FlyBirdiesFly
New member
So last spring I noticed that Ducky was making squeaking noises when preening, and occasionally she was pulling out an immature pin feather. It was in the middle of a molt when she started doing this and she overall seemed really irritated. I tried turning on the humidifier and giving her more frequent spray baths but she continued.
I then took Ducky to my avian vet and got her examined, CBC, fecal exam, and mouth smear done. It turned out that she did have a mild bacterial infection, which quickly went away with some antibiotics. However, the over-preening continued even after the infection was gone. So I thought it was just the irritation from the molt and that it would go away as soon as the molt was over.
The plucking/over-preening didn’t stop, but it stayed the same for many months. It didn’t get worse and I wasn’t too worried about it. She mostly plucked under her wings, and she only plucked the pin feathers when they were first coming in.
In the past couple months or so, Ducky went through another molt. She had been through other molts since that one where she started plucking and the plucking didn’t really get worse. However, in this most recent molt, Ducky’s plucking has gotten much worse. I see her plucking daily, screaming in pain as she pulls out her pin feathers. There are large bare patches under both wings, on her legs, on the sides of her neck, along her back, and just yesterday I noticed the start of a bare patch on her abdomen. I don’t know what to do. As I type this she just plucked out another pin feather. She was at the vet for her annual checkup some time in January and nothing was found, in fact she got a great report despite the plucking. The vet basically told me not to worry about it and sent us home with a bottle of Aloe Vera spray, which didn’t work at all.
The plucking has really escalated since then. I’m worried that if I don’t do something to stop it, it will get even worse. I’ve been giving her the AviCalm supplement for two days and she’s still plucking, though I didn’t really expect it to work that fast anyway. What’s weird is that I’ve only ever seen her pluck pin feathers, never mature ones. I’ve only ever noticed her bleed once from plucking a feather with blood in it. I’ve been thinking of ordering a collar to try and break the habit, but I’m worried it will stress her out even more. Should I take her to the vet again to get more testing done? Or do you think this is behavioral? What could cause her to pluck? There have been no changes in her routine.
I then took Ducky to my avian vet and got her examined, CBC, fecal exam, and mouth smear done. It turned out that she did have a mild bacterial infection, which quickly went away with some antibiotics. However, the over-preening continued even after the infection was gone. So I thought it was just the irritation from the molt and that it would go away as soon as the molt was over.
The plucking/over-preening didn’t stop, but it stayed the same for many months. It didn’t get worse and I wasn’t too worried about it. She mostly plucked under her wings, and she only plucked the pin feathers when they were first coming in.
In the past couple months or so, Ducky went through another molt. She had been through other molts since that one where she started plucking and the plucking didn’t really get worse. However, in this most recent molt, Ducky’s plucking has gotten much worse. I see her plucking daily, screaming in pain as she pulls out her pin feathers. There are large bare patches under both wings, on her legs, on the sides of her neck, along her back, and just yesterday I noticed the start of a bare patch on her abdomen. I don’t know what to do. As I type this she just plucked out another pin feather. She was at the vet for her annual checkup some time in January and nothing was found, in fact she got a great report despite the plucking. The vet basically told me not to worry about it and sent us home with a bottle of Aloe Vera spray, which didn’t work at all.
The plucking has really escalated since then. I’m worried that if I don’t do something to stop it, it will get even worse. I’ve been giving her the AviCalm supplement for two days and she’s still plucking, though I didn’t really expect it to work that fast anyway. What’s weird is that I’ve only ever seen her pluck pin feathers, never mature ones. I’ve only ever noticed her bleed once from plucking a feather with blood in it. I’ve been thinking of ordering a collar to try and break the habit, but I’m worried it will stress her out even more. Should I take her to the vet again to get more testing done? Or do you think this is behavioral? What could cause her to pluck? There have been no changes in her routine.