Poor Kiwi
 

Just a thread to say, Kiwi is having some problems right now. :( This is her third year going through laying eggs (2006 thread, 2007 thread) and she was doing fine (in fact I took the eggs out this morning and that should have run its course). But then Sunday morning she had suddenly plucked her chest, her crop was totally bald. :sadbendy: She wasn't listless or acting sick or anything though. And then this morning she'd moved to her back and the spot above her preen gland is all red from chewing. I don't think it's a stress-related thing, I think she may have a skin irritation or allergy of some kind. The earliest vet appointment I could get for her is NEXT Monday. :P

She's totally happy and eating well, playing and cuddling like normal. She's just...itchy. I'm cleaning up her cage and everything, checking for mites and stuff (haven't seen anything so far), and I got some kind of spray to soothe her skin I'll try tomorrow I guess. I just hope this isn't a big deal and that she doesn't have anything contagious, because if she's actually sick I won't be able to board her when we go to Comic-Con (I guess I'll have to take her to my dad's, a full hour away).

So...yeah. My poor Kiwi. :( I'm really worried about her right now.

Pets are absolutely wonderful family members.

It could be that the hormonal change from egg-laying gave her an allergy? Have there been any changes in her environment or diet? Anything that might cause a small irritation but has inflamed?

Nothing that I can think of, unless its parasites. :P I guess I just have to wait until the doctor does some tests. Unless it really is just nerves/stress. It's a mystery right now.

Poor Kiwi. I hope she feels better soon. My guess too is the hormonal changes. How old is she? I'm wondering if the hormones are becoming more potent with age or something. Either way though, I hope the doctor is able to find out what's wrong and she'll be ok. And hope she fares well until then, too.

Feel better Birdie!

She'll be 11 in August.

Poor Kiwi. Here's hoping that her condition improves. :sadbendy:

I was thinking the exact same thing. I know that many female dogs experience skin irritation that results in itching and hair loss either during their heat cycle, or while pregnant or nursing; Pit Bull Terriers are notorious for this, and it's not uncommon for a female APBT to go nearly bald by the time her pups are weaned, making people who don't know better think that the dog is being abused, but it's just hormones, as you said. I've even had female SNAKES(especially King Snakes, for some reason)who will develop little bumps or pustules under their scales right after laying eggs, for no apparent reason, so I've got to suspect hormones there, too. I DO know that many bird species deliberately pluck their breast feathers during the breeding season, to both line the nest with, and to expose a "brood patch" for incubating eggs, but I've never bred parrots, so I'm just making an educated guess on that one.

pitbulllady

Get well soon, Kiwi. ;)

Here's hoping that Kiwi's all right, Sparky. I know nothing about birds but it is flea and tick season. Fingers crossed that its nothing serious.

Indeed, poor Kiwi. :( I really hope that she'll be back to her old self before very long. In the meantime, she'll be in my thoughts.

Awww, poor Kiwi. :( I hope she feels better soon.

I spent today CLEANING. I put Kiwi in her old cage and took her big one apart; I had to take it to the car wash area at our apartments to wash it. I cleaned all her stuff and then cleaned the closet (yes, Kiwi lives in a walk-in closet - hey, it's her room! She's actually always lived in a closet. It sounds weird but it works well; of course I leave the door open). I sprayed a bird-safe mite spray around because it's possible there's bugs/no-see-ums - I know I get chewed up when I'm in my room. I sprayed Kiwi herself with a skin-soothing stuff, maybe that'll help. She did not pluck last night, but that may simply be because she's got nothing left to pluck off. :P Anyways she's still acting happy and healthy so even if cleaning her home doesn't end the problem it'll be nice for her to have a clean house...

I'm really tired. :herrsleep:

How's Kiwi today?

Well, although I myself don't care for the birds that my store sells, many of my co-workers/friends have LOTS of experience with birds, of many breeds and sizes, and have seen many ailments and after a visit to the vet many cures in their years of experience. I went ahead and asked a few of them if they have any input and/or advice. I told them everything you told us, so, I told them all I know. ;)

I'm guessing nothing in her cage has changed recently, like a new nesting box or toy? Or a new type of food or treat? At any other time it may not be a problem, but while brooding even the smallest changes like that can cause excess stress and lead to self mutilation. If by chance she is getting a new food or treats, maybe she's allergic to something in them. But after 10 years experience, I'm sure all this has come to your mind already. And I told them that, but I think it's worth mentioning, just in case. :oops:

Have you put anything extra soft like polly-fil or nesting material in her cage to give her some "comfort", so to speak? Not only will it give her something soft and warm to cuddle against while she's feeling odd, but she might also take her frustrations and stress out on that instead of herself. So that might help. Hehe, I told the girl who suggested that (who is also the supervisor of the bird department with probably the most experience) that you sew, so you should have easy access to some, if not some on hand already. :)

As to the irritated preening gland, it's mainly because there are no more feathers there, and she's stimulating it a little too harshly without the feathers there for buffering.

