# Blood is never good...



## Carlyyy (Jan 16, 2011)

So.. I haven't been on here since my tiel Yoshi (pictured in my signature and profile picture) passed from a respiratory infection. We took him to a good aviary vet several times when he was sick. The vet reassured me it wasn't anything to do with us doing something wrong, or not giving him enough care. 

Anyhow, since then I've adopted another tiel (Oli, he's a lutino). He's about four months old and his coordination and balance has never been very keen, and he fell off of my shoulder (not a far fall by any means, but still a fall) last night and I noticed small flecks of blood on his tail feathers and noticed that one of them had been damaged and was bleeding. After panicking, monitoring him for several hours, he acted normal (like he hadn't even fallen at all) and since has not acted out of character other than sourness around the wounded tail feather. 

*My concern: Can this get infected, and should I take him to the avian vet to get it checked? Or will it heal itself naturally? *

P.S. sorry for the lengthy post, but I'd really appreciate some advice. I've been sick to my stomach since last night.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ok... broken blood feathers have a slight chance of getting infected but the main concern is that if left, they can keep re opening and bleeding. what you can do is have someone restrain him in a towel, while keeping the damaged feather exposed. have a few q tips, corn starch/flour, tweezers, and warm clean water on hand.

grasp the damaged feather as close as you can to the skin. gently but firmly pull it out. dont twist or bend as you pull, just a straight pulling motion. take the q-tip and press it right onto the place the feather came out to stop some bleeding. if it doesnt stop, use the corn starch or flour. once its all done bleeding, take a clean q tip and wash the area with warm water very thoroughly.


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## Flick (Apr 19, 2011)

Dally beat me to it! And I agree with everything Dally has said.


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## Carlyyy (Jan 16, 2011)

Okay, so.. I should just get some assistance and pull and clean? Could I hurt him even more? Is there anything else I should do? He breaks his tail feathers all the time because he's so clumsy but they've never bled.
My main concern is that I'm not very experienced with this sort of thing and really don't want to mess it up. I greatly appreciate your instructions! Thank you very much!


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

basically, you just watch for infection.

ive dealt with blood feathers forever with the male tiel who used to live with us. he broke one every other week and im NOT kidding. its second nature to me now. my lovie mango broke his blood feather in his wing the other day and i pulled that too.

you shouldnt have a problem with it after you pull it. infections from pulling a blood feather are very slim. but leaving it in you have a great risk of it reopening, especially if he knocks them a lot. its not as hard as it sounds, he may squeak, squawk, squeal, anything but its just for a moment and you stop the bleeding and all's good. give him his favourite treat after.

this is the feather i pulled from my male lovie the other day


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## Carlyyy (Jan 16, 2011)

Okay, I'm just overly emotional and overly protective of my little boy, and I'm afraid I'll do something wrong. I'll do this as soon as I can get a hold of some assistance (which won't be more than a day). 

His feather doesn't look like that, though. It was a stub of a partially broken one (it wasn't bleeding when this one broke, just a normal crunched feather after a crash landing on my bed), and he stubbed the end of that triggering the bleeding. 
... I guess it is the same concept. 
Excuse me, like I mentioned before I'm overly cautious, protective, and emotional when it comes to tiels. 
Thank you very very much for your patience and excellent advice!


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ok, still sounds like a blood feather as normal feathers dont bleed. it sounds like he snapped the other half off, which happens. all you do is pull the stub out. you could attempt to do it yourself, have him on your lap and do it. wings are harder but for a tail it would be easy. its just usually easier with some help, but i do it all myself as i personally find other hands get in the way. its tricky to do wings but a tail by yourself would be easy. just use the towel and keep his tail exposed, use your thumb and index feather to spread the feathers on the tail to find where the broken feather meets the skin and follow the steps to remove it. the assistance would have been more to hold the bird still and spread a wing, but you might be able to do it yourself without problem. blood feathers are scary but essentially easy to deal with.


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## littletiel (May 15, 2011)

I have some styptic powder in case something happens. Is it OK to stop the bleeding? Or are natural remedies (like the ones indicated above) better?

He is a lively child and he does break tail feathers now and then, but I have never seen them bleed.
When I took him to the vet to have his nails clipped though they cut one too much and it started to bleed. They did this twice in a row and I don't know if he has a particularly sensitive nail or if they just don't know how to do their job. The second time he cried so much that he broke my heart. Obviously they had all the stuff to stop the bleeding, but this shouldn't have happened in the first place I think...

I am always afraid he breaks a blood feather while I am out or sleeping. Could this potentially be lethal?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

styptic powder can be used, i mentioned the above as most households have those but dont have kwik stop. but yes, you can use it 

blood feathers CAN lead to death as some birds are bleeders and can bleed to death if not dealt with in time. ive had tsuka bleed very heavy a lot from blood feathers and once we came home and his feathers on one wing were soaked in blood as he broke a lot of blood feathers. but he was still fine. so its not exactly common to lose a bird this way, but it has happened
and regards to the vet, i trim my birds nails and the odd time i might clip a tad short and get a little blood, but that only happens 2/15 times... a vet should know what they are doing...


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## littletiel (May 15, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> a vet should know what they are doing...


I was really surprised when the lady who came out said "SHE is OK", when my tiel is clearly a boy... I think they deal much more with dogs and cats than tiels, but they should still know of course!


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

you'd be surprised... regular vets know nothing often. an avian vet would know better...


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## littletiel (May 15, 2011)

I don't know if there are any where I live. 
I went to the vet hospital, which is apparently also the oldest in the area, but still...


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## birdlover4life (Mar 6, 2010)

I am very emotional about blood feathers because a few years ago, we lost our families pet senegal to a blood feather. He bleed to death when we were at a party, poor guy. Thats why I freak out anytime Finn falls. Finn is like Tsuka (DallyTsuakas tiel) he breaks them nearly weekly. I dont pull them myself because I always end up crying because I think I am hurting him. And my mom holds him too tight (not really, but I am sensitive). Speak of it, Finn just flew off his cage and banged his wing. He was squawking and he had to fix 2 of his flight feathers. Hes not bleeding, but he could have been. When he bleeds only a little, I just do cornstarch but when its alot, he gets it pulled.


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