A blog about my beautiful budgies.
Moulting Lennie
Lennie had quite a heavy moult this May.
Fortunately, I noticed quickly that he was not bothering to go down to his seed pots so held seed up to him. He was still eating but was just too lethargic to go & get the seed himself. Once he knew I would give him seed, he would indicate he wanted some by bending down & looking out the main door. We did this for about two weeks.
When I was out I left millet in the cage & the wild grass helped enormously. He was looking very tatty during this time & towards the end lots of pin feathers came through on his head.
When he started going to get his own seed it was a good indication that things were returning to normal. I think the early seed intervention helped him power through the moult.
The day had to come. It could not be avoided. My trusty & loyal handheld vacuum cleaner stopped working.
Dustbuster
For those in bird-keeping circles, you will know the importance of having a handy & quick way of hoovering up seed, husks, feathers, poop & dander! Not to mention remains of chewing sessions on various materials.
So, bye-bye to my dustbuster that I purchased in 2011. It had faithfully cleaned up after all birds on this blog: Atilla, Raspy, Cagney, Bezukhov, Phineas, Thomas, Dalai, Perry, Lennie & Moriarty.
It has already been replaced by a newer model that I hope will also give many years of service.
Just 8 days after seeing the vet for Lennie’s health problems, I was back at her clinic.
All initially seemed fine on the morning of the 2nd November. Normally, I would let Perry in with Moriarty where they could get their morning flirt out of the way without interruption from Lennie. This went ahead as usual but I noticed it ended quicker than usual, & Moriarty wanted to go & say good morning to Lennie. This meant Perry was on his own in Moriarty’s cage.
Not long after, I noticed the tip of his beak was red.
Now was the time for some intense observation.
I thought I saw a flash of something dark around his preening gland area. I wondered if he had a broken blood feather. Sure enough it was not long before, I started seeing spots of blood on the bottom of the cage… Then bigger drops.
More blood from Perry
I rang the vet hoping there was a cancellation for a home visit, which there was not. She was already out doing home visits but would be back at the clinic in about an hour or so, so they suggested I make my way there. I immediately covered Perry in corn flour. He was bleeding as I was doing this (the place looked like a crime scene afterwards). I could not quite work out where it was coming from so just pressed my finger in certain places & if it came out red, I shoved corn flour in that area. There seemed to be a spot below the preening gland that was bleeding. I put him in the travel cage. Fortunately, the corn flour temporarily stopped the bleeding. The cab ride would be at least 30 minutes, so I put some corn flour in my bag in case it was needed on route. We got to the clinic about half an hour before the vet. It was not until about 5 or 10 minutes before she took him in, that I saw a drop of blood on the bottom of his cage – so the corn flour held up well.
It seemed like forever that Perry was in with the vet. The longer he was gone, the more worried I was getting.
It turned out the bleed was from a broken blood feather on the left side of the main tail. The feather itself was not in situ & to date, still has not been found. (It is possible there was not blood on it when it came out, so I may have missed it).
There was quite a big hole left by the feather & the area was inflamed & bruised. By that time, the bleeding was heavy so the vet cauterized the feather follicles to stop it. She also removed some of the surrounding feathers. She gave Perry an anti-inflammatory injection & also made sure he was well hydrated. The vet said several times that it was absolutely the right thing to bring him as soon as we did.
We finally got home early afternoon. Perry started chirping to Lennie & Moriarty as I brought him into the lounge. I left him in the travel cage for about an hour as he seemed comfortable there (knowing he was back home). Moriarty was going mad, wanting to give him a kiss but I think he too calmed down a bit just seeing that Perry was home again. Both Moriarty & Lennie were locked in Perry & Lennie’s cage. Whilst Perry was resting I took the opportunity to clean up Moriarty’s cage. When Perry started to stir a bit, I offered my finger & he came out, so I put him into Moriarty’s cage. To try & get some normality back, I let Moriarty in at intervals so as not to tire Perry out.
Perry was quiet for the rest of the day but in the evening had some water & also tucked into some millet. I checked on him during the night & he was stable. The vet nurse rang first thing in the morning to see how he was. Importantly, there was no further blood loss. The anti-inflammatory was due to wear off 24-48 hours after administration, leaving the sore, bruised area which will take a little longer to heal. So far, Perry has continued to recover well.
I would like to end this post by recommending that all who have birds should have a tub of corn flour in their medicine cabinet. You never know when it might come in handy. Without corn flour Perry may not have made it to the vet. Lastly, I would also like to say a big thank you to my vet who immediately understood the gravity of the situation & responded as quick as she could & was a star!
Corn flour
Normally, at the beginning of a new year, I like to do a review of the previous year. However, the last few weeks have been a little torturous & we are still in uncharted waters, so instead of a review, I will bring you up-to-date with Perry’s health.
I had previously reported (click here) that on the 15th of December, part of Perry’s lump had shrivelled & fallen off. All was relatively stable until the 26th December, when there was some overnight blood loss.
There was no sign of blood on either Perry or Lennie. In fact, they both looked fine. But where did it come from? There was no sign of a blood feather. The blood looked like it dripped rather than sprayed. I wondered if perhaps Perry had been picking at his lump (it was going black again). There was some evidence of blood on a small feather under his tail so perhaps it was linked to a feather? But Perry has a lot of white feathers & there was no sign of blood anywhere else on him. Nothing on perches or cage bars either. He was a bit quiet but was eating & drinking.
Three days later, the 30th December, was a bad day. Perry bled three times. The first time I noticed his foot & leg, the side of the lump, were bloody & there was blood on a perch, but nothing on the floor. I assumed he had picked at the lump. I had to go out & on my return there was more blood. A lot. There was a big clump on the perch & a large patch below it. Perry was all bloody near his lump & it looked like blood had congealed on his feathers & formed clumps. Again, he was quiet but had a drink, some fennel & a little seed. Later on, I noticed what was the third & final bleed that day.
