HELPPP My female lovebird is drawing blood from her tail feathers !

[pradi]

The problem started a month ago when I paid little attention and took it to normal preening but it has worsened overtime in a matter of weeks! since the start of this week she's been plucking feathers from the particular part [refer to the first 2 pics attached] and since 3 days she isnt sleeping all night long and keeps pecking that part and its bleeding all the time. I tried betadine... that didnt help. I'm so heartbroken...she's always been a very jolly, curious and cuddly birb. She's napping a lot and whenever shes up she starts pecking that portion...she bites hard whenever I try to touch her now...& all these months she wouldnt sleep without 30 mins of cuddles daily. Now she seems so off and suffering ((((((( we dont have ANY vet around during this lockdown situation...please help. She's everything to me... she has always been a perfectly healthy bird and even though I got her as an adult[10 months ago], I was able to tame her in a matter of weeks and she seemed very ready for it too. She has toys and has never ever felt bored. She also gets out of the cage time daily. Her diet : sweet corns her fav, fresh fruits, veggies, egg white another fav, various fleshy stems and leaves which we humans consume too, seeds. Pellets arent available in my location so I make sure they eat plenty of freshies daily.

 

[Meerkat07]

OMG my parents are from South India. Usual reasons for plucking are mostly because of infections boredom stress allergies to certain foods. Definitely go to you vet immediately. Make sure you give lots of time out of cage and lots of toys and emotional stimulation as well as check if she may be allergic to a food you have given her. A lot of plucking parrots wear sweaters to cover their feathers for being plucked but it may be too traumatizing to put it on a small lovebird.

 

[Ulis_Beast]

Do you know how old is she?
Sounds she's badly hormonal to me.
Ideally she would be seen by a vet.
But I know not enough about lovebirds to give any really meaningful advice.
@Zara @LunaLovebird or @fluffypoptarts might know how to asist you..

I did find an open clinic in Kolkota, but I don't know how strict the lockdown in Kolkota is... Maybe he could take you...
A bleeding bird is always an emergency.

 

[Zara]

To stop her picking and plucking you could make her an Elizabethan collar. But you will need to go to the vet to find the root cause of this.

Press cornstrarch or flour (firmly but gently) on bleeding feathers until it stops. If bleeding restarts, you will need a vet asap.

 

[Zara]

Elizabethan collar

She will need a vet - I cannot stress that enough.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

It’s a little hard to see, but it looks like she may be mutilating, which is the next level to plucking. I really hope I’m wrong and that she’s not. That can be very dangerous, both from the risk of infection and from blood loss if she hurts herself badly enough. Definitely a vet and a collar, but you’d have to keep her in a hospital cage until she gets used to the collar, especially if she can fly. It depends on how well she tolerates it, and whether or not you can make her normal cage safe and accessible for her. Drowning in water bowls or falling badly can both be risks in that situation, and if she tries to fly with the collar on, it could go very badly.

I’ve never had a lovebird tolerate a collar well, and my poor Boo spent most of her time having to wear one the last couple years of her life because she was so fixated on mutilating (same area as yours, on the rump near her preen gland) and we couldn’t make it stop. We tried various meds and laser therapy, and nothing stopped her, even when it was mostly healed. The vet was of the opinion that she had damaged her nerves and thus was constantly in some amount of pain, which drove her to want to mutilate more (of course we had her on pain medication).

It will probably get worse, especially if she does irreparable damage to her nerves, etc, so do all you can now to stop it.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

You definitely need to see a vet as this can get septic. I hope she’ll be okay and that you can figure out the cause.

 

[dollfish]

Is her mate in the picture a male or a female?

 

[Ripshod]

Is her mate in the picture a male or a female?

Well spotted. I had to look again to see the other rump. .
Are these two a truly bonded pair or have they just been put together in a cage? I see a bad injury, maybe a bite. It's possible it's already infected if it's bothering her this much. First step is to seperate them, second is the vet.

 

[dollfish]

Would you guys recommend pradi to towel their bird and have a close look at the area?

 

[Ripshod]

Would you guys recommend pradi to towel their bird and have a close look at the area?

I think @pradi really needs to take a look to see if there is a wound and to clean the area (water only).

 

[pradi]

OMG my parents are from South India. Usual reasons for plucking are mostly because of infections boredom stress allergies to certain foods. Definitely go to you vet immediately. Make sure you give lots of time out of cage and lots of toys and emotional stimulation as well as check if she may be allergic to a food you have given her. A lot of plucking parrots wear sweaters to cover their feathers for being plucked but it may be too traumatizing to put it on a small lovebird.

