Almost had a heart attack today

[EdgesofTwilight]

Cosmo is quite the acrobat and little monkey which gave me a scare today. He fell off his playstand, which he occasionally does, and when I picked him up I noticed a tail feather pointing upwards. When I went to inspect it he grabbed the feather and threw it at me (Which he has done to me before too) I noticed blood on the shaft and was like oh great a blood feather and started to freak out. I managed to keep rational and noticed the shaft was intact. This was the first time I was able to towel him myself and the area where the feather came out was bleeding a little bit but eventually stopped. Cosmo thought nothing of it and just wanted to play. I had cornstarch ready, but I definitely need to build up a better first aid kit. After all this happened I managed to calm down and called the vet, I needed to make a grooming appointment anyways. They said he'll be fine as long as he didn't lose alot of blood and it stopped bleeding. The amount of blood on the gauze was almost the equivalent of the amount a person would lose from a paper cut. Maybe it was Cosmo's way of telling me that he wanted me to make the grooming appointment? Lol

 

[JerseyWendy]

So sorry Cosmo gave you such a scare!!! But SOOO happy to hear the bleeding stopped rather quickly all on its own!

I remember the first time Niko busted open a flight feather that was coming in. Blood everywhere! Luckily he let me hold his wing open while I applied some pressure to the damaged shaft, and he, too, stopped bleeding very quickly. There have been many incidents like this since, unfortunately. Knock on wood (tap tap tap), so far I've never had to yank out a feather.

 

[plumsmum2005]

I will definitely review my first aid kit, thanks.

 

[EdgesofTwilight]

I don't think it was a blood feather because most of the shaft looked clear/white. Except for the little bit of blood in it at the end. It almost looked like it had some skin on it, maybe it was on its way out and pulled some skin with it? It didn't seem to bother him he was jumping around and swinging from his trapeze right after I put him back on the playstand. His tail feathers do take abuse with him playing. Good thing it came out intact. Would have been a different story if it broke off and part of the shaft was stuck in. Would Hemostat pliers work if I needed to pull one out?