I have just been in to check on and handle Jordans babies, while checking them over I noticed blood on the oldest ones tail so I took a closer look at it , it seems that there are several feathers with cysts at the base, I checked the other two and chick 2 also has them but chick 3 seems to be okay. What do I do???? any advice would be really welcome right now

Edited October 25, 200816 yr by Neat
typo's

A photo would really help if possible

okay these are the best I could get cause I am on my own, they are not very good but you can kinda see some of them

it looks like the base of the shaft has like a blub, some have split open already which is where the blood is from I guess

If it helps, I took another look and cleaned away most of the blood and it seems that the "cysts" are in the shaft of the feather, not under the skin. the oldest one has 1 one on all her primary tail feathers, about 7 and the other one has about 5.

Someone with more experience may know better how to treat them but personally I would initially maybe just gently bathe their tail area in some salty water and make sure they are nice and dry and warm after. I recall hearing that they are hereditary so if they do prove to be cysts I wouldn't breed that pair again.

I am so sorry to hear you are having troubles

I don't have personal experience with cysts but i believe its genetic and there is not much that can be done about them as they keep coming back and getting worse. Best not to breed that pair or their babies again.

I wish I had good news for you about the feather cysts but I dont. This topic may help you, may not http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....86&hl=laila

 

Have you bred either of this pair before ? If so and no result like this before you may be able to work out which budgie carries the hereditary issue ...and never breed with it again. Does either parent have incomplete feathers ?

Edited October 24, 200816 yr by KAZ

I have never bred either bird before so I can't tell which it comes from, niether seems to have incomplete feathers.

I ended up asking my nieghbour to hold them while I pulled the feathers to stop the bleeding, I now have 2 stumpy tailed but so far alive budgies, fingers crossed that they stay that way. here is a picture of some of the feathers so you can see what I was talking about

I rang a breeder that lives nearby and he said he had never heard of this before and to try cutting the feathers but I did 1 and it bled more so I had to pull them in the end, do you think they will grow back?

The way they are damaged further up the shaft makes me wonder if it is actually a parent chewing them and causing the blood feathers to bleed

Is the feather shaft swollen and weeping where the feathers came out of ? Photo of the chick where the feathers came from ?

Edited October 24, 200816 yr by KAZ

hey Kaz, the only damage was to the shafts themselves, there is no swelling around the base of the feather or the follicle it came from, it took a little while and some pressure to stop the little bit of bleeding after I pulled the feathers. when I first noticed it it looked like little bubbles of blood coming from the shaft, then they started to burst and bleed. MB's suggestion is an interesting on but it happened to all the main tail feathers and there is no sign of them being attacked anywhere else.

Edited October 25, 200816 yr by Neat

Maybe you need to go to the vet with this one

Does the youngest have decent tail feathers yet? Might be the only reason it hasn't got the problem yet if one of the parents has just gone after the larger feathers on the older chicks. They do tend to pick a spot(ie. just the head or back), yes that's one of the stranger choices but certainly possible

 

 

Examine the pulled feathers carefully, the bottom one in the picture looks chewed near where the blood is

Edited October 24, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

the youngest one does have tail feathers, about 2/3rds the length of the others (altough now his are longer ) and so far no danage to his but I will be keeping a close eye on him, it came up real quick cause it wasn't there yesterday. I might take the feathers to the vet for testing and see what they say.

The vet would want to see the whole bird, not just the feathers.

but they are just babies, would it be okay to take them away from mum?

If its just the one chick you need to take and its feathered and 3-4 weeks old it should be fine.

Good luck with the vets! I really hope its not the feather cysts.

good luck! Hope its good news! Keep us posted please.

an update on my babies, baby 1 and 2 are fine and growing nicely, I often see them with their little heads sticking out of the box to have a look around and demand dinner, very cute However yesterday I noticed baby 3 had developed the same problem on her tail, then today her wings were looking really ragged, so off to the vet we went. the vet said it could be 2 things, french molt or a diet problem but mostly the first, the first to babies must have had a real mild case and may not have lost their tail feathers if I had not pulled them to stop the bleeding but baby 3 is losing feathers left right and center, not just wing and tail but body feathers to, they just drop out. the vet said the only thing that I can do is watch and wait. one of the problems I have with this is that the other day I was watching the birds and noticed the dad shaking his wing, as I went to check it out he gave himself a shake and blood went everywhere. I caught him and fixed him up, it looked like a few wing feathers had broken off a couple of mills from the base, since then though he has been fine. It's all fun and games this breeding business

the babies sound like they are cute and having a good time .

I am sorry to hear about the french molt issues though

French moult does not generally affect feathers anywhere other than flights on wings and tail........but you said body feathers affected also ?

 

Sounds like Dad has feather issues too.

 

Hope you can figure out what is going on with your birds. Its not sounding good at all. Good luck. Was the vet an avian vet or just a general vet?

Edited October 29, 200816 yr by JimmyBanks

so sorry to hear about the possible FM :party0011:

 

the dad with the broken blood feathers, did you pull out the broken quills or just stop the bleeding?

Edited October 29, 200816 yr by KAZ
typo PM into FM

Sorry to hear this mate .....

 

Question, was it an avain vet?

 

I have a similar problem Not the cyst part but the constant feather loss and etc .....

Nutrition and mite along with FM can play a role in the feather loss too ....

 

Memphsis is a FM bird I didn't pay the $55 test for it as I have seen the signs in my very first "bought" bird a few years back and paid for the testing then - So i knew one those feather dropped that it was FM but was hopping it wasn't .... He has since gone through his Moult re grew some flights back only for them to be dropped again .... ( fall out) .... I have increase added nutrition into his diet so his body feathers aren't fallen out as much -

 

He is now a 1/2 runner 1/2 flapper :party0011: I didn't have the heart to take him back ( again another bought bird )

 

I agree with Kaz about the parents having feather issues ...

 

Bst of luck mate .....