The risk of broken bloodfeathers

[20brio19]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, my boy accidentally broke one and he started bleeding about 10 good drops of blood but then it stopped pretty quickly. I stayed calm(I was shocked though) and I think that helped him, he was alright after the initial scare. Later on the vet didn't think it was a big deal and he's glad I didn't do anything like pull it out.

I'm just thinking of the worst, how bad can it really get and what if it happens when he's alone? What is the mortality rate of parrots bleeding out from this, is it very unlikely for healthy birds? So many questions in my mind now.

 

[Laurasea]

you should remove the shaft when this happens and is actively bleeding . Of course not now that it has stopped. You should have a little first aide kit for the burd, i thi k we have covered thst in the forums before. I think having fine tip needle nose , or hemastats to grasp and twist out broken shaft . 'll do the Google see whst they say

 

[Scott]

Kudos for thinking and planning ahead! I'd recommend Google searches for several articles, and consulting with certified avian vet next visit.
One example: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/pin-or-blood-feathers-in-birds

 

[fiddlejen]

I understand your fear. My Sunny, with one claw that doesn't work right, came with a horribly un-even clip, leaving her quite clumsy. In our first nine months we had a number vet visits for broken bloodfeathers. (Some involved more blood and trauma than others.) I often worried greatly as to what might happen if she were to injure herself inside her cage whilst I was off at work.

At this point, a number of months further along (& working from home) I can tell you that the majority of those bleeding feathers did Not involve a lot of blood & probably would've been fine without the vet visits. (But, I would still take her in!) The few incidents that probably were been truly dangerous, probably could not have occurred inside of her cage (ie, if I was not present).

Does that mean she is 100% safe when I'm not around? (Or, even when I am around?) Nope. Terrible accidents can and do happen to lots of birds, even with loving owners doing their best. As I understand it, in order to streamline for flight, birds do not have a lot of redundancy in their systems like mammals do. Birds truly can bleed-out from a much smaller percentage of their blood than would harm a mammal.

So for myself, any form of Active bleeding in my birdies calls for an immediate vet visit - IF they are open. (IF something should happen when my vet is not open, I will use the first aid supplies I have prepared & choose what to do after that.) HOwever --at this point-- if there is only a drop or two of blood I will wait and evaluate and see if bleeding looks even slightly Possible to continue. (And, I will consult with the vet at that point and do whatever they tell me to do.)

 

[20brio19]

Thanks, I will make sure that I'm more prepared in the future.

But like I said he does spend some time alone daily and I can't help but worry that this could happen when he's alone and I can't help him..though it's even less likely since his cage is safer(the incident happened when he was outside the cage with me).

He's about 16 months old and this is the second time it happened(first time there was no active bleeding).

I didn't realize how serious this can be. The blood was pouring out at a pretty steady pace(though like I said it stopped pretty quickly as well) and many websites do mention the lethality of such incidents. Becoming deadly after Losing only 30% of their blood supply is no joke..

For the long time parrot owners how many times has this happened to your bird and how severe was the situation?

 

[noodles123]

Birds HAVE died from broken blood feathers. Stressful little creatures....aren't they? lol
It's scary because you just never know. SOMETIMES, leaving a broken feather that has clotted is okay (but they can bump it or pick at it and that can be a problem). Other times, they say to pull it out (scary)--the old way of thinking was to pull them all, but many vets say not to in certain circumstances. Mine has had 1 pulled by the vet, one pulled by her, and the rest clotted and eventually fell out (but I haven't had her her whole life, so there may have been more that I didn't know about)...but there is always a risk. They don't have much blood, so a broken blood feather that doesn't clot is like an open shunt to their insides. That having been said, unless the bird has a liver condition or the shaft is very badly damaged, they generally will clot. The issue is if they keep bumping it, or if they are a very small bird and bleed too much in the time it takes to clot.