poochbabe

Ganesha has just started to get her flights back after two years of plucking all her wings and back feathers off or shredding them completely. Since we have started making her forage for all her food she has begun to feather in nicely but now she keeps trying to fly off the stand. She took a few tumbles recently and bruised her keel to point of drawing blood. I have stopped the bleeding right away with corn starch but she just shakes it off and is singing and happy and getting more confident with each day. I just covered the floor under her stand and living room day cage with the rubber kids gym mats and put many pillows and blankets everywhere around the cage in case she throws herself to the floor. She is so happy I don't want to take that sense of self confidence away by restricting her movements. She is going on three in Feb and just gets a bit freaky from time to time and have broken blood feathers as well. I am just so pleased that she is feeling this good after two years of neurotically plucking and shredding. She was also diagnosed with Inflammatory Skin Disease from a possible allergy and we will start to address that this next week when I talk to my vet again. I know I will have to make some changes in the house when she gets fully flighted, but after what she has been through in the past two years, it will be worth it to get her flying around like a real bird...

Ganesha loves Goji berry juice and camomile tea. She wants milk but instead I let her sneak some kefir.

I put it over poached eggs and scramble it in. Ganesha loves it that way but over veggies...she turns her beak up to it and won't go near it, even her sugar snap peas. BTW, I had the feather biopsy done and they detertmined she has inflammatory skin disease, which is mostly likely an allergic reaction to something. Antihistamines are the next step and I have made some big changes to her feeding habits. My vet is brilliant and told me no more free lunch for Ganesha. All her food is hidden and wrapped up so she has to forage for everything. She is really feathering in.

Thank you Dave. I thought I was losing my mind when I got the response. I had to go back and read my post to make sure I wasn't crazy. Clipping is what started this whole thing to begin with. Ganesha would NEVER need a glove. She is a snuggler and she steps up just fine. She is looking AMAZING in less than one week on the Avicalm and Featheriffic, btw. I don't know if it is coincidence but she is getting in pin feather at hyperspeed and her back and a good part of her tail is coming in as well. She has been flapping away trying to fly and singing, playing with toys, etc. This is best mood I have seen her in in a long time, although she is much more active and a bit hyper right now. Maybe it is the coming of Fall that is making her more comfortable or a hormone cycle but she started to improve right away with the two products. I put a mound on top of her Harrisons and almond/walnuts in the morning as well as put some in her spring water/Goji berry juice that she gets as a washdown in a syringe after her am and pm dose of Paxil. She has gotten a double dose for a week now and is looking so good I am afraid to jinx it.

That avatar was from a few weeks after I rescued her, 1 1/2 yrs ago. I will attach a recent photo with her new neck issues for comparison. She is a sweetheart, so loving and too smart! Before she even starts to pluck she says "I'll spray you" to tekk me she is going to so I will pay attention. My new task is to try to ignore her when she plucks or walk away to not reinforce this nasty habit. She was sold at 7 mos old and they wanted her clipped. When she got to a strange new home with new parents away from the only mommy she knew, the breeder and all the other Greys at the shop she freaked out and ripped all her butt and wings off to the skin. Needless to say, they returned her to the breeder who could no longer sell her so she was on the way to sanctuary at 10 mos old when I took her after having lost my beloved Grey to an oven liner poisoning. I have been working with her every since and my vet is great but she has now suggested a feather biopsy and I think it would be so intrusive. I just know it is emotional and maybe hormonal, since she did feather in almost completely when she first went on the Paxil, then did a big backslide. Thanks for you kind words...she is a doll and I adore her but I would love to see her body healed and her fly around a room just once in her life. Recent photo with neck feather issues Earlier photos before neck "molt" After a month or so on the Paxil, almost fully feathered (Ruben's memorial in the background)

Hello all...it has been some time since I have been able to be on the forum. I am still struggling with Ganesha's plucking problems and she has recently lost all the feathers around her neck but has a ton of pin feathers right underneath coming in. I wondered if is might be a molt rather than a pluck situation. She is scratching at them with her foot a lot but the large feathers came out whole with no shredding and the pins were right behind it. Any advice on that? I recently was on a bird forum where several people SWEAR by AviCalm and Featheriffic as good suppliments for their Greys and other birds with feather issues. Ganesha has spent over a year on Paxil with very little long lasting results and I would like to get her off the meds and on to something that is a bit more natural. Anyone know or had any experiences with these products.

