tweety is plucking her chest feathers!

[quakerlover]

My 1 1/2 year old female quaker has started to pluck her feathers. I've put toys in her cage to distract her but it's no use, she won't pay attention to them. She's plucking her chest feathers and under her wings. Theres a few of her feather follicles that have something black clogged in them... what is that? Should I take her to the vet?

 

[fidsmom]

The black are blood feathers, looks like she is getting new feathers in,( the white shafts) are new feathers coming in. shes probably itchy, try giving her some baths, that will help her feel better,

 

[JosienBB]

Definitely vet visit if she's started plucking out of nowhere. Make sure vet gives her full workup (blood chem, CBC, gram stains, fecal, disease testing).

 

[quakerlover]

About how much would it cost to take her to the vet and have it checked out?

 

[JosienBB]

Where are you located? At my vet, all that would probably cost over $500. But that is the cost of pet ownership, unfortunately.

Maybe someone on the forum experienced with plucking will chime in and let you know exactly what tests need to be done, so the vet won't do more tests than necessary if you're on a budget. For example, depending on the situation, radiographs may or may not be necessary, and those run a couple of hundred.

Make sure you find a vet who is avian certified or familar with birds/knows what they're doing. I've seen and wasted a lot of $$ over the years on incompetent ones.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Plucking can be due to a variety of reasons both physiological and psychological. Best to rule out the physiological by taking your bird to the vet for an exam. My most recent experience with plucking was with Sophie, my red-bellied parrot. I was fairly certain that it wasn't physiological but still took her to the vet to be sure and she passed her physical exam with flying colors and her blood work came back negative. I did start misting her, added Nekton Bio to her water and started paying more attention to her. Plucking has stopped and she is almost fully feathered on her chest and under wings again. To reiterate, good idea to take your Quaker to the vet and rule out some underlying physiological cause. Then go from there. Prices at vets will vary from vet to vet. Cost me about $200.

Nekton Bio

 

[Monica]

It's usually $40-$90 to walk in the door, a minimum of $75-$200 for blood work, another $20-$60 for fecal.... you also want to get skin scrapings and/or some feathers plucked out to see if she has an infection.


Rule out medical reasons, then you can look at environment (irritants in the air such as smoke, perfume, aerosols, air fresheners, new furniture, lotion), to diet (allergies, lacking in vitamins or minerals), to behavior (stress, not enough sleep, boredom, or?).



Considering age, it's more often medical rather than anything else.

 

[ZoeyFredrik]

Yes. Definitely take Tweety to the vet. Quakers are prone to plucking and do it for many reasons. A vet examination should help point you in the right direction. My Sammy is a plucker, he plucked his whole body once. Now he plucks just his chest, the vet believes he started this due to his heart disease. Like what @Monica said, you can start by eliminating environmental factors - and then make a visit to the vet.

 

[Chihuahua]

I recommend care credit!