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I have not been on this chat in years when I first got my too. Boy has it changed. I have been having problems and immediately thought I should come here and ask questions first.

I own a Moluccan Cockatoo, Teeka. She has been sexed and she is 12 yrs old. I’ve owned her since she was a baby. I’ve taken great care to be a good bird owner. I didn’t take my decision of getting her lightly since I believe in keeping a pet for its lifetime. I realized that she would outlive me and that was a main reason why I choose this type of pet. I wanted a pet for life. She was there for me when my dog died of old age.

Just this past 3 months she’s started a behavior of picking one spot under her wing. She has never showed any signs of feather picking before and this isn’t feather picking, it’s mutilating her body. I immediately took her to the vet and they recommended surgery to take the wound and stitch it back together. I did that and got an e-collar for her to wear. Just when the wound would almost be healed and her feathers would start to grow out, she would start digging at the wound again. So on with the collar and so on. I finally just kept the collar on her for the past three weeks but then one day she figured out how to get around the collar and mutilated a hole in her twice the size of the previous hole. Today she is getting surgery again to close the hole and put a different e-collar on. I am beside myself about this. I don’t know what to do. The surgery is very expensive. They said that I may have to keep battling this her whole life and that she will have to wear the e-collar her entire life. They suggested I get another bird to keep her company stating it may be sexual frustrations and etc. Right now I can not even afford the parrot I have now. Because of that I think it’s irresponsible to get another bird.

I don’t want to bore you with my past financial woes but when I purchased Teeka I was set and prepared financially to take care of her should any medical issues arise. If I was to see into the future I would not have made the choice to purchase her. In the past 5 years I have been laid off twice. I burned through my entire savings and have since went completely in debt, not to mention my income has completely declined. I was forced to take jobs that didn’t pay much and were an hours drive from where I lived. Hello Gas prices! I am a professional worker and there just aren’t jobs out there right now. I can not sell my house and so I am stuck financially.

Anyways…I am so scared to loose Teeka. I was hoping that you could help me with any ideas with how to get her to stop picking at her sore. If it comes about that she needs surgery yet again 3 months from now I will not be able to afford it and as much as it will kill me, I have to think what is best for her if I cannot afford her medical bills. I desperately need any kind of help I can get with this behavioral issue. Please please help me. I've been reading up on mutilation and I can not think of any type of environmental change in her routine lately other than I have been extremely stressed. Maybe she is picking up on that?

TeekasMom wrote:... They suggested I get another bird to keep her company stating it may be sexual frustrations ...

The first thing you need is a new avian vet and fast, because -- you're sadly right -- Teeka could be in real trouble, especially if you stay with this same vet. I'll help you find a better avian vet if you tell me where you are and who yours is. PM me if you prefer. Once we've gone that step, I'll say more.

So sorry this is happening.

I am in the Minneapolis/St. Paul of Minnesota area. This vet is listed under the avian association or whatever it is. So I believe they are legit.

My regular vet was not there this time I had to take her in. So to be fair it was the vet tech that said that about getting another bird but also this new vet mentioned sexual frustrations too. I've been pretty happy in the past with this vet clinic. It's like a clinic so there are multiple vets there and I had to take whomever I could get because I needed to get her in there quickly. (Como Park Animal Hospital)

I have to pick her up after work today. What questions should I ask?????

Could it be a yeast infection? If so, what anti-fungal meds have you already used on Teeka? Was a drying agent added to combat the hot, moist under-wing environment? What consideration has been given to special diet needs for fighting yeast infections?

Those would be my first questions. The suggestion to get another bird is such trash that the tech should be reported and retrained, if not fired

The first time this happened they gave me a steroidal powder to put on the wound. She didn't do well with it and drank TONS of water and pooped pure liquid.

I don't believe she was ever tested for a yeast infection. They never once mentioned it. I know she had a complete bloodwork done on her before her first surgery the first time. Would that have caught it?

I told them what pellets she was on and they didn't say much about her diet.

