Underwing self mutilation and skin problems

[sscott13]

Hi, I recently adopted a congo african grey (about 4 months ago now) and the rescue people i adopted her from mention minor feather plucking which had stopped and the feathers should grow back shortly. This seemed to be true until i noticed massive raw spots under her wings, we took her to the vet and they said it was self mutilation. We collared her and she definitely cannot get around the collar, no improvement, we put her through a round of anti-biotics and still no improvement, if anything it got worse, we now have her on anti fungal medication and her wings are still getting worse. Silver Sulfadiazine seems to work short term but my vet has not prescribed any to me yet. Nothing else seems to help even for a short time.
She is on a diet of pellets, some seeds, fresh fruits and veggies, cornbread with veggies cooked in, she is 16 years old.
This is getting very expensive (around $600 already) and money is short at the moment.
Does anyone have any advice or experience with this??
Please help me out if you do

-Sean
-- rosey, umbrella cockatoo
-- Marten, white capped pionus
-- sunset, Pineapple green cheek conure
--Bacca, congo african grey

 

[Tobycyng]

Heya.
I am kind of having this kind of problem with my INR.
We bought her for the princely sum of £100 from a breeder where it looked like she was not looked after very well (she had poo all over her wings and seemed to really hate and dislike humans.
Now she is getting better behaved, but I am beginning to get worried about her feathers.
Her wings had been clipped (badly) by the seller and she is pulling the ends apart.
She is also pulling out her tail feathers and looks like she is itching herself under the feathers.
I am wondering if this is just normal moulting, or is it a more deep physical/psychological problem.
She also has quite scaly feet - I am wondering if she has a skin parasite or virus, and if so, how to treat her.
Please note : we are in the UK, so specific medicines are often hard to get and of dubious origin.

 

[Kentuckienne]

That's awful. Aren't there medical conditions that cause poor healing- diabetes, vitamin deficiencies? The does she have overclipped feathers that could be rubbing on the spots?

 

[sscott13]

Heya.
I am kind of having this kind of problem with my INR.
We bought her for the princely sum of £100 from a breeder where it looked like she was not looked after very well (she had poo all over her wings and seemed to really hate and dislike humans.
Now she is getting better behaved, but I am beginning to get worried about her feathers.
Her wings had been clipped (badly) by the seller and she is pulling the ends apart.
She is also pulling out her tail feathers and looks like she is itching herself under the feathers.
I am wondering if this is just normal moulting, or is it a more deep physical/psychological problem.
She also has quite scaly feet - I am wondering if she has a skin parasite or virus, and if so, how to treat her.
Please note : we are in the UK, so specific medicines are often hard to get and of dubious origin.

Pulling the ends of her feathers apart is because they itch when they touch her sides. You can re-trim them or just wait until they grow back, some birds will always do this as they hate having their wings clipped.
Pulling tail feathers is a more serious problem, it could be psychological or a underlying health issue the scaly feet and itching (if excessive itching) can indicate a health issue as well.
I would recommend getting her to an avain specialist as soon as possible simply due to the feather pulling, it can get quite serious and can lead to self mutilation if not dealt with.

 

[sscott13]

That's awful. Aren't there medical conditions that cause poor healing- diabetes, vitamin deficiencies? The does she have overclipped feathers that could be rubbing on the spots?

That is what we will be looking into next, i just wish the tests for that stuff are not so expensive No overclipped feathers she pulled them all except some very basic flight feathers, she is miserable in her collar to just sits all day aside from eating and drinking, i feel really bad and wish i could find a fix for her.

 

[Kentuckienne]

I haven't used them but several people on this site recommend these guys:
Avian Services Center: DNA sexing and disease testing for all species of birds.

Mail order testing for sexing, infections etc. I'm not sure how it works to collect and send the samples for testing, but they appear to have good directions. I'm always in favor of using a proper avian vet, but this might be better then nothing for eliminating a diagnosis as long as any findings are taken up with the vet.

 

[Tobycyng]

Thanks. Unfortunately there are no avian vets to have a look at her.
I think I will have to retrim her feathers and hope that she stops pulling out the tail feathers.

Hope for the best!

 

[LeaKP]

It's worth looking at some natural topical solutions. I've read about others using a pure aloe solution. Once the skin gets irritated they have a hard time keeping beaks and claws off.

 

[sscott13]

Just saw the vet again today and she said that she is seeing improvement from the anti-fungal medication so we are continuing that. She said it is probably a systemic fungal infection that got into her blood stream. Hopefully should be healed up and refeathering in 2-4 weeks