Blood Feathers = Blood Bath :(

[tfw]

Kass is fine. Recovering in his cage. Still covered in his blood.

We got a call from our kid saying his wing was bleeding after he fell/jumped off his gym. We were 30 min away. Luckily the bleeding had stopped when she called. We drove home and he had dry blood under his wing and side.

We took him to the vet and the bleeding started up again, but mainly came out in splatters as he flapped his wing in annoyance. The walls (and us as well) were covered with his splatter. But at least the blood would clot when he was just sitting there calmly.

After attempts to wrap him in a towel a few times kept failing, we saw one of the blood feather pieces came out on its own! The vet, however, couldn't get a good look at the area to see if there were more, or if the bleeding stopped. We ended up having him sedated. But boy, he was full of adrenaline cuz even with the meds kicking in, he went into full fight mode as soon as the vet looked over his wing! They cleaned and had to cut a couple of non-blood feathers that were broken and jagged. She found another broken blood feather but he kept fighting so she ended up having to give him a 2nd dose of sedation.

She managed to cleanly pluck out the 2nd blood feather. The bleeding stopped eventually and she gave him the anti-sedation meds and he came back to normal within 10 mins.

But MAN needless to say the room would be out of commission the rest of the day LOL . Lots of blood splatter! I got nailed a few times in the face with blood splatter (and once on the eye with his bloody wing).

Much props to the vet tech (who also owns 3 parrots -- an Amazon, Conure, and African Gray and is more than familiar with the power of the beak). Kass bit her HARD 3 or 4 times. I know it's part of the job, but I feel awful. I did help minimize by holding a towel for Kass to bite on instead of her arm. But she is always always always awesome. We will be sending her a gift.




I didn't want to outright post the bloody pics so here are links if you aren't grossed out by blood:

3 blood soaked towels later:
https://flic.kr/p/2ifXSRo

2 blood feathers:
https://flic.kr/p/2ig1knJ

Blood splattered walls and clothes:
https://flic.kr/p/2ig2nFa

https://flic.kr/p/2ig2nF5

https://flic.kr/p/2ifY8ad

https://flic.kr/p/2ig2EdP

Still covered in dry blood....guess I should give it a few days before attempting to clean it up.
https://flic.kr/p/2ifYsdo

 

[Tami2]

Awww poor thing. That must have been so scary. I dread this senario. I have Styptic Powder in a first aid kit next to Levi's cage and one upstairs as well.
I use this one, and it works!
https://www.amazon.com/Remedy-Recov...ery+Stop+Bleeding&qid=1579224625&sr=8-1-fkmr1

Thank God Kass is okay and your daughter was home when it happened.

How is Kass now, after all of that blood loss, the fall and stress?

 

[Laurasea]

I'm so glad everything turned out ok!!

 

[tfw]

We put him in his cage when we got home. Luckily it was an hour to bedtime anyway. He was fine and very relaxed. No new blood but we haven't cleaned off the dry blood. Don't want too do anything to open the bleeding again. He was a bit hand shy this evening so we just gave him gentle head scritches and gave him space with plenty of food and liquids. He was eating fine, too.

 

[Flboy]

Pure terror! Something I hope to never experience!

 

[tfw]

I think for sure birds with clipped wings probably get the brunt of broken blood feathers. More prone to falls and stuff.

He's still covered in blood. I'm going to see if I can just aim the sink faucet to his right thigh to wash it off. He's fine today....maybe a little stand offish, but otherwise seems ok.

 

[Scott]

Glad Kass is recovering and has normal clotting abilities! Another great post illustrating great instincts and skilled vet care!!

 

[noodles123]

Blood feathers are so scary--- when Noodles broke one, I was so nervous I couldn't have pulled it if I had tried, as I was shaking too much.
She has had one pulled, and a few that I left alone, but this is the scenario I envision every time I see that she has an issue with one.
Glad all is well!

 

[tfw]

We have ordered a pair of hemostats and some syptic powder, which both arrived today. But even if we had the right equipment, in this particular case, a vet visit was warranted. First, we had never pulled a blood feather before (watched many videos though). Secondly, even the vet tech and vet had problems pulling the feathers...I think we would have done more damage than good had we attemped it on our own. The location of the broken feathers on the wing weren't easy to get to...they were at the tip and broken in a way that even the vet had issues pulling the tip out. We were at the vets for 2 hours!

Man he stinks of dry blood LOL I will see how he reacts to some water and see if i can at least get to the thigh. Normally he absolutely loves water. So we'll see how he does.