This four year old Stafford mosaic was a real beauty in her day.
How shocked I was to find this feather lump on her lower abdomen. Normally, if a bird has a feather lump, I notice it right away when it is small and easy to remove because the feathers don't lay flat as they should. Anytime you remove something this large, you have a high risk of the bird bleeding to death. If you have this problem, you would be wise to take the bird to an avian vet and let them try even though it is totally risky and even they may not be able to save the bird.
With no avian vet within 200 miles, in spite of the risk of killing the bird, I decided her only chance for a normal life was for me to bite the bullet and remove it.
Note in the hole it is obvious that I have not got it all yet. And unless I do it will just come right back.
This huge piece came out fairly easy.
But I was suspicious that there was more in there.
After manipulating it a bit, I saw the rest.
And here it is, the last bit! Without getting that last bit and the lump would just continue to grow. I immediately put the bird on Biodecken molt product which is high in
methionine. It is given in the water and was the only source of liquid
in the birds diet.
A few days later, it was healing nicely.
Now just a few weeks later, I was thrilled to see normal feathers growing in and no sign of a lump!
In the future I am going to use the Biodecken Molt product on all mosaic as soon as they are weaned as I am pretty sure it will prevent at least some if not all feather lumps.
3 comments:
HALLO Linda,
How and with what did you sedate the bird?
What do you use to sterilise the wound after procedure?
My friend Walter used to use Saffan(Trade name is althesin)-Replaced by Alfaxan CD-RTU) to do conscious sedation on the bird when removing feather cysts.
This product was very safe used on birds.
The bird is conscious and he never had any problems using this method.
Best Regards
Donald
Thanks for all the wonderful tips
Donald
This cyst already had a hole to lift the cyst out of so it was easy on the bird to just roll it out. The fact that the cyst was already through the skin made the blood loss minimal and the bird did not get even stressed from my procedure. She immediately flew to a perch and started eating some treats that I gave her. It seemed to me just removing it was more humane than leaving it in her to keep growing. I did make sure my hands were well washed with soap before the procedure but I did not disinfect it afterwards but did inspect daily for signs of infection. The only time I have lost a bird as a result of the procedure was bleeding and that cyst was under the skin and large. So I was pretty confident going in to it that the bird would be better off.
Hi Linda,
Great post. I have removed my share of feather lumps and never had a bird bleed. They must be ripe for removing being white or grey in color, not red with a blood supply.I would pick open the top covering of thin skin and usually can pop it out like a pimple. A squeeze below it and it will pop out in one piece. I used to pick them out piece by piece with a pointed tweezer but this method is easier. Try it sometime.
Carol
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