All the people I talked to said it's normal for small parrots to go through bouts where they pluck all their feathers, moreso even than larger parrots and smaller birds. Only a vet can find out exactly why and instruct you how to fix it and/or give you something for it, but it's usually nothing to worry about. So try not to worry. Maybe you've just been lucky over the last 10 years if she hasn't really done this before. That shows signs of a happy and healthy bird. :D

Hope she does ok until her vet appointment. And hope they're able to find out what's wrong. They may put a funny collar on her to keep her from plucking her feathers, but hopefully that'll be it.

Feel better Kiwi! And hang in there Sparky! :terrsmile:

Well, I think I said that I had removed her three eggs thinking she was done with them...she wasn't. She laid a new one this morning. So I put the other three back in, that ought to stop her laying more. She's never laid more than three before so I think that's all she wants.

Anyways, the only new food she's had recently was I put some kale in with her apple one or two days (because I heard it was good for an egg-laying hen) but I don't think she touched it. If she was allergic to the kale though that would kinda suck. :P I'm personally back to believing it may be behavioral - she may simply be as they call it "sexually frustrated". It does happen. Also she does get seed as well as pellets (she eats both, and the vet is the one who told me to give them both) and I understand some seeds can make birds hormonal. I buy a mix so I think next time I'll buy the seeds separately and mix them myself to keep those suspicious seeds out.

She doesn't seem to have plucked any new feathers but then, she's nakey already. She also doesn't seem preoccupied with chewing herself or anything. She does flap her tail a bit. I'm not sure she's preening her back/wing feathers as much or at all now though - when we snuggle she smells different to me and her feathers don't seem quite as "fluffy" as normal, if that makes sense. So there may be a preen gland issue. I'm spraying her now with this stuff that contains aloe and preen oil, so that should help if she's not producing oil. (She doesn't seem interested in taking a proper bath.) Her gland could be blocked or infected; this does worry me some, I wonder if she can make it until next Monday. If a blocked gland isn't expressed in time, it can rupture and require surgery, even removal. Yeah I've probably been reading too much on the subject lately, lol.

But I have to say, Kiwi is Supermegahappy Bird right now. She is seriously, seriously the opposite of stressed or unhappy. So she isn't feeling ill in any way. At least there's that.

(Oh and yeah Lynnie, she has a fabric "bed" to cuddle with, she has slept on/in it since she was only a few months old. Although, all the plucking actually took place when she was on her bed, as evidenced by the piles of feathers there in the morning.)

I'm glad Kiwi's a Supermegahappy bird, that much is very good. :D I did tell my friends that she seemed to be acting fine and seemed to be happy and not stressed out. But I know our feathered friends are super sensitive, and they wondered if maybe something was still causing her stress without her outwardly expressing it (with the exception of plucking).

They said that usually every time a bird plucks its feathers, it's gland gets irritated because of the lack of feathers around the spot. But the gland being clogged, yeah, that makes sense, and I hope that's not the case. Try not to worry about it. ;)

Oh good, she has a soft bed. :) But I guess I should have clarified I was referring to something hair or feather like that she can "nest" and even "burrow" in. She can busy herself tearing that apart than tearing at her own feathers.

Hopefully the eggs being placed back with her is all she wanted, and she'll get back to normal now. And hopefully after next Monday, we'll have a happy update. :terrsmile:

Well she had plucked before I removed the eggs, so that wasn't the cause. I just meant that's what she wanted eggwise so she started laying eggs again. And she has chewy toys in there if she wants something to chew on, but that didn't stop her pulling out her feathers. :P I just can't wait to find out if it's behavioral or physical.

I'm very sorry to hear of this, Sparky. How long will it take her to replace these feathers?

That's a good question. If she does NOT chew/pluck them again, it should take many months for her too look back to normal. But I've heard of a supplement that could speed up the process. I'm going to ask the vet.

