Bela is Sick

[Bela]

OMG, I am a wreck.

I decided I had to have her wings clipped; she's just getting to be too much won't eat on her dinner perch and flying at very little provocation. Also, I switched the lights in the house from incadescent to the spiral things and something about them just freaked her out. After going back to the other ones, she would at least eat a little veggies outside of her house. My eclectus was freaked out as well by the lighting.

So back to Bela. I take her to the vet yesterday - woke up late and as usual when I do so, found a bunch of feathers on the bottom of her cage. Vet asked about it, but she's done it before, usually from her tail, but this time from the inside of her right leg. And began on the left leg as well. For whatever stupid reason, I decided not to do the bloods at this visit - She's had them for the past 3 years and nothing has really changed with her - with the exception of the lighting situation.

Today I wake up and another pile of feathers. She's pulling them off her but now too. Of course I figure she's bored - no new toys. I run out to the store and get her the destructive type toys to keep her mind of mutilating. It worked, but not for long. She's pulling those beautiful red feathers out right in front of me.

I call the vets office 10 minutes before they closed. vet seems to think I can wait til Monday to run bloods. Gave some aloe suggestions to help eliviate the itch. Arrgh. If she gets worse tomorrow I'm going to the emergency vet tomorrow!

One other thing - it the vet found she had fallen and bruised her chest (within the past couple days). She is somewhat clutsy, but this is what I think is happening - well, I can't rule it out. Still do bloods, but she has a boing in her cage and the top part is exposing more of the metal wire thats used to make the boing itself. Normally that part is covered in rope, but with age it's gotten saggy. I'm wondering if I have a Zinc issue I'm catching early. It explains the feather pulling, the fall with the bruised chest perhaps...stool looks ok, although it was a little loose with the fussing of me taking her to the vet and then bathing the heck out of her today.

I ran out to whole foods and bought the aloe detox and just added it to the water. Have no idea how much to dilute it, but I have to see if maybe that will help.

[Sprecker]

I have found that with my Grey (because I am no expert and will never claim to be) Doing the right thing isn't always a good thing. For instance clipping the wings (for me) is not an option for me. He used to fall and thrash his wings on the floor or cage bottom and actually broke all of his wing tip flighs and secondary feathers. The skin on his chest on one occasion. So none of that for him anymore. Until his flights grow back (they are on their way :) ) I have padded the bottom of his cage with blankets. I also doubled the size of his cage (length and width, not hight) by buying the same cage and moddifying it to fit onto the original one. He still over preens some of the feathers and ends up pulling them out. All in all it's been about 8 months since it was noticed that he was hurting himself and he has come leaps and bounds.
I have started to feed him some seed with his pellets to keep him ocupied when he isn't playing with his toys. This has reduced the fustration level, I have found anyway. He'll have to be reweened after his in good feather but that's ok with me. I also dont clip his nails as often. I find it to be really hard on him and again it's not going to kill him to have sharp nails. I try to feed him fruits and vegies before I go to work in the morning but some days it's to early and so I do it in the afternoon. I think this adds something to look forward to but not expected so if he doesn't get it he won't get stressed.
I have about 60-80yrs left with him to work on the bad habbits. For right now I am just going to let him get used to being a bird before I try to turn him into a pet. With in reason of course.
I know I have been lucky with my Grey because so far all of his bad habbits have been very limited and easy to deal with. He has never had any of the inner leg pluckung problems but he did pluck his tail feathers when he hurt his chest and stopped when his chest healed. They grew back after the winter of this year. Showers some say are good for a plucking bird. My grey hated them and actually jumped out of the shower a few times. Now I just use a spray bottle. If he wants one he'll let me know by letting me spray him. If not he'll run and hide. I don't force it on him. I also opted out of a blood test because of the stress it would cause him at the time. The Vet agreed with me aswell.
One last thing I got for him that really seems to keep him occupied when he gets the itch to preen is a perch I got that has a wooden man on the end made of blocks and ropes with sisel hair. He sits on it for hours some time just working it over.
I don't expect your fid to be the same as mine or say what you are doing is not good. Because it is. The fact that you care is more than most would (not on this forum but in the world). Thing will get better but try not to expect him to be in perfect feather because some Grey's are just nudists. If he is a fid that just doesn't like his feathers on his legs you may have to live with that. But from the sounds of it it sounds like it is just fustration from having an injured chest and he may stop once his chest heals.
I hope the best and keep being a good parront.
Cheers.

