hyacinthlove
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 4/17/18
- Messages
- 3
We had a rough winter and our house was very cold so he had a heater next to his cage to keep him from getting too cold, especially at night. When I first found the scabs I thought he had just scratched himself raw from being too dry (believe me, I was sick about it. I did my best to keep him from getting too cold only to dry him out and harm him anyway!). They were mostly on his back, under his wings and on one of his flanks, worst on the right side (which, interestingly, is the side facing AWAY from the heater).
He had been very quiet lately and subdued, which I attributed to the cold, but after seeing his skin I realized he was feeling awful and probably ill. I began applying raw coconut oil to his skin every day and keeping a wet towel hanging over his heater to up the humidity in his cage area (don't trust humidifiers, and the towel gets rotated and washed regularly).
At the recommendation of a veterinarian I switched his diet from mostly macadamias and some fruits/veggies to Roudybush pellets and macs (which I have to soften into mush and combine them to get him to eat the pellets). I have also been adding spirulina and cayenne to his mash.
I am pretty sure that the combination of the cold, a not-ideal diet and dry heat combined to lower his immune system, which is why I am doing everything I can think of to improve it (I also just got some Vetri-DMG yesterday, which I am mixing in with his mush, 13 drops). And I assume that heading into moult doesn't help either. But I can't find anything anywhere about any macaw skin problems that look like this!
He is in perfect feather. Bright blue (he's a hyacinth), no barring. He's not a plucker (which is why it took me so long to notice his skin condition--he looks fine from the outside!). He has no respiratory symptoms, no sneezing (unless he purposefully digs in his nose to sneeze). He perches fine. He is very low energy though, not being mischevious and obnoxious, and is very touchy about being bumped or moved.
I've been keeping him with me in my office as much as possible to keep a better eye on him. He is chilly (it's still pretty cold here) and shivers more than he used to. I attribute that to lowered immunity but his skin also looks a lot more bare than it used to. I don't know if that's because his feathers are sticking together more because of the coconut oil applications or because he has plucked out all his little downy feathers while scratching (I cleaned his cage and cage area thoroughly and there were no feathers, but a lot of dust and fuzz).
I don't believe it is mites, as his itchiness seems worst in the mornings and during the day rather than at night. And there's no crustiness around his nares or legs.
One of the curious things about the scabbing is that there are these large yellow patches that look like calluses. I thought at first they were scabs, but I think he picks those and they turn into scabs. In the places where they appear many of the surrounding feathers also have yellowing around the shafts (normally his feather shafts are a clear whitish color). To me that looks fungal.
The coconut oil definitely helped soothe him, and has even healed a number of his wounds significantly, but the issue isn't going away (in fact, new areas have popped up!) and his feathers are now a greasy, tacky mess. Yesterday I switched from coconut oil to applying colloidal silver to the wounds and calluses, and it seems to be helping.
So has anyone had any experience with this kind of skin issue?
To recap:
- extreme itchiness, but more in the morning/day than at night
- scabbing and bleeding (from scratching/picking)
- low energy (not quite lethargy, but definitely not his normal self)
- no respiratory symptoms
- reduced tolerance to cold
- very sensitive to touch or movement (his skin hurts!)
- wounds responding to coconut oil application but reappearing in new areas
- yellow calluses / thickened skin patches
- slight thickening/yellowing of the feather shafts in the vicinity of calluses
- feathers are beautiful and in good condition, no plucking or feather mutilation
I also just discovered, in all my research trying to figure out what the heck this skin thing is, that he has the beginning stages of bumblefoot! I always thought it was just rub marks from how he sits, but one of them is turning a bit red, so I put some colloidal silver on it (he is not lame, but has been holding it up lately while sitting on his perch and sleeping) and will be scrubbing his perches down this afternoon.
Sorry for the wall of text, I'm trying to be as thorough as possible because I just can't find anything anywhere that seems to match what's going on with him!