And I read online that a parrot in England died of Avian Flu. So far no domestic or wild birds reports with Swine but....

I just heard on the news today that a cat and two ferrets were recently diagnosed with swine flu, one ferret died from it. Do you think it could show up in Greys since they, and all birds, are so prone to respiratory illnesses? I was invited to Thanksgiving at my boyfriend's sister's home and she and her daughter just got over swine flu. I was going to take Ganesha but I think I will leave her home to play it safe after this news. Any thoughts from anyone?

I know this was all an old post but I wanted to add my two cents in at this late date...Ganesha was 7 mos old and was sold by the breeder to a couple who wanted her clipped. Five days later they returned her bald and raw saying she was defective. I rescued her at 10 mos and she was a very sad, sad bird...extremely anxious and skiddish about any kind of abandonment, even for a few minutes. My vet is an angel and she is the vet for our local Avian Rescue. She really knows all birds but seems to have a great handle on Greys. She never makes you feel like it is a bad species or that you are a bad parent. She gives lots of great behavorial advise and handles the physical issues with compassion. She recommmends not clipping the wings on a young Grey. She thinks it can be what starts the problems; fear of not being able to fly and irritation due to the clip itself. The local animal emergency gave me a huge collar to put on her that would have prevented Nesh from even eating when I had to take her in at 2 am because a tail feather that was bleeding profusely and would not stop. Dr. Bloss, my avian vet, instead pulled a few shafts that support the tail and the upper flight feather in order to let those grow in stronger and healthier, she gave me anti inflammatory pain killers so when they start to grow she doesn't have as much pain and will leave them alone and put her on Paxil to ease the stress before even considering submitting her to a collar. She calls to follow up in a few weeks after every appointment and has me bring her in every so often without a medical appointment for a free "playtime" with the vet techs so she is not so stressed every time she needs to go to the vet. They even saved me all the empty syringe cases so she can play with them and I can stuff them with nuts and treats for foraging. She gave me info on foraging, playing with toys and diet issues, including no dye organic pellets and taking peanuts and sunflower seeds out of the diet. We talk about humidifiers and steaming. I got lucky with this vet and it is paying off. Check out my post on the Grey Lounge under Would a Second Grey help Ganesha and you will see the improvements with this treatment and this amazing vet. For anyone in the Milwaukee area she is at the Brook Falls Veterinary Clinic in Butler, WI. FYI, both of my Greys are/were CAGs and female. Both were bad pluckers, Rubin all of her 10 years.

This is what she looked like when I rescued her last February...before the vet put her on the Paxil.

Nesh and Rubin's Memorial

pooch and nesh

Ganesha's new pictures

After giving it some serious thought and listening to all of your advise, I am going to pass on the 2nd Grey. Ganesha doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with the cockatiels except to yell back and forth to them from the other room when they are chirping or singing. She has not expressed any interest in going near them or even getting closer when I hold her on my finger near to their closed cage. She might be as apathetic to a second Grey or get jealous if she got a lot less attention since the new Grey is a baby. I think I will wait for a while until she is older and is a bit more self confident. Our bonding has just really begun. Besides, I don't want to deplete my financial resourses which could be better used and might be needed for her.

I have a large cage in the bird room with the cockatiels and they have one large tower cage across the room from Ganesha's cage. I put in really good light blocking blinds so that I can keep the room as dark as possible until I am ready to wake everyone up in the morning. If it was a later night they get up later and visa versa...Ganesha will wake up anyway but she will just chill and eat her veggies or fruit until I come in and wake everyone. This way I can control the dawn/dusk and not depend on the time of year as much. The smaller cage is in the living room/dining room with the tv and stereo. She doesn't fly right now so she can't get too far even if she decides to explore. Every morning I get her up, give her a shower in the tub on her rope perch while I set up the living room cage for the day and then she spends the time I am working in the living room with the windows to outside the front of the house where there is more activity. The fish tank is there too so she can see them swimming around across the room so she has a lot of stimulation. It has really helped the plucking issue to have two rooms but she doesn't have to wake as early as I do to run my four dogs in the morning, 6:30ish. I am considering switching the cages and putting the larger cage in the living room where she spends more of her time but she seems happy as she is and I don't want to mess with success right now.