Please read: Bleeding and cant find the cut

[Reznik]

Hello everyone,

I hope your flocks are all doing well.

Last night I had a pretty big scare. Jerry my 8 year old Nanday was out of his cage on my shoulder for a few hours as he is every evening, we ate and I put him to bed around 9:30PM. I was laying on the couch and I could hear him moving around a lot which is not normal so I looked under the cover and the left side of his body was covered in blood and he was digging under his left leg. I took him out and cleaned him off and tried to locate the cut but failed and had no luck. The bleeding seemed to stop but he was restless all night long. Today he looks better but tired. He ate breakfast with me and seems to be doing well, hes napping a lot right now but I think thats due to the long sleepless night we had. I have called a few avian vets today and have found one about an hour and a half away. The appointment isnt booked until 5:20PM today, its the only time he could see me today, thats about 8 more hours out.

I was unable to locate the wound last night and havent tried today as hes not bleeding and I don't want to reopen the cut. Does anyone have any suggestions in the meantime? I also do not know what to expect from the doctor, I'm not sure what they can do for something like this. Has anyone had a similar problem, and how did that work out?

I have no clue what he could have cut himself on, he has loads of toys in his cage but they are all wood blocks with rope. He will step up on the side that he was bleeding from and will stand on that leg when eating with his other so it doesnt look like hes in any real pain from this. I'll update everyone this evening when I return from the vet but would like some input or know if you have had a cut in the past and how that went.

Based on location of the bleeding I don't believe he broke a blood feather. \sorry for the long post.

[wildirish]

It may not be a cut, it could be a broken or pulled blood feather. Keep an eye on him and make sure it doesn't start bleeding again, if it is a feather, at that point it may need to be pulled, but if it doesn't start bleeding again I would leave it be.

[Reznik]

Thank you for the response. Based on the location of bleeding I'm not sure that it would be a blood feather as I'd assume those would only be on the wings and tail?

This was under his left leg. Today he plucked out a punch of the feathers that had dried blood on them from his leg. I've yet to see the wound or anything. He will be at the vent in about 3 hours to be looked over. I'm a little worried for him as I don't want him to get a infection if he does have a cut. I took the day off work to watch over him and he did sleep a lot but with all this going on last night he didnt get the slepe he needed. He is still eating well but a bit fluffed up, I've never had him to this vet before but apprantly he is good so I guess all I can do is wait and see what the vet says.

Has anyone ever taken a bird to the vet with a similar problem? I'm not sure what to expect from this. I assume he'll try and locate the cut and possibly give me antibiotics?

[Jag]

Haven't had this problem (yet) but I wanted you to know I'm sending you positive thoughts, and I hope your guy is OK. Is it possible that he's bleeding from his vent?

[LovelySydney]

I'll keep you in my thoughts, I hope your little guy turns out ok = )

[Reznik]

Thanks everyone. Its not his vent, its something on or above his left leg. We'll be leaving in a little over an hour to make sure we are not late for the appointment.

I worry about the little man, hes my best bud and weve been doing everything together for a few years now.

[Emmilyy]

I hope all goes well at the AV! Keep us updatd on the little guy!

[sailorkelly]

I hope everything goes well. Please give us a update when you get back. I think I would freak out if Abbey started bleeding too.

[kellywess]

Hoping everything went well at the vet. Please post and let us know what the vet said.

[Reznik]

I just got in the door. What a day!

The vet visit went well, he found 2 small cuts in the inner thigh area on the left leg. He cleaned that up and put a "neomedrol" cream on it. He gave bottle of it to take home and told me to apply a very very light amount on it every 12 hours. I got to see the two little cuts myself and they don't look bad to bad at all.

Jerry was such a good boy at the vet, everyone in the waiting room was pretty impressed with him and even the vet could hardly believe how well he'd let me handle him.

The medication just says: "Neomedrol 0.25% 25G"

Not exactly sure what that is but he said it'd help the healing process and works as a antibiotic.

The drive was about an hour and a half and its really hot outside today but we made out well overall. I'm glad to be back home and I'm hoping he makes a full recovery, the vet didnt seem to worried about him. He was pretty impressed with his feather condition and how well he behaved.