Conure suddenly passes away

[hostetler92]

Hello, I’m new to the forum and hoping someone can provide me with some answers. Our conure suddenly passed in the night. She was in good health (she had a checkup in december) and was active and talking before we went to bed. When we woke up she had passed. We noticed that she had pulled all our feathers out under her wing and had a bare spot about the size of two quarters. We also noticed blood droplets in the cage. We are just looking for answers as to why she would do this. Was there something wrong internally? As a note she was 12 and we had her for 5 years and never noticed her plucking this area before. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[ravvlet]

It’s probably too late now, but in cases where there is no visible injury the only real way to get an answer would be a necropsy. I’m so sorry for your loss.

 

[LaManuka]

Hello, I’m new to the forum and hoping someone can provide me with some answers. Our conure suddenly passed in the night. She was in good health (she had a checkup in december) and was active and talking before we went to bed. When we woke up she had passed. We noticed that she had pulled all our feathers out under her wing and had a bare spot about the size of two quarters. We also noticed blood droplets in the cage. We are just looking for answers as to why she would do this. Was there something wrong internally? As a note she was 12 and we had her for 5 years and never noticed her plucking this area before. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I agree with @ravvlet, a necropsy is your best bet to get more insight into why your conure might have passed. You would need to have stored her body in the fridge, not the freezer, for not more than three days for the examination to yield the best results, but having said that, necropsy is not always 100% conclusive. If she was suddenly plucking in one spot it may have been an indicator of internal pain, but it really is very difficult for us to say for sure from here. I too am very sorry for your loss though, it sounds like she was a most beloved, well cared for and cherished family member, like we would hope all little birds could always be.

 

[hostetler92]

It’s probably too late now, but in cases where there is no visible injury the only real way to get an answer would be a necropsy. I’m so sorry for your loss.

Thank you. Just trying to figure out if she died from plucking her feathers out and bleeding or if there was something internal that caused it. She was just fine when we went to bed.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

So sorry to hear about this. Since there was no sign of illness before, it is possible that she may have startled by something ie sudden movement, shadow, noise etc. and her wing accidentally got trapped by objects inside the cage. Being not able to move, she would have been so frightened by pulling the feather under her wing in the hope to set free causing bleeding. If it happened during the day, you would have known and tried to help her. It's unfortunate that it happened during bed time that it would be hard for anyone to know.

 

[onamom]

I am so sorry for your loss

 

[hostetler92]

So sorry to hear about this. Since there was no sign of illness before, it is possible that she may have startled by something ie sudden movement, shadow, noise etc. and her wing accidentally got trapped by objects inside the cage. Being not able to move, she would have been so frightened by pulling the feather under her wing in the hope to set free causing bleeding. If it happened during the day, you would have known and tried to help her. It's unfortunate that it happened during bed time that it would be hard for anyone to know.

Thank you so much for your input but i dont think her wing was trapped. There were blood droplets on her perch and she even took a bath because when she shook the water off there was blood on the outside of the cage And in the water. It just baffles us why she would chew her feathers like that. We just want to figure out what happened in case we get another bird.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

Thank you so much for your input but i dont think her wing was trapped. There were blood droplets on her perch and she even took a bath because when she shook the water off there was blood on the outside of the cage And in the water. It just baffles us why she would chew her feathers like that. We just want to figure out what happened in case we get another bird.

The other possibility maybe she got bitten by something that got into the cage which made her panic and hurt herself.

 

[hostetler92]

The other possibility maybe she got bitten by something that got into the cage which made her panic and hurt herself.

First of all. Thank you for all the kind words. I would like to do a necropsy but no one remotely close does one. Don’t think anything got in there. Her cage is elevated and our dogs cant reach it and she slept right by my wife. One person thought it was underlying internal issue and she chewed her feathers thinking that was the problem when actually the pain was internal.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

First of all. Thank you for all the kind words. I would like to do a necropsy but no one remotely close does one. Don’t think anything got in there. Her cage is elevated and our dogs cant reach it and she slept right by my wife. One person thought it was underlying internal issue and she chewed her feathers thinking that was the problem when actually the pain was internal.

