Bloody conure scare

2 days ago, I was home watching TV and having a drink. My conure, Poco, was hanging around me and our other conure, Prim, was over by the cages.

Poco was acting normal, hanging around the play stand right in front of me. I saw a wet spot on his wing as he walked past my glass. I assumed it was condensation from the glass. The spot was over 1" long and 1/2" wide.

A couple minutes later, it was bigger and not drying. I picked him up and it was blood, he was bleeding quite a bit. Very scary to say the least.

Anna was just getting home. I held him as we rinsed the blood to find the source. It was coming from high up on his wing. We put quik-clot on it and the bleeding stopped. I assume it was a broken blood feather.

He ate some fruit and seemed unphased by the whole ordeal. He is still limiting his flight distance to shorter hops still though.

No new bleeding has occurred. I read that some prefer to remove the broken feather and others don't. I didn't. Very scary event. My Poco is my world.

Any advice?

Mike

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To add, I have no idea how he got hurt.

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Blood feather ruptures can occur when preening. My experience is they can be problematic. Leaks can reoccur. Can reoccur at an inconvenient time. I've seen ruptured feathers not reach maturity.

I recommend pulling it. Could provide instructions if needed.

It depends on the feather location etc--- I have had 1 of Noodles' pulled at the vet and the rest (smaller ones) were left alone.
I was about to pull one myself one time (shaking like crazy) and she went ahead and pulled it herself lol!

If he/she flapped in the cage too near the wall or a toy, it could have happened there.




The risk of leaving them is that if they are bumped or preened again, sometimes the clot can open up again. I think night and while I am at work worry me the most because I wouldn't know.

I understand the ruptured feather is located high up on his wing. Sounds like a surface area feather. Not a flight feather.

My veterinarian assisted by pulling some damaged flight feathers back around 1992, showing me his technique. I manage all of Meisha's damaged feathers. Fortunately, Meisha has never bitten me in the process.

Thank you all so much for your replies. I will call his vet this morning and get an appointment. I do not want to pull the feather myself. Thank you again.

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