"Older" blood feather broken -- do we need to hunt for the shaft?

To make a long story short, Blanco had a night fright and we found him discombobulated and unhappy with a small amount of blood on the edge of his wing. We inspected the whole wing fairly carefully, could not find an obvious broken feather, washed it off and verified the bleeding had stopped. We concluded he had scratched himself between feathers on something sharp in the cage (the ladders that came with it have some edges I've never been totally happy with).

This morning he seemed fine, although still "sore" -- eating and drinking and being a nudge about head scritches. But, smack in the middle of the floor of the room, I found a sub-mature feather, clearly broken, with a blob of dried blood on the end. It looks like a feather that was almost mature -- about half the length is fully released from the shaft. The question is -- at this point, do we need to go looking for the remaining shaft and pull it? Or is it likely OK since the feather was already fairly mature and the bleeding has stopped? What if it broke at the skin surface -- how would we identify that? We didn't see an obvious problem when we looked at him during the night. Or is this a vet-only job?

(Bill is not happy with vets at the moment, the incident with the wormer did not do much for his confidence in vets treating birds. OTOH, there is a vet up here that's AAV listed and who has a dedicated exam room for birds...)

This little guy is turning out to be the high maintenance one of the group. He set Scotty off, but for once he appears to have avoided breaking his beak...

Anybody? Richard? Roz?

He seems fine now, but 80% of what I found in my research suggests we should find the remaining shaft and pull it or see the vet. No renewed bleeding, using the wing normally... WTD?

I would say given your need to avoid the vet and that Blanco is not in any distress or bleeding any longer, you should be fine. I would only be concerned if he was showing signs of stress or pain. Just keep an eye out for bleeding. Its good that it clotted so quickly, but that doesn't mean it can't reopen.

Also keep an eye on how he continues to use the wing. If the remaining shaft becomes inflamed or infected, that could cause future problems (which is why most people say to pull it). I'm of a mind with these things as if its no longer broke, don't mess with it if its healing on its own.

Hey. Sorry, haven't been around lately.

You can find the feather and pull it with needle nose pliers if you want. You'd have to be careful to restrain that wing so you don't break/hurt it. Sometimes those feathers really hold on tight when they're not ready to come out.

Or you can just leave it and it will molt out in due course. I've done that a lot before. I'm to the point I pull out blood feathers if I catch them fresh bleeding or broken in such a way that it's flopping around and causing pain. If it's older, dried blood and not causing any ongoing pain I tend to leave them alone.

The soreness will be there even after you pull the feather as plucking out a feather that's not ready to come out will be painful and leave a sore spot.

So that's my input. Do it or don't. I wouldn't worry about it as it's not currently bleeding and not a cause of ongoing pain. If you're not super comfortable with restraint and pulling out the feather my most pressing concern would be inadvertently hurting that wing while trying to get the feather out.

Thanks for the input, you two! I am thinking that the blood supply was in the process of drying up anyway, since the initial bleeding was minor and we weren't even able to tell where it was coming from. Had I not found the feather, it would have remained a mystery. I will keep an eye open for infection -- and we will go to the vet if we need to.

I think personally I'd have either gone hunting for it or hauled him off to the vet, but Bill is a lot more of the mind to leave well enough alone... it it's not being incredibly irresponsible to leave it alone, I'd just as soon let him get his way this time.

Never a dull moment, is there?

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I think personally I'd have either gone hunting for it or hauled him off to the vet, but Bill is a lot more of the mind to leave well enough alone... it it's not being incredibly irresponsible to leave it alone, I'd just as soon let him get his way this time.

My view is that there's a lot of mystical thinking when animals are involved - run to the vet for every little hang nail, scrape and bruise. Whereas if it were an actual human child you'd put a bandaid, icepack, wash it off or just plain watch it before rushing off to the ER/doctor every time.

Einstein has broken his fair share of feathers. The first time I had a complete freak out.

But, I think tiels are just inherently clumsy. Just check to see if he's acting different or for any bleeding and move on.

Zaza it was definitely a blood feather he broke off, and there was bleeding, just not a lot of it. He seems totally fine now, but I'm sure the other end is still there somewhere... but no sign of it starting to bleed again.

The feather I found was clearly a broken off blood feather, still "blue" with about half the feather out of the sheath, with definite blood at the end and within the shaft. But he never bled profusely and until we found the feather, we had no idea he had broken a blood feather, assumed it was a scrape. I presume it was starting to "dry up" on its own.

Are 'tiels high maintenance or is it just Blanco?

Depends on your definition of high maintenance

Well, he's certainly worried me about his health more than the others put together! He's also a terrible nudge about getting attention, but is so is Scooter when he's in the mood to be.

IMO the only thing "lower maintence" would be chickens. The perfect pet bird.

zazanomore wrote:

...

But, I think tiels are just inherently clumsy....

Here here!

He is really easy in a lot of ways, but I hope he stops trying to die on a regular basis!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

He is really easy in a lot of ways, but I hope he stops trying to die on a regular basis!

It's so true!

Pretty_Poe wrote:

It's so true!

'tis. But he seems blissfully unaware of it...

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Pretty_Poe wrote:

It's so true!

'tis. But he seems blissfully unaware of it...

Oh, he looks so happy and pretty!

I'm finding out that they are such contradictions - beautiful and clumsy, content and needy, happy and irritated ... how they manage to be all of these things at the same time is totally beyond me, but I suppose I'll love them anyway.

Hey Vicki, was just thinking about you, hadn't heard from you in a while!

I'm working ALL the time and exhausted when I get home... it's all I can do to eat dinner and get to bed. Fortunately my birds work with me, otherwise they wouldn't even know who I was!

I think it depends on the bird....one of my friends' Caiques broke a blood feather...then did the normal Caique panic routine...and did not survive as she (Caique) made it so much worse by freaking out.

Whereas Merlin or Stryder would stay still if this occurred...

Rosco would freak out, so I'd have Husband pull it while I held him for his own safety.