Birds do hide their illness so it may be true she already had some internal problem for awhile. There are just so many unpredictable and mysterious things happening in life with no answers. I understand your fear and concern that you don't want the same thing happens again. One thing forgot to ask if her cage is covered at night? If so, the theory of something got into the cage is slim. If not, roaches could get into the cage but she would have been flapping her wings which would wake your wife up.

 

[hostetler92]

Birds do hide their illness so it may be true she already had some internal problem for awhile. There are just so many unpredictable and mysterious things happening in life with no answers. I understand your fear and concern that you don't want the same thing happens again. One thing forgot to ask if her cage is covered at night? If so, the theory of something got into the cage is slim. If not, roaches could get into the cage but she would have been flapping her wings which would wake your wife up.

yes, we covered her cage at night pretty much at the same time every night and her cage was elevated so it would be very hard for something to get in there. Its just puzzling to us. There wasnt enough blood for feather plucking to be the cause i dont think. She never ever plucked her feathers before and she just seemed so normal during the day and fine before we covered her cage. We were just surprised she didn’t make any noise if she was in such pain. She was a very vocal and talkative bird. Always said hi and what are you doing every time we walked in the door.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I agree with @ravvlet, a necropsy is your best bet to get more insight into why your conure might have passed. You would need to have stored her body in the fridge, not the freezer, for not more than three days for the examination to yield the best results, but having said that, necropsy is not always 100% conclusive. If she was suddenly plucking in one spot it may have been an indicator of internal pain, but it really is very difficult for us to say for sure from here. I too am very sorry for your loss though, it sounds like she was a most beloved, well cared for and cherished family member, like we would hope all little birds could always be.

My condolences for your loss. Its so very sad to lose a beloved birdie buddy. It is possible that when your bird picked at a small open wound under the wing that bacteria entered its bloodstream causing sepsis (blood infection), rapid decline and sudden death. Its not likely that a necropsy would reveal the exact cause of death. After death it's too late for culture results to be meaningful. Changes that rapidly occur after death make lab results like blood tests and cultures very unreliable. Necropsies are more useful when looking for things like tumors that cause chronic illness and death. Things like strokes and "heart attacks" are also difficult to see on a necropsy because soon after death a animals' blood clots throughout its circulatory system making it impossible to determine if a clot was pre or post mortem. Again, I feel your pain.

 

[Goodboi_the_Lori]

Hello, I’m new to the forum and hoping someone can provide me with some answers. Our conure suddenly passed in the night. She was in good health (she had a checkup in december) and was active and talking before we went to bed. When we woke up she had passed. We noticed that she had pulled all our feathers out under her wing and had a bare spot about the size of two quarters. We also noticed blood droplets in the cage. We are just looking for answers as to why she would do this. Was there something wrong internally? As a note she was 12 and we had her for 5 years and never noticed her plucking this area before. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I had a female Lori who passed away for an unknown reason two years ago. She was only two yrs old and I had no Idea what caused this. It might be stress or underfeeding (my male parrot bullies her) but I'm not sure.

 

[wrench13]

Very sorry for your loss. I had it happen to me too, one day, my Max was just..... gone. Possible she had some sort of heart or other hurtful episode, and she tried to alleviate it by trying to get to the source of pain. SOrt of like a coyote chewing a leg off is it is in a trap, the animal only knows where it hurts. Not much help the ease your pain, but try to remember the good times, those will never leave you.

 

[junior98]

yes, we covered her cage at night pretty much at the same time every night and her cage was elevated so it would be very hard for something to get in there. Its just puzzling to us. There wasnt enough blood for feather plucking to be the cause i dont think. She never ever plucked her feathers before and she just seemed so normal during the day and fine before we covered her cage. We were just surprised she didn’t make any noise if she was in such pain. She was a very vocal and talkative bird. Always said hi and what are you doing every time we walked in the door.

Look for possible tiny rice sized black pieces in the cage. I had a few mice get in my house in 2019 and they were climbing right into my birds cage. they chewed his plastic base tray all the edges and at first i had no clue what was going on, then i ran into one in my hallway at 2am.
I am not saying this happened to your bird but during winter mice sometimes do come in... This was at my old place (1.5 yrs ago and picture is from the first few days in my new house). So if you still have the cage, look at the bottom for those. they look exactly like large rice grains but are black. Just a thought..

And sorry on the loss. We love our birds..