How to care for a parrot wound?

[Rinbu]

Hello. When I came home today and checked on my quaker parrot, Gumi, she'd plucked out many of her chest feathers to the point of moderate bleeding. She was perfectly fine yesterday, and she's plucked in the past, but never something this severe. My mom & I instantly put pressure on the wound and applied some diluted warm salt water to help clean it. We don't have immediate access to any avian vets because of our schedules and location. A few hours later and she's doing fine, the bleeding has completely stopped, I thought she was continuing to pluck at first but upon further inspection she's actually just cleaning the blood off of the feathers (and doing a very good job of it at that). She's acting perfectly normal aside from her wound.

Until we can get help from a veterinarian, which should be sometime this week, how can we properly care for her wound? My mom's suggested using things like ethyl alcohol and most sources are saying it's safe, but I want to check with other bird owners to see more input and ideas. I've seen several sources saying betadine is good to use. Recommendations for bird-safe antibacterial creams or anything along that line to make sure it doesn't become infected would be amazing.

 

[Cottonoid]

Kudos to you; it sounds like you and your mom thought quickly!

From everything I've read, it seems the most common recommendation is to clean with betadine and then leave alone. Alcohol would sting like crazy; for myself and my pets I prefer betadine.

I am by NO means an expert and haven't been through a skin wound yet with my ringneck, but he's also a plucker so I try to read what I can. I feel like for my bird any ointment would make him more likely to try to clean himself so for him at least I probably wouldn't do ointment if I have swabbed the wound with betadine.

Good luck - also Gumi is just about the cutest Quaker name I've ever heard 😍

 

[Rinbu]

Kudos to you; it sounds like you and your mom thought quickly!

From everything I've read, it seems the most common recommendation is to clean with betadine and then leave alone. Alcohol would sting like crazy; for myself and my pets I prefer betadine.

I am by NO means an expert and haven't been through a skin wound yet with my ringneck, but he's also a plucker so I try to read what I can. I feel like for my bird any ointment would make him more likely to try to clean himself so for him at least I probably wouldn't do ointment if I have swabbed the wound with betadine.

Good luck - also Gumi is just about the cutest Quaker name I've ever heard 😍

Thank you so much! Tomorrow we'll try applying betadine and see how it goes.

 

[Cottonoid]

Hopefully Gumi is well on her way to healed when you see the vet - she's lucky to have you

 

[LaManuka]

Hello. When I came home today and checked on my quaker parrot, Gumi, she'd plucked out many of her chest feathers to the point of moderate bleeding. She was perfectly fine yesterday, and she's plucked in the past, but never something this severe. My mom & I instantly put pressure on the wound and applied some diluted warm salt water to help clean it. We don't have immediate access to any avian vets because of our schedules and location. A few hours later and she's doing fine, the bleeding has completely stopped, I thought she was continuing to pluck at first but upon further inspection she's actually just cleaning the blood off of the feathers (and doing a very good job of it at that). She's acting perfectly normal aside from her wound.

Until we can get help from a veterinarian, which should be sometime this week, how can we properly care for her wound? My mom's suggested using things like ethyl alcohol and most sources are saying it's safe, but I want to check with other bird owners to see more input and ideas. I've seen several sources saying betadine is good to use. Recommendations for bird-safe antibacterial creams or anything along that line to make sure it doesn't become infected would be amazing.

If possible for you to obtain it, you can also try Medihoney, which is an antibacterial wound care product in a gel form. It can help clean the wound of bacteria, reduce the risk of infection and assist with wound healing. Try to keep it on the skin rather than on the feathers where practicable because it's sticky, but it is not harmful if ingested. If you go down this route, ensure the product that you purchase contains genuine medical grade mānuka honey, such as the one illustrated below - I have some in my emergency kit for my birds too ...

Hope this helps you until you can get your little one to the vet! 🙏

 

[Kentuckienne]

I would hesitate to put honey on the wound. quakers are prone to self-mutilation anyway. If they like the honey, will they lick it off and continue on to biting their flesh? If they don’t like it, will they do the same thing? And I haven’t seen any data about the safety of manuka honey for avian ingestion. Tea tree oil ( manuka is honey made from tea tree blossoms) is toxic for some animals..

 

[ShanCaz]

Hi! I don’t have much insight on caring for wounds afterwards, but as a suggestion for any possible skin picking or emergencies: get Kwikstop. I am a former dog groomer and to my knowledge- Kwikstop is safe for birds, dogs, cats, and even humans. It will clot the blood and prevent excessive bleeding depending on how big the wound is obviously. If you are in an emergency and can not get any Kwikstop at the moment, corn starch is okay too. Saltwater is okay but I think it’s less stressful for the bird to just rub the powder instead of getting them soaked haha.

However, if the wound is large… PLEASE take your bird to the vet. Don’t rely on Kwikstop or starch to save your bird from any life threatening wounds.

It sounds like you got it so far though! I hope the vet can help you and Gumi to prevent any more picking!

 

[Littleredbeak]

I would hesitate to put honey on the wound. quakers are prone to self-mutilation anyway. If they like the honey, will they lick it off and continue on to biting their flesh? If they don’t like it, will they do the same thing? And I haven’t seen any data about the safety of manuka honey for avian ingestion. Tea tree oil ( manuka is honey made from tea tree blossoms) is toxic for some animals..

Just addressing the tea tree oil... it depends if it's organic and additive free. For non organic tea tree oil the chemicals used to keep bugs away is still present when the tea tree becomes concentrated into an oil and those chemicals are what are toxic

 

[Littleredbeak]

Would care I have done under guidance of an avian vet was saline(sprayed and cleaned) and betadine (dabbed)

 

[Kentuckienne]

Just because something is naturally occurring doesn’t mean it is safe. Tea tree oil contains natural oils called terpenes. If this sounds like “turpentine”, there’s a reason. Turpentine and other products were traditionally distilled from pine trees. Tea tree oil can be very toxic for birds. It’s used in dilute preparations to kill mites and treat some diseases, but vets always weigh the benefits of treatment vs the effect of the meds. Here is a good article, a bit scientific, but there’s a lot of info for anyone who wants to do some research:
https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-020-2255-4

 

[Littleredbeak]

Just because something is naturally occurring doesn’t mean it is safe. Tea tree oil contains natural oils called terpenes. If this sounds like “turpentine”, there’s a reason. Turpentine and other products were traditionally distilled from pine trees. Tea tree oil can be very toxic for birds. It’s used in dilute preparations to kill mites and treat some diseases, but vets always weigh the benefits of treatment vs the effect of the meds. Here is a good article, a bit scientific, but there’s a lot of info for anyone who wants to do some research:
https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-020-2255-4

Everything has pro cons... including traditional medications. The only I'll effects of trea tree oil I've heard of was from impurities. I will definitely look into the article you linked as I'm am always learning

 

[Littleredbeak]

How is Gumi doing?