Beak trimming, older Quaker

[NWQuakers]

I noticed Percy's beak looks a bit longer than it should, and one side of the tip has chipped at an angle. She's eating just fine, and using her beak to climb around. She mostly chews on her happy hut, sometimes on wood, but obviously not enough to keep her beak down.

When we adopted her last April, her person said she was about 16-17 yrs old. My vet said using anesthesia for the trim depends of the individual bird and how much work needs to be done. I'm worried about the stress on Percy with or without anesthesia.

Any advice?

(Hard to get pics of her, since she likes to menace me rather than sit pretty)

 

[MonicaMc]

I trim Charlie's beak on my own using a dremel. He sits in my lap as I hold his head and beak with one hand, dremel in the other.

Not something I'd recommend you trying on your own! It's a two person job which can be done without putting the bird under.... but it may be less stress on the bird to have them put under.



Did you have a CBC/blood panel done on her since you got her?

 

[NWQuakers]

We didn't have any bloodwork done, since it was the vet who mediated the adoption, and had all her medical info.

I'm sure the vet and staff are good judges of when to put birds under or not, but I just worry. We lost our older quaker last january, and the 2nd quaker, Lucky, was really upset. It was such a relief to adopt Percy and see them bond so well. If something preventable happened to Percy, I don't know if Lucky could recover from another round of grief.

I guess I'll jut let the vet decide what's best.

 

[Terry57]

Our vet has a helper hold my Talli while the vet uses a dremel to do his beak. He does not really seem to get all that stressed, thank goodness.

 

[MonicaMc]

I'm just wondering if the overgrown beak could be a sign of liver failure, which can be determined via doing a blood panel.

In theory, if it's her liver causing her beak to overgrow, and you fix her liver with a diet change and supplements, then her beak may stop overgrowing. This would mean no more beak trims!

 

[NWQuakers]

I'll ask the vet to run a new panel when she goes in, if he doesn't suggest it.