Well, just got back from the vet. The doctor is going to run some tests and get back to me tomorrow, but she said Kiwi LOOKS very healthy. Nothing wrong with her preen gland, no irritated skin, and all the feathers are coming back in just fine. She gave me two things to give Kiwi, one is a supplement for healthy feather growth that hopefully Kiwi will take voluntarily, but the other is an oral medicine I have to give once a day to help with any skin irritation that could happen considering that there's hundreds of little feather shafts coming in simultaneously. The visit was only a couple hundred dollars, which was better than I was expecting, anyways. So I'll hear about the tests tomorrow. We still don't know why Kiwi decided to pull out her feathers. :terrconf: Birds are weird.

I'm happy to hear Kiwi is doing ok, and the vet agrees she looks healthy. :) Hopefully this was all just a temporary and spontaneous thing. Here's wishing all the best luck on the test results tomorrow. :up:

Sorry to hear about this, Sparky. Best of luck with the test results. Kiwi'll be alright, hopefully.

That sounds mostly good. Fingers crossed that's the end of it. I suppose the reproductive cycle messes with everybody's head at some point.

*Finally* heard from the vet about Kiwi's tests. Turns out she's actually healthier than the last time I took her to the vet 2 years ago, lol. The only problem she had then was her kidneys, her uric acid was high. It's still a tad high but almost normal now. Anyways she's got fuzz coming in, and she's all "bumpy" - that's her feathers poking through. Unfortunately as I have to catch her and hold her to give medicine every day she's mad at me and goes to sulk in the bottom corner of her cage whenever I go to say hi to her. She wouldn't come out voluntarily Tuesday or Wednesday; she decided to try coming out this morning but of course before putting her back in later she got medicine, so I dunno, she might not want to come out again for weeks now. :P She'll be done with the meds in...two Mondays. Hope we can both keep our sanity, poor bird. So anyways other than being upset about getting medicine she's quite good. :terrsmile:

That's terrific news! :up: That she's healthy that is. Eh, no one likes taking medicine though. I hope she fares well with that until it's over. I'm glad to hear she's getting fuzzy and bumpy, too. Hope she has a full body of feathers again in a few months. :)

It's good to know that Kiwi's doing better. :)

Phew, that's a relief. Poor little parrot, I'm so glad that things are looking up for her. :)

Sorry she's upset over the medicine. She might get used to the routine and figure out that she comes to no harm from it. Glad she's basically ok though.

I think maybe she has already. She came out fine this morning for breakfast and when I took her into the bathroom afterwords to catch her she ran away some but didn't scream. And then she wanted to come out two more times later in the day. So I guess maybe she's willing to deal with the medicine to be able to come out, even though because of the eggs she still doesn't want to stay out long each time. Maybe she'll be back to normal after we get back from vacation. :P

She looks really weird right now though, the bumps have turned into little spines.

Well by the time we picked Kiwi up from the boarders on Tuesday she looked perfect. This morning, she had plucked again. :( Don't know why. I'm not taking her to the vet again (unless she starts chewing her skin and bleeding or whatever) because we already know there's nothing physically wrong with her. But we really don't know why she'd pluck again. It's not like she can be distracted to not do it, because she only does it overnight when she's settled down to sleep and not during the day. :P So it's a mystery.

Noooo, Kiwi Birdie, why are you doing this again?? :bloosad: You're making your mom flustered! As am I.

Sorry to hear this, Sparky. I just hope she gets over this bout of behavioral issues with little to no worries.

Could it be a seasonal thing? Maybe Kiwi is too warm? I'm sorry that I can't help, Sparky.:(

I've wondered that too - it is especially warm where her cage is - but she has never seemed to care about heat before in all her 11 years. My parakeets would slick down and pant when it was hot, but it gets hotter here than it did where I lived then and Kiwi NEVER acts overheated. :P Anyways she finished the job last night and now her entire front, legs included, is completely naked and pink. Most of her back as well. As before she's acting completely feisty and normal. *shrug* Anyways I guess this means she goes back on her medication (of which I have plenty left) in a few days. Maybe she'll learn to associate being plucked with having to take medicine and stop. :P I dunno.

Aw crum. This is bad news indeed, Sparky. I suppose you have to accept that animals behave in ways we can't quite fathom all the time. Otherwise we'd be alright with cuddly toys or other more predictable objects. Hope she's ok.