Damaged blood feather

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CMV

CMV

Flock Mistress
10 Years
Apr 15, 2009
6,770
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I have been having long standing issues with feather picking which have mostly been resolved. My birds are finally starting to feather in nicely which is a nice change from looking at bald chickens for the past year. I left for the day today and came back to some more feather damage. Unfortunately, the damage was to some blood feathers, and they are bleeding enough that they need to be addressed.

One bird has a damaged blood feather near her oil gland which I intend to pluck out tomorrow if it hasn't stopped leaking by then. She has been Blukoted, and should be okay until then. The other bird has a damaged main primary feather. I am dreading having to pluck this feather because I know how firmly attached it is going to be. This is going to be hell on both Ariel (the bird in question) and me. I've been contemplating how to deal with it, and I thought about cauterization instead of plucking since I have a soldering iron at my disposal.

Has anyone ever tried cauterization on a blood feather? Does it work? Any input would be greatly appreciated because I really don't want to yank this feather, but it is bleeding enough that I don't want to leave it until morning. I will pull it if I have to, but I would prefer something a little less traumatic (as if burning my bird is less traumatic...).

Thanks everyone.
 
Crisis averted. Styptic gel finally worked on both birds. All is well and soldering iron has been shelved.
 
I dont know about a soldering iron, but I purchased some Styptic Swabs at a pharmacy to cauterize minor cuts, nicks and scrapes. Fortunately I've never had to use any. Maybe using 2 of them on a blood feather will stop the bleeding, dont know for sure. They come in a small plastic box and contain 12 swabs. It states on the plastic wrapper that they are better than a Styptic Pencil. I never knew they had them!
 
The styptic gel seemed to work...after a couple applications and some added pressure to the feather stubs. I had it laying around and forgot about it until the soldering iron was ready. At the last minute I was like, "OK. Am I ready to try scorching my bird? Is there any other alternative rather than pulling that primary? Oh my goodness... don't I have some styptic stuff around here? Yes... yes, I do." Thank goodness I remembered that stuff. Flour hadn't worked, and the bird was bleeding like a stuck pig (and you know how much they bleed, dawg53
wink.png
). All turned out well, fortunately.

I don't know why I am fussing over this bird so much. The irony is that this bird is one of the feather pickers. The reason she is damaged is because she is trying to inflict damage on the others and they are taking her to task for it. I have gotten rid of the worst culprits, but she won a reprieve based on otherwise stellar behavior. She tries to pick on the others and gets beaten for it, so I figure she can't do too much damage. I'm trying to save her tonight, but next week I may be putting her in the pot for picking. Ahhhh, the trials of poultry keeping.

Have a good night, all.
 

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