She's on Kaytee exact Rainbow pellets. I've tried to switch her to Lafabers because I was worried about the dye in the Kaytee but she didn't seem to take with the Lafabers. Other than that, she gets misc. of people food/fruit/veggies and nutriberries as treats.

IF it's a yeast infection, she should be on a strict no-sugar diet. For instance, no Nutriberries, no fruit, no corn, etc. Yeast is what I'd suspect first from your description, but I'm no vet. If that's what it is, her diet is perpetuating it even if she's on antifungal meds. Steriods for birds can be extremely dangerous and can feed fungal infections. Let's hope your vet has good reason for thinking Teeka's problem is NOT fungal. It usually takes a scraping and culture to diagnose a fungal infection.

What tests were in the blood work? Did they do a fecal as well?

Have you tried Roudybush? TOP's? Foundation Formula?

What else does she eat?

What is her cage size?

What toys does she have?

How frequently is she bathed?

Does she get daily exercise?

Does she get outside time, or does she have a *SAFE* full spectrum light?

Teeka's Mom:

I'm not going to be much help and the advice you have been given is spot on. Does she have lots of things to shred? I've been having a lot of trouble with my grey and a feather destructive behaviour. Just this past March, she started building a nest in the bathroom and hasn't damaged her feathers since. We are talking some serious damage to her wing. She hasn't been able to fly in almost 3 years. She's gone through 8 plungers, 10 tub mats which are not the ideal shredding materials. Right now there is a cardboard box in there, a seagrass basket, a piece of untreated pine and some other cardboard pieces and a 100% cotton tub mat. Whatever she shreds, I clean up as soon as I get home. I realize she could potentially lay an egg but I'll deal with that when it happens. Right now, the FDB has stopped and that works for me. I plan on having lots of natural material that she can destroy next year. She does show signs of slowing a little. She has also taken to masturbating on a perch. This is a new behaviour but it's better than what she was doing to her wing in her cage.

Bev

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applie ... lbird.html

Teeka's mom, check this out as well. www.aviancollar.com

You need a prescription for that one but it looks better than any collars I've seen.

If you Google "mutilating cockatoo", there is lots of stuff there from people who have gone through the same thing with their Toos. You might read some of this stuff and see if you can figure something out, once medical reasons have been ruled out. Usually sudden onset mutilation has a medical cause.


Bev

The avian collar link is exactly the collar she had the first time which only worked for a little while.

She is let out of her cage in the a.m. and in the p.m. She is allowed to walk around the house and I have another perch for her in the kitchen as well and another one in the shower. These last few weeks I've noticed a change in her where she isn't interested in exploring or trying to find me if she is let out of her cage. She also wasn't interested in her normal toys. I have a bunch of toys for her (the normal stuff you get at the pet stores) and she also likes books/papertowel rolls/tape rolls/cardboard boxes to shred.

Her appetite has been normal lately. I did not get her poop tested and asked them about that. They said they will check it in her recheck exam in two weeks. She has had giardia in the past years ago. I am unsure what was all checked in the complete blood work they did. I mentioned yeast and they ruled it out because they said there wasn't redness around the sore area.

She gets showers daily or every other day. Her diet is mainly pellets with nutriberries for treats. She also gets people food every day. Fruits/veggies and anything I eat for dinner/breakfast. I mostly eat organic/natural foods from TraderJoes.

She gets left alone during the day when I am at work.

Right now she is on antibiotics and valium. I did not give her valium this morning because she seemed pretty out of it last night and I want to give her more of a chance to get used to the new collar. She ate nutriberries last night so I let her eat those and cheese last night...her favorite. I put her in the bottom of her cage but she hasn't climbed up at all yet. This morning I put her on a perch for a minute but she seems very unstable with the new collar so I left her in the bottom of her cage when I left.
I don't know if it is the valium or what but she just doesn't seem like she wants to move around with the collar on. I sawed up some thick branches and threw them in the bottom of the cage to chew on so she has been chewing on those intermittently but I don't know if it is out of frustration or play. Then she will go into long periods of sitting still staring. It looks like she has only tried a few times to chew on the collar because there is chew marks on it.

