Blood feather emergency last night.

[YUMgrinder]

I was holding cheddar like normal, she was on my belly and I felt something wet. It was blood. And it was POURING out. I rushed to get the corn starch and basically covered her butt in it, as there was so much blood it was impossible to see where it was coming from. After getting it to stop, I found the culprit, a long tail feather (that seemed to be mature, it was the longest one she had right in the middle). It was splintered right by her butt. Emergency call to the vet said to tie it off at the base with thread. She's still alive as of this morning and the vet said they would check my work for me. She seems ok, but she was on the bottom of her cage this morning. She's extra cuddly.

That was very very scary. I don't know what prompted the feather break, as it must have happened earlier and it ruptured when she was on me. She would have been dead in minutes if it happened in her cage. We were going to bed soon and I wouldn't have been there if it happened anywhere else. I'm so thankful it happened while on me.

 

[PrimorandMoxi]

WOW wow wow!!!

that's just crazy.

Hope everything continues to be okay.

 

[TiredOldMan]

Please let us know what the vet says.

 

[noodles123]

THAT IS SO SCARY---
I thought I was going to have to yank a cracks/bent one off of the tail of my much larger bird and I was shaking so badly I couldn't have done it even if it had come to that (she ended up pulling it out herself lol). I can't imagine on a smaller bird...must have been awful.


HAPPY TO HEAR ALL IS WELL THOUGH!!!

 

[EllenD]

Oh my, that is horribly scary, been there, done that...My Cockatiel, Duff, landed funny on the floor last year and the blood started pouring from her wing...After 10 minutes of trying to stop the bleeding with both corn starch and even Qwik-Stop, I had to make the decision to get a pair of needle-nose pliers and yank the feather out of the bone...which was extremely difficult to do, boy are they in there, and boy did she scream. I thought I was going to lose her from the stress and the pain, she definitely went into a bit of shock...then off to the 24/7 animal hospital that I'm blessed to have 10 minutes from my house, where they put her in an oxyge-incubator, and gave her sub-q fluids. She was fine, but that is about the scariest thing that you can go through...

Let us know how he's doing, your CAV will probably give him fluids and some dextrose or similar to make him feel better...he's going to be a little lethargic for the next day or two, that's how Duff was, and then she perked right up and was completely normal...Good job, you did exactly the right thing and saved his life...

 

[ChristaNL]

Oeffff, scary stuff!
(Bad memmories here too (Sunny did the same thing her first 24 hours here - but she is a macaw so has more blood to spare).)

Well done Sir!

(was your young assistant any good? )

 

[wrench13]

Good, quick thinking, glad to hear Cheddar is going to be OK.

I am scared to death of similar injury happening to Salty. I am at work all day, and Geri is home with him, but even though I have run thru the feather pulling sequence with her, I know she would not be able to a) get and hold Salty to do it and b) just not be able to do it.

 

[EllenD]

Good, quick thinking, glad to hear Cheddar is going to be OK.

I am scared to death of similar injury happening to Salty. I am at work all day, and Geri is home with him, but even though I have run thru the feather pulling sequence with her, I know she would not be able to a) get and hold Salty to do it and b) just not be able to do it.

Oh Wrench, that was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do to one of my pets...and Duff is just a Cockatiel, I can't imagine pulling one from an Amazon...Those suckers are in-there! And trying to totally ignore your bird screaming bloody-murder while you're literally yanking out their feather as hard as you can with a pair of pliers, well, I can still hear Duff screaming and crying, it's bringing a tear to my eye right now just thinking about her screaming at me, not knowing why I was suddenly hurting her so badly for no reason...She was so scared and in so much pain, she got wobbly just after I pulled it, and her head kind of went back and forth, and I just grabbed her and held her against my chest tightly, and she snuggled in, she was just so scared...I just kept telling myself that she was going to die otherwise, she had already lost at least a good quarter of her blood volume, if not more, so it was the only choice...but man, that sucked...

 

[YUMgrinder]

Hey, thanks guys. She's at the vet now. I can't imagine what would have happened if it had ruptured later while in her cage. I would have lost my sweet girl to blood loss. It was bleeding so bad when it ruptured that it soaked through my clothes and onto my skin. It was everywhere. I thought she was dieing.

She's in good spirits now, waiting on the doc to see her. He said on the phone it sounds like I did everything right but I'm having him check my work and re-tie the stub if needed. Probably get some meds for her too. I feel so lucky to have been there to intervene. There was only a window of a few minutes.

Wheeew. What a day.

 

[YUMgrinder]

Good, quick thinking, glad to hear Cheddar is going to be OK.

I am scared to death of similar injury happening to Salty. I am at work all day, and Geri is home with him, but even though I have run thru the feather pulling sequence with her, I know she would not be able to a) get and hold Salty to do it and b) just not be able to do it.

Oh Wrench, that was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do to one of my pets...and Duff is just a Cockatiel, I can't imagine pulling one from an Amazon...Those suckers are in-there! And trying to totally ignore your bird screaming bloody-murder while you're literally yanking out their feather as hard as you can with a pair of pliers, well, I can still hear Duff screaming and crying, it's bringing a tear to my eye right now just thinking about her screaming at me, not knowing why I was suddenly hurting her so badly for no reason...She was so scared and in so much pain, she got wobbly just after I pulled it, and her head kind of went back and forth, and I just grabbed her and held her against my chest tightly, and she snuggled in, she was just so scared...I just kept telling myself that she was going to die otherwise, she had already lost at least a good quarter of her blood volume, if not more, so it was the only choice...but man, that sucked...

