News Stories

Willow's story

December 2011

We first met Willow, a 2 year old umbrella cockatoo when she was presented with every parrot owner's worst nightmare - feather plucking/picking that had very quickly progressed to traumatizing the skin of her chest and wings. (Fig. 1)

This is a very serious state of affairs that if not dealt with immediately can result in life threatening injury and infection. Generally such behaviour reflects underlying anxiety of some sort and is actually a way of self medication as ironically when a bird damages feathers or even skin 'feel good' chemicals are released into the brain, essentially helping the bird to 'cope'.

The problem we face is actually identifying the source of anxiety, as this can range from (1) physical diseases e.g. nutritional deficiencies, pain, skin, cardio respiratory, gastrointestinal or neurological disease, or (2) a variety of behavioural or psychological issues including separation anxiety, fear, inappropriate bonding in hand reared birds or lack of mental stimulation in these incredibly intelligent creatures.

As such, we approach these challenging cases in a methodical fashion and treat them as a 'sick' bird until proven otherwise. Together with a detailed clinical and behavioural history a number of diagnostics tools are utilized in an attempt to pinpoint and address as many underlying factors as possible. X rays evaluate the skeleton for any painful focus (arthritis, fractures) or presence of metal foreign bodies, bloodwork to identify infectious causes and endoscopy to view the internal organs to rule out systemic disease and assess the state of the reproductive tract.

Given the rapid deterioration Willow was admitted immediately for testing and to apply a collar in the short term to prevent further trauma. X rays (Fig. 2) revealed a metallic object in the stomach (heavy metal e.g. zinc toxicity can induce such behaviour) but thankfully bloodwork proved this to be non toxic. It also ruled out other infectious diseases including Macaw wasting/provenrtricular dilatation disease and beak and feather virus (both of which have been implicated in self trauma behaviour).The only other abnormality was that on endoscopy she had a very well developed ovary consistent with breeding activity which was unusual for such a young bird (Fig. 3). Hand reared or 'human imprinted' birds when sexually mature can develop an extremely tight bond with a chosen 'human' mate, and 'need' to be with them 24/7. In the wild that isn't a problem as paired birds sleep, preen and forage together all day however in the 'real world' it is difficult if not impossible for the human mate to meet these needs. As such this can result in profound anxieties if the human mate is away for prolonged periods or 'interacts' with other birds/humans which I suppose to them is a bit like watching their mate have an affair!!
This is always more pronounced during the breeding season under the influence of reproductive hormones. With another cockatoo in the house we wondered if now she was sexually mature this was becoming an instigating factor.
As such we decided to insert a slow release hormone implant under the skin which would 'switch off the ovary' and therefore any hormone driven behaviour. The wounds were cleaned up and lightweight acrylic collar applied to prevent further trauma as we attempted to deal with the underlying causes. (Fig. 4) She tolerated the collar very well and with the aid of antibiotics and pain killers the wounds soon healed over. The owner worked very hard with her to encourage 'foraging behaviour' with a host of toys and homemade devices that made her work for her food that in effect enriched her environment and allowed her to focus her energies on more constructive behaviours. This in conjunction with the calming of her hormonal driven behaviours resulted in a gradual reduction in attempted self trauma to a point the collar was removed 1 month later. Willow is now (6 months later) fully feathered and a very happy contented pet bird thanks to the owner's quick actions, veterinary intervention to identify and address causal factors and continued dedication on behalf of the owner to fill her day with activities that allow her to exercise and express her innate parrot behaviours. (Fig. 5)

If you have any queries regarding feather picking/plucking behaviour please do not hesitate to contact us at the practice for advice.