Bird is screeching in pain after flying and obsessively preening wings.

[Archie_TheSG]

My 3 and a half year old cockatiel, Oswald, flew to me today but immediately started screaming in obvious pain and preening constantly at her right wing. She would screech, turn to preen her wing, seem okay for a moment and then it repeats. She immediately became more irritable and didn’t want anyone touching her, but still stepped up when prompted.

I clipped her wings recently because my family and I moved and wanted her to adjust to a new household with lower ceilings, so I figure it might just be her feathers bothering her as they’re growing back in and causing discomfort when she tries to fly (she’s mainly out of the cage during the day, and sometimes tries to follow me if I walk into another room). But she’s never screamed this much before. She won’t let me take a look at her wing, but I don’t see any blood. I figured the best thing to do was to keep her in her cage and prevent her from flying for a bit. Maybe she’s straining herself from trying to fly with her wings clipped.

If it continues, I’ll be trying to take her to a vet, but unfortunately there are none that are close by and I don’t have transportation. I’m just really worried and would appreciate any reassurance, or maybe some information from anyone who has been in a similar situation. And possibly, if anyone lives in Suwannee County, Florida, any vet recommendations? The one I used to take her to has been closed for a while due to some unfortunate circumstances.

 

[Archie_TheSG]

Slight Update: She’s still in her cage, she stopped screeching and preening, and she’s eating, which makes me happy to see. Im probably going to keep her inside for the rest of the evening just to be sure she rests her wing.

While the obvious discomfort isn‘t a new thing, especially when she’s molting, it’s definitely not normal for her to have been in that much pain. Hopefully it was simply pin feathers being disturbed by flight, but I’m going to be extra careful to keep her from flying too much for a good while.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the Forums, Archie_TheSG and Oswald! I'm sorry that Oswald seems to be in such distress.

My cockatiel, Fang, has done similar things before although he is not clipped. He sometimes takes off in a mad flap around the house if one of the birds outside starts up an alarm call, and has ended up with an about-to-be-moulted-anyway wing feather pointing in an odd direction as a result. He usually squawks loudly about it too. I don't know if this is what's happening with Oswald, straining a wing is certainly a possibility, but if there's no bleeding and she's eating and looking more settled now that has to be a good thing! I would keep her caged for the rest of the evening too if she was mine.

As I am in Australia I'm not sure where you might find another avian vet, but if you tap your zip code and State into the following link it might help you to find one...

https://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803

Once again, welcome aboard, and I am hoping all is well with Oswald 🙏