Crime Scene

Four weeks ago, on the 7th of March, I woke to find a disturbing crime scene.

Blood everywhere.

But fortunately two birds looking fine & strangely innocent.

The more I looked, the more blood I found.  It was all over the cage bottom, dripped & smeared.  It had spattered & sprayed on the floor outside the cage, up to 26 inches away (night-time cover only goes part the way down the front).  There was no sign of blood on their back cover & only a couple of drops on the inside of the top cover.  One drop managed to land sideways in Dalai’s cage on his platform perch.  Some drops were on the rope perches (lower to mid-level) but otherwise nothing on the perches.  Some drops of blood were on a seed trough.

Blood on cover

Blood on floor

Blood on floor

 

Absence of significant blood on the perches ruled out a toe injury, plus there was no sign of bloody toes or feet.

Perry’s wing feathers were bloody but it is possible he had a (night) fright & may have fallen in the blood & smeared it, otherwise, there were no other visible signs of blood on Perry.  When cleaning, I found one wing feather that had splatters of blood but had that dropped before or after the bloodbath?  There were no visible signs of blood on Lennie.

Perry’s blood-smeared feathers

Blood-splattered feather

 

My instinct is that it was a burst blood feather, but there was no sign of the offending feather itself.

Perry & Lennie were fine that morning, if a little quiet.  Millet helped.

Lennie & Perry preening

 

We were lucky – this could have easily had a bad outcome.  Please all, be prepared for such an event.  Check that your first aid kit is well equipped for an injury resulting in blood loss.  There are lots of resources on the internet advising what to do in such a situation.  If you have a trusted vet, then have a chat with them & see what their advice is.