Disaster at the "Vet"....

We took our Eclectus to a local vet for a beak and nail trim. They clearly weren't experienced with birds as they said they were. He flew out of their towel into a solid wood door at high speed after chasing him around on the floor. Broke his beak, was bleeding. They pull out a pair of doggie nail clippers and chop off part of his beak. said "oh that's exactly where I was going to trim it" (referring to the broken part of the beak. He was bleeding. They put quick stop on it, somehow managed to quick every one of his nails. When I got him in the carrier, I noticed he was still bleeding so back in he went for some more quickstop. They were laughing and saying it was no big deal for him to crash into a heavy wood door.

Later on, he was not eating or drinking and he tried to eat some spaghetti with sauce but couldn't. He was sitting in one perch all puffed up and he was trying to bite us (lunging and he's never been remotely aggressive before). So I looked up to find a certified avian vet and I found one who took him today (same day as the accident). It was much less traumatic for him with experienced technicians/doctors. They checked him out and gave him some pain medicine, which I don't quite know how I'll be able to give him at home...he didn't want to take it at the vet.

So if you think a local vet will take the place of a certified avian and exotic vet, be forewarned. This was a terrible experience. He still hasn't eaten yet. I've given him so mashed sweet potatoes and soft veggies and I hope he'll be feeling better tomorrow.

One other question, the vet said he was a little hefty after weighing him and when checking the breast bone (I believe it starts with a "k"). She said he wasn't too bad, but just on the high side of normal. He's 384g...I've read that's on the low end of the spectrum for an eclectus. Maybe he's small for an eclectus? I'm not sure what to make of his weight.

I just hope my baby feels better tomorrow. He won't even come out of his cage and he loves "out time". Maybe he just needs some space and time to recover. I'm not trying to push him to do anything. I just wish he'd eat and move off that perch he is on.

And if I posted this in the wrong forum, I hope some one will place it in the right one. I've just been a worried mommy today. I don't know whose more upset...me or the bird.

Breastbone in a bird is their keel...it's a takeoff from the keel of a boat.....normally you like a bird to have little or no cleavage and that the breastbone not be prominently proud of the breast.....

Many people regularly weight their birds as it give them a heads up on potential health problems.....I weigh my guys once a month & if any of them look/act differently, I go to weekly and/or daily weighings.....all properly recorded.....I also keep track of what they get fed & only make changes on a weekly basis...less paperwork.....treats usually aren't logged because none have ever had a problem with them.....

He may be mad at you for several days & you're going to have to serve him soft foods, because his beak will cause him pain trying to eat hard foods.....

How terrible! give them a terrible review ond Yelp an tell people to never take a bird there!

My friend clipped his female saker falcons beak before a flight, he took off a little bit too much and it bleed a little bit. When in the air she immediately landed on the top of a grocery store out of site(middle of the roof) for 2 hours before finally coming back. It hurts when there beaks are clipped to much and she was very rightfully unhappy.

oh dear i am so sorry that's happened to him. i hope he feels better soon! poor guy

oh wow, your poor bird, and you!!
what an unfortunate accident

hopefully this will all pass, he will forget all about it,and will be fine with no ill effects
As for you mom, try and get some sleep.your taking excellent care of him and he needs you.
I would definitely file a complaint against the vet clinic.

Wow, that's awful. Sorry for you and your bird. He is probably really shook up from the experience, and uncomfortable, but will come around once he settles down and feels better.
I never had any bad avian vet experiences, because i have a bird hospital extremely close to my home and he's been my vet for 20 years. (thankful for him!) But i have had some negative experiences with my dogs at vets. It is heartbreaking and makes you feel kind of helpless. Luckily in your case nothing long term happened, and you did find a good vet. So in the end, it could have been much worse.
Hope your buddy feels better soon.

Awful. I would never go back to that vet again and I would steer others away as well. I can't believe they were laughing too. How insensitive!

Checking the breast area at the keel bone is a better way for the vet to tell if the bird is a good weight. Every bird is different so you can't really go by what they are supposed to be.

I hope your boy feels better tomorrow.