And yes, I know the first answer is "you need to take him to a certified avian vet" but if that were a possibility right now I wouldn't be posting in a forum.
Please, if you have any ideas of what this might be, or experience with a similar issue, I would appreciate some insight.
Thank you.
[/url] [/IMG]
He had been very quiet lately and subdued, which I attributed to the cold, but after seeing his skin I realized he was feeling awful and probably ill. I began applying raw coconut oil to his skin every day and keeping a wet towel hanging over his heater to up the humidity in his cage area (don't trust humidifiers, and the towel gets rotated and washed regularly).
At the recommendation of a veterinarian I switched his diet from mostly macadamias and some fruits/veggies to Roudybush pellets and macs (which I have to soften into mush and combine them to get him to eat the pellets). I have also been adding spirulina and cayenne to his mash.
I am pretty sure that the combination of the cold, a not-ideal diet and dry heat combined to lower his immune system, which is why I am doing everything I can think of to improve it (I also just got some Vetri-DMG yesterday, which I am mixing in with his mush, 13 drops). And I assume that heading into moult doesn't help either. But I can't find anything anywhere about any macaw skin problems that look like this!
He is in perfect feather. Bright blue (he's a hyacinth), no barring. He's not a plucker (which is why it took me so long to notice his skin condition--he looks fine from the outside!). He has no respiratory symptoms, no sneezing (unless he purposefully digs in his nose to sneeze). He perches fine. He is very low energy though, not being mischevious and obnoxious, and is very touchy about being bumped or moved.
I've been keeping him with me in my office as much as possible to keep a better eye on him. He is chilly (it's still pretty cold here) and shivers more than he used to. I attribute that to lowered immunity but his skin also looks a lot more bare than it used to. I don't know if that's because his feathers are sticking together more because of the coconut oil applications or because he has plucked out all his little downy feathers while scratching (I cleaned his cage and cage area thoroughly and there were no feathers, but a lot of dust and fuzz).
I don't believe it is mites, as his itchiness seems worst in the mornings and during the day rather than at night. And there's no crustiness around his nares or legs.
One of the curious things about the scabbing is that there are these large yellow patches that look like calluses. I thought at first they were scabs, but I think he picks those and they turn into scabs. In the places where they appear many of the surrounding feathers also have yellowing around the shafts (normally his feather shafts are a clear whitish color). To me that looks fungal.
The coconut oil definitely helped soothe him, and has even healed a number of his wounds significantly, but the issue isn't going away (in fact, new areas have popped up!) and his feathers are now a greasy, tacky mess. Yesterday I switched from coconut oil to applying colloidal silver to the wounds and calluses, and it seems to be helping.
So has anyone had any experience with this kind of skin issue?
To recap:
- extreme itchiness, but more in the morning/day than at night
- scabbing and bleeding (from scratching/picking)
- low energy (not quite lethargy, but definitely not his normal self)
- no respiratory symptoms
- reduced tolerance to cold
- very sensitive to touch or movement (his skin hurts!)
- wounds responding to coconut oil application but reappearing in new areas
- yellow calluses / thickened skin patches
- slight thickening/yellowing of the feather shafts in the vicinity of calluses
- feathers are beautiful and in good condition, no plucking or feather mutilation
I also just discovered, in all my research trying to figure out what the heck this skin thing is, that he has the beginning stages of bumblefoot! I always thought it was just rub marks from how he sits, but one of them is turning a bit red, so I put some colloidal silver on it (he is not lame, but has been holding it up lately while sitting on his perch and sleeping) and will be scrubbing his perches down this afternoon.
Sorry for the wall of text, I'm trying to be as thorough as possible because I just can't find anything anywhere that seems to match what's going on with him!
And yes, I know the first answer is "you need to take him to a certified avian vet" but if that were a possibility right now I wouldn't be posting in a forum.
Please, if you have any ideas of what this might be, or experience with a similar issue, I would appreciate some insight.
Thank you.