I had agonised over whether to take him to a vet but felt any major upheaval (transferring him to the travel cage & the journey to the vet etc.) could have a fatal outcome, so decided against that. I recognised that no action could also have a similar outcome, but I thought we would ride out the night together.
Perry survived the night. He seemed relatively stable & had not bled any more. I decided to take him to the vet that morning, the 31st December.
The vet visit was wrapped up in mad rules which caused further (unnecessary) distress, but we got through it & I was relieved to get Perry back home again. The vet seemed to suggest that the lump was actually an abscess (on reflection, it is possible she could have said ‘cyst’ but I struggle to understand when people are wearing a mask). She cleaned the area as much as possible – a proper clean would mean putting him under anaesthetic. She said there was still some dead tissue left in a crater/hole but she did not want to stress him or cause him any pain by removing that part. She plucked the feathers, so there was a round, pink area.
Perry was understandably traumatised after the ordeal but I kept him quiet & covered in his own cage (Lennie was fortunately temporarily in Dalai’s cage). It took Perry some time to feel like eating & drinking. I checked on him overnight & was hopeful he was stable, however the following day, the 1st January, he had another bleed. This time the blood loss happened as I was looking at him, so I immediately grabbed him & smothered his ‘lump’ with cornflour (I had all the emergency items handy). I put him in a small carrier for a few minutes then checked him again. I saw an area of fresh blood so put more cornflour on. Whilst doing this, I noticed a round black area that must have been the dead tissue the vet mentioned – it was above where the bleeding was. As I already had F10 disinfectant lined up, I swabbed it.
The cornflour stopped the bleeding & at the time of writing he has had no further bleeding. We are hoping to see our usual vet as soon as she is available, but until then, we continue to do our best. During all this trauma I have discovered that when Perry did not feel up to eating seed, he could usually manage some fennel. It is always handy to know what food/vegetable your pet favours when they are not well.
We have had an unpleasant start to the New Year & there is still huge uncertainty around Perry’s condition. However, against all odds (significant blood loss & severely limited veterinary services due to holidays etc.), Perry continues to eat & drink & I am eternally grateful we have got this far.
Perry
Perry had a big piece of fluff in the middle of his face. It was there for ages, so I got some photos…
Lennie found that rubbing his head on the frame of the open door helped give him some relief from some pin feathers….
During the vet visit on the 16th June for Perry’s ‘turns’ (click here to read), I also asked the vet to check Lennie’s wing feathers.
The last time the vet checked his wing feathers was a year ago when he was already having problems flying. At the time, it was thought a severe moult had caused the problems. Since then, Lennie has grown wing feathers back again but also lost some, never getting to a point that he could fly properly. The feathers he dropped also looked of poor quality. In addition, we had the ‘crime scene‘ with a suspected broken blood feather. It seemed appropriate to ask the vet to take another look.
Prior to her physical examination of him, I showed her many of the feathers he had lost. She identified stress bars & also evidence of chewing. Stress bars were not too surprising as Lennie is a bit of a worrywart. The chewing was more concerning & raised lots of questions, primarily, was he chewing because there was something wrong with the feather or was he chewing on a healthy feather & if so, why?
On examining Lennie, apart from his strange feathers & whopping weight (a staggering 73g!) he appeared healthy. She took some sample feathers for him to be tested for Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) which fortunately came back negative.
When the vet returned the following day to check on Perry, as a precaution, she gave them both treatment for (feather) mites, which I followed up on the 13th July.
Without further tests, it is difficult to establish the root cause of Lennie’s feather problem. It is possible he has a psychological issue given he suffers from stress & anxiety. Even if his feather problem is resolved, his weight gain will not help with his flying ability. So, this continues to be a problem to monitor…
Sample of feathers:
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.
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.
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.
As you know, from my earlier post (click here: Three near-flightless birds), we are having a pretty bad moult season. Since that post, Lennie has lost more flight feathers resulting in one wing being, well…. not much use as a wing.
It has not stopped him from feeding Dalai:
To add to that, Dalai decided to grow his beak…
…that the vet trimmed down yesterday. She also investigated a strange thing beside his beak that I had noticed a few weeks ago. At first I thought it was a stuck seed, then I wondered if it was a strange feather. The vet confirmed it was fleshy & attached to him, similar to a skin tag. She whipped it off pretty smartly. Hopefully, whatever it was, it will not grow back.
It is moulting time again.
Dalai has been hit hard by it. Often he has a mini-moult before the main moult, lulling me into a false sense of security, thinking he has been let off lightly. He lost a few feathers earlier then stopped losing them, so I thought his moult was over, then overnight he lost 3 flight feathers & his main moult began. Flight feather loss has been severe enough to stop him from flying. To say he is grumpy about this would be an understatement! You can see from the photos below that he has one wing significantly shorter than the other.
Lennie has had flight problems since his last moult & though those flight feathers grew back, he has since lost some more, so is still struggling to fly. As with Dalai, he has one wing significantly shorter than the other. If only they could work as a pair – they would probably get combined decent flight!
Perry preening
Perry has lost flight feathers too though his loss is less severe. However, the combination of some feather loss & his growing lump, also results in poor flying ability.
For some days, both Dalai & Perry have stayed in their respective homes, with just Lennie dashing between them, either sitting with Perry, or sitting with Dalai (at a safe distance from his moody beak jabbing).
So, there you have it…. three budgies, all with flight problems. Hopefully both Dalai & Lennie’s wings will grow back quickly. I am still hopeful that Perry’s lump will just stop growing!
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Puddings & Toyboys 