BQ head injury recovery--losing more feathers around face?

[TheWeeBee]

Hi all, I've been noticing that Bee, who recently suffered a pretty serious head injury which has since healed, is losing more of the small feathers around her eyes and sides of her face. Both of her ear holes are exposed.

I've noticed that she smells a bit mustier than her little brother, and it mostly smells that way around her balding head. Also, at the back of her head it looks as though there are lines of white crust forming around the base of some of her remaining head feathers. The top part is all grey (I'm assuming due to the injury, unless BQ's have a mix of grey and pink skin?). Could this just be new skin growing?

Again, appetite seems to be normal (she's pecking at some egg food now) and she likes to preen and hop around first thing in the morning. I'm used to dealing with budgie injuries, and have never seen this sort of peripheral feather loss before.

 

[jbobs]

Lots of possibilities there. If the head injury was treated, what was it treated with? How long ago did the injury occur and about how long has it been healed? Are there other birds in with her or is she by herself? When was the last time she moulted?

Possibilities that come to mind just by looking at the photos include external parasites, fungal infection, topical drug reactions... a vet's office could do skin scarpings and dermatophyte testing to check for parasites and fungus, other than that if it were mine I would treat with this stuff I have called Hagen Bird Bath - it's a pyrethrin-type parasite spray that comes out like mousse and you can wipe it on a bird's feathers and it will get rid of lice and mites. If that doesn't improve it in a few weeks i would wonder about fungal infection. You would have to ask a vet who treats birds what products are safe for use in birds, I'm not an expert as fr as that goes but a triple cream of some kind might work - not sure if it's safe though. Was the bird treated with hydrocortisone cream at any point? I know that corticosteriods can cause hairloss and delay re-growth of hair in mammals.

If you find out anything or try anything let me know - ailents and treatments in birds is something I am trying to learn a lot more about as a vet tech since we don't cover a lot of bird stuff in school.

 

[TheWeeBee]

Hi jbobs! She was treated 2 1/3 weeks ago and has been kept by herself the entire time, The boink injury at the back of her head was not infected, but the surrounding tissue had turned necrotic and was trimmed away prior to suturing. The only treatment was a topical antibiotic ointment. No hydrocortizone or oral antibiotics. The sutures were removed last Wednesday.

 

[TheWeeBee]

UPDATE: The white crust I'm seeing definitely looks like dried/dead skin, and it's only on a couple rows of her head feathers. It looks like she's dropped a few more feathers around her cheeks, but I think I can see the tips of pin feathers starting to poke up from the top of her head. I've found several of her underbody feathers in her tank, so perhaps she's moulting. I hope that's all it is!

 

[jbobs]

I was thinking that the sutures and the injury itself might be very itchy and she might be scratching a bit too which may cause some feathers to fall out. I have seen this happen with my chickens sometimes but because they were just laying hens and not pets I didn't think much of it. maybe it just needs some time!

 

[TwoCrows]

Thanks for the updates on the "Bee"! I have been tuning in and I am sorry Bee is having so much trouble. I hope it works itself out soon.