I'm curious about how the wing feather healed after you had to pull it from the bone. Did it grow back fine or has it caused permenant damage? That does sound scary and I thought about plucking the whole feather in Cheddar's case too but the vet said not to. Something about forming a cyst? I would have plucked it if the bleeding wouldnt stop, if I couldn't get it tied off but ended up not having to.

 

[Aratingettar]

Poor little Cheddar. I'm glad you've managed to keep cool-blooded and act reasonably. Are there some step-by-step instructions ("troubleshooting") for such a case? Your case is a proof it can happen any time.



And of course all the best to the little feathered fid!

 

[YUMgrinder]

Oeffff, scary stuff!
(Bad memmories here too (Sunny did the same thing her first 24 hours here - but she is a macaw so has more blood to spare).)

Well done Sir!

(was your young assistant any good? )

Haha my children were of no help lol they were more like enticing panic over all the blood

 

[YUMgrinder]

Poor little Cheddar. I'm glad you've managed to keep cool-blooded and act reasonably. Are there some step-by-step instructions ("troubleshooting") for such a case? Your case is a proof it can happen any time.



And of course all the best to the little feathered fid!

Yea I'm pretty good under pressure like this. First thing I did was grab the corn startch and started packing it on both top and bottom side of where I thought the blood was coming from. It worked really well, the bleeding stopped for the most part and I started investigating where I thought it was coming from. I came across a feather that appeared to be broke, followed it to the base where it was splintered. Still oozing blood a little we cut the feather off where it was splintered, got some thread and tied the base of the feather shaft shut. As tight as we could go over the broken base without snapping the thread. Tied it, wrapped it again, tied it tight, wrapped it again, tied it tight. It seemed to work well, it never did rupture again. Afterwards I placed her in her cage and turned the lights out so she would relax and stay still till we could get her to the vet.

I just got a call saying she's ready to be picked up, I'll share with what they did and what his instructions are for aftercare!

 

[BoomBoom]

I'm sorry this happened. That must have been very scary for you and Cheddar!

Did vet say how the feather base ruptured? From your accounts, Cheddar was just chilling on your belly and not moving around. Does this mean it ruptured on it's own? Just curious because I have a bird who likes to squeeze into impossibly tight wedges inside my shirt.

 

[YUMgrinder]

She's home. Vet said there were TWO feathers that were broke at the base that caused the bleeding last night. He tied them both up and said I should keep her warm for a few days to help her feel better. Other than that she's good as new minus a couple tail feathers that are now missing.

 

[ChristaNL]

That sounds promising indeed


Glad she is doing okay-ish now.


I always overreact and start thinking of foods with a high ferro-content to get them back to normal levels asap.
(there is a kind of rosehip-based sirop here with extra iron in it, so I gave her that / diluted of course- did not want a diabetic parrot ;P )


Wierd how they manage to do things like that to themselves ...

 

[EllenD]

Duff can't fly now due to me having to pull the blood feather. That's something that made me feel awful, but she would have died had I not done it, so obviously that was the option I had to take. She's not developed any cysts, but pulling the feather prevented another from growing and did splinter the bone a bit, and this was a very large primary. My CAV told me that there was nothing else I could have done. Keep in mind that she had been bleeding for about 10 minutes with me applying pressure along with the corn starch and the Qwik-Stop, and that blood just kept pouring out of her wing. So I knew I couldn't drive her 10 minutes to the animal hospital or to my CAV's office at the time and keep pressure on it, she would have died in the car...So I thought about it for about 30 seconds and just made the call...And I'm glad I did, because she's still here and is happy and healthy...She can't ever fly again, but she's here...

My CAV told me that all it takes is them lightly bumping a blood feather on something for them to rupture/break, and with Duff she did a crash landing on the floor and it started immediately afterwards, so that's obviously what did it...If your guy broke 2 tail feathers, he probably either whacked his tail off of something or it could have happened inside the cage with tail feathers too, banging them off of the bars.

I read a story once of a Blue and Gold Macaw that did a bad landing on the carpeted floor and started gushing blood from his tail I believe, and nothing would stop it, so they rushed him to the CAV, who also had to yank the feather...I saw a photo of the aftermath in their house, and I was shocked at the amount of blood he lost while they were trying to stop it...

 

[YUMgrinder]

I'm sorry this happened. That must have been very scary for you and Cheddar!

Did vet say how the feather base ruptured? From your accounts, Cheddar was just chilling on your belly and not moving around. Does this mean it ruptured on it's own? Just curious because I have a bird who likes to squeeze into impossibly tight wedges inside my shirt.

Sorry for the slow response. So there were two ruptured feathers, I only saw and tied off the one. It was splintered, not broken off cleanly in any sense. My BC and GCC conures pick on cheddar from time to time, they only get supervised playtime. They were fighting earlier in the day, and I suspect the feathers got caught in the crossfire of a beak attack. Cheddar was on my belly right before it ruptured trying to get up to my neck and I kept picking her up and putting her on my belly cause I wanted her to play, not cuddle, and the blood started pouring. Possibly me moving her around was the reason it ruptured, but it was already damaged heavily there was no way two major tail feathers were ruptured with my normal handling of her. It was chewed off, but must not have caused bleeding, or enough bleeding for me to notice till it completely ruptured.

Now I feel like I should do nightly checks of all my fids feathers to check for damage. I'm so scared of it happening again! As of now Perry and JoJo are not allowed near cheddar. I feel bad to banish them to their cage for now, but what other choice do I have?

 

[BoomBoom]

Now I feel like I should do nightly checks of all my fids feathers to check for damage. I'm so scared of it happening again!

One other Boogeyman to watch out for. I totally get it! I am glad for the happy outcome. Wishing you and Cheddar all the best and a very quick recovery.

 

[Tami2]

WOW, Wow, wow is exactly right. Thank goodness you were there. :heart:
Please keep us posted on her progress.