Parrot Emergency Critical Care

Parrot Emergency Care | Blue Throat Macaw

I went to a bird club meeting today where the speaker, a long time vet technician, spoke about emergency critical care.  I wanted to hone my skills. She offered ideas in splinting and portable heat sources that I was not aware of. This topic differs from basic first aid care in that these are instances where it is not a question of if you need to bring your bird to the vet, but how soon can you get there.

Prevention is, of course, the best practice in keeping your parrot safe and healthy.  Weighing your parrot at least weekly (daily is even better) is a way to monitor its health.  Never weigh your parrots in pounds – birds are too light.  You can only accurately monitor weight if it is done in smaller increments of weight like grams. A parrot should never lose more that 10% of its body weight inside of a month, this is a sure sign of illness. Observe the droppings

While they may change in color and consistency somewhat depending on what your parrot has eaten, they should for the most part remain typical for your parrot. Any droppings that are “off” for more than a few days may signal illness.  Feed a variety of healthy foods and keep its environment clean.  Keep your home bird-proofed to prevent accidents.  And, for when the unthinkable happens, keep your first aid kit well stocked and handy.

Parrot Emergency Care | African Grey

NOTE: When you are transporting your bird to the vet in an emergency situation, you will almost always want to wrap it in a towel.  A bird that is in pain will want to thrash around and may further injure itself – this is one way to keep it restrained and hopefully calm.  Another thing you will want to bring is a source of warmth. Since a heating pad will not serve you well in the car, make a “rice-sock” or a “helping hand”. 

A rice-sock is quite simply a sock with rice in it, tied off at the end.  Put it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Be careful, because rice heats up quickly and will retain heat for a while. A helping hand is a latex glove filled with water and tied off at the wrist.  When the water is heated in the microwave, it acts as a hot water bottle.  Either can be put together in mere seconds.

Before you leave your house you will want to call your vet and let them know you are coming in and what the nature of the emergency is.  Always have an emergency vet clinic number and address available should your primary avian vet be closed.  The following are injuries that require IMMEDIATE veterinarian attention:

ANIMAL BITES:

If your parrot is bitten or scratched by ANY animal, get to the vet immediately. Mammals have gram negative bacteria in their saliva.  Birds don’t carry gram negative bacteria in their bodies and are unable to deal with it.  It doesn’t matter whether the bite came from a cat, a dog, or a llama, or whether the bite seems minor – a infected parrot can go septic and die within 12 hours.  Wrap your bird in a towel with a helping hand and leave immediately for the vet. If the bleeding is severe, put a pressure bandage on the wound.  See Bleeding below.

CONVULSION/SEIZURE:

Don’t try to stabilize the bird.  Wrap it up in towel with a helping hand and leave for the vet.  The longer the bird seizes, the more chance for irreversible brain damage.:

BLEEDING:

If there is blood in the stool it is an indication of internal bleeding. Medical investigation is needed to determine the source of the bleed. Wrap the bird in a towel with a helping hand and leave immediately for the vet.

If blood is coming from an orifice, such as the eyes, ears or mouth, don’t try to stabilize the bird.  Transport immediately.

If the bleeding is external, and minor in nature – like a scratch, you can attempt to stop the bleeding before you leave for the vet.  Apply corn starch to the wound (never apply styptic powder to skin wounds)  and apply gentle pressure with a sterile gauze/telfa pad.  If the bleeding doesn’t stop after a minute, stop trying. Apply a pressure bandage and go the the vet. A pressure bandage is made simply by taking a couple of gauze squares and folding them as needed to accommodate the size of the wound (or the size of the bird) and placing in over the wound. 

Then take vet wrap and wind the tape around the gauze and the body part where the wound is located.  Be sure that you don’t wind it too tightly around the body of the bird.  Their air sacs require room for expansion to function properly.  You should be able to slide three fingers underneath the vet wrap when it’s correctly applied.

If you successfully stop the bleeding, you will still need to get to the vet for an examination and antibiotics to avoid infection.

If the external bleeding is serious in nature, like a gash, apply a pressure bandage and leave immediately for the vet.

BLEEDING NAILS OR BEAK:

If you have cut through the quick during a nail trim or there has been an accident and the nail begins to bleed, apply styptic powder and hold in place for 30 seconds. When this has happened to me, I pour the styptic powder into the cap of the bottle and put the nail directly into the cap. Throw away the remainder when you’re done.   If you have not successfully stopped the bleed try again for 30 seconds. If it is still bleeding, go to your vet.