Weight depends on the sub-species. 384 grams for my Red Sided would be way too thin. Chico weighs in at 480 grams. Sounds like you might have a SI. I am not sure what the weight range is for an SI. They are generally a lot smaller.

What a horrific experience you and your ekkie had at the vet. What I found even more disturbing is that they were laughing about the injury to it's beak. That right there is enough to tell me to find another vet. I hope he comes around for you and starts eating better. Please keep us updated.

Unfortunately this is a common story, especially clipping too short and causing bleeding. I encourage you to clip his nails yourself.

Place him on a bed then cover him with a large, heavy towel. Push one side of the towel towards Barkely and expose just one foot. Use a human toenail clipper and snip off just the pointed end of one or two nails. Then slide an emory board over the clipped end a couple swipes.

Put that foot back under the towel and do the same thing on the other side of the towel on his other foot. No need to do all nails at once and no need to clip short.

You can do this every couple weeks or whenever he needs it and there will be no stress for either of you.

If he is too squirmy and manages to get his head out of the towel, tuck the towel under his head. Using a large heavyweight towel makes it less likely he will try to get his head/beak out.

You may have to lean over him just a bit the first couple times, using your chest as a third hand to sort of keep him laying there. Do NOT have someone hold him tight with their hands. You do not want to restrict his breathing.

I know this sounds like a crazy way to accomplish a trim and it seems like it won't work, but trust me it will. After Barkely has recovered from the pain of the lousy clip and the trauma of the vet visit try the towel method without actually clipping a nail. Just for practice.

Many people say to wrap the bird in a towel but I think this method is much less stressful.

Regarding the beak trim. If his beak is positively too long you can use toenail clippers on it also. When you are in a good light you can see on a MALE eclectus, the live beak and the overgrown part of the beak because the overgrown tip is somewhat transparent and the live portion is opaque.

You will need help with this unless you are confident. I do it by myself but I am experienced. The bird's head is held between thumb and forefinger, just along the jaw. No pressure put on the neck and no restraint on the bird's chest EVER. Hold the head still and clip just a bit off the tip. Since you have examined the bird you know how much is overgrown so you know how much to snip off. Don't try to take it all off. Maybe 2/3. One snip of the clippers only. It should not bleed because you are only removing dead beak.

Let the bird hone the square tip himself. He will do this on perches, bars, wood, etc.

One last thought. If you do allow others to trim your bird's beak and nails, be sure they are using clippers that have been sterilized after the last useage so they don't potentially spread disease to your bird.

Poor baby! Beaks and feet are highly sensitive areas, not to mention any kind of pain he has in his head/neck/body from the impact. He is (understandably) going to be a little grumpy right now since he's in pain and traumatized. If the pain medication is in liquid form, you can try "soaking" a treat with it (cracker, fruit loop, bread ect...) and see if your bird will eat the "treat". That way you don't have to further traumatized him restraining him again to give the medication (this is how we have gotten Kiwi to take antibiotics in the past).

I also agree with sodakat about clipping at home. We used to have Kiwi clipped at a bird store. They actually did a fantastic job (properly and safely restrained him, never clipped to the quick ect...), but he struggled so bad with the man while restrained the process always dragged on and was extremely traumatizing for him. We started clipping him at home about a year ago. He isn't thrilled, but he doesn't fight my husband (who holds him) as much, and I can get through all his talons, file his beak, and clip his wings in under 10 minutes. We can have a treat ready as soon as he gets let go and immediately give him a bath (which he loves) to reward him for being a good boy. It is a much faster and less traumatizing experience for him at home. You do need to be confident in what your doing, and it helps to have 2 people (one who holds, one who clips), but home clipping benefits a lot of birds who are scared of the vet/groomer and really isn't that hard to do. You also need the special nail clippers and styptic on hand just in case.

It was the vet tech and the one holding him at the vet was supposed to be the practice manager. She kept telling us she was "very experienced" in birds, which doesn't seem to be the case. They offered us a vet appointment with the doctor, but we didn't feel comfortable having one of them holding him again for the vet. The doctor is also not a member of AVMA or really an avian vet. So we took him to avian vet where they were very nice and he seemed a lot more comfortable. At least he wasn't manhandled there.

