Shirley
12-01-2005, 11:12 PM
Today Nicky, 9 mo old Rose-breasted Cockatoo, fell on his wing and broke one his primary flight feathers, the only one actually that he has. He was "over-clipped" as a fledgling, probably never allowed to fledge, and this was his only new-grown flight feather and it was nearly grown in. Troy ran into my office to tell me about it, holding the broken feather in his hand, fresh blood on the end.
We went back to the dining room, tried to examine Nicky, who was quite loud and biting quite hard, but we remained calm and are "used to the noise and the biting of a scared bird", so no reaction from us other than reassuring Nicky. We had to towel him to find where the feather had come from. He was flapping so hard we both had blood on our shirts and on the dining room table. I can't explain, but we were both extremely calm throughout this ordeal. I think being a mom has something to do with this. Troy grabbed the avian clotting powder from the shelf above the 'fridge, where all the avian meds and first-aid supplies are kept, and we packed the 1/2" long soda straw primary and held it shut for as long as Nicky would let us. As his breathing got heavier, turning to panting, we released him. It seemed the bleeding had stopped. In case you don't know, the blood feathers *are* like a soda straw when broken and blood will drip from them, sometimes not clotting on their own quickly enough, and sometimes irritating the bird later such that they can start bleeding later on when messed with by the bird. You cannot pull a primary from the wing b/c it grows from a follicle deep in the wing bone, and it would be extremely painful to pull that from the bird. You can, however, pull with hemastats, a broken tail feather.
We watched him, no blood. A few minutes later, two small pools of blood on the newspapers below him. We re-treated the area with the avian clotting powder (like styptic powder) and held it shut again. This time I put him in the spare cockatiel cage which was already set up by Steve's recliner as a spare sleeping cage for Nicky as needed. No bleeding. Checked 15 minutes later... two small pools of blood and his side was red with blood. I called Dr. Cook - her day off. She asked a few questions and said to meet her at the clinic, 10 min from my house.
She assessed the situation, and then put him under anesthesia with a breathing mask (I was with him the entire time, along with her two assistants) and she extracted the broken feather out of the bone. Once out of the bone, it was almost 2" long! She noticed three others broken flush with the bone from ages ago, extracted those (no bleeding), and now those three can grow back quickly. She said his wing clip looked like the breeder just clipped him as he "flew by". She removed his leg band while he was under, and then removed the mask and he woke up right away. He was semi-conscious off and on as her assistant monitored and turned the anesthesia slightly up and down throughout the entire process, listening to his vitals all the time.
After he woke up and was able to sit up, they washed him up to get all the clotted and dried blood off his side and off his wing. They have something similar to a stainless steel rack over their wash tub, like a refrigerator shelf, that they sit small animals and birds on, and wash them with a gentle sprayer, and the water falls through as the bird sits on top of the grate. I liked that, and might set something like that up in the bathtub at home.
I drove him home at 2:30 and he was allowed to eat at 5:00 and he's been back to his usual self since about 7:00. He loves his head scritches, and he's not allowed to be on the tree stand or the playstand on top of his cage until all his tail feathers grow in (they are about 1/3 grown in -- about 14 of them all at once! The were all broken off short when he came to us, and I pulled them all out so he'd get new ones.) and until he gets at least a couple flights on each side so he doesn't drop like a rock. I do not understand why so many breeders over-clip their babies! All our birds except Shelby were over-clipped as babies...
If you haven't met Nicky yet, his photos are in the Cockatoo forum...
I'm very grateful to Dr. Cook and her compassion for all animals. She held him in a towel like a baby after his bath and just rocked him and scritched him and talked to him so sweetly. :heart:
We went back to the dining room, tried to examine Nicky, who was quite loud and biting quite hard, but we remained calm and are "used to the noise and the biting of a scared bird", so no reaction from us other than reassuring Nicky. We had to towel him to find where the feather had come from. He was flapping so hard we both had blood on our shirts and on the dining room table. I can't explain, but we were both extremely calm throughout this ordeal. I think being a mom has something to do with this. Troy grabbed the avian clotting powder from the shelf above the 'fridge, where all the avian meds and first-aid supplies are kept, and we packed the 1/2" long soda straw primary and held it shut for as long as Nicky would let us. As his breathing got heavier, turning to panting, we released him. It seemed the bleeding had stopped. In case you don't know, the blood feathers *are* like a soda straw when broken and blood will drip from them, sometimes not clotting on their own quickly enough, and sometimes irritating the bird later such that they can start bleeding later on when messed with by the bird. You cannot pull a primary from the wing b/c it grows from a follicle deep in the wing bone, and it would be extremely painful to pull that from the bird. You can, however, pull with hemastats, a broken tail feather.
We watched him, no blood. A few minutes later, two small pools of blood on the newspapers below him. We re-treated the area with the avian clotting powder (like styptic powder) and held it shut again. This time I put him in the spare cockatiel cage which was already set up by Steve's recliner as a spare sleeping cage for Nicky as needed. No bleeding. Checked 15 minutes later... two small pools of blood and his side was red with blood. I called Dr. Cook - her day off. She asked a few questions and said to meet her at the clinic, 10 min from my house.
She assessed the situation, and then put him under anesthesia with a breathing mask (I was with him the entire time, along with her two assistants) and she extracted the broken feather out of the bone. Once out of the bone, it was almost 2" long! She noticed three others broken flush with the bone from ages ago, extracted those (no bleeding), and now those three can grow back quickly. She said his wing clip looked like the breeder just clipped him as he "flew by". She removed his leg band while he was under, and then removed the mask and he woke up right away. He was semi-conscious off and on as her assistant monitored and turned the anesthesia slightly up and down throughout the entire process, listening to his vitals all the time.
After he woke up and was able to sit up, they washed him up to get all the clotted and dried blood off his side and off his wing. They have something similar to a stainless steel rack over their wash tub, like a refrigerator shelf, that they sit small animals and birds on, and wash them with a gentle sprayer, and the water falls through as the bird sits on top of the grate. I liked that, and might set something like that up in the bathtub at home.
I drove him home at 2:30 and he was allowed to eat at 5:00 and he's been back to his usual self since about 7:00. He loves his head scritches, and he's not allowed to be on the tree stand or the playstand on top of his cage until all his tail feathers grow in (they are about 1/3 grown in -- about 14 of them all at once! The were all broken off short when he came to us, and I pulled them all out so he'd get new ones.) and until he gets at least a couple flights on each side so he doesn't drop like a rock. I do not understand why so many breeders over-clip their babies! All our birds except Shelby were over-clipped as babies...
If you haven't met Nicky yet, his photos are in the Cockatoo forum...
I'm very grateful to Dr. Cook and her compassion for all animals. She held him in a towel like a baby after his bath and just rocked him and scritched him and talked to him so sweetly. :heart: