FINCHforum

I woke up this morning to THIS in one of me juveniles. She was in with another juvenile. No indications they'd been fighting and she was fine at night check. Now 3/4 of her flight feathers are gone on her right wing!!!!!!!!!

I cleaned it off and put some kids polysporin on it. I can't figure out if they were pulled out or she caught it on something!!!!

She's in a small hospital cage until it heals. One she doesn't really have to fly in. GAH!! Birds!!!!

Oh, how awful! I'm sorry she got hurt. How many zebras were in the cage? I know they can be aggressive, but that is excessive to me. Obviously, separating the juveniles into separate cages is warranted now. I'd give her heat, eggfood and keep putting some neosporin on the injury for a couple days. You could also give her Thrive in the water to help with the stress recovery. Poor thing.

There were just the two of them. There has been no fighting and I found all the feathers outside the cage afterwards. Not a single bit of blood on them. You'd think if they were yanked there would be blood?? So weird.

Looks like all the blood is on the hen. If her feathers got caught, you'd probably see some stuck on the bars or something. The flying around blew the feathers outside the cage, most likely. I'd definitely separate them, poor girl.

This is crazy, zebras are so aggressive .... Soeey you have to deal with this. hope she feels better

Oh my goodness!
That's dramatic looking!

She looks like my Squeepers!

Could she have broken a blood feather?
That could certainly account for the blood.....but not the missing feathers.

Is that red spot blood-soaked feathers or is that a spot of raw, bloody skin with no feathers?

What's in the cage? Anything she could get caught up on? Or get feathers caught up/snagged??

I'd try to get as much blood out of the feathers as possible if you haven't already. I have a bottle of wound wash saline that I use for this purpose (and good for eye injuries). There's only one brand that I know of, called Blairex. It's in the first aid section near the witch hazel and isopropyl alcohol.
Here's what it looks like:
http://tinyurl.com/lwmrnun
It comes out in a nice strong stream, but not blow you away strong. (So it won't hurt her or damage her feathers further.)
The blood can dry in the feathers and creates basically a giant scab that prevents air flow and encourages bacteria growth. It can cause a nasty infection.

Wow, I know zebras are pretty aggressive but I've never seen juveniles do that kind of damage. Deborah has great advice!

That's quite a lot if damage. Find it hard to believe that another kid would or could do that much damage without someone hearing a lot of screaming. I know when my crazy four get into it, you can hear them half way down the block. Makes me think she somehow got caught on something, can't imagine what. I would check that cage very carefully, toys, dishes ,perches, absolutely everything to see if there isn't anything that she could have got snagged on. No enterprising kitties in the house?

There are kitties in the house but they leave the cages alone. They are well trained and while they will kill a bird if they get out they don't bother the cages. I have put the fear of death in them regarding the cages. It'll be a moot point soon though because they are all moving down to the bird room

She didn't get caught on anything that I can see. I have all six of my cages set up the same way so it would be odd that she would manage to find the one spot she could hurt herself?? I did check the whole cage though.

The red spot is bare skin not blood soaked feathers. This photo is after it was thoroughly cleaned. There was very little blood while cleaning it. Almost none. I just can't believe that she would rip out that many feathers with almost no blood.

She's resting a lot now. Really hoping she'll be ok. I put some more kids polysporin on it again tonight. It seemed fine on top but she was really unhappy when I put some underneath so I'm sure she's sore. Thankfully the kids polysporin is the triple so it had some pain killer in it. She's hunkered down right now in the net I provided next to the heat lamp.

I feel so bad for her.

Cats should NEVER be trusted around birds. They are a natural bird killer. No matter how good you think you have your cats trained, they will get your birds sooner or later if they ever get a chance.

It almost looks like an injury that would happen if a cat reached in the bars and grabbed at a bird. It certainly looks nasty. Sounds like you are doing all you can for her, and I hope she is feeling better tomorrow.

wildbird
I was the one who asked about the kitties.
However, I have kitties as well as birds. The birds way outnumber the cats, as in 19 birds and two kitties. In all the years, have never had any of my birds injured , caught or killed by any of my cats past or present.

Is it a possibility? Of course it is. It's also a possibility of one of the pups grabbing a mouthful of bird, but hasn't happened. In the past, I have had three of my cats scared half to death by a baby lovebird who shrieked at them and sent then running for their lives (quite hilarious ) but that's another story.

My point was, that an injury has occurred , which was unlikely to have been caused by another baby bird (not impossible, but unlikely ).

@Olympic_Aiairies
I really hope your little girl recovers soon and grows her feathers back.
Goodluck and have fun with your bird room.

Wildbird- I don't trust the cats around the birds. The point I was making is they leave the cages alone but I take my own precautions. All the nest boxes are wired shut as are the cage doors and the bars spacing is to small for them to reach in at. It's really unlikely a cat did this.

Sally I don't think this was the cats for the reasons I stated above. I have no idea what happened. Again the photo makes it look worse that it was as there was almost no blood at all. It was just red skin. No cuts.

I went to check on her this morning and she was gone. Didn't make it through the night. I'm starting to wonder if I want to even keep birds anymore. Was excited to expand to several pairs and build a bird room but now I don't know if I was to anymore. I lost my hen to egg binding a month ago and now this little girl. Plus a hen I bough from a pet store that's turned up ill. Feeling so frustrated and discouraged.

So sorry you lost her, it sounds like her injury was much more than what we could see. One of the down sides of keeping finches is that they do have shorter life spans than many other species, and we all face losing them from time to time. It is easy to get discouraged, I have certainly been there myself, but I always seem to get past it, the joys outweigh the negatives.

The nice aspect of a bird room is that you can have a chair in there, and go sit and enjoy your cup of coffee (or adult beverage) and totally relax. My bird room right now is so full of cages there is barely room for a folding chair, not as conducive to relaxing.

Olympic_Aiairies
Hello Heidi.
So sorry to hear about your little girl. If she was in pain though, maybe it's for the best.
If it was me (and I know it isn't) I would hang in there a while longer. There are ups and downs with all the pets we choose to share our lives with . Some times we do seem to get an over dose of the 'downs'. But then again life is like that.

Look at the birds that you still have and how beautiful they are, and allow yourself time to rediscover the joy and pleasure that they bring into your life.
Hugs your way.