Help!

[Purra]

One of my mallards got a flight feather stalk yanked, and it bled a lot. The stalk kind of hangs off the wing at a weird angle, and when he flaps his wings he'll only move that one a little then pull it back in. What should I do? I put styptic in and around it when I first saw it and it stopped most of the bleeding, but today he flapped and I got hit with a drop of blood, and the feathers around it are stained. The one that was yanked, the stalk is very visible and the feather looks really long, but the rest growing in on that wing I can just barely see the feather tips around the cut feathers.

Should I try to remove it or just leave it?

 

[Amiga]

Ouch!

I have not come across this before, wish I had some experience to offer. At this point, only some thoughts.

One is, I think you did well with the styptic. The other is, I would at least trim the feather down to within an inch of the skin to prevent it from flopping around so much and making it bleed more.

I hope someone who has seen this can chime in, I am guessing that finishing pulling the feather out may be the best thing to do but that is just an uneducated guess right now so don't, not on my recommendation.

I would also use something like Veterycin spray on the area once or twice a day, or perhaps a saline solution, just to keep infection risk down till it heals up.

 

[Purra]

I clipped the feather and jammed as much styptic as I could on/in it, but I think he's still bleeding. Also, he hates me now. I don't think I'll be able to catch him anymore.

 

[Purra]

Oookay, he managed to bleed through the styptic and there's blood just drenching his feathers and rolling off and I don't know what to do. I'm out of styptic, I don't think we have any corn starch. Help me please, somebody!

 

[Purra]

Okay well nevermind. My mom suggested flour so I tried that. Pretty much coated the end of his wing with it. So far it's staying pretty well, and no new blood.

 

[Amiga]

My goodness! I had to take care of some other things and was away from the computer. Glad you seem to have the bleeding under control. Mercy.

.... and even though I subscribed to this thread, I didn't get any email notices..... hmmm.