[Lisa B]

hum...I just got you email. can ya send me a pic? lets compare.

Try not to get freaked. I know, Like I stayed calm.

Bela is a girl for sure? how old?

[Zoe's Mom]

Poor Bela . I will keep her in my prayers. I sure hope you can figure out whats going on. After all we cant have our beautiful calender girl sick .

[Bela]

hatch date 4/23/05, DNA sexed female for sure. Will take pics in alittle bit. I have to go out to get some food. I haven't really eaten much since yesterday....and I just have to get out of the house for a little to clear my mind a bit.

She seems to have slowed down with the plucking - started using aloe detox and I noticed her calm down a bit a few hours later. She is playing and eating like normal. Just seems really really itchy....

more later guys, sorry, but I'm getting shaky and need food. :-)

[donnakris]

Bela is in my thoughts and prayers. Hope everything gets straightened out for her soon.

[babypiggy]

oh boy this sounds awfully similar to lisa's bella

:'(

[Bela]

I decided to sleep in the room with the birds (grand room) and noticed Picasso (Eclectus) was fidgety kept fluttering and adjusting feathers. he doesn't wing flip during the day, but seemed slightly annoyed last night. maybe that is normal...? His cage is farthest from Bela.

Bela pulled about 40 feathers or so last night of various size. I woke up at 8am when Picasso started his morning jabbering telling me he is up and awake. I could also hear bela messing with her feathers.

Little girl looks at me, lifts her wings (which she's pulling under by her 'armpit'), then looks at me again. Hmmmm. So I sit here and think.... I had received flowers for my birthday on the 16th. With it being summer and the flowers outside are in bloom, I decided to cut a bunch and I added two more vases to the display. They sat on an old singer sewing machine about 8 feet from Bela's cage. They were up there for a little over a week.

Having gone thru mite problems with the dove 2 years ago, I'm wondering if somehow I brought some type of mites in the house when I brought the flowers in. I had grabbed a bunch of the feathers she pulled and set them aside. So now I grab them and put them in a clear sandwich bag and scour for any signs of mites. A couple small specs may be the mites or feces, will certainly bring it in to the vets tomorrow.

Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to clean her cage and set the mite spray treated paper towels tonight to the bottom of her cage (the pan - it won't come in contact with her). See what we find tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to bet the farm on this theory, but I also can't rule it out. It may also explaing Picasso's itching.

Bela is right now playing with her shredables and was talking up a storm. Eating like a pig. Weight hasn't changed.

I will try taking pictures - she won't let me hold her upside down and I want to be careful not to draw too much attention to the areas she's plucked as not to encourage it in any way.

[DynamitePsycho]

I'm keeping Bella in my thoughts. I didn't think of possible mites, I was thinking perhaps an allergy to the pollen? Just another thought that may help you out. Good luck!

[Bela]

It also made me wonder if lack of sunshine helped contribute to this. A big reason I hadn't taken her outside was because she was fully flighted and the harness just isn't going to happen; she's made that rather clear to me.

I went out and bought a {small} small/med parrot cage and took her out. She seemed to enjoy it. Dang it, bad mommy!!! I also took some pics and video which are posted on this link. I know it doesn't look that bad here, but she just started to pull a couple off her chest and gosh I hope she stops.


Sorry some are blurry and it's kinda hard to see the left side of her butt is just white fluff. Two videos on page 2, but they're not as clear as what I see on my end. :(

Bela July 27 2008 pictures, photos, and videos, from friends & fun on webshots