Follow the same procedures for a bleeding beak.  Pour a liberal amount of the powder onto a gauze pad and press it against the beak avoiding the mouth. You will need to go to your vet even if you stop the bleeding as a bleeding beak is likely to be the result of an accident or fight.

BROKEN BLOOD FEATHERS:

A blood feather is a feather that contains an active blood supply.  You can see the blood running up the shaft of the feather. (New feathers also contain a blood supply that delivers nutrients as the feather grows. Once the feather is mature the blood supply recedes and it looks like the other feathers.) 

If a blood feather breaks, there’s not enough clotting tissue in the feather shaft to effectively stop the bleeding and a bird can bleed out and die.  Sometimes you can stop the bleeding with styptic powder or cornstarch, but the feather still needs to be removed.  If you are too squeamish to do this, you need to go directly to the vet to have it done.

If you’re up to the task, it’s really quite simple:  Extend the wing and pinch your finger on either side of the wing at the base of the blood feather. Use your hemostats (the locking ones that look like scissors) or needle-nosed pliers and clamp onto the feather as close to the base as you can without catching anything but that  feather base  in its jaws. Pull the feather out, in the direction that it grows, with a tug. 

Don’t be tentative, just pull it out quickly and get it done. You are prolonging the ordeal as long as you hesitate. Keep your fingers on the wing where you held them previously to control bleeding.  In this case, you will not need to see the vet unless the bleeding doesn’t stop, which is rare.  Remember not to use styptic powder on skin to stop any bleeding.

BURNS:

These are the most common types of burns.  You will notice that they all need to be treated differently.  Burns become infected easily and need immediate veterinarian treatment. Before you leave for the vet there are some treatments to use to help lessen the damage of the injury:

Hot water or steam burns usually happen in the kitchen.  This can be the result of your parrot falling into, or flying over, boiling water. Submerse burned area into lukewarm/slightly cool water.  DO NOT USE COLD WATER.  This will cause vessels to shrink and the skin around them will die.  Towel you bird and leave.

Grease burns are best treated with corn starch.  The corn starch will soak up the grease keeping you from having to touch the burned area.  Apply it liberally, wrap up the bird in a towel and get to the vet.

Acid/chemical burns are best treated with baking soda. It will neutralize the effects of the acid or chemical.  Wrap up your bird and leave.

Electrical burns require that you leave immediately for you vet.

CONCUSSION/COLLAPSE:

Do nothing.

Wrap your parrot in a towel with a helping hand and go directly to the vet.

Emergency Parrot Care | Rose Breasted Cockatoo

FRACTURES:

If you suspect a broken wing, you will need to wrap it and secure it to the body of the bird before you travel to prevent thrashing that will cause further injury.  To do this you will need your roll of vet tape and you will have to have the bird securely toweled.  Put the wing into its folded position. 

This is called a figure-eight wrap because it goes around the wing in a figure-eight. Take the end of the roll of tape and start underneath at the tip of the wing, where the feathers end. Roll it around from under the wing to the front and then up and across the wing to the shoulder joint. 

Pass  it over the top of the shoulder and under the wing (you are basically hooking it around the shoulder of the wing) till it reaches the front again at the bottom, and then back up across the front of the wing again till it meet the point where you started. Do this twice, just follow the same path again. Before you cut the wrap, wind a loop around the bird’s body to secure the wing to its body.  Attach the end with a piece of medical tape. Wrap your bird in a towel and go.

NOTE: The purpose of the figure-eight wrap is to prevent further injury to the wing.  If your are struggling with your bird to do this, STOP. It defeats the purpose.  Put the wing in the folded position, secure him well in a towel and leave.  This is something you will want to practice ahead of time, and it’s a good thing to know how to do.

Leg fractures need to be splinted. This can be done with Popsicle sticks.  Break them off to the size of the length of the leg and wrap them in vet tape to protect the leg from splinters or loose pieces of wood.  Securely towel your bird with only the legs sticking out. Place folded gauze pads on either side of the leg and wrap with rolled gauze tape to keep the pads secure. Put the splints on either side of the leg and wrap with vet tape. 

Compound fractures are those where the bone protrudes through the skin.  You will treat those in the same way.  Be sure to never put your vet wrap in contact with the bone, always make sure you have a padding of gauze between the wound and the wrapping.  Attach the splint to the foot (skin) with medical tape (never use waterproof tape on your parrot’s skin, it will pull the skin off when you remove it!) and attach the top of the splint with masking tape only because it is easily removed from feathers.

