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Treating Bleeding Feathers - Part 3 - Your Basic Bird First Aid Kit |
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We’ve discussed earlier the most likely causes of bleeding feathers. If a blood feather becomes broken and bleeds, you need to act quickly to avoid blood loss. A bird can bleed to death remarkably quickly!
First, capture the bird. If the bird is tame and docile, you may be able to do this simply with your hands. But if the bird is untamed or appears agitated due to the bleeding, use a clean, soft towel to capture and constrain the bird. Get the tweezers out of your first aid kit if the bird is small, but for a larger bird you must get the hemostats. Identify the feather that is bleeding – when a blood feather is broken, this is not a difficult task. Grasp that feather firmly with tweezers or attach the locking hemostats to the feather. Pull the feather out of the bird with a rapid, strong pulling motion. Trust me, the bird won’t enjoy this, but if you try to do it slowly, it will only agitate the bird more. The larger the bird, the faster the blood loss since their feathers are so much larger, and a real pulling effort may be required. Just keep in mind that once you remove the problem, you will be saving your bird’s life and it will quickly forget the disagreeable situation.
Normally, only one blood feather in the wing or tail will become broken. But should there be several broken, proceed with each feather exactly as with the first one.
At this point, since the “straw-like” blood feather is gone, there should be little bleeding, but if the skin where the feather was removed is bleeding, clean with a swap dampened with hydrogen peroxide and immediately after, apply styptic powder. Watch the bird carefully for a while to ensure that the bleeding completely stops. Apply more styptic powder if required. By then, the blood flow should be stopped completely.
If the bleeding was caused by a toy that has proven hazardous, remove the toy. If it was caused by having perches too close together that flapping wings hit, rearrange the perches. If it was caused by clipping wings without first checking for blood feathers, you should take a lesson and be certain to check more carefully in the future. Sometimes there is just no clear reason for a broken blood feather.
If, for whatever reason, bleeding continues or is extremely excessive and the styptic powder does not control it after the second attempt, see immediate veterinary assistance! Confine the bird so that it will remain quite and not further injury itself and go to the vet even if you have to use a weekend emergency vet. This situation, however, if you follow the above instructions, is very unlikely to happen. I’ve had more than one instance of blood feather bleeding and the above process has never failed to work perfectly.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 December 2006 )
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Bird Care