EllenD
New member
- Aug 20, 2016
- 3,979
- 68
- Parrots
- Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
I swear there has been a hex put upon my house and my birds for the last 4-5 months, I can't take any more and neither can my babies. I had my Senegal Parrot, Kane, get his foot stuck in the outside bars of his cage and chew his toe completely off, I had my Green Cheek Conure, Bowie, fly into a ceiling fan while I had friends watching him, and he sustained a bad concussion, and last night my Cockatiel, Duff, broke a huge blood feather and nearly bled to death. So far I have managed to save all of them but Duff isn't doing very well today, and with all of my avian health and medicine education, experience, and training I don't know what else to do to help her right now. And I'm finding that being emotionally invested in the patient is making it extremely difficult for me to think clearly. So any help is appreciated...[emoji22].
Last night around 11:30 I was downstairs watching a movie, the birds were all upstairs in my bedroom asleep in their sleeping cages. All of a sudden I heard Duff just screaming bloody murder and flapping around. I ran upstairs and found that she had somehow broken a massive blood feather on her left wing, it was the outermost feather on her wing (she was fully flighted, was...). I grabbed her and ran downstairs, grabbed a clean towel and the first aid kit with the cornstarch and the styptic powder. She broke the feather right in half, so there wasn't very much to grab onto in order to pull the feather out. Now I know what to do here, but I was freaking out and in a total panic because of the amount of blood that she was losing, and I just couldn't get it together. This is the third major accident in 4 months, and with Bowie hitting the ceiling fan I was sure he was going to die-the little bugger was flying around and eating, talking, and playing on his okay gym within an hour. This catastrophe last night was so much worse...I kept holding extreme pressure on the end of the feather, having both sides of it completely covered in cornstarch and styptic powder and pinching it off inside the towel for 15 minutes at a time, so much so that my hand and fingers hurt and became numb. I finally came to the conclusion that I had to pull the feather, but it was so big and pulling it out of her wing bone would be so painful...But she was going to bleed to death. So I grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers and just did it-she screamed in agony and bit me so hard that I couldn't tell if it was my blood or hers after while. I couldn't get the feather out of the bone. And after trying twice I couldn't do it to her again. So I slipped on sandals, grabbed my car keys, and jumped in my truck, driving the 10 minutes to the 24 hour Animal Hospital (where they now know me by name), using my left hand to drive and having poor little Duff's wing bleeding pinched off with my right hand, inside a towel, with Duff literally ripping my hand apart. This is the sweetest bird I have ever owned, she has never as much as even beaked me, she constantly bows her head for scritches and is happy to sleep on my chest all night. And she was screaming in agony and biting my hand apart, not understanding why I was doing this to her all of a sudden. I came to the conclusion I'd rather she hated me and was alive than lived me and was dead, so we finally pulled into the Animal Hospital and I ran inside (wearing boxers and a tank top, covered in blood and cornstarch from head to toe) yelling "She's bleeding to death, she broke a huge blood feather and it has to be pulled out of the bone immediately, please, I tried with pliers but I couldn't get it out!". I'm glad I said this (it wasn't purposeful, I was just telling for help) because a nurse or vet tech came running out and the first thing she did was rip the towel off and allowed blood to start dripping out of her again. I explained that I was pinching the bleeding off, which was working as long as I didn't let go, but the only way to stop it was to pull the blood feather out of the bone. She said something about Qwik Stop and I told her not to bother, I was already covered in it and it had been an hour. So two vets finally came running out, a man and a woman, and luckily the man knew exactly what he was doing. They asked me to stay in the waiting room but there was no way in hell, so I went into the room still pinching the bleeding off, Duff screaming and flipping all over the place, and the male vet asked me to continue to hold her down on the table. He opened the towel, opened her wing up, wiped the active blood away, and BAM! he yanked the blood feather right out of her wing, which made the most disgusting cracking noise I've ever heard. They then got some cautery going and the bleeding stopped almost immediately, but poor Duff was absolutely traumatized.
I cleaned myself up in their bathroom, they cleaned Duff up a little and gave her a subcutaneous fluid injection. She had gotten some of the styptic powder in her left eye, just as a kick in the ass, so they flushed it out with saline and put some numbing drops in. They gave me some Metacam and I thanked them for saving her life. I sat up with her for a bit, she was shaking and crying a little, but I laid down on my back on the couch with the TV on low, and she finally fell asleep on my chest, under my chin. She still loves me, she isn't even scared of me after all of that, and I'm amazed. She's such a sweetheart. I'm shocked at how hard she can bite though, it's amazing how much damage they can do when they want to, but she only did it out of severe pain, that's it. She's fine today as far as being held and scratched by me.
She is drinking and even eating today, so I'm thrilled with that, but she's sleeping otherwise, nothing else but sleeping. I'm really concerned obviously, she lost so much blood! I know it was horribly traumatic and she was up until after 6:00 in the morning, I'm exhausted too. But I don't know if there's anything else I can or should be doing for her, other than food and water. I'm giving her unlimited seed right now along with her pellets, I figure she needs the nutrition and and deserves a treat, and I want her to eat and drink all that she can. I'm keeping her with me on the couch except when she wonders over to her cage to eat or get a drink in-between naps, and the other birds are in their cages today (not happy AT ALL and loudly telling me about it all day long). I don't want Bowie to bug her, he is always trying to preen her and she doesn't need that.