NOTE: The purpose of splinting is to stabilize the leg.  You are not trying to set the break.  Never move the bones or re-position the leg, pieces of bone crucial in the setting and mending of the leg can be broken off that way.  More importantly, shards of bone can sever arteries.

GREAT TIP: Have your vet collect the cases that the syringes they use come in and  pick some up from them. They are normally just thrown away. When cut in half lengthwise, they make great splints that are rounded and fit more naturally over your parrots leg.  You would use them the same way as a Popsicle stick.  Also, they make great foraging toys!

POISON:

Do nothing. Go straight to the vet.  Different poisons need different remedies and you may do more harm than good if you try to treat it yourself.  If you are certain what has been ingested you can call the poison control hotline and they can help.  There are two different hotlines: one for humans, and one for animals. 

There is a charge for the animal hotline because it is the way that they pay for their staffing.  It is not for profit.  If you don’t have a debit or credit card, and they won’t bill you for their services, try the people hotline.  They will be able to help to a point.  The vet is your best choice.

Heat Stroke in Parrots | African Grey & Galah

HEAT STROKE:

If your bird is panting and holding it’s wings out, cool your bird slowly in room temperature water.  Soak her right down to the skin.  Don’t try to cool her down rapidly.  A sharp drop in body temperature can kill or cause organ damage.  If her wings are droopy and she seems like she might be in shock, give he a syringe full of Pedialyte to hold her over during the trip to the vet.

On the other end of the spectrum, hypothermia (from being too cold) is not considered a critical care situation unless you suspect frostbite or necrosis.  Let your bird warm up slowly and naturally.  Organ damage is not a concern because the body directs the blood flow to the organs to protect them in freezing temperatures.

Hopefully you will never need any of the instruction from this post, but you might want to print off a copy and keep it with your first aid kit for easy reference.

Here's a FREE GUIDE on how to help Bird-Proof your home too!

Patty Jourgensen specializes in avian health, behavior and nutrition and has been working with and caring for rescue birds since 1987.

15 comments

Adil Ahmed

Hi I am from India and my Indian ring neck parrot’s feather is become damage,Actually he got an accident with the fan and his one wing is injured very seriously ant feathers of that wing was all broken and also I think his skin is also got wounds .Next day he was bleeding continuously and then we used cottons to protect from bleeding and it work but can you tell me how I can help him to recover fast from the wounds.

Adil Ahmed
twobob brown

We really liked your site, very informative. Havn’t had the big accident, and knock on wood hope we never do. After having a heart attack and having to be brought back to life, our congo grey keeps us laughing as does our sever macaw and sun conure. Our congo is 16years old and the severe is 24 and don’t know exactly the age of the conure as he is adopted/rescued. There’s nothing we love as much, (well each other), and anything we can do to help our companions is wonderful as is your web site . A copy of your instructions has gone into our kits. One for the house and one for our motorhome. Yep we go——they go, and yes they are fully flighted and love to ride on our shoulders going down the road. Thanks for your time and effort to help make our companions safer

twobob brown
Ros Stiles

What fantastic advise. I lost a bird a few weeks ago and really wish I had enclosed him and kept him warmer. Thank you for sharing

Ros Stiles
Patty

Hi Brenda, Wow! The further I read into your post, the more nervous I got about a good outcome! You did good, girl! That you were able to recognize a problem by looking at the stool and used white paper to get a better view speaks to your experience with birds. Handfeeding formula has helped a couple of my birds a lot when they were very ill, and it’s a great comfort to them too. I’m so glad everything turned out well. Thank you for sharing your story. Patty

Patty
Brenda

I never thought my Sun Conure would ever have a problem like she did either because she’s never left out alone, only if I am in the room with her. I never let her fly around where ever she wants to. I thought I knew a lot about birds because I had several other birds from Cockatiels to Macaws and they have had mild viruses and they lived. Then one day while I was having FIOS installed I went to talk to my bird and she had what looked like brownish colored stools but it was hard to tell on the newspaper. So I put white paper under her while she was on her little T-perch so I could tell for sure. Sure enough she was bleeding and she didn’t even seem sick at all; at first. I called my vet which thankfully is only a mile or so down the road and told them what was happening and he said to get there as soon as I could. The FIOS installer was almost done so I waited for him to finish and rushed him out fast so I could head to the vet. My bird was getting worse by then, her stools were redder than they were brownish now and she seemed to be getting weaker and refused to go into her travel cage so I left her stay on the T- perch she was on so the doctor could see the stools himself. I held her to my chest to keep her warm and left. The vet wanted to x-ray her for metal incase she had got into something in my home. I knew that was impossible so she treated her for a viral infection with an antibiotic shot, liquid antibiotics and a medication for stopping the bloody stools. He also said I must make sure she eats and drinks and told me to get her Pedialite clear to get her electrolytes up. I did all of this, and I even said I still had the hand feeding formula I fed her as a baby when I got her 9 months before when she was only a month old. He said that was a great idea if she would eat that; it would help her a lot. She wasn’t sure about it at first but after trying her a second time she loved it once again and looked forward to her every 2 to 4 hour feeding I set her up on. After only 24 hours her stools were not bloody anymore but still very loose. I called the vet and asked if I should take her off the medication for bloody stools, he said keep her on one more day then take her off just that medication, but keep her on the antibiotic, feedings, and pedialite. It took almost a week for her to be back to her normal silly self. This scared me half to death so I am setting up my emergency kit NOW!!! Thank you for the great helpful advice. Bre

