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Strange feather shaft?

teena87

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Hello,

I've noticed something strange with my lovebird recently. He started molting a while ago and I've noticed him making little "annoyed/bothered" sounds when preening himself. I think he is also over-preening himself. I called the vet and she said that its likely new feathers are being bothersome most likely.

Yesterday I found a large (I think wing?) feather in the cage that had some black inside the shaft. Not a lot, but I've never seen that before. Today, I heard him make the "bothered" sounds again and a second later I saw another one of those feathers inside his beak. I think he may have pulled it out. The feather had a dark spot inside the shaft again (very base of it). Both times the feathers appeared grown.

I'm getting quite worried now, PBFD come to mind etc :(

Any idea? Will call vet again
 

iamwhoiam

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Can you take a photo of the feathers and post that?
 

teena87

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Can you take a photo of the feathers and post that?
Unfortunately I did not think of that and threw it out. It looks exactly like most of his feathers, identical except with a dark spot near the base of the shaft. Like little dried blood or something stuck in there. Not RIGHT at the tip, but near the base.
 

Kodigirl210

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Have you had a chance to examine his wings? Will he allow you to do it? He may have a feather cyst or something else going on.

I would look at his wings to determine where the feathers came from that were pulled and if there is anything on the wing that would cause him to pull it.

If he pulls another, please take a pic of it with a prominent view of the last inch or so of the shaft.

Birds don’t normally pull out feathers when they molt as they fall out on their own. What the vet said doesn’t make any sense unless she was referring to the over preening only.

Also have there been any recent changes to the location of his cage, the toys/forage he has or how much time he spends out of his cage? Is there a window he can see out of that he couldn’t before? Sometimes an unknown anxiety will bring about over preening and the above listed are generally the cause.

Here’s wishing you a good explanation that doesn’t require an unabridged dictionary to solve ;)
 

teena87

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Have you had a chance to examine his wings? Will he allow you to do it? He may have a feather cyst or something else going on.

I would look at his wings to determine where the feathers came from that were pulled and if there is anything on the wing that would cause him to pull it.

If he pulls another, please take a pic of it with a prominent view of the last inch or so of the shaft.

Birds don’t normally pull out feathers when they molt as they fall out on their own. What the vet said doesn’t make any sense unless she was referring to the over preening only.

Also have there been any recent changes to the location of his cage, the toys/forage he has or how much time he spends out of his cage? Is there a window he can see out of that he couldn’t before? Sometimes an unknown anxiety will bring about over preening and the above listed are generally the cause.

Here’s wishing you a good explanation that doesn’t require an unabridged dictionary to solve ;)
Thank you for the response. I will take a pic next time. Will try to book a vet appt. tomorrow probably.

I can pick him up and take a very quick look at the wings (which I have) but he is a bit of a drama queen and I wont get very far, especially not knowing how/where/what to look for. Hence the vet trip most likely.

No recent changes really. What I do find is that this overpreening/screeching usually happens in the morning before I wake up. Not right when he wakes up but likely when he is already getting bored inside the cage. I would hear the annoyed sounds that he makes while doing it. That's when I would find the feathers too usually. He never does it out of the cage and if placed inside the cage during the day, he may go at it again but not quite as much. If he does preen outside the cage, it is never accompanied by the 'annoyed" sounds, just regular preening.

What concerns me most however is the small dark spots left inside the shaft. Has anyone seen that before?
 
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Kodigirl210

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I don’t think you need to worry about PBFD. The feathers are deformed at the shaft when they have the virus. So they come out short or thin, or broken from being brittle. It usually starts in areas that the bird can’t reach such as the head or neck.

There were some darks spots in it but I assume the shaft itself was intact and feather nicely formed?

If that is the case it’s actually possible he pulled a new feather and it has blood drops in the tip. The fact that he is doing prior to you being awake and letting him out sounds like a psychological and not a physiological issue. Something is frustrating/bothering him pretty badly. Maybe you aren’t waking and getting up quick enough to suit him.

How old is your fid and how long do you estimate between the time he gets up and you wake up?
 

teena87

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I don’t think you need to worry about PBFD. The feathers are deformed at the shaft when they have the virus. So they come out short or thin, or broken from being brittle. It usually starts in areas that the bird can’t reach such as the head or neck.

There were some darks spots in it but I assume the shaft itself was intact and feather nicely formed?

