Please help identify this brown spot above beak!

[tweetsy]

My friend’s budgie has brownish marks above her beak. It looks odd and I’m worried about. She’s about 8 yrs old. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Hezz]

To me it looks as though she has either rubbed or scratched herself too hard and had a small bleed. You, or your friend, need to determine whether the bleed is still active or not, but to me it looks as though it has stopped. Use something like a cotton bud, the corner of a tissue etc, dip into some water (tepid) and see how much you can wash off. Then you may have a chance of seeing where exactly it has come from. My first thought was that she had scratched her nostril too vigorously and caused it to bleed, the blood ending up where it has because she will have sneezed if this what has happened and the sneeze forces the blood up onto her feathers.

Wipe gently to ensure you don’t disturb any clot that may have formed. If she is a healthy bird the bleeding shouldn’t restart but with not knowing just what has happened or where the initial injury is you do need to tread carefully.

If you can clean her up and detect a small scratch, or can see that there is blood in her nostril (don’t try to clean inside her nostril, just clean the edges), just monitor her to make sure everything is okay for a day or two. It you do find a scratch that looks less than clean or healthy, a little of the gel from an aloe vera leaf can be squeezed or scraped out and applied to the wound.

[Hezz]

I should also add, that if it is not a bleed, it may be that she has a respiratory infection on that side of her respiratory cavities, in which case you will notice, most probably some wheezing, shortness of breathe, tail bobbing, possibly panting and she will need medical intervention.

[tweetsy]

thank you so much for this info. I will surely follow up to make sure the bird is ok. Thanks again