nostril Picking, leads to blood.

[stevenkotlarz@att.net]

I bought a black headed caique about six months ago, she is just a doll. Since I have gotten her I noticed she picks her nostril with a nail seemingly every day. That in itself does not make me nervous. What makes me nervous is that occasionally she picks it bloody, not a lot of blood but its enough to make me nervous. Its always only a drop of blood that goes away and seems to heal up for a week or so. My big concern is not that she does it, but that it bleeds and will eventually lead to infection and death. I have tried increasing humidity and simply keeping her cage very clean to avoid infection but other than that I'm not sure what to do. I've considered a tiny amount of neosporin for antibacterial purposes but I am not sure that I can use that on parrots. My other thought is to keep her nail very short so she can't do any damage but that may affect her mobility. Any help from this community would be very much appreciated.

 

[Spiritbird]

Has an avain vet. examined your bird?

 

[wildheart]

My girl does exactly the same on occasion and so far no infection. I did take her to the vet to have her nails cut and he used a burner and burned her nails down because on the broken leg she has a nail that girls up and pierce the skin when long. The bleeding stopped and has now returned because her nails are long again.

I did however notice that she usually only scratches her nose so badly when there was a heavy smell in the air like my daughters perfume etc.

 

[stevenkotlarz@att.net]

In response to the avian vet question, no, she has not seen one while in my possession. My excuse is that I overextended myself on the cage, toys, and bird and figured I wouldn't take her to a vet the first year as she had been seen by one right before I got her, its a money thing for now but if I have to I will. I have really bonded with her and would hate to lose her. Wildheart, its good to know I am not the only one with this issue, keeping the nail short is probably the best bet. I also give her a daily shower which she loves to keep things humid for her. Do you guys think that a tiny glaze of neosporin would hurt, for antibacterial purposes.

 

[wildheart]

I would be to scared that it will be inhaled or ingested. I just keep it clean but its never been a wound and is all fine the next day.

 

[stevenkotlarz@att.net]

As an update to this post I did take my Caique to the vet. The vet advised me that she had a localized infection in her sinus and prescribed antibiotics, both nose drops and oral. He suspected that the infection was the cause of the nostril picking, now a month later she is without infection but still picks her nostril. So I took her back and he is basically saying we are going to keep that nail short so she can't do much damage and keep on top of any infections that may arise because of it, it is a chronic issue. I asked if it may be some kind of feather picking psychological type thing and he responded no, he said caiques are just weird birds and we obviously handle and socialize her alot otherwise we wouldn't have the trust between us that we do. She is out 6 hours plus every day playing around and causing trouble around her cage, she seems happy so I would agree. Anyway, thanks for the help.