He's having trouble eating. Solid food are out for now. I've made him some rolled oats with some soft fruit this morning. And he wouldn't move from that perch. He moved once this morning to get some water. I put the medicine in the food since we couldn't get it down otherwise. I think now he's just sore and sulking and angry at us. When we left the house today to run an errand we came back to find him by the food dishes and off that one perch he was on. I gave him some chick peas to try and eat. He did try, but I think it was too tough for him. So I'm going to try mashing it up.

Now that we've been home, he's back snuggled up on that one perch watching every move we make. When we leave he feels safer to go to other parts of his cage. (The perch he is on is in the corner where it's not easy to get to him). So I'm hoping this will pass in a few days. Just right now we're trying to find something he can eat since he is sore. Next after the mashed chick peas is kiwi. We're trying to feed him his favorite foods to entice him to eat.

I used to work at a vet and I am comfortable trimming nail. I haven't had any experienced with beaks though. I would love to clip his nails at home since he doesn't seem to keen on the vet and sulks for a few hours afterwards. Next time I will definitely try the towel method mentioned. I felt that the first vet where the accident occurred was so inexperienced (the tech was afraid of birds!) i wanted to hold him myself.

I still cannot believe how bad of a experience you had, your poor baby.

Is he good about sitting on your hand? I never towel Rosie when I would clip her nails. I just let her perch on my hand and carefully pick up each toe and trim them. Never once hit the quick.

1st. I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you all. It's probably for the bird like a person having a car accident or being mugged. It's terribly traumatic and he must have physical pain too.

2nd. Please do spend a little time going on line and giving the appropriate rating and comments about this vet office to tell your story which will help others with good-intentions that accept the staff's word saying they know birds. You can search for "veterinarian reviews" or something similar.

Maybe you could just spend like a half or an hour at a time sitting next to the cage and read or rest or play some music and just be there for him. He shouldn't feel threatened by that but maybe the stillness will give him some company and security. Perhaps you could hold up a small water dish for him to take some sips out of.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Goodness! I am so sorry that happened to you and your bird. What a terrible vet. I am sure your baby is stressed out and will take a couple of days to get over the trauma. Keep an eye on him and give him lots of love and comfort. I would file a complaint and if you paid with a credit card, dispute the charge!

Everyone has said everything I would have said I think, please please get the word out the best you can. Name and shame that clinic for it's poor Avian treatment.

Be happy now though that it's a lesson learnt and you know now to go to that avian vet over any non avian certified. A horrible price to pay for the lesson, but hindsight is a cruel thing.

But yes, definitely complain!

We had a horrific vet, although it wasn't as bad as your experience but I will never recommend him and would take Merlin back there as a last resort-therearenoothervetsontheplanet-type thing.

I'm sure your baby will be fine given the chance to rest and settle, that was a horrible experience for him to go through and I think it's best just to let him do his own thing. You're keeping food easy and simple for him, so good job. Give him lots of love when he's done being upset with you! I'm glad that he's okay and that nothing worse came out of the accident with the door etc.

Lots of love and understanding coming from us, it's horrible to see our babies stressed. x

drlisaort said:

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your baby. I would be furious. There's nothing funny about his experience for sure...


Gosh Sodakat, I never thought about the clippers sterilized that were used on Oliver for his nails. Charlie (bird store owner) just whipped them out and I'm thinking now, after reading your post, they are not sterilized nor does the towel ever look that clean. I'm wondering if I should bring my own towel and perhaps purchase clippers and bring those as well. I don't want to insult him but I also don't want any problems or diseases! Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

If he's got any respect for bird health and hygiene, he might be slightly offended that he didn't think of steralising his equipment first! Otherwise, he SHOULD be happy + no reason for him to complain to be honest.

Just explain that you realised that nicking the quick on a bird can potential pass on blood borne infections via clipping and you just don't want the risk. Even if it is a low one.

No harm done to him or his rep as long as you're not stood outside his store screaming to everyone that this man is killing birds because you haven't SEEN him sterilise (which he may well do after each clipping.)