WARNING TO ALL PARROT OWNERS - Now On Way To Emergency Vet

If you have a medium or large parrot...
Small and spring loaded quicklinks

THROW THEM ALL AWAY

Bella managed to unscrew one and got it lodged in the soft part under her beak. She was trapped and screaming, with it working further in with every scream until it tore through into her mouth.

UPDATE AND FURTHER INFO TO FOLLOW

Bella is now being sedated so they can have a good look at her wound, clean it up and decide if she needs stitches. She'll be given painkillers and antibiotics.

I’m so sorry! Prayers for a quick recovery & no permanent damage. :heart:

So sorry to hear this, keeping Bella in my thoughts.

Love and best wishes to Bella. Wishing her a speedy recovery. Keep us updated x

I can hear her crying in there...

That's terrible - hopefully there will be no serious or lasting damage. The toys I've seen in stores all have designs with screw-links that require manual manipulation to close and open...the warning about spring-lock mechanisms is appreciated.

Good for you for fast and fearless action!

The spring-loaded ones are scary alright. Plus, I learned the hard way not to give the Rb any links... plastic, stainless, anything... that could lodge or hook in his beak.

Get better, Bella. Hang in there, my friend.

Thank you for posting this. It was brave.

Oh no, what awful news! Get well soon, Bella.

Oh no, that's terrible! Samantha had to have part of her toe amputated last week, but Bella's situation sounds even worse (ignoring the fact that Samantha lost a ton of weight, can't use her legs, and needs to be watered by hand). So, the spring tore right through the bottom of her beak and up into her mouth? Holy fudge. The poor little angel! She's going to need so much loving from her mommy. I can't even imagine how she could've even got it wedged under there...

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear it. I know she will be OK, and I hope she will recover quickly.

She unscrewed the link? I have screw links in the cage, not spring loaded. Hers was a spring one?

Bella is back with me now. My poor baby! I can't believe I trusted those skinny quicklinks. Beefy ones only from now on.

She was so brave.

The story of what happened...
I was in the other room when I heard her cry out a noise I hadn't heard before, then again straight after, so I jumped up and dashed into her room. She was squawking and flapping thrashing about from her hollee roller, and then I saw, she was trapped somehow.
At first I thought her beak was just through the quicklinks normal central hole area and that she'd squawked inside it and then tried to pull her head out and couldn't because her mouth was open.
Then I saw she was actually to the side of the quicklink and I realised it was open and the bottom part of it was hooked under her beak. Every time she yelled it would dig in further. I got inside her cage and held her body up to try to help her unhook herself. I was yelling for my partner (hoping he could snip or saw the quicklink to free her while I held her weight) - but he was in the shower and didn't hear my cries. So there I was, now trapped, inside her cage holding her on her back with her attached to the quicklink, then as she screamed I saw it was in her mouth - it had ripped through her tender skin and bust through into her mouth from under her little chin. My poor baby, innocently playing with a toy I bought her, and this is what happened. It felt like a long time we were there with eachother - both 'trapped', though I know it was more likely less than a minute.
She managed to pull herself free from quicklink with me supporting her. I held her in my hands and held her close talking to her (which was scary in itself as Bella doesn't usually allow me to touch her like that.) I immediately put her in her pet carrier (which is always next to her cage.) I got out my phone and started calling the vet while I went upstairs to alert my partner. All I could say to him was "Bellas had an accident - call your dad" before bursting into tears. (My partners dad is our driver as neither of us drive.) I managed to get enough words out to tell the receptionist the avian vets name and that she had a penetrative mouth injury to be looked at immediately. I put the culprit quicklink and attached toy in my handbag. I then removed the same ones from the boys cages too. The next thing I did (after making an appointment and removing the offending items from my babies cages) was to post a new thread warning others of the potential danger! I would never want for someone else to experience seeing their baby crying and thrashing around the way I saw my Bella.
I covered Bellas cage with a warm blanket and went out to the car. The vets is less than 10mins away and I got seen straight away which was great. I showed the vet the quicklink and explained how it had gone through into her mouth. The vet managed to calm me down some, I was crying when trying to tell her what happened. It just all happened so fast and I'd been trying to hold myself together.
I was told they would need to sedate her and clean the wound and assess if she needed stitches. They said she'd be ready for me in half an hour. So I stayed near by, the vets is adjoined to a pet supply store, so I paced the aisles. That's when I heard her screams. I knew they were probably just handling her and she was just vocally protesting. I overheard a shelf stacker in the next aisle say "what the heck was that" to which I replied, "that would be my parrot".
Eventually half an hour passed and I got the call to return for her (they didn't know I hadn't really left). I went to the front desk and waited. Then the vet emerged with my Bella in her carrier!
I was relieved. She'd been given a couple of injections and the vet gave me some meds to take home. Baytril 0.25ml twice a day for 7 days, metacam 0.1mls twice a day for 3 days. She advised me to only give her soft food for the next 5 - 7 days in order to avoid hard foods getting trapped in the hole. As the hole was small and the area swollen, she was confident that it would knit back together and heal fast without the need for any stitches. After a detour to the supermarket for some extra fruit, we got home where I gave her some banana, which she was pleased with.