Does anyone have any other ideas of things I can do to help her recover? My CAV will be in tomorrow so she's going to him first thing in the morning, we'll be standing there waiting for him when he gets in, but until then, what can I do? I'm letting her sleep, but I'm so afraid she won't wake back up..[emoji22], I love her so much, I'm acting like someone who has no bird experience at all, it's terrible, but it was just so horrific and she's my only sweet, little girl, I've owned cockatiels before and loved them all, but she's just so sweet and loving, and I keep bursting into tears...
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
Last night around 11:30 I was downstairs watching a movie, the birds were all upstairs in my bedroom asleep in their sleeping cages. All of a sudden I heard Duff just screaming bloody murder and flapping around. I ran upstairs and found that she had somehow broken a massive blood feather on her left wing, it was the outermost feather on her wing (she was fully flighted, was...). I grabbed her and ran downstairs, grabbed a clean towel and the first aid kit with the cornstarch and the styptic powder. She broke the feather right in half, so there wasn't very much to grab onto in order to pull the feather out. Now I know what to do here, but I was freaking out and in a total panic because of the amount of blood that she was losing, and I just couldn't get it together. This is the third major accident in 4 months, and with Bowie hitting the ceiling fan I was sure he was going to die-the little bugger was flying around and eating, talking, and playing on his okay gym within an hour. This catastrophe last night was so much worse...I kept holding extreme pressure on the end of the feather, having both sides of it completely covered in cornstarch and styptic powder and pinching it off inside the towel for 15 minutes at a time, so much so that my hand and fingers hurt and became numb. I finally came to the conclusion that I had to pull the feather, but it was so big and pulling it out of her wing bone would be so painful...But she was going to bleed to death. So I grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers and just did it-she screamed in agony and bit me so hard that I couldn't tell if it was my blood or hers after while. I couldn't get the feather out of the bone. And after trying twice I couldn't do it to her again. So I slipped on sandals, grabbed my car keys, and jumped in my truck, driving the 10 minutes to the 24 hour Animal Hospital (where they now know me by name), using my left hand to drive and having poor little Duff's wing bleeding pinched off with my right hand, inside a towel, with Duff literally ripping my hand apart. This is the sweetest bird I have ever owned, she has never as much as even beaked me, she constantly bows her head for scritches and is happy to sleep on my chest all night. And she was screaming in agony and biting my hand apart, not understanding why I was doing this to her all of a sudden. I came to the conclusion I'd rather she hated me and was alive than lived me and was dead, so we finally pulled into the Animal Hospital and I ran inside (wearing boxers and a tank top, covered in blood and cornstarch from head to toe) yelling "She's bleeding to death, she broke a huge blood feather and it has to be pulled out of the bone immediately, please, I tried with pliers but I couldn't get it out!". I'm glad I said this (it wasn't purposeful, I was just telling for help) because a nurse or vet tech came running out and the first thing she did was rip the towel off and allowed blood to start dripping out of her again. I explained that I was pinching the bleeding off, which was working as long as I didn't let go, but the only way to stop it was to pull the blood feather out of the bone. She said something about Qwik Stop and I told her not to bother, I was already covered in it and it had been an hour. So two vets finally came running out, a man and a woman, and luckily the man knew exactly what he was doing. They asked me to stay in the waiting room but there was no way in hell, so I went into the room still pinching the bleeding off, Duff screaming and flipping all over the place, and the male vet asked me to continue to hold her down on the table. He opened the towel, opened her wing up, wiped the active blood away, and BAM! he yanked the blood feather right out of her wing, which made the most disgusting cracking noise I've ever heard. They then got some cautery going and the bleeding stopped almost immediately, but poor Duff was absolutely traumatized.
I cleaned myself up in their bathroom, they cleaned Duff up a little and gave her a subcutaneous fluid injection. She had gotten some of the styptic powder in her left eye, just as a kick in the ass, so they flushed it out with saline and put some numbing drops in. They gave me some Metacam and I thanked them for saving her life. I sat up with her for a bit, she was shaking and crying a little, but I laid down on my back on the couch with the TV on low, and she finally fell asleep on my chest, under my chin. She still loves me, she isn't even scared of me after all of that, and I'm amazed. She's such a sweetheart. I'm shocked at how hard she can bite though, it's amazing how much damage they can do when they want to, but she only did it out of severe pain, that's it. She's fine today as far as being held and scratched by me.
She is drinking and even eating today, so I'm thrilled with that, but she's sleeping otherwise, nothing else but sleeping. I'm really concerned obviously, she lost so much blood! I know it was horribly traumatic and she was up until after 6:00 in the morning, I'm exhausted too. But I don't know if there's anything else I can or should be doing for her, other than food and water. I'm giving her unlimited seed right now along with her pellets, I figure she needs the nutrition and and deserves a treat, and I want her to eat and drink all that she can. I'm keeping her with me on the couch except when she wonders over to her cage to eat or get a drink in-between naps, and the other birds are in their cages today (not happy AT ALL and loudly telling me about it all day long). I don't want Bowie to bug her, he is always trying to preen her and she doesn't need that.
Does anyone have any other ideas of things I can do to help her recover? My CAV will be in tomorrow so she's going to him first thing in the morning, we'll be standing there waiting for him when he gets in, but until then, what can I do? I'm letting her sleep, but I'm so afraid she won't wake back up..[emoji22], I love her so much, I'm acting like someone who has no bird experience at all, it's terrible, but it was just so horrific and she's my only sweet, little girl, I've owned cockatiels before and loved them all, but she's just so sweet and loving, and I keep bursting into tears...
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