If that is the case it’s actually possible he pulled a new feather and it has blood drops in the tip. The fact that he is doing prior to you being awake and letting him out sounds like a psychological and not a physiological issue. Something is frustrating/bothering him pretty badly. Maybe you aren’t waking and getting up quick enough to suit him.

How old is your fid and how long do you estimate between the time he gets up and you wake up?
The feather seemed fine otherwise, yeah. I guess what worried me is that I found two with the dark spots in 2 days. The blood wasn't right at the tip, a little further down the base of shaft. I just read that retained blood in shaft can be a sign of PBFD, that's what I referred to it.

I work from home so my schedule is pretty messed up. I wake up anywhere between 8 and 10am. He would normally wake up around 6:30-7 but remains quiet for the first little while. He is just over 2 years old.

I found a pic online that resembled it, just the spot was a bit darker SALE Set of 5 imperfect parrot feathers cruelty free | Etsy
 
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Kodigirl210

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Yeah I wouldn’t be worried from a PBFD perspective at all if that’s how the feather looked. The blood in the deformed feather is part and parcel. The feather doesn’t develop normally and comes out partially deformed and I think the blood is retained through that process.

I would say that your baby may be entering the terrible two’s. What was good enough before may not be good enough now.

I would still strongly advocate you check his wings and figure out where the feathers came from or take him to the vet so they can.

If it’s localized to a specific area - then I would be concerned there might be a cause for it. Something might be causing him pain and he’s try to get rid of it by pulling the feathers. If he pulls another one and they all 3 came from the same wing/area - take him to the vet without delay.

Something is wrong. Not PBFD but possibly a hairline fracture, a cyst, a pulled muscle or an atrophied muscle. The physical possibilities are endless.

If the come from both wings and different positions then yeah he’s just pissed you aren’t waking up fast enough for him to spend time with you. You do not want that to become a habit as he will become a plucker and that is a very hard habit to break.

I know that’s a lot of possibility but without you having conclusive proof about the feather positions we have to go with the broad spectrum of what it could be.

Hope you get it solved soon. Best wishes!
 

teena87

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Yeah I wouldn’t be worried from a PBFD perspective at all if that’s how the feather looked. The blood in the deformed feather is part and parcel. The feather doesn’t develop normally and comes out partially deformed and I think the blood is retained through that process.

I would say that your baby may be entering the terrible two’s. What was good enough before may not be good enough now.

I would still strongly advocate you check his wings and figure out where the feathers came from or take him to the vet so they can.

If it’s localized to a specific area - then I would be concerned there might be a cause for it. Something might be causing him pain and he’s try to get rid of it by pulling the feathers. If he pulls another one and they all 3 came from the same wing/area - take him to the vet without delay.

Something is wrong. Not PBFD but possibly a hairline fracture, a cyst, a pulled muscle or an atrophied muscle. The physical possibilities are endless.

If the come from both wings and different positions then yeah he’s just pissed you aren’t waking up fast enough for him to spend time with you. You do not want that to become a habit as he will become a plucker and that is a very hard habit to break.

I know that’s a lot of possibility but without you having conclusive proof about the feather positions we have to go with the broad spectrum of what it could be.

Hope you get it solved soon. Best wishes!
Thank you very much for your response, it is very logical. Unfortunately the chances of me finding out which side the feathers are from are very slim as I would have to catch him right in the act. I looked at his wing feathers and they book look pretty much the same on both sides, but Im no expert. Looking at the actual wing was pretty much impossible. Going to vet tomorrow, she is amazing with him and is actually able to get him to be still. Thanks again!
 
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teena87

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Hope all went well :)
The vet did not find anything on his wings and said all of his primary feathers are in place and symmetrical so she thinks he is just going through a hard molt.

She said she found a couple of questionable looking feathers on his head. She said that they do not seem to have a "pin" feather appearance with a blood supply (they are rather all white) but at the same time still do not look completely like normal feathers. She thinks it is just because they kind of started to fluff up/release and are just further along in the development process than the rest of the pin feathers but not yet 100% released. Or are just due to being new down feathers. Either way she said that they are most likely a result of normal molting and should resolve within a few weeks. So she suggested to ether send her pics or come back in a couple of weeks. The darker spots in the dropped wing feathers she did not find weird. No wounds or anything on wings, no bald spots.

Hopefully all will resolve. In the past 2 days I found no feathers on the cage floor, not even in the mornings (except for one or two). So who knows.

Thank you for your help :)
 
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