Post by Pinot Grigio on Mar 31, 2016 9:55:04 GMT -5
My Quaker is 13 years old and is basically healthy. For the last 6 months he has been scratching his face to the point of bleeding. We have been to the vet over 5 times and they ran many tests on him, but could not find anything wrong. He was put in a bird collar and given medicine. It always clears up, but once we take the collar off, it returns again after about 1-2 weeks and it's back in the collar and medicine. We tried removing different things from his cage and even bought a new cage, but it still comes back. We take him to our summer home and it hasn't happened there...but he isn't as active there as it takes him a while to adjust. Does anyone have any feedback??? He gets so depressed when we have to put the collar back on, but of course we don't want it to get infected. He is otherwise healthy and eats good, talks and is happy (until the collar goes back on) Thanks for any insight as the vet can't figure it out.
It could be that there was originally a physical cause for it, and now it is a habit. If he sees you respond when he does it, that would reinforce it. My advice would be, if your vet is not certified avian, try finding one who is, or ask yours for a referral. Unless birds are a significant part of their practice, they are just not as able to recognize things that may be readily apparent to one who is certified.
