Splintered feather?!

[andrea.faerie]

So, this morning I noticed one of Lucy's top-ish wing feathers is fractured! It seems to be split in about 4 places into little bits... it's still attached and she lets me touch it and it doesn't seem to bother her... it bothers me though! I don't know how she did it... I'm assuming flapping her wings and hitting it on something or maybe she was preening to hard or something. It's not a blood feather and she lets me tug on it gently.. it's still in there so I don't want to pluck it since it's not bleeding and hasn't appeared to... any suggestions on what to do or what she did? I'm completely baffled! The only thing I can find on the web is about blood feathers, but this isn't one of the big blood feathers, it's on the edge-ish and middle-top layer of feathers if that makes sense

Thank youuu <3

 

[oled]

Could you upload a picture?

 

[andrea.faerie]

She keeps running from the camera >.< I've been trying since I posted lol I think me prodding at her for about 15 minutes trying to figure out this feather has made her go into "Darn it mom leave me alone!" mode. I will try to upload one in a little bit, she just got a shower so I think I'll let her preen and dry off and then try to snap one of that pesky feather

 

[andrea.faerie]

Well.. it turns out while I was in class Little Miss Lucy Plucked the feather out herself, I'll take a picture of it and upload tonight so any one who's wondering what I'm blabbing on about can see what it looks like and why I was concerned. She's doing just fine though, I think she's going to molt soon... she's 6 months old and her feathers are starting to come in THICK and the ones on her wings already in particular are all haphazard....

EDIT//

Well it turns out that feather is still there... the one on the bottom of her cage was the one I looked at earlier and set back down.. -sigh- I've got some high res pics I'm going to upload shortly... It reminds me of rain rot on horses

 

[andrea.faerie]

Here's a picture of the feather that was on the bottom of the cage, the one still attached to her looks very similar in damage... And what's worse is I found 2 more on her on the opposite side tonight?! What in the world is going on??!!

 

[brianlinkles]

I found a feather like that at the bottom of my amazons cage, I would love to know as well. It has been a few weeks ago and there hasn't been anymore like it.

 

[MikeyTN]

They fracture their feathers from the cage bars. I watch mine do it all the time. Anytime its fracture like that. I would suggest in pulling it! If your unsure how, take them to the vet to do it!

 

[andrea.faerie]

I was afraid of that I don't like plucking her feathers... It makes me feel so bad I suppose I'll do it tomorrow as she's already in bed for the night. I suppose she did it while playing, she's never aggressive or violent in her cage but she was flapping her wings rather rapidly the other day...

 

[MikeyTN]

The reason I said to pluck it, they can chew on it to make it worse! To the point its not pluckable unless you go to the vet and have it done.

 

[andrea.faerie]

I'll do it, I just don't like being the meanie mommy, even if it's for her own good -sigh- haha I think I'm going to rearrange her cage so she's got a little more room between her toys, she likes to pull them to the side of her ladder (which rests on the side of the cage) and play with them so I think that's when she broke them. Thanks for your response, I've been concerned for a few days now and didn't want to mess with them until i knew what to do, should I do them one at a time? or all in one sitting to get it over with? She's pretty tolerant but she is just 6 months old...

 

[MikeyTN]

I would do it if the feather is really in ruff shape like the torn shaft of the feather you found. I would do a few from different area at a time. If you pluck multiple in one area you can hurt them! I would do it once every few days. Plus be sure you bathe cause it will help.

 

[andrea.faerie]

Haha she gets a shower every day, she follows me into the bathroom so being clean is no problem with her! I'm thinking about getting her a bigger cage too, the cage she's in is plenty big, big enough for a senegal even... but a little more space could never hurt right? only one (the one i'm really concerned about) is similar to that, the others are pretty bad but not that bad, I think I'll just go ahead and get them too, there's a total of 4 feathers that concern me so I think she might let me get them all tomorrow if I do 2 then leave her alone for a bit then do the other 2

 

[MikeyTN]

Thats fine if there's only 4. Do a quick pluck, make sure your holding her good when doing this. Once you start, just do a quick yank, not pull and stop!

 

[andrea.faerie]

I went to the vet with no avail... they tried to pluck the feathers for me but they just kept breaking at the shaft and lucy was NOT cooperating A nurse vet was holding her and her wing and the vet was plucking with hemostats but it was just horrible needless to say i wont be going there anymore! so now she's got the splintered feather parts off of her but the solid shafts are still in her wings... Do you think she'll pluck them out herself? She should be hitting a partial molt soon since she's 6 months old now...

I also rearranged her cage so there's nothing close to the bars

 

[MikeyTN]

Hemostats is the tool to use for plucking. They couldn't handle a small bird? My vet did it to my macaw. If its close to the body, most likely will not fall out! Part of the reason why I don't like clipping!

 

[andrea.faerie]

They told me they were very comfortable with handling birds wings but I don't think they understood when I said she wasn't a CHICKEN. I live in a small town, the shafts that are left aren't stumpy, I can see them, but the splintered bits are gone, what's left is solid feather shafts, it looks like she plucked one out while I was in class as it's sitting in the bottom of the cage. I have my parents bringing me a pair of hemostats this weekend. My dad had many many macaws so I'm confident he'll be able to help me. I can do it myself, I just need someone to hold her for me... and hemostats lol

 

[andrea.faerie]

good news, she stood still and let me get 2 with my fingers She's enjoying a nice slice of bell pepper now for being a good girl ^_^


is this really all caused because I have her partially clipped? it wasn't the clipped feathers that splintered

 

[MikeyTN]

No, if it was it would be the ones you've clipped! Those that had it happen was his own doing playing or fluttering within the cage. Awesome you got them out!