Bleeding Talon: Didn't Use Quick Stop

[Michael]

I was filing Kili's talons today and nicked one just a little too far and a drop of blood accumulated at the tip. It wasn't bleeding profusely (as I was just filing and not cutting) so I held a piece of paper towel against it for 20 seconds and then just left it alone. Is that ok to do or should I have used quick stop? Is it more likely to open and start bleeding if I didn't put the styptic powder on the opening?

[pchela]

I think it's fine. The quick stop is really just to stop bleeding but if you've stopped it already then why bother with the stuff?

[ptuga72]

I think it should be good, I'd be more worried about a blood feather (I hate when those things go) I usually use cornstarch for these type of things, so why not a paper towel? I'd make a horrible QuickStop sales person..

[Michael]

Well the point of concern is that (hypothetically) the quickstop might cloth and thicken the blood a lot more than it would when clotting on its own. If that were the case the quickstopped clot would be less likely to get caught on something and start bleeding again than the naturally stopped one. Dunno, that's why I'm asking.

I've heard all the horror stories about parrots bleeding to death from a badly cut nail and how you must have quickstop or it will bleed endlessly. And yet this really didn't seem like a doomsday scenario at all. So I'm trying to find out if I messed up or if the stories are over rated.

PS Where can I buy cornstarch and how to use it for bleeding?

[Kim S]

The stories are overrated. When we brought our birds to our birdvet for a checkup (Hedwig vd Horst, a very well known avian vet in Holland) she cut his nails as well. She cut a bit too far and it started bleeding. She told us not to worry about it. It would stop bleeding on its own in no time. It looks worse than it is.

I use flour to stop bleedings. You can buy it at any local store. Just dip de bleeding toe in the powder and wait a while. Or take a teaspoon of powder between your fingers and press this on the wound. The pressure helps stop the bleeding as well.

[pchela]

You can buy cornstarch in the baking aisle of your supermarket. Use it just like you would quickstop.

I think you'd have to cut a nail pretty severely in order for a bird to bleed to death from it. Remember the story I told you guys about the stupid woman who cut her tiels talons off almost at the toe? That bird was in danger of bleeding to death but still didn't, and she cut of 6 nails.

[ptuga72]

You can buy cornstarch in the baking aisle of your supermarket. Use it just like you would quickstop.

I think you'd have to cut a nail pretty severely in order for a bird to bleed to death from it. Remember the story I told you guys about the stupid woman who cut her tiels talons off almost at the toe? That bird was in danger of bleeding to death but still didn't, and she cut of 6 nails.

How do you cut off an ENTIRE nail? I understand cutting off a little to much, but wow.

when my sister worked at a dog groomers she told me that they had a store "pet" which was a canary. One of the groomers decided to "do (the owner) a favor" and trim its nails. Apparently he hadn't held or restrained the bird in any way and ended up ripping the whole toe off. Somehow it didn't bleed out, a miracle since all they did was put it back in its cage, no cornstarch, no quickstop used

[ptuga72]

Oh and I like cornstarch cuz my local dollar tree normally his it

[pchela]

ptuga - here is the whole story. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=347&p=1687&hilit=had+to+vent#p1687

[Giantmoa]

this is a bit off topic, but how far do you guys trim your bird's nails? I only cut off the very tip when they get too sharp so I don't worry too much about bleeding. But at the bird store where I used to get her nails clipped they cut them far enough that she had trouble gripping shirts and climbing some perches afterwards but they never cut far enough to bleed. I prefer clipping her nails more often than having them clipped very short on a less frequent basis.... should I do it otherwhise?
also I was talking to a dog groomer and she said she clips her dogs nails frequently because the vein will get longer as the nail gets longer (or something like that?) so by clipping them frequently the vein or whatever it is stays shorter. does this apply to birds too?