Wounded by self-mutilation

[Neurotic1too]

Our 25 yr old became an aggressive plucker/self-mutilator a couple of years ago. She has a bad sore on (what I call her shoulder, doc says ankle). We have tried a cone while trying to get it healed. We clean the wound with trizchlor 4 and then apply a medicated cream from the vet. She chews through the cones and picks at the sore. We have tried different types of restraints, but she gets them off, or can get around them to chew. We can't keep the wound covered or protected so it can heal. We put a ruffled collar on over her other collars, which works, but the cream gets on it, so it isn't doing much good. My question: is there anything that can be used that dries quickly instead of the cream? We are working closely with the vet, but nothing is working. She is also on Prozac to help with the anxiety. I hope someone sees this and can give me suggestions for helping our girl heal. Thank you in advance.

 

[Terry57]

I'm so sorry that your girl is going through this.
Perhaps something like this would give the wound time to heal without absorbing the cream?

Hopefully someone will come along with something different than the cream that you could run by your vet.

 

[Neurotic1too]

Thank you so much for responding. Weve felt so alone, not knowing anyone besides the vet to talk to. We've tried those cones and these(pictured) and now we just put this ball one on since she got the other two off, chewing the big collar and popping this one. We have a ruffled one over the ball to soothe her after putting it on ourselves. She can't eat with ot on. Here she is with the ball collar

 

[Terry57]

I'm really glad you found us, you won't have to be alone again in dealing with this.

At least she hasn't figured out how to get the ball off, for now, anyway. That's the first time I've seen a collar like that, would just removing it when she eats then putting it back on help give the cream time to dry?

I have a friend who owns a rescue, and she had an Umbrella Cockatoo, Lucy, for a couple of years who self-mutilated. We watched her for 2 weeks while my friend was on vacation, and I was terrified every day that she's have hurt herself during the night. She wore one of the collars like in your second picture.
She had implants for her hormones, the first one worked for a bit and the next didn't.

It takes a lot of inner strength to be a parront to a self-mutilator, my nerves were shot after only 2 weeks. Bless you.

There is good news with Lucy. She was finally adopted, and in the years they've had her Lucy completely stopped plucking and hurting herself. It was like a switch flipped in her head, and no collar has been necessary.
I pray that your girl does the same.

I'll ask my friend what all she used on Lucy's wounds to see if there was something different that you could check with your vet about.

What's your baby's name?

 

[Terry57]

I just spoke to her and she used Hibitane or Flamazine and rubbed it in really good, as if you were putting lotion on your hands. It sounds like these creams that she used also didn't dry quickly but they worked after being rubbed in.

If Lucy had a gaping hole the vet always stitched her up which made it okay to rub in the cream.