plucking fear

[Rana]

Hi guys,

I'm after finding 5 of Little bandit's tailfeathers at the bottom of her cage today and started panicking... she has some feathers on her tail left but it's looking quite thinned out...

I recently got her converted to pellets and fresh fruit/veg after she had a very poor seed only diet from her last owner, and she has a UV light mounted on her cage for the darker days (Ireland has lots of those...)
she eats well, drinks plenty, started showing an interest in coming out of her cage and actually plays with some of her toys! i really thought she was doing fine so i'm really wrecking my head thinking what caused her to start plucking! (please note all these changes happened graduately over teh space of 3 or 4 months or so) as i'm typing this - i just noticed her chewing a willow branch she has in her cage for the first time ever!

anyway i'm taking her to the vet later today, they squeezed me in for an appointment this afternoon.

but if anyone has any tips or idea's what may have caused her to do this please let me know!

thanks

 

[MonicaMc]

Are you sure it's plucking and not molting? A healthier diet and a change in light may cause a heavy molt.

Hope she checks out fine!

 

[Rana]

hi monica, that's exactly what the vet said too...
Her body may go through some sort of shock now that she's on a healthy diet etc...
She didn't seem to have irritation of any sort, but we also couldn't spot any new feathers coming through replacing the old ones, and as i was chatting to one of the nurses afterwards she plucked out another feather that had a bit of blood at the "calamus" i think the correct term was ( i learned something new today )

Anyway i got her some soother spray to stop any itching and she has to take some anti inflammatory medicine, a drop a day with a syringe.
We couldn't spot any other feathers on her body being damaged or missing and nor did i find any other type of feathers in her cage, her preening gland wasn't inflamed either so hopefully it is indeed a severe molt caused by the change in her diet.

I never even knew that was possible!

but the vet knows bandit very well and seen her regularly since i got her, and due to her "abusive childhood", we need to be on our toes for any of these behavioral issues...

 

[MonicaMc]

Well, darn her! LOL



Hope she takes the meds well and leaves the rest of her feathers alone so healthy new ones can come in!