marie83 wrote:Ollie seemed to be picking up, under his wing looked so so much better but last night he was attacking himself again, doing that horrific scream. I had a look this morning and it is all bloody, weeping, sore again. He wont fly again and doesn't want to leave his cage.
I don't know how people with habitual pluckers cope, is it something you just get used to? or am I just feeling so lousy with it all because I'm certain there is some underlying, undiscovered cause to all this? I hide my emotions around the birds but I'm sure they still sense I'm upset.
My brown-headed parrot started plucking out of the clear blue sky in October of 2011. It was really strange plucking, too, because he would only do it at night while his cage was covered. During the day he pulled out nary a single feather, but when I'd uncover him in the morning there would be a giant pile of feathers.
I took him to the vet several times but all the tests came back normal so she thought it might be hormonal and he had a series of Lurpon injections but they didn't help. What was so strange was that nothing in his life had changed before it started happening, he basically (from the looks of it) just suddenly stopped sleeping one night and started pulling out his feathers instead.
This went on for about six months and I tried anything and everything. Finally in February of 2012 I read about clicker training and gave that a shot. I just started with simple targeting but he stopped plucking within days and that seemed to be the end of it, at least so far.
It has been a year now since he's plucked, but I actually still dread uncovering his cage every single morning because I always feel like I'm going to see that big pile of feathers again. I'm taking him to the vet for his annual check-up this weekend but he hasn't been since he stopped plucking and I'm worried sick it's going to trigger it again because he gets extremely stressed about vet visits.
Honestly I don't think you ever get used to it. Jimmy would let his feathers grow in maybe halfway and I'd get my hopes up but then inevitably one morning all those pretty new green feathers would be on the bottom of the cage. He was completely bare on his legs, chest, and under his wings. It was very hard, I spent a lot of time feeling guilty about it and even though I still loved him just as much and still thought he was a beautiful bird it broke my heart to see all that bare skin all over his body. I tried not to cry about it but I did on a regular basis.
I can't imagine what you are going through with Ollie since he is also mutilating his skin. Jimmy never did that, but the vet said if he did he might need to wear a collar. I really do feel like with your birds there's some physical reason for the plucking such as an illness due to the fact that it started with one bird and moved to another---that really doesn't say "behavioral" or "allergy related" to me. I just really wish that whatever it is would show up on a test so it could be identified and treated.
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