Cockatiel punctured beak. HELP

[sinemk]

I have two birds and have had them both since early 2008/2007.
They'd fight with their beaks and got into one today.
Once I separated them into different cages to stop their fighting I noticed that one of them had kind of a punctured beak right under the nostril(which was injured a long time ago, you can probably tell in the photo). On the other side his beak is sort of peeling but that isn't what's worrying me.



All nearby vets are closed right now and I'm not too sure what to do. I'm also slightly panicked that it might get infected or something worse?
I've never had to treat anything like this before so I might be over reacting.

It isn't bleeding but you can sort of see flesh/skin under so i'm assuming it's deep? I couldn't really take a good look though because he wouldn't stay still long enough and that's the best photo I could get.

He is in a different cage now with water, seeds and some carrot and I did notice he ate a little bit of the seeds. I also checked his breathing and it didn't seem like he was struggling or anything like that.
He's sleeping now and I'm going to try and take him to a vet tomorrow after work.

In the meantime could anyone please tell me what I could do?

[marie83]

It really doesn't look all that bad from the picture, it may look worse in person though. Please bear in mind that I can only say what I would do based on the picture because it doesn't look deep at all- I would just keep it clean and let it heal on it's own.
I would only see a vet in this case if it looked like it was worsening or looked like it was becoming infected. That said do disregard my thoughts on the matter if the wound is a lot deeper than the picture shows and see a vet if you feel you need to. If it's not bleeding and refusing to stop then I don't see any need to rush to the vets on this occasion, there isn't really anything you need to do tonight unless the bleeding starts again.

[Pajarita]

Marie is correct, the most an avian vet would do is give you antibiotics to prevent infection but they are not normally needed because healthy birds can fight infection on their own very well. My concern is the fact that you have two tiels that fight with each other which is VERY unusual. In my personal experience, tiels are very flock-oriented and sweet-tempered and only fight when there is something not quite right. Now, I don't know what this is but it seems to me that you have two males and that they are sexually-frustrated and in pain (there is no other reason for them to fight) so please, re-evaluate their diet (they cannot be free-fed seeds, they need leafy greens, cooked whole grains, vegetables, etc) and their light schedule because they need to be kept at a solar one and these birds sound as if they have been kept at a human one.

[sinemk]

He's fine, I just panicked.It's already starting to heal and they were back to normal when I let them both walk around together out of the cage.



You are correct, they are both male.

I don't feed them just seeds and they are trained so I constantly take them outside and let them walk around and fly a bit if they need to, they do get sun and freedom. They love vegetables and fruits like apples, cabbage, carrots and lettuce. They also kind of graze I guess and pick at weeds and my plum trees.

As soon as the sun sets I put them in the second living room that we never use and they sleep there. They aren't disturbed by us or our lights or tv or anything like that. Sunlight goes into that room so they're up at sunrise. I used to have a sleep cage but I didn't feel comfortable having that on until I woke up in the morning to remove it.

I've noticed that they mostly fight when somebody is in the room or just walked out of where they are without paying attention to them. If nobody is around they don't fight.


I do agree with the sexually frustrated comment though but I don't have a solution for that. I don't want to get one female and risk them fighting over her and I'm also not prepared to buy two females , get them checked, train them both and buy an even bigger cage that has enough room for 4 birds to have their own space.

[Wolf]

I have read your posts and I understand that you are not feeding jus seeds to your birds and that is wonderful. Nearly everything that you posted says that you are doing very well with them, but it does sound to me like they have seeds available all of the time. If that is true then they are possibly getting too much protein and that alone can make them hormonal. Perhaps, if they have seeds available that much you could try limiting the seed to just their evening meal for a while and see if that helps.

[Pajarita]

Also, go into this room at night and see if light comes in from the street or a neighbor's garden or house night because, in my personal experience, tiels seem to be much more sensitive to low levels of light than other parrots. I used to live in the middle of a 5 acre property with the house surrounded by an old forest so when it was night, it was dark! Once we moved back to the city, I started noticing a change in my tiels and could not figure out what was causing it until I stayed overnight in the birdroom - the tiels cage was next to a window and the tiniest amount of light from a street lamp across the street was shining on it (and this lamp was not even directly across the house, it was actually three houses down, at the corner). Once I put blackout curtains on this window (I would draw them once night had fallen and open them before sunrise), the problem was solved.