budgie bleeding a lot when moulting

[salma]

hi everyone,

I hope everyone and their birds are well. I've not been on here much as I've been really busy with uni, but I was hoping to pick everyone's brains.

You may remember me posting about Ronald a few months ago (the oil soaked budgie), he seems to be having problems with his moulting. He's about 6 months old now, so he's been through 2 moults, both times he has bled a lot from his tail feathers, where his new feathers have been coming out. He seems fine within himself, but his the area is covered in blood and he also gets blood all over his face when he preens the area. I know they sometimes bleed a bit when they're moulting but this seems to be a lot of blood.

Any ideas what could be wrong with him? I'm guessing it's an ingrown feather/feather cyst that keeps bursting. I'm going round to check on him on Saturday, is there anything else I should look out for?

Thanks, much appreciated.

Salma

[Deleted]

i cant say iv ever had this with any of my budgies....
i hope someone will come on and tell you whats going on .....

[Hezz]

I am no help either, Salma, sorry. Just hope poor little Ronald comes good. In a way it would be an easy solution - a feather cyst. Treat it properly and that should be it, but who knows. Take some photos if you can and we can see just what is going on. You will have more idea then, once you have seen him.

[salma]

I'm completely baffled, I forgotten to mention that all but 2 of his tail feathers have fallen out too

This is the initial message I received from the family: "it's not been in large amounts prior to today, but enough for me to see it through his feathers at the side and for him to have blood on his beak. The area at the very back under his tail feathers almost looked a bit bald and a bit bloody as you saw the day you came to my house last. His tail feathers have been falling out over this time and I thought new ones had grown but he now only has 2 left as they continue to fall out. Some took a while to fall out but seemed to be bothering him a bit as he was pulling at them and they also had blood a little way up the feather. Despite the clot of blood he seems absolutely fine. He is eating as usual and his droppings are maybe a little loose but on the whole i think they've been fine. He's chirpy and playing so I don't think it's bothering him. When it happened initially it was when a tail feather had fallen out"

Will let you know if I find anything else on Saturday

Thanks

[salma]

Hi everyone,

I went to see Ronald today and he is looking quite bad, but I have no idea what's caused it. The photos aren't very clear, but he has no tail at all now, well he had 2 remaining feathers, but I pulled these out as they seemed to be irritating him.
All his skin around where his tail would grow from is raw and parts of it yellow, as though an infection had set in but has now cleared. He keeps bleeding as he continues to preen himself. I covered the area in Vaseline but was unable to cut the feathers as the family didn't have a sharp enough pair of scissors.

Any suggestions?

[Marianne Marlow]

I do not know but it could be a feather cyst?

Someone will probably be along to correct me if I am wrong. Poor little Ronald, he's such a cutie too.

[salma]

It doesn't seem like a feather cyst as it is the whole area that is raw, it's a strip which is roughly 3 cms by 1cms, obviously it's not a neat square but just to give everyone an idea of the size. I've seen feather cysts before and they usually only affect a small area. The redness that can be seen is the same from one side of his body to the other - it's all across not just in the circle area that can be seen in the photos - I couldn't move all the feathers away to get a good enough photo

[Hezz]

I have no idea, but wonder if some antiseptic powder or Savlon would help. Savlon is soothing, it may help him leave the area alone. If he were my bird I would get him vet-checked. Is it an area where he got oil-soaked, Salma? Just wondering if the oil and/or whatever you cleaned him up with could have caused some sort of irritation to his skin which is affecting his tail feather follicles? I am clutching at straws really, I really do not know.

He is a pretty little birdie, I hope you can do something for him.

[barrieshutt]

I would apply an anti biotic cream as it appears to be a cyst on the preening gland , these can be removed but always grow back.

I open these up and squeeze out the gunge.

One idea i have tried with great success is to apply honey to any wound as this is a natural healer

[salma]

thanks Barrie and Hezz. They did take him to the vet, but the vet said he'd never seen anything like it which is why they came to me.
I applied some vaseline in an effort to stop him preening it, as that's the only thing they had.
I will try the honey next time I go round there and I'll leave them with some antibiotic cream which they can apply once the honey has had some effect.

Thanks again.

[Hezz]

Poor little Ronald. Barrie, do you use your normal old supermarket honey or the you-beaut organic manuka honey that really is supposed to be the bees' knees, pardon the pun?

Sorry Salma, I didn't realise little Ronald had already been to a vet.

[salma]

No worries, Hezz. It's a shame that more vets don't specialise in birds. The vets just prescribed him oral antibiotics and to come back in 10 days. I now have another problem budgie, but will post in a new thread

[barrieshutt]

use the bees knees Hezz

[Hezz]

Organic Budgies? What with wheatgrass, milkthistle, aloe, sprouts, and now manuka honey..... spoilt little beggars, aren't they?