Sun Conure - Scab over Preening Gland

[Opi]

My partner has recently discovered our 5 month old has a dry and scabby bit around the preening gland area. We haven't noticed him ever playing with it and no feathers appear to be missing around it.



We don't know exactly what caused it, were sure he doesn't have mites and there is nothing like it anywhere else on his body. Yesterday we started applying coconut oil to reduce the dryness.

One problem is that he is uncomfortable being held still (often fidgets and tries to bite me) because I haven't begun a lot of the taming training yet. I'm worried he will get stressed out or really begin to not trust me.

Should we continue to do this? Or just wait to see if it heals on it's own? Or perhaps a vet visit?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

[Pajarita]

You need to take him to a vet because it looks as if the wick is clogged and that can end up in a real bad infection. Please do not use coconut oil. For one thing, it's nothing but 100% saturated fat (no good!) and, for another, nothing oily should be used on a bird's plumage (it could cause plucking as birds hate to have their plumage dirty).

[GreenWing]

Poor thing, please take him to the vet. It could be infected

'Not a bad idea about applying the coconut oil but your bird needs vetting. As much as I highly respect Pajarita and agree with her on the majority of things I have disagree about virgin coconut oil, though. Yes it is saturated fat but not all saturated fats are bad for you. There's a ton of sources from medical sites praising the benefits of coconut oil.

[Opi]

Alright, thank you both for the replies. I'll get him into the vet asap

[GreenWing]

Please keep us updated on your bird's condition! He is beautiful, BTW!

[Pajarita]

I am not against coconuts, I am against putting anything oily on a bird's body (although I would agree that coconut oil is a good moisturizer). My birds get fresh coconut regularly, they like it (as I do) and I think it's healthy for them. I am not so sure about feeding them coconut oil, though. There are some new studies that tell us that coconut oil contains lauric acid which is good for us (meaning humans -breast milk also containing large quantities of it, too) but is it beneficial to birds? I don't know... they certainly would not benefit from breast milk.
What I know they don't need is cholesterol because their natural diet doesn't have it and saturated fats do increase cholesterol. My point been that just because something is good for people, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's good for birds. We are mammals and omnivorous and they are not so our dietary needs are completely different.

[Opi]

Please keep us updated on your bird's condition! He is beautiful, BTW!

Thanks! I'll let him know you said so

We took him to the vet (he loved the walk - chirping every time a rainbow lorikeet or miner bird flew by) . They said it doesn't look like a cyst or mites and it's not infected. She said applying coconut oil is a good idea and seems to be working anyway from what it looked like before (picture I showed you guys). She also mentioned if it does get dry or infected again to give them a call so they can refer us to a specialist.