Bird Care: Wing, Nail and Beak Management
Wing, Nail and Beak
Management
The Bird and Animal Hospital
12521 So. Dixie Hwy, Miami FL 33156
Thomas L Goldsmith, DVM MS
305/259-6677
What I am going to discuss this
month is so important yet so
frequently misunderstood. A large
number of my emergency calls
concern a bloody wing, tail, chest or
beak Accidents will happen and with
some understanding of the cause and
treatment can be easily managed.
But the majority of the traumas could
have been prevented.
Since it is so important, I would like
to discuss wings and wing trimming
first. Why trim wings in the first
place? It may seem more natural,
and more beautiful to allow a bird free
flight in the house, but it is essentially
inviting disaster. Your bird will find the
most toxic item, most valuable piece
of woodwork, a seemingly but not
open sliding glass door or fastest
ceiling fan. Free flight makes it nearly
impossible to keep up with your bird’s
activities in the house.
What you want to maintain and
protect is the bird’s ability to flutter
from point to point, or to safely and
smoothly parachute to the ground.
From the tip of the wing inwards to
the wrist (or first wing joint), there are
ten long flight feathers, and the only
feathers that should ever be cut.
When you trim a baby bird’s feathers
for the first time, it is not necessary to
cut more than five or six feathers on
each side. As the bird becomes
stronger, you can always trim once
more. But once you have cut off the
full ten primary flight feathers, that
bird will fall like a ton of bricks and
hurt itself; and there will be no
solution until it molts its feathers for
the first time. Think of it as a haircut,
in that you can always cut more if
necessary.
Some people like to leave the
outermost two feathers uncut so that
they fold over the back and look
nicer. This is called a cosmetic trim.
My feeling is that leaving isolated
feathers like that increases the risk of
the wing catching in the bars and
breaking the wrist. But it is a personal
preference.
One of the most common emergency
calls involves a bleeding wing or tail.
It is a growing feather that has
cracked, or even broken off. A mature
feather shaft is clean and empty, like
a writing quill, or a feather you might
find on the ground. When it is in the
growing stage however, the quill or
shaft is black blue/black or bright
pink. It contains numerous blood
vessels, and nerves. If one of these
feathers should be broken or chewed,
there will be an impressive amount of
blood (it always seems like there is
more than there really is). The typical
scenario is one of a bird that hurts
but now sees its owner getting
excited and scared, trying to grab him
with a towel perhaps, but generally
"freaking out". This inevitably gets the
bird all excited, which further raises
his blood pressure, causes him to
climb around the cage more, and/or
flap his wings.
It is no surprise that the bleeding will
not stop. The broken feather can be
grabbed lightly, for 10-15 minutes
until the blood has a chance to clot.
But far more effective in these cases
is to allow the bird to calm down so
that its blood pressure drops and the
blood has a chance to clot. This is
most easily accomplished by putting
the bird in absolute darkness, for
example in a bathroom with no
windows.
Leave him there for 20 minutes.
Leave him alone. It is not easy to do,
but have faith. Birds would be extinct
by now if broken blood feathers were
guaranteed not to bleed so much.
The key here is to defuse and calm
the situation.
The next day, if the feather is badly
broken, the base can be grabbed with
a surgical instrument and slid out, but
it can be tricky and painful and
should best be done with professional
help. Pulling out only slightly cracked
and almost mature feathers will only
start the process over from scratch
and you will have another two weeks
of danger.
Even with the best wing trim possible,
birds will fly into windows or fall on
the floor and crack the tip of their
beaks. If it is just the tip and only
slightly cracked, you may find that
you bird will not eat, will not climb, will
not pick up anything, and generally
behaves like he is in pain. A cracked
beak is like a broken tooth and it hurt
a lot.
If cracked a little higher or deeper, he
may be gushing drops of blood from
the beak tip. In many ways this is
another case of high blood pressure
making the bleeding worse. But a
deeply split beak may cause a bird to
bleed to death. It is not the pain, but
the unstoppable bleeding that you
must concern yourself with. The end
of the beak can be "corked" or
plugged using a mass of softened
soap. Scrape this from the underside
of a bar of soap from the bathroom.
