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- 8/23/13
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I wanted to share some really positive news about my chronic plucker/mutilator, in the hopes that it might help others.
My cockatiel Odette was abused as a baby, to the point where the rescue, the vet, and I were originally unsure about whether we might need to consider euthanasia because she was just so constantly terrified that it seemed like she had no quality of life. After about 3 months with me, she settled down and began to trust me to the point that she began enjoying and asking for scritches and cuddles.
Unfortunately, at the same time, she slowly began plucking. My vet initially believed that she had giardia (and she may have, the tests were always equivocal). We treated her and the rest of the flock extensively, but she continued to pluck. It started out slowly and over time got much worse, so that by about 2 years in, she was all but bald except for her head, tail, and long flight feathers. I tried multiple different environmental and behavior modification techniques, to no avail. I tried different (made-for-birds) topicals, including Feather In and Avi-Vera, to no avail. We did very extensive medical workup (including xrays, bloodwork, skin scrapings/biopsies, and even a full barium scan series), with no meaningful findings, leaving us with no choice but to conclude that it was psychological. We discussed possibly using fluoxetine or haloperidol, but my vet and I felt this would only sedate her and would not actually get at the root of the problem. We opted to stop trying to treat the plucking, and just love her as a naked birdie.
Fast-forward another year -- After I moved to Seattle with the flock, Odette started mutilating in addition to plucking, including causing herself a very severe ulcer under her wing. After additional medical workup (again finding no physiological cause), my new vet suggested we try gabapentin. Gabapentin is not, strictly speaking, a psych med. It's used to treat neuropathy and nerve-related pain, and is now being increasingly used in birds that pluck. The theory is that the plucking may be related to especially uncomfortable sensations in the skin, especially when new feathers are growing in.
I decided to try it with Odette. It was like flipping a switch. I gave her first two doses, and the next day she just stopped plucking. After 3 years of nothing helping, I almost couldn't believe it. I kept expecting it to wear off. It's now been 6 weeks and Odette has not plucked a single feather, despite the fact that she now has a TON of pinnies growing in. She's not a zombie bird, her activity level and behavior are unchanged, except that she doesn't pluck anymore. I'm not sure whether she'll ever be able to get off the gabapentin, but it's been a total game-changer for her. I'm sure that it's not a cure-all for every bird that plucks or mutilates, but I wanted to share this experience in case other birds can benefit from it. I certainly had resigned myself to nothing working, until this vet's suggestion.
My cockatiel Odette was abused as a baby, to the point where the rescue, the vet, and I were originally unsure about whether we might need to consider euthanasia because she was just so constantly terrified that it seemed like she had no quality of life. After about 3 months with me, she settled down and began to trust me to the point that she began enjoying and asking for scritches and cuddles.
Unfortunately, at the same time, she slowly began plucking. My vet initially believed that she had giardia (and she may have, the tests were always equivocal). We treated her and the rest of the flock extensively, but she continued to pluck. It started out slowly and over time got much worse, so that by about 2 years in, she was all but bald except for her head, tail, and long flight feathers. I tried multiple different environmental and behavior modification techniques, to no avail. I tried different (made-for-birds) topicals, including Feather In and Avi-Vera, to no avail. We did very extensive medical workup (including xrays, bloodwork, skin scrapings/biopsies, and even a full barium scan series), with no meaningful findings, leaving us with no choice but to conclude that it was psychological. We discussed possibly using fluoxetine or haloperidol, but my vet and I felt this would only sedate her and would not actually get at the root of the problem. We opted to stop trying to treat the plucking, and just love her as a naked birdie.
Fast-forward another year -- After I moved to Seattle with the flock, Odette started mutilating in addition to plucking, including causing herself a very severe ulcer under her wing. After additional medical workup (again finding no physiological cause), my new vet suggested we try gabapentin. Gabapentin is not, strictly speaking, a psych med. It's used to treat neuropathy and nerve-related pain, and is now being increasingly used in birds that pluck. The theory is that the plucking may be related to especially uncomfortable sensations in the skin, especially when new feathers are growing in.
I decided to try it with Odette. It was like flipping a switch. I gave her first two doses, and the next day she just stopped plucking. After 3 years of nothing helping, I almost couldn't believe it. I kept expecting it to wear off. It's now been 6 weeks and Odette has not plucked a single feather, despite the fact that she now has a TON of pinnies growing in. She's not a zombie bird, her activity level and behavior are unchanged, except that she doesn't pluck anymore. I'm not sure whether she'll ever be able to get off the gabapentin, but it's been a total game-changer for her. I'm sure that it's not a cure-all for every bird that plucks or mutilates, but I wanted to share this experience in case other birds can benefit from it. I certainly had resigned myself to nothing working, until this vet's suggestion.