Cockatoo feather prob +pics (help)

[noodles123]

I noticed that under her wing (on one of her wing feathers-right side) there is an abnormality towards the end of her feather (it looks like the feather was split along the shaft, but not all the way through - kind of like if a feather shaft could get a paper-cut vertically (following the shaft)--- it is only blackish along the "split"--the texture of the darkened area is not smooth (like the rest of the shaft) it is like there was a superficial injury to the shaft in this area because the texture is rough in the colored spot.



I also saw two red spots on her feathers (and I attached pictures of those as well...."zoomed out image of another red spot" is a zoomed out version of "another red spot"...IN TOTAL, 2 RED SPOTS (DIFFERENT) +THE WING FEATHER:


FOLLOW LINKS BELOW TO PICTURES (OR SEE ATTACHMENTS---I inserted both)!!!



https://ibb.co/mjMr2K (WING FEATHER)


https://ibb.co/cottGe (RED SPOT/LINE)


https://ibb.co/gav9NK (ANOTHER RED SPOT)


https://ibb.co/d9hTGe (ZOOMED OUT IMAGE OF "ANOTHER RED SPOT" (ABOVE)

 

[GaleriaGila]

noodles, I closed your other thread on this...
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/77316-dark-spot-feather-umbrella-cockatoo-help.html
... and redirected readers to this one. Hopefully you'll get all your replies in one place, where the pictures are.

It looks to me like a small injury of some kind, but I'm not sure. Will your vet agree to look at pictures? Mine will, for established patients.
Let's see what members think.

 

[noodles123]

Thanks GaleriaGila, I emailed her (the vet) the pictures and we have an appointment (by chance) this Tues for a nail-trim etc...I just get so worried knowing my bird's background...She has been in 3 homes (besides mine) and she had a liver issue when I got her (thankfully resolved now)...I just wonder about PBFD etc....EEEEEKK....

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, dear noodles, I admit, it crossed my mind, too, but...
Anyway, you got on this thing fast!
We'll wait for news.

 

[Laurasea]

Noodles what did you find out about featheres???

 

[noodles123]

The vet thought that they might have been damaged manually (she is a recovering over-preener sometimes and she is VERY clumsy) , but I asked to do beak and feather test just to check on that possibility. I will bring her in for blood-work soon, but we were out of town.
That having been said, she had a CBC and blood panels run recently and there was no elevated white-count etc. The PBFD test is to put my mind at ease, given that my bird will eventually mingle with my uncle's bird and I hate to think she could spread something to his Jardines parrot.

 

[Laurasea]

I hope the test will be fine. It makes me think a little of melanoma? I don't even know if that's something parrots can get??? Not to stress you out!!! I've just been puzzling over it...And the vet looked at it so .. I hope everything clears up with no problems!

 

[noodles123]

Me too (and yeah, it concerns me as well- which is why I am second-guessing my vet's assertion that it is damage---that's just how I roll though lol).
I hope to have answers soon---as soon as my "baby" is over her attitudinal response to my travels (3 days away and you would think I left her for a year---not her first time with a "sitter" either) lol.
I do still plan to take her in for blood (again).

 

[ChristaNL]

Knowing always beats guessing and being worried.
(Keeping my fingers crossed for you of course)



Since feathers usually (when fully grown) do not bleed I thought it wat just coming from a small wound somewhere else (like a insectbite size).
Your probably tried already to see if it wipes off?


The first one looks like it's cracked-by-bird. (Did she hit anything with it? the gnawing here is usually not precisely lengthwise -and there is a lot of feathergnawing going on as you know )


You take great pictures btw. (lol do I keep repeating that to you?)
She looks glorious.

 

[EllenD]

I don't think this is PBFD at all, but I'm glad you got the test done to ease your own mind, and just so you know for certain...but I'm pretty much 100% certain that it is not PFBD based on the prior cases that I've seen at the start, middle, and the horrible end...

To me, that first photo looks simply like he either banged/hit his wing off of something or got is stuck/snagged on something and it split the feather shaft. And depending on where the injury is on the wing, it's likely that this is the source of the little droplets of blood, as it's not uncommon for the large, primary flight feathers to have blood supply either to them, or more commonly around them, again depending on where in the wing it's located. My female Cockatiel had a blood-feather break about 2 years ago, and i ended-up having to pull it because I couldn't get the bleeding stopped. Now that particular feather it sensitive to her, it grew back in, but for whatever reason, if she bumps that feather now, it will often bleed a bit, even though it's now a mature feather. So if your Cockatoo is a prior-plucker, it's quite possible that this feather/area is a spot that he used to pluck and has suffered prior damage, and now even though the feather is a mature feather and he no longer plucks, it can very easily sustain damage and bleed.

It doesn't look like he did it to himself either, as the wound/break follows down the feather shaft in a very straight, clean line that precisely follows the shaft of the feather...typically when they pluck they aren't this clean, and breaks in the feathers don't follow straight lines right down the shaft. Honestly, based on the break in the shaft and the look of the "injury", I think he got his feather stuck in something and yanked it out, such as between cage bars, in or behind a toy, etc., and when he pulled his wing out, he suffered an abrasion and split the shaft...Either way, the feather should grow out normally and the new one grow in. As long as it heals-up without any issues and it stops bleeding, then it should grow-out and be fine. Sometimes a damaged/injured, mature feather like this will continue to break/split as they become quite fragile once this happens, and if this happens and keeps happening over months, and the feather isn't growing-out normally, then the CAV will actually pull the mature feather out so that a new, healthy feather can grow back in normally. But usually they will just grow out on their own and be fine.

I don't see anything in that other photo except what looks to be a newly-grown feather that has just broken out of the sheath, and is still a bit shorter than the mature feathers around it. The end of the feather isn't ragged, and has a straight edge to it, so it doesn't appear to be a feather that he chewed on/barbered, but rather just a new feather that has just recently broken out of the sheath, and is still a bit shorter than the other feathers around it. It should grow-in fully to it's mature length soon.