Blood Feather Fell(?) Out

[LaurenB]

Hello everyone,

A short while ago I came home from work and discovered one of my Ringnecks lost a blood feather. It is one of his longest tail feathers - the shaft is still full of blood. I know blood feathers can break, and it can be an emergency due to bleeding. However, I can't find a drop of blood anywhere. None on the bird, none in his cage, not even on the floor where the feather landed. I'm going to try to attach photos.

I restrained him and my husband when through his tail feathers and we can't find any blood or even the rest of the pin feather. It's almost as if it just died and fell out.

Not having ever had something like this happen - is it possible the feather just died and fell out?

I called my avian vet but she is not in. I called the animal emergency vet that sees birds and they said as long as he is not bleeding to not worry about it (obviously they don't know bird people well - of course I'm going to worry about it). I don't want to rush him off to an unfamiliar vet that may or may not handle birds well if there's really not anything to worry about though.

I have an email out to my regular avian vet.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[ToMang07]

I would follow up with the AV, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it if the bird isn't showing any symptoms and isn't bleeding.

 

[ChristaNL]

It looks like it already dried out (after growing) and then broke.
The feather just did not make it out of the protective layer.

I do not know why- if your vet knows, plze PM me!
The same weird stuff goes on here with my plucking/ barbering macaw, it's like the outher packaging just is too tight (in places) or to strong for the feather to really develop fully.
(we are have even been testing for PBFD and all that kind of nightmarish stuff but came back negative)
I am not sure if (in my case) if the growing out process just goes wonky because she bit at it while it was emerging form the skin and caused it to "malfunction" or that she bites the ones that are already malfunctioning when they come out ...
(chicken-egg situation)

If your bird is otherwise fine it might very well be a one-time-only.
(maybe he bumped it when it was just a little sprout or something ...)

 

[LaurenB]

Thank you both so much for your responses.

Kermit (my Ringneck) doesn't have any plucking issues. He did have a rather horrendous molt... it was like every feather grew in at once. This is his first moly loving with me though so I don't know how bad he normally molts.

I will let you know when I hear from my vet.

I just checked him again a little while ago and still no blood, acting normal.

 

[noodles123]

Generally, when a blood feather is pulled cleanly out from the follicle, the bleeding stops shortly thereafter. That is why some people pull broken blood feathers in order to stop bleeding. As long as the tip looks like a full quill and it doesn't look like it snapped off at the skin, and it isn't bleeding, then you should probably be okay, but a CAV could verify this for you----I am not a vet by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[LaurenB]

I heard back from my avian vet. She said it looks like the entire feather came out. She's thinking the feather may have been damaged and the body just knew it and pushed it out naturally. Phew! I was worried sick.

Maybe that could explain the similar situation you have ChristaNL. Maybe your macaw damages them and they get shed naturally?

 

[jessicaleighadams]

I have had the same thing today with my amazon. Although the feather was chewed by him. I’m not sure if it was chewed out or chewed on after coming out. Can’t find any blood on him, just the feather. Found a smaller feather in the grate of his cage, with a small amount on though.

Like you I am super worried and have messaged the vet. I’m not getting any sleep tonight!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Here's a link for avian vets, in case you need it...
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
Regular vets often "wing it" with birds, although some are very dedicated and talented.

Good for you, for being so caring and vigilant!