Urgent Possible broken blood feather.

[JaneLane]

Hi everyone, I noticed this bloody feather while Frost was flying onto his cage, he is molting are bloody feathers a normal part of cockatiel molting or is this a broken blood feather? He has one on both sides, how do birds get broken blood feathers?
Thanks

 

[iamwhoiam]

Blood feathers only bleed if they have broken. It's not a normal thing but it sometimes happens. It's very important to get the bleeding to stop. Sometimes you don't realize your bird has broken a blood feather until you see a blood on the cage bars and/or perch. If you check the bird the bleeding area may have clotted and stopped bleeding. That doesn't always happen so important to put pressure on the area for a little bit and then apply Kwik Stop (clotting agent) or cornstarch and apply pressure again. After releasing pressure hold bird for a while to make sure bleeding has stopped. It's also a good idea to recheck the area because sometimes the bird will pick at it and it will start bleeding again. If you can't get the bleeding to stop then you need to pull out the feather/s that is/are bleeding. You can use tweezers or a hemostat although I have used my fingers. You need to make sure the entire shaft is pulled out. If this doesn't work then it's off to the vet.
Hopefully, your 'tiel is no longer bleeding and all is well.

Here's some info for you:
Pin or Blood Feathers in Birds | VCA Animal Hospital
You don't have to pull the feather if you can get it to stop bleeding.

 

[JaneLane]

@iamwhoiam
Thank you! The bleeding has stopped and it seems to be clotting nicely and he doesn't seem to be in pain. I think he may have broken the feathers jumping down to his food bowl. He's clumsy but refuses to climb down using his other perch or the cage wall, he always jumps and often falls, I may have to lower his perch.
Thanks again

 

[iamwhoiam]

Good that the bleeding is stopped. No fun pulling blood feathers.

 

[HolliDaze]

@iamwhoiam
Thank you! The bleeding has stopped and it seems to be clotting nicely and he doesn't seem to be in pain. I think he may have broken the feathers jumping down to his food bowl. He's clumsy but refuses to climb down using his other perch or the cage wall, he always jumps and often falls, I may have to lower his perch.
Thanks again

Is he a young bird?My late cockatiel broke blood feathers multiple times her first year. My cockatoo hasn't broken any blood feathers, but he's just in his first mol t and hasn't molted any easily broken feathers... Yet. He crashes constantly, and is down to 2 tail feathers, none of his post feathers were molted. They don't ever seen perturbed by the crashes or broken feathers, they just keep doing it until they aren't clumsy any more.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Kuiper broke a lot of blood feathers during his first two years.

 

[JaneLane]

@HolliDaze
Yes she's (just found out her gender two days ago!) fairly young only 10 months now and still a very clumsy flier, I've trimmed her flight feathers but she can still fly a little.

 

[saroj12]

the latest from my vet is that you don't pull the blood feather out. just stop the bleeding. Years ago before my vet had this advice, we pulled a blood feather out of Emily with pliers. It was very scary!

 

[iamwhoiam]

My preference is not to pull the feathers but the issue is that if you can't get the bleeding to stop then the blood feather/s generally needs to be pulled. With Kuiper I've experienced trying to get the bleeding to stop 2 or 3 times and then wind up having to pull and one time I even had to rush him to the vet because one feather continued to bleed and I wasn't able to pull it.

 

[saroj12]

My preference is not to pull the feathers but the issue is that if you can't get the bleeding to stop then the blood feather/s generally needs to be pulled. With Kuiper I've experienced trying to get the bleeding to stop 2 or 3 times and then wind up having to pull and one time I even had to rush him to the vet because one feather continued to bleed and I wasn't able to pull it.

ouch! Not even kwikstop stopped it? Glad you were able to get Kuiper to the vet speedily!

 

[iamwhoiam]

ouch! Not even kwikstop stopped it? Glad you were able to get Kuiper to the vet speedily!

Nope...I wound up having to pull 2 or 3 and yet there was still blood dripping. Vet office was closing in 20 mins. Gave them a call and told them I was on my way. Grabbed Kuiper, "threw" him in a carrier and off we went. Traffic bad on freeway at that time so took the surface streets and got there in record time.

 

[saroj12]

Nope...I wound up having to pull 2 or 3 and yet there was still blood dripping. Vet office was closing in 20 mins. Gave them a call and told them I was on my way. Grabbed Kuiper, "threw" him in a carrier and off we went. Traffic bad on freeway at that time so took the surface streets and got there in record time.

Must have been a stressful time, racing the clock, with Kuiper bleeding! Good it all worked out!

 

[iamwhoiam]

It was stressful but at least the birds' vet is not that far away. I used to drive farther to a different vet and remember doing that with a very sick bird holding her in my lap the entire way and trying to get to that vet as quickly as possible.

 

[CeciliaZ]

My vet also told me it should not be necessary to pull a blood feather for a tiel. One of my tiels (my lutino) seems to have more broken blood feathers than the others - from night frights.

 

[rocky'smom]

It's a good idea to keep a vial of cornstarch or unbleached white flour near the cage. I use a film canister from 35mm film with flour and cayenne powder mixture in case emergency blood feather break.