It could be any other reason but one things for sure, she never feels bored. They stay in the cage only till 2pm in the afternoon and then onwards theyre out till sleep time [6-6 30pm]. And even while in the cage they get visits from wild indian ringnecks, sparrows, mynas and bulbuls. Ringnecks literally start a convo with them, clinging to the cage wall. I leave food for all sorts of wild birds except crows bcz they freak my babies out. above all theyve got lots of chewing toys, knots, swings, jingly balls inside their cage so one things for sure its not out of boredom. luckily though I was able to find a vet amid the lockdown situation and he suggested her lots of rest as she lost a lot of blood. he also asked to discontinue egg white for a whiile as it might cause irritation in the area and also asked to apply liquid iodine solution for 7 days nonstop as she damaged a lot of skin and prescribed an antifungal powder. It was actually a fungal infection according to him. Shes improving

 

[Ali]

Ringnecks literally start a convo with them, clinging to the cage wall. I leave food for all sorts of wild birds except crows bcz they freak my babies out.

Could one of the wild bird visitors have done it?

I would be wary of letting your birds interact with wild birds like that as they could cage any number of diseases etc. from them.

 

[pradi]

Do you know how old is she?
Sounds she's badly hormonal to me.
Ideally she would be seen by a vet.
But I know not enough about lovebirds to give any really meaningful advice.
@Zara @LunaLovebird or @fluffypoptarts might know how to asist you..

I did find an open clinic in Kolkota, but I don't know how strict the lockdown in Kolkota is... Maybe he could take you...
A bleeding bird is always an emergency.

hey thanks a lot for showing concern! I could find an open vet and he said it is a fungal infection. he cleaned the area with dettol water and prescribed an anti fungal powder and betadine solution daily for 7 days. Shes improving but he also asked to not let her out of the cage for at least a week because she lost a lot of blood and she must rest more. She's a rescued bird so really no idea about her age. she was chased here by a pack of crows and my uncle caught her with his handkerchief. She was a bit smaller then than she is now so i guess she isnt more than an yr old or just an yr old...or maybe I just feed her healthy so she grew ..no idea tbh

 

[pradi]

Would you guys recommend pradi to towel their bird and have a close look at the area?

yep thats what i did and discovered a deep wound in the area. it was a fungal infection. but shes under medication now and is healing so yay

 

[pradi]

To stop her picking and plucking you could make her an Elizabethan collar. But you will need to go to the vet to find the root cause of this.

Press cornstrarch or flour (firmly but gently) on bleeding feathers until it stops. If bleeding restarts, you will need a vet asap.

thanks a lot for ur concern. we saw a vet and he inferred it was a result of fungal infection which i now suppose she got from an indian ringneck that visits her, that one has a lot of bald spots in her body. a person in the replies opened my eyes ..never thought about that before. I personally maintain a lot of hygiene around my house so its highly unlikely she got it from here

 

[pradi]

You definitely need to see a vet as this can get septic. I hope she’ll be okay and that you can figure out the cause.

thanks for the well wishes shes recovering. we saw a vet and it is due to a fungal infection which she supposedly got from wild ringnecks visiting her.

 

[pradi]

Well spotted. I had to look again to see the other rump. .
Are these two a truly bonded pair or have they just been put together in a cage? I see a bad injury, maybe a bite. It's possible it's already infected if it's bothering her this much. First step is to seperate them, second is the vet.

oh nooo theyre besties the green [ male] would die if i seperate them. hes so protective of her that even when she's getting cuddles from me, he flies in and starts cuddling her too XD . chicki, the female is a rescue. i took time and tamed her for 4 months before getting the male. its always easier when u have a tame bird around the other [untamed] one gets tame too in a shorter duration. even now he's supporting her a lot [ feeding her, preening her and letting her sleep] as the dctor asked her rest and no out of the cage time for atleast 2 weeks as she lost a lot of blood. the infection is fungal ... she acquired it from wild ringnecks supposedly [ thanks to a the person who pointed that out ] Ive decided to not leave food for the rings in my balcony anymore...

 

[pradi]

Could one of the wild bird visitors have done it?

I would be wary of letting your birds interact with wild birds like that as they could cage any number of diseases etc. from them.

you opened my eyes....thanks a tonnn. A ringneck with a lot of baldspots has been visiting the bowl of rice i leave for them daily..it might be the cause because it started from 3 days after that ring started coming. no way she could get it from the house as we maintain a lot of hygiene in here. ive never seen wild birds hurting them in anyway though; instead they seem to be curious and try and interact. I'll choose another place prefferably the terrace to leave food for them. Not welcoming them anymore in the balcony as i strongly believe theyre the cause now.

 

[Sparkles99]

Glad to hear she's going to be fine!

@Ali new title = avian vet detective, AVD. Well spotted.