Quaker Mutilation Syndrome Anyone have any *personal experience* dealing with a mutilating quaker?
I am horrified...my beloved Captain has started mutilating... She's always been a seasonal plucker of her neck. She's always hated water... 2 nights ago I let her out, and she flew to Ricky's playstand. I'd forgotten to pull the water dish, and Captain jumped in and bathed in not so clean water. I tried to rinse her off, mist her or get her to take a real bath, to no avail...she's flighted so she pretty much does what she wants.
Last night when I did food/water dishes she was fine...she did not get out of
cage last night. Today I walked in to find her plucked -badly plucked, and bleeding a bit. I took her outside (in a cage!) and misted the heck out of her.
I checked the feathers at the bottom of her cage, and they had what looked like pellet dust stuck to them. I figured the dirty water had irritated her skin/feathers, and that a soaking shower would help.
Brought her back in, and she was so wet she could not fly...cleaned her cage, stuck her back in it.
An hour later when I took her out she had two very large (for a quaker) holes in her skin...My best guess is that since there were no feathers there to
rip out, she ripped the skin out instead.
She will be going to the vet as soon as I can get her in. No changes to her cage...her routine was upset 5 weeks ago when my 90 yr old MIL got stuck for 24 hrs in her bathtub in assisted living (yes...it took 24 hrs before they found her), and once out of the hospital and in a nursing home she broke her hip... That has taken up a tremendous amount of my time, but I've taken the past 2 weeks off from "MIL duty"... We added a new grey, but I can't imagine that stressing my Captain out... Given that her normal routine was turned upside down 5 weeks ago, I can't imagine one day of no out of cage
would cause her to do this.
My initial reaction was she plucked all those feathers because they had dirt on them..why that bird would decide to bathe is beyond me, especially in dirty water...
Anyway...if anyone has personal experience w/ this, I'd like to hear about it.
I have plenty of online articles to read....
thanks
Wendy |