This was not how I expected the day to go, but I am pleased that I had my pet carrier ready and available, and that I had my designated taxi substitute on call. I'm also grateful for those of you who offered some comfort with your words, in moments like that, it's only bird people that truly understand - and for that I thankyou x

NOTE
This little incident cost about £135 plus a bunch of emotional trauma. Just thought I'd mention that to give folks an idea of what it costs when these kinds of things happen.

Honestly, I would've been a complete reck if that happened to one of my kids (although I don't think any of my guys have the ability to unscrew a quick link). When I had to rush Lara to the vet a few years ago due to egg binding, I was a complete mess. They actually had to knock her out and cut open her abnormally small vent to remove the egg.

How's Bella when it comes to taking meds? My guys are an absolute nightmare to medicate. Oh, fudge, wait, it'll probably be amazing trying to get her to let you handle her beak and stick a foreign object in there with her mouth in pain. Anyways, thank goodness you were there when it happened. Imagine what would've happened if she was by herself.

Great parenting and reactions. Bella is so lucky to have you. Every single thing can be a danger to any animal so please dont feel bad, you did great and we know she will get lots of love while she recovers which will be quick hopefully x

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, TEAM BELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!

Awwpoor little baby! Let's hope she has a speedy recovery. The links I have left are checked almost daily. I switched over to StSt clevis's and tighten them up with pliers.

So sorry how awful, prayers and a quick recovery

We are so sorry to hear about what happened !
Thankfully you were able to free Bella and get to the vet quickly.
It was a good thing you had the carry cage, ride, and vet numbers lined up in case of an emergency. This goes to show how important that can be.

We hope Bella has a quick recovery. Please keep us updated on her progress.

As a side note, we noticed that a few of Arika's toys came with the screw down links but they were too flimsy for a Macaw and were also spring loaded where the screw sleeve is. We removed them and they were re-purposed for key rings.

Larger screw type only links should be available at a hardware stores. Just be sure to purchase Stainless Steel and nothing Zinc or Cadmium plated.
Tighten them thoroughly with a wrench and ensure that there are no sharp edges. Arika worked one of hers loose and I had to give it another turn to secure it.

Kudos to Bella's family for acting quickly.

Thanks
Kelly, Karl, and Arika

Although an odd word to use: Congratulations! Your clarity of mind and being prepared bought you important minutes! Also, you providing clear information regarding what happen, which also bought you more minutes. It is my great hope that others will first hear your message and second, take the time to be prepared.

Having been a long time Great Lakes sailboater, the use of devises that lock things in place have early lead me to their use with our Amazon. The upside is that they are Stainless Steel, work well under heavy loads. And, springs are near non-existing in these products. The down side is huge, as they are seriously expensive and available only at speciality boating stores and online speciality sources.

So very happy that your sweetheart is home and enjoying your loving care!

Can someone post of a picture of the toys and/or quicklinks that caused Bella’s injury?

Wishing Bella a speedy recovery!