Can a stressful vet visit cause stress bars ?

[KrisandPenelope]

I have an 8 month old CBC who recently went to the vet for a check up after a broken blood feather incident. Needless to say the poor thing got herself so stressed during a routine exam that she vomitted once we got back inside the car and 2 more times after coming home. She is in the process of her first heavy molt and I am now noticing some of her feathers coming in on her back have significant stress bars. The vet had seen the one stress bar on the half formed tail feather and assumed it was stress from breaking and ripping out another blood tail feather. But now my concern is more stress feathers are popping up and I am not exactly sure why. Her one tail feather now has 3 more stress bars after fully growing in and more on top of her wings have significant barring. The vet gave her a clean bill of health but wanted to try and get her to eat more veggies. Her diet now consist of the fruit zupreem and laferber pellets, nutriberries hidden in her cage while I'm away to forage, and assorted veggies that she plays with more then she attempts to eat, and coconut oil 2x a week. She does tend to be a little bit of a neurotic bird as she doesn't always eat while I'm gone through out the day, but she gets out a minimum of 5+ hours a day. I am not sure if it's stress/separation anxiety, stressful event like the vet visit, or dietary. Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dinosrawr]

Whenever a feather is developing and the bird undergoes stress, the bars definitely develop. It's completely possible that the bars are from the vet visit. I know it's happened with my conure, Avery, and she's nearly 100% stress bar free otherwise.

Dietary would more likely be along the lines of bronzing opposed to the horizontal stress bars, as well as "greasy" looking feathers (both of which can be signs of liver disease).

 

[KrisandPenelope]

90% of her new feathers that came in are normal and healthy looking just so far the one tail feather and the two on top of her wing. I had discussed with the vet the bronzing or lack of pigment on her flight feathers when they grew back in and she did not seemed overly concerned as long as we got her to eat more fruits and veggies daily.

 

[Dinosrawr]

Glad to hear that the vet visit went well otherwise then! Seeing a vet can definitely be stressful for the poor things. The more you socialize and the more you expose your bird to new things and people, the better they handle those situations. You can also work to train your conure to accept towelling, nail clipping, opening of the beak, etc. It's a lot of work, but it can certainly help them with the emotional stress and alleviate some of it [emoji4]