Cockatiel attacked

[Mike17]

Our whiteface 'tiel, Ariel, was attacked and badly bitten by our corella this evening. The whiteface and his friend Alex the eccy spend the day on back verandah, and come in at sunset. The bite didn't look too bad, but he flew to Alex's cage, Ariel is usually out while we have dinner (he has rice) while Alex stays in his cage until dinner is over. The flying seemed to set bloodflow off, next ting my wife's shrieking that there was a lot of blood on my shoulder. We wrapped Ariel in a towel and applied cornstarch paste to both sides of wing- there appears to be a puncture wound right through the wing. If he makes it through the night we will apply aloe to the wound. I was shocked at the amount of blood- a patch the size of a large coin plus smaller splatters.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Oh my goodness!!! I am so sorry this happened. I truly hope Ariel will be ok.

How is she acting now???

 

[Mike17]

Oh my goodness!!! I am so sorry this happened. I truly hope Ariel will be ok.

How is she acting now???

He's in his cage, covered, it's 11pm here now. My wife thought he should be checked on every 10 minutes, but at the last check he panicked and jumped off perch to cage wire, so I said just leave him, he needs rest and quiet. The bleeding hasn't recommenced, the cornstarch paste worked, just worried about shock as he lost a lot of blood for a little bird. Tomorrow we'll try to apply something for infection control, and obviously not let him fly as that's what set the bad bleeding off, three hours after the attack. I'm concerned that there's a broken bone in the wing, but again, little we can do about that at this stage. My wife wants to get rid of the corella, now. We would have problems taking him to Tasmania, and we have to find another home for our lorikeet too, as he's prohibited entirely from that state.

 

[Niner10Tango]

How is Ariel today? What a terrible experience, so sorry you had to go through that. Do you plan on taking Ariel to the vet?

 

[MikeyTN]

I hope Ariel is ok today!!!!

 

[Mike17]

How is Ariel today? What a terrible experience, so sorry you had to go through that. Do you plan on taking Ariel to the vet?

The nearest avian vet is 900km away, I'm in a small country town where the vet is closed on weekends. We'll have to "wing it". Ariel is quiet this morning, we'll keep him in his cage until the wound is healed, could be several weeks. His cage is beside Alex's, so we have a quandary there, as Alex will shriek if not let out of his cage as per normal, but Ariel will become agitated and climb all over his cage if Alex is out and he isn't. From Ariel's point of view, they're inseparable. Just as Alex has been starting to be gentle with him, too, we've seen the eccy preening Ariel (he also preens the corella) and lately he's been really gentle, at least gentle for Alex which means Ariel didn't get bitten but lost all his crest.

Perhaps we should move Ariel's cage to another room, away from Alex's?

All these "mixed flock" issues, with friendships here and hatreds there. It's funny though, Ariel simply has no interest in other 'tiels, he just adores his friend Alex