Feather Plucking - Help

[Davidcsky]

Hi Guys,

My quaker has been plucking his feathers out lately (drawing blood from his wing pits). After a run to the vets and treatment (antibiotics, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatories) nothing really changed. Following that we tried treating Barney for Giardia (using Flagyl) as there seemed to be the symptoms but no success there neither. Yesterday i noticed that he had plucked the whole of his under belly area.

I am not very keen on vets in my country as there is no avian vets. Do note that Barney has not been sexed and I am not sure whether he/she is a male or a female (though i suspect Barney is a she). Barney has just turned 4 this year so my suspicion is that hormonal changes are the cause. I don't believe the cause of all this is parasites as Barney's cage is next to my other parrots' cages and they do not exhibit any of his symptoms. Barney is well looked after with plenty of toys and attention and is fed Roudybush as his main food.

Can you kindly provide me with suggestions of what could be the case of all this as i hate seeing him/her in this state. Could it be truly hormonal? my vet suggested some sort of implant which is injected under the skin between the wings which helps with hormonal imbalances. Shall i give it a shot?

Thanks and your help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Allee]

I'm sorry Barney is going through this. My female quaker introduced me to plucking and inspired me to write this article. Hopefully you will find something useful that applies to Barney.

http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/52217-plucking-search-answers.html

Quaker parrots seem to be a little more prone to plucking than other species, with quakers it can lead to QMS, quaker mutilation syndrome. To answer your question, IMHO, Barney's problem could be directly related to a hormonal imbalance or hormones could be a key factor. I'm not trying to second guess your vet but personally I would consider the implant only as a last resort. Quakers are very small, I would only trust an experienced avian vet to do the implant procedure if I chose that route at all.

Frequent baths, more hours of uninterrupted sleep, maybe add some preening toys designed especially for pluckers. I would take a close look at diet and offer more vitamin rich vegetables. Distractions sometimes help, does Barney like music or cartoons?

Best of luck, please keep us updated, we're here for you and Barney.

 

[Davidcsky]

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

Had a chat with the vet and mainly his line of thought is that, given the symptoms, Barney is female ans sonce its high simmer over here, her body is producing a lot of hormones thus the plucking. He suggested that we star covering the cage at around 6 pm to make it seem like its winter again and that days are short. His othe rsuggestion was once again the implant which he said might and might not work as well. Obviously, this is beimg kep as a last option and for now its off the table.

Cam you suggest of suitable bird cage covers which cam be delivered internationally? I need quite a large one as his cage is quite big like a metre wide, one and a half high and some 75 cms deep.

Would you suggest anything else which might ease this?

Thanks once again!!

 

[SailBoat]

Cage covers do not have to be expensive or fancy, they just need to keep the cage darker. Because of your location in this huge World and the level of heat your Country is know for, remember that air flow is still very important as is the darkness. Start with doubling a Bed Sheet leaving at least three sides along the bottom open for air flow.

Target 12 to 14 hours of dark, restful sleep.

We use a product called Soother Topical Spray. There is no way of knowing if it will be of help. So, I recommend that you follow Allee's simple recommendations first, like additional baths, etc... I only recommend moving to more specialized approaches and/or products after first trying the simple things.

FYI: You may wish to try moving her to a area that is not as busy. If that has an ill effect (more plucking) mover her to an area that it is a bit busier.

Something is bothering her and most of this process is trying to find that driver and greatly reducing or eliminating it.

It takes time and commonly, lots of time.

Hope this helps and builds of the recommendations of Allee.