Lovebird with Hurt Wing, When to go to Vet? How to treat?

[christine]

Hello everyone

Can you help me figure out the best thing to do with this wing injury? Its my first lovebird injury and I cant tell if its minor or if I should go to the vet.

My female Lovebird's left wing has been bothering her for a few weeks. The last few days it seems more severe.

Her wings are trimmed but she can fly pretty far lately, but she cant gain altitude--she just glides toward the ground. After she flies she holds her left wing off of her body and twitches it and looks generally irritated with it. She uses her beak to kind of aggressively try to fix a feather.

Later she'll fly again and then hold her left wing off her body and it looks like it irritates her more and more each time it happens.

I cant help thinking maybe this is a sprain or something because despite the fact that her wing irritates her she still keeps flying. Flying=Not Broken, right?

I think I need to make her rest for a few days, no big wing flapping and definitely no flying. I was also thinking about giving her another trim so she doesnt get tempted to fly. What do you guys think, do I need to bring her to the Vet?

 

[DallyTsuka]

i think there's a chance she's just really aggitated with a feather that might be ready to molt so she's getting annoyed with it (i see this behaviour with my birds around the time they molt their wing feathers)


but i'd bring her to the vet if you feel there is a potential problem at least to put your mind at ease, or just in case my guess is wrong. is there any swelling? has she been molting out wing feathers? is the clip new or is she starting to grow it out?

 

[christine]

Thanks DailyTsuka!
I dont think there is any swelling, at least not any obvious swelling. I don't really hold her much because she hates it--just when I have to trim her wings. She spends a lot of time on my shoulder and finger but she really doesn't like being held. Makes it harder to inspect her, I don't want to grab her and make her injure herself more. So I guess I'm not sure about swelling but I have looked at her wing a lot and it looks okay.

The clip is old and is starting to grow out. I clipped her wings a few months ago. She has a few straggly long feathers now that have grown out.

These are my first birds, the oldest lovebird (The Female) is only a year & a half old. They shed little feathers/down duff all the time and they shed one or two long feather once a month or so.

I've never experienced a full on molt before. Do they loose all their feathers? How does it work?

 

[DallyTsuka]

they will lose a few at a time never all at once (could you imagine how goofy that would look... one day wake up and your parrot is naked with a pile of feathers at the bottom of the cage?) you can expect it to either be ongoing a little bit at a time, or you can expect it to be off and on. i think it depends on climate and individual bird. my lovebirds tend to molt in short spurts off and on, then once a year they have one huge molt where they drop a lot of flight feathers and tail feathers. but never enough to affect their flight.

it sounds like the new feathers coming in are agitating her and old feathers coming loose are bothering her. it'll pass in time mine all do the same thing as they molt.

i'd make sure she bathes more often to help soothe any itching and irritation!

 

[christine]

Bathe more often. Got it. Going to put some fresh cold bathing water in their cage now. Thanks for all your help DallyTsuka!

I think I am going to grab ahold of the girl and take a look at her feathers. Gonna see this molting action up close. Bloody fingers here we go!

 

[DallyTsuka]

ooooh fingers crossed there wont be no bloody fingers!