Molcan2
New member
- Jul 19, 2011
- 783
- 1
- Parrots
- Princess Rome- Moluccan Cockatoo (18yrs old), Rosie - Galah/Rose Breasted Cockatoo (2yr old)
I wanted to give some hope to those out there who have pluckers/shredders. I am hesitant to even put this thread up, is some weird way I hope that it doesnt mess up my karma. Mostly because once a bird shredds/plucks anything can set them off again and the behavior can come back full swing. I live day to day wondering if I'm going to come home to a pile of feathers. Its not a matter of if it will happen, its when. It will happen again one day, I just hope not anytime soon. Thats just the nature of a bird who plucks/shredds.
Back story from those that dont know her, the short version. When we got Rome she was a big time shredder. All she had on her chest was down fluff, aside from her chest though she was in good feather. With the exception of her legs. She has always plucked the feathers on both lower legs. She went through a BIG molt this year and ended up with some ingrown feathers on her chest, that she 'fixed' herself by breaking the skin open and plucking the feather out.
The skin over the plucked areas started to scab over. Each time they would get close to healing they would get itchy and she would pull the scab off. This would make the area slightly larger each time she would do it. We were back and forth about whether to take her in to the vet or not. Each time I would make an appt she would be very close the healed so I would cancel. I had a stretch, where due to work, I didn't see her for a week or so. When I did finally see her the scab went from a small area to almost encompassing half of her chest. I freaked out! I took her to the vet and felt like the worst owner ever. The vet was hesitant about a collar, he only likes to use them as a last resort, in my case he felt is was needed. He also wanted to put her on psyche meds. I really really didn't want to do that. He called in a script for me, we talked about the pros and cons, and he told me to think about it and if I needed it I could have it delivered (the vet is a good hour drive from my house). He also sent me home with a collar.
So the plan was to place the collar and put her on her meds. Then wean her off the collar and then wean her off her meds. At this point she was mutilating one part of her chest. The vet said we still had a chance of the feathers coming back but each time she damaged them that chance would decrease. He explained why it was important to stop the plucking, aside from the obvious, once the follicle gets too damaged a feather will never grow back in that spot again. This can happen from years of plucking or from just one time (depends on how much damage is caused).
She wore the collar for roughly six to seven months. It was originally a small bubble collar but we had to add padding to it so that she couldn't get around it. About 4 weeks ago we started weaning her off of her collar. We did this slowly, very slowly. First we took off the extra padding and left just the bubble collar on for a few weeks. Then we finally took the bubble collar off. We waited a few more weeks and then tried to slowly wean her off her meds. She started messing with herself (not sure if it was due to backing off the meds or me going away for a weekend, or a combo of both) again, so we put her back up to her original med dose. We are going to give it another 4 weeks or so and then try to wean her off her meds again.
We were lucky that her feathers grew back in. I wanted to share what we did with her and the success that we have had so far. I hope its not short lived but so far this has seemed to work. We also did some environment changes as well (still working on the aviary). Instead of sleeping inside the vet recommended moving her predominantly outdoors, for two reasons: 1. To help feather growth stimulation 2. So that she might be able to correlate a need for having them (its a stretch but makes sense to me), i.e. for warmth etc. We are able to close the vynals on the screened porch to control drafts, but we have been keeping it a little on the cooler side at night out there. We have a very good space heater to keep the temp from dropping too low.
Theres no one answer to plucking/shredding, and sometimes there isn't one. Usually a combination of different treatments and the most important thing is to know what the cause is, so that you can tailor the treatment accordingly. Originally when she came to us we thought it was because she was on the edge of liver failure, once we moved past that and returned her to a healthy state, we started treating it as a mental issue. For those of you out there with pluckers/shredders, dont give up hope, its a tough thing to go through and we have been working on this with Rome for the last 1 1/2 yrs, just wanted to share it with you guys.
Back story from those that dont know her, the short version. When we got Rome she was a big time shredder. All she had on her chest was down fluff, aside from her chest though she was in good feather. With the exception of her legs. She has always plucked the feathers on both lower legs. She went through a BIG molt this year and ended up with some ingrown feathers on her chest, that she 'fixed' herself by breaking the skin open and plucking the feather out.
The skin over the plucked areas started to scab over. Each time they would get close to healing they would get itchy and she would pull the scab off. This would make the area slightly larger each time she would do it. We were back and forth about whether to take her in to the vet or not. Each time I would make an appt she would be very close the healed so I would cancel. I had a stretch, where due to work, I didn't see her for a week or so. When I did finally see her the scab went from a small area to almost encompassing half of her chest. I freaked out! I took her to the vet and felt like the worst owner ever. The vet was hesitant about a collar, he only likes to use them as a last resort, in my case he felt is was needed. He also wanted to put her on psyche meds. I really really didn't want to do that. He called in a script for me, we talked about the pros and cons, and he told me to think about it and if I needed it I could have it delivered (the vet is a good hour drive from my house). He also sent me home with a collar.
So the plan was to place the collar and put her on her meds. Then wean her off the collar and then wean her off her meds. At this point she was mutilating one part of her chest. The vet said we still had a chance of the feathers coming back but each time she damaged them that chance would decrease. He explained why it was important to stop the plucking, aside from the obvious, once the follicle gets too damaged a feather will never grow back in that spot again. This can happen from years of plucking or from just one time (depends on how much damage is caused).
She wore the collar for roughly six to seven months. It was originally a small bubble collar but we had to add padding to it so that she couldn't get around it. About 4 weeks ago we started weaning her off of her collar. We did this slowly, very slowly. First we took off the extra padding and left just the bubble collar on for a few weeks. Then we finally took the bubble collar off. We waited a few more weeks and then tried to slowly wean her off her meds. She started messing with herself (not sure if it was due to backing off the meds or me going away for a weekend, or a combo of both) again, so we put her back up to her original med dose. We are going to give it another 4 weeks or so and then try to wean her off her meds again.
We were lucky that her feathers grew back in. I wanted to share what we did with her and the success that we have had so far. I hope its not short lived but so far this has seemed to work. We also did some environment changes as well (still working on the aviary). Instead of sleeping inside the vet recommended moving her predominantly outdoors, for two reasons: 1. To help feather growth stimulation 2. So that she might be able to correlate a need for having them (its a stretch but makes sense to me), i.e. for warmth etc. We are able to close the vynals on the screened porch to control drafts, but we have been keeping it a little on the cooler side at night out there. We have a very good space heater to keep the temp from dropping too low.
Theres no one answer to plucking/shredding, and sometimes there isn't one. Usually a combination of different treatments and the most important thing is to know what the cause is, so that you can tailor the treatment accordingly. Originally when she came to us we thought it was because she was on the edge of liver failure, once we moved past that and returned her to a healthy state, we started treating it as a mental issue. For those of you out there with pluckers/shredders, dont give up hope, its a tough thing to go through and we have been working on this with Rome for the last 1 1/2 yrs, just wanted to share it with you guys.