Brenda
Patty

Hi Patsy, Those are rose breasted cockatoos, also known as the galah. They are incredibly fun, energetic birds, with a great sense of humor and ability to talk. They belong to Dave and Jamie Womach. Patty

Patty
Patty

Hi Alison, It sounds like your bird has a severe clip. They should be able to land gracefully when done right, but not get enough lift to fly easily. Typically, an accident like the one you have described will stop a bird from trying a stunt again, but some are daredevils. What exactly is your bird doing that is causing the injuries? Is it simply trying to fly and dropping like a rock? Patty

Patty
Alison Hurst

I have a 2 year old African Grey who had her wings clipped when I bought her. She’s having severe trouble growing them back. She bites the new feathers out. She’s not plucking any other feathers. She can’t fly because of this and frequently smacks herself quite hard when landing. She had split her chest skin open and the scab doesn’t get a chance to heal over completely before she tries some other acrobatic display with similar results. We took her to an avian vet who sedated her, cleared out the quills, stitched her chest and put on a huge collar to stop her picking the stitches. All seemed well until skin healed, collar came off and she started her dare devil stunts again. Now she has split herself open again. The vet doesn’t want to operate again and has actually been pretty useless with suggestions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance.

Alison Hurst
Patsy Seo

Patty Thanks for the informative blog and beauriful pictures. Are the gorgeous birds with the pink breasts and white top related to the African Grey?

Patsy Seo
belle

I left my cockatoo out of the cage, not knowing that she will enter my ringneck’s cage, she bit my ringneck’s beak and cause injury, but my ringneck didnt show any pain, although there are few blood stain, it didnt bleed, i applied iodine so as to prevent infection, we don have an avian vet here, he normally sleep rotated head and one leg up. will the scar on the beak recovers or will it remains? one scar is a bit deep like a hole but its not bleeding.

belle
Patty

Hi Snorbelle, Isn’t it amazing how quickly they heal, and a compound fracture at that! You did a very impressive job! The only thing I know for certain about molting in crows is that it occurs following the breeding season (roughly July-give or take a month) and takes about 3-4 months. Crows don’t start breeding until around 3 years of age, I have no idea about molts prior to that age. I can tell you that illness and injury can disrupt a normal molting schedule quite a bit. You might call a local wildlife rescue about this, surely they can direct you to someone with this knowledge. What are your plans for him/her once the feathers have grown in? Patty

Patty
Snorbelle Gilbertson

I finally found that 14 days was sufficient to heal the compound fracture of the radius bone in a fledgling crow. Now I need to know when the feathers I had to clip to bandage the wound and splint the bone will molt and regrow. The bone seems to have healed perfectly. No I couldn’t just wrap the wing against the bird’s side because the baby crow doubled in size during the 14 days it’s wing was splinted.

Snorbelle Gilbertson
Patty

Hi Belle, You need to take your ringneck to the vet so they can do repair work on the beak, a cockatoo can do a lot of damage to a bird that small. They use dental bonding techniques that will close the hole to avoid infection and strengthen it so he can eat. The beak will not repair itself. It will have to grow out like a broken fingernail would, by which time, your bird may starve to death. Think of how painful it would be to have to chew something hard with your teeth broken. Offer soft foods or hand feeding formula till you get him to the vet. Patty

Patty
Snorbelle Gilbertson

How long does it take a radius bone to heal?

Snorbelle Gilbertson
Patty

It depends on the nature and severity of the break. This is a question for your avian vet. I hope you have seen one. I can tell you that birds heal quickly and that wing fractures can be mended with proper care.

Patty

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