This technique can also be used as
first aid for a bleeding nail.
Lastly I want to say something about
African Grey parrots and split chests.
Flying down to the ground quickly is
an instinctive defense mechanism to
hide in the undergrowth against flying
predators. When the wings are cut
too much and/or the floor is harder
than the jungle undergrowth, the skin
is split over the ridge of breastbone
known as "the keel". It can be minor
or it can be a terrible split. Either way
it will not heal over on its own and
must be sewn closed surgically. If the
wings are over cut, it is more likely
that the chest is going to first be split
open again the next time he takes a
fall.
Sometimes the most important aid in
an emergency is knowledge about
what is happening. I hope this can
give some peace of mind in some
future inevitable situation.
ANIMAL HOSPITAL
Veterinarians and Animal
Hospitals for Dogs, Cats and
Other Pets
This page is a list of veterinarians and animal hospitals for dogs, cats and other pets in major U.S. cities. For a listing of vets in other cities, click here ↓ listed by state. 
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Pepper, my 5 year old female African Grey
A Great List of FREE eBooks on Care of Birds
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| Our goal is to provide a free-flight home for formerly abused, unwanted or problem Macaws. | ||||||
All of the following e Books are copyrighted by Gail Martin
| BIRDIE SCREAMING e Book In this book, you will meet Maya and get to know him and his views on screaming. He is a very good screamer and knows all there is about the subject...the why,when and how loud, of this subject. You will learn methods of training your human to not only accept your screaming, but actually know why you scream. There are many methods to correct the bad habits that humans develop that cause us to scream; in this book we will address them. To Download click here |
| BIRDIE BITING e Book In this book, " A Guide to Birdie Biting", you will meet Killian and get to know him and his views on biting. He will teach you how to get along with your slaves without having to resort to the beak. You will learn methods of training your human to understand when you MUST bite and why. There are many methods to correct the bad habits that humans develop that cause us to bite. To Download click here |
BRINGING HOME BABY" e Book Siobhan is the newest member of the Toolady flock. She is the most qualified of the birds to educate you on deciding upon the type of bird you want, finding a breeder, what to do before you bring home your baby and information about food, shelter and training for the bird's first year of life.This is an invaluable guide for both new and old bird owners. To Download click here |
| BIRDIE FEATHER PLUCKING e Book In this book, " A Guide to Feather Plucking", you will once again hear from Dust Bunny 'Too. She will teach you how to train your human to recognize a feather picking/plucking/chewing problem and address it at the beginning. You will learn methods of training your human to understand the causes of plucking and some common solutions, which they can employ. There are many methods to correct the bad habits that humans develop that cause us to chew ourselves bald. To Download click here |
| BIRDIE COLORING e Book The entire flock joined together to choose their favorite pictures for little humans and big humans to color. There are over 50 different drawings to enjoy. These were illustrations from our different books. Since many children and birdies inquired about the pictures and asked us to make this coloring book for little slaves, we took the time to oblige. To Download click here |
| Birdie First Aid e Book In "My Human, My Slave", you were introduced to Echo and Asia and their new form of making learning about birds fun by approaching problems from the birds' point of view. This is a totally new way of approaching the relationships between Avian and Human. Once we saw how successful this approach was in MHMS, we decided to use it for many other important subjects, including Birdie First Aid. Originally, we intended to charge for this book, but we decided that it was too important a subject and EVERYONE needed to have a copy to keep at home where they could get to it ASAP. So, we are providing the "Birdie First Aid Book" by Asia S. MacCaw for FREE. To Download click here |
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Here are some links to some very informative sites regarding birds,
specifically the larger birds :
| What To Do With Stunned or Injured Birds
This site has tons of articles listed alphabetically:
http://www.parrothouse.com/articles.html
|
