She's also taking her medicine like a champ and being as sassy as ever. This horrific event seems to have barely upset her at all.
Left is her inside of the vet's office. Poor thing was so tired. I imagine the link was very heavy for her little gremlin head to hold up all that time.
Right is on the ride there. I managed to get a good side shot of her, where you can see the end of the link inside of her mouth.
The link on the right is the one that was removed from her jaw. On the left is just a similar one for sake of clarity.
Please check your links to make sure they are always securely closed. I flip mine upside down to have gravity help. Never let your bird intentionally play with quick links, as unscrewing the clasp is pretty fun for them. I'm looking into safer alternatives to hang their toys from, perhaps plastic C links of a proper size. I use baby links outside of the cage to hang up many of their play stand toys, but they could potentially get stuck inside if it's left in their cage, unsupervised.
. That was really a freak accident. I've heard of accidents with larger birds and pear links, but thank you for posting a warning that even small birds can get those links open.
