My little Hahns Macaw's beak is hurting

[ParrotBoy]

So, over the past few days out little macaw has been making small little squaks every once in a while, we didn't know what was causing it till he went to perch on my finger. When ever something touches the tip of his beak he squaks, any ideas why he is doing this? If I go to touch the tip of the beak he will squak or if he goes to perch on something he will try to avoid using the beak. Thanks!

 

[TexDot33]

To my understanding the nerve fibers in the beak are VERY DEEP and it really takes a lot for a beak to become sensitive. Make sure that your little buddy is eating "normally" if not break out the blender and grind up some fruits, veggies and plain boiled chicken. Make sure you get the food into him TODAY if he is not eating correctly. FIRST THING TOMORROW CALL YOUR VET!!

 

[ParrotBoy]

He's still eating his usual amount of food. Non stop . I don't think he has done any major damage, the beak in no way looks injured. But if the pain continues for quite a while we will take him to a vet, thanks for the advice too!

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Do you have his beak trimmed/filed? If so was this done recently? He may have also just chipped his beak on something.

There are a lot of nerve endings in some areas of the beak, so a tiny chip could be very painful (much like human teeth, though the materials involved are a bit different.) If that's what it is those nerve endings will die off soon enough and he'll be back to normal. But of course if thats not what it is...

We are often quick to send people of to the vet - and in any medical situation that is the best advice one can give. But in reality none of us bring our birds in every time any little oddity comes up. Perhaps just a phone call to the vet would be appropriate - I suspect they will give some simple advice and say not to worry unless it gets worse. But on the off chance it could be something else they might recommend to bring him in. A rush trip into the vet may be overkill, but a quick phone call in the morning for the peace of mind is easy enough.

....

Unless of course we have a vet on the forums here. I know we have one in vet school, but she hasn't been on in quite some time.

 

[ParrotBoy]

Haha, never knew there was a vet on here. We haven't had his beak trimmed/filed for quite some time, so I think its just a case of he's caught it on something and he's in a little pain. I will consider phoning the vet but he's not really a bird expert, he did a pretty bad job last time we took in one of our old birds in to get his wings clipped. But thanks for the advice

 

[TexDot33]

I was/am actually more concerned with infection ... I am not a vet, but (like AD said) if there is a chip/crack in there and maybe some food particle, or something else, got in there and has been sitting there for some time now (kinda like decay with teeth, the decay can be there for a while and we don't realize it until it starts hurting) ... we aren't sure just how long this has been there (if there is anything) and this could just be the tip of the ice burgh ... I was also concerned that maybe he hadn't been eating.

 

[ParrotBoy]

The beak itself is clean. I had a quick check and it looks okay, no blatant chips or cracks. He doesn't seem himself, he's been sitting in his cage all day. I gave him some pistachio nuts to see if he was still eating. And its all okay, he has a little trouble making sure the tip of his beak doesn't touch the food but other than that he's eating well.

 

[TexDot33]

But he still seems to be in pain though, huh? I think it's worth a ring-up of the vet to get an "expert opinion" ... no one likes to be in pain.

 

[ParrotBoy]

But he still seems to be in pain though, huh? I think it's worth a ring-up of the vet to get an "expert opinion" ... no one likes to be in pain.

Will do, but unfortunatly today is a bank holiday so the local vet isn't open.