Today I am headed to the pet store to spend some money on some new toys. I cut up some aspen trees for her to play with. Does anyone know if I can give her acorns?

Am I doing what I should be?

I saw that you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. You might want to try South Hyland Pet Hospital in Bloomington. http://www.southhyland.com/ 952-884-1868 Ask for Dr. Vicki Schulz. She is an avian vet, and she is wonderful. She also has two pet cockatoos - an Umbrella and a Moluccan, I believe. A couple years ago, my Triton was having seizures. I took her to all the way there (7 hours one way) because Dr. Schulz thought she may be able to help. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out well; however, she was very knowledgeable and very good to deal with.

Bluesbird Exotics wrote:The suggestion to get another bird is such trash that the tech should be reported and retrained, if not fired

I completely agree with Bluebird that you should not get another bird to keep yours company. That could further complicate your problems. That's not to say you shouldn't ever get another bird, but I think the vet tech's recommendation is the wrong reason to get a bird.

petdiva wrote:I saw that you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. You might want to try South Hyland Pet Hospital in Bloomington. http://www.southhyland.com/ 952-884-1868 Ask for Dr. Vicki Schulz. She is an avian vet, and she is wonderful... she was very knowledgeable and very good to deal with.

AHAAAA!! The first day TeekasMom posted, I phoned 7 vets in that area who are ABVP diplomats to ask if they are avian specialists. Not a single one was, even the first one, who was in his car and so kindly offered to research and call me back. I said No thanks, that I would keep calling, but by the time I'd called the whole list w/o any luck, I was discouraged. So discouraged that when a staffer at the 7th place offered names of 2 places to which they refer bird owners, I wrote down her info but never called, thinking because they were out of the area, it wasn't likely to tempt TeekasMom. But the first was Dr Schulz. I should have persevered, and I'm so glad you posted, Petdiva.

I don't know where you live in the area, TeekasMom, but the person who gave me Dr Schulz's name said Bloomington is only about 20 minutes from her office in Minneapolis. MUCH closer than Petdiva is! I understand that you feel loyalty to your vet and, being short on funds, you're loathe to start over with someone new. But a second opinion would cost you no more than the exam fee. The consulting vet uses all the current test results from your primary vet, but brings a new perspective, and maybe a different set of experiences that could mean a lot to Teeka at this point. Please give this hard thought. As Bev said, sudden onset of plucking -- and even more so by far of mutilation -- is rarely behavioral. Something feels so bad that she's wounding herself, and the collar doesn't make it hurt her any less. I feel badly for you, but much worse for poor Teeka.

Thank so much for all your suggestions. I am going to consider going to the other vet as well. I have to do a free check up with my original vet so I may get copies of all her records then.

I am so worried about her...she has this HUGE e-collar on now and just is having a hard time getting used to it. At first she wouldn't even eat so I had to hand feed her. Now she will eat food but only if it is in the bottom of her cage. She can't climb the bars in her cage so I have been putting her down in the bottom of her cage when I go to work and put toys down there with food and water. At night I will put her on her perch for bed time. She is playing with her toys in the bottom of the cage but she won't do anything but stand in one spot on her perch if I put her there.

Does anyone have any experience with huge e-collars? Am I babying her too much? Should I just leave her on her perch and make her get used to it? I've also contacted an Avian rescue center with hope that they can help me.

I am scheduled to go out of town for work and just am beside myself with what I should do in regards to her care. Usually when I went on trips (about 5 a year) I would have the neighbors come in daily to care for her. Seemed to be the best because I once took her to a friends house with her own cage and it didn't seem to go over well with her. It stressed her out more. But I really don't know about having my neighbor be this hands on with her if I leave her at home.

Did you talk with your vet about the tube collar I PM'd you a link about? I can't imagine subjecting a bird to an E-collar You'll probably need to ask your vet also about boarding Teeks if your trip can't be avoided or postponed. Poor bird