Hi

My little budgie, in his new found bravery, was flapping excitedly around his cage this morning before i let him out adn crash landed when he missed his swing. In the process he landed up against the bars of his cage and broke one of his flight feathers. He is bleeding now. I mixed up some corn flour and water and dabbed in on the area where he is bleeding, but it hasn't really stopped. I've put him back in his cage so he cant fly too much and aggravate it. Should i be worried, or do i need to give it a bit of time. Also, will the feather just drop out now, or will i need to remove it, or is it best left in? It tends to stick out at an angle when he flaps, but sits in place okay when he's still. He has just motled and lost a lot of his flight feathers on this wing, so it is a fairly new feather.

has the bleeding stopped yet? I have read that if the bleeding does not stop you will have to pluck the feather by using needle nose plyers. I have not experienced this myself, but I know blood loss in budgies is very serious to their health. I am sure someone with more experience will jump on very soon.

hmmm... its been about fifteen minutes.

 

Just checked on him, and he looks so sad! (it was a big psychological move to let me get hold of him... he's usually only content with fingers) It is a fairly thick feather, but where i put the cornflour seems to have kind of set, and it still lookslike its oozing a little bit, but not nearly as much. The feather seems to be bothering him the way it's sticking out... he keeps fluffing up his feathers and doing the budgie shake as though he's trying to get it to sit right... will keep an eye on him. But please let me know if there is anything else i can do! It is horrible looking at him and wondering! Blood is freaky stuff!

Edited March 19, 200619 yr by CaspersRose

The feather will keep bleeding. You need to take it out. Get someone to hold him, using tweezers get a firm grasp on the base of the feather and pull in the direction of the feather growth. It doesn't really hurt (like a hair being tugged out on us). It won't bleed when you pull the feather out. If your not confident, find a breeder or an avian vet. Good luck

If there is any problems after you pull it out just put a bit of corn flour on it. It will stop.

wow... thank you eveyone!

 

I just managed to remove the broken feather. I haven't done much to his wings before, so i felt a bit unsure of how far i could stretch his little wing out,but he seemed to realise i was trying to help him so despite the ear-piercing squawking, he seemed to relax his wing a bit which meant i was able to have a good look. Because he has quite a few new ones coming through it was a bit hard to find the broken end so i just ran his wing under some water to clean it up a bit and i found it okay... and the bleeding seems to have stopped. I put a bit of cornflour around the area just in case. Poor little thing is in his cage now, his face all puffed up, looking at me the way a little kid looks at the doctor after an injection. I couldn't get over how much blood there was... i guess it's like us losing a finger isn't it?

 

Will keep an eye on him, and give him a better bath tomorrow to get rid of the blood stains so he looks handsome again.

 

But thank-you so much! I know it's probably a reasonably common birdy ailment, but to a first timer its really distressing!

Edited March 20, 200619 yr by CaspersRose

We all know how distressing it is! I'm the biggest woose about stuff like that, and the first time, well, forget it! I jsut ended up taking the bird to the vet, despite all the good advice I got So, you've done much better than me!

hehe... yeah. I'm fine with all the blood and guts stuff... just terrible with the thought of one of my pets being upset! But i feel like my blood pressure has dropped back to normal now, and Casper seems a fair bit happier too (made suer he has nice fresh water and new sprouts for the patient!)

:ausb: Glad everything worked out.

keep an eye on him, I read that that just a little bit of blood loss is very serious in a Budgie Book, so if he still looks fluffied and not his normal self get him to the vet as Lin said for a check up, to make sure there is no infection setting in.

well, it has now been about 24 hours since caspers little feather debarcle, and i thought an update would be in order... he seems to be fine, the bleeding stopped pretty much straight after i took the feather out. He seems quite happy, though does start breathing heavily when i put my hand in his cage... just brings back memories for him i suspect, cos his breathing is normal otherwise. He doesn't seem to have lost too much trust with me either, which is something i was really concerned about because i had worked so hard to get him trained.

I have noticed though, that one of the other feathers on that wing is bit fragile. He had just molted so most of the flight feathers on that wing are still fairly thick with the shaft thing around them which seems to make them a bit more prone to bending. Apart from trying not to get him too excited is there anything else i could try to prevent him doing damage to his feathers? He really only lost the feathers on one wing this molt so he's lop-sided and can't fly too well. :hap:

does Casper eat veggies/fruit and use his cuttlebone? Just checking as it could be a dietary issue going on if they are breaking so easily.

Yeah, he eats his sprouts, but isn't too enthused by his cuttle bone... i think he must have crash landed pretty hard when he fell the first time and damaged the other featehr then... wil keep an eye on him.

does Casper eat veggies/fruit and use his cuttlebone? Just checking as it could be a dietary issue going on if they are breaking so easily.

what you can do is scrape part of his cuttle bone into fine pieces of dust and mix it with his food. He needs his calcium.

hmm...casper had another little tumble today. missed his footing when he went to land and did a bit of an unceremonious commando roll. not as dramatic as the last one, but just a bend and minute amount of blood from one of his new wing feathers He molted recently and dropped the flight feathers from only one wing and all the long ones from his tail which is making him really accident prone. Is it normal to lose feathers in such a lop-sided manner? :ausb:

You have no idea you guys how much ths post has helped me tonight I read this during the day and tonight my daughter rang me crying her eyes out in a panic poor crooked foot Frank had a broken blood feather and was bleeding I was able to instruct her on what to do for him with tweezers and flour {no corn flour} and he too has made a good recovery so thank you to all who helped and lets hope little Frank and Casper make a full recovery...Linda

Casper tells me he is glad to have been of service... he is proud to stoically put his body on the line if it indeed helps other budgies and their parents manage!

By the way, he is feeling heaps better now... still incredibly awkward due to his lop-sidedness after his last molt, but better nonetheless. Have to confine him in flight til his feathers grow back properly.

Glad to hear Casper is a lot better and is recovering well..Frank is banned from Caitlins toy box thats where he did his damage (Laughing out loud)...hope this never happens to any of mine it's easy to be calm and give advice to others over the phone when it's not you doing the doing (Laughing out loud)...Linda

 

Casper tells me he is glad to have been of service... he is proud to stoically put his body on the line if it indeed helps other budgies and their parents manage!

By the way, he is feeling heaps better now... still incredibly awkward due to his lop-sidedness after his last molt, but better nonetheless. Have to confine him in flight til his feathers grow back properly.

good to hear about Casper and awesome Pheonixx I am glad everything is okay with Frank.