Why I Had To Resort To A Bird Collar

Have you ever needed a bird collar for your bird? This could happen for many reasons, like feather plucking, picking on a wound, etc.

I, unfortunately, had the misfortune to have to resort to a bird collar for the first time for my bare-eyed Goffin cockatoo and it has been a very traumatic two weeks for both of us.

Why I Had To Resort To A Bird Collar

Two weeks ago when I uncovered my bird on Sunday morning, I was shocked to discover that he was covered in blood. On further inspection, I saw that the back toe on his right foot was completely off, and unfortunately, he was chewing on his foot making the damage even worse.

So I quickly bundled him up in a towel and my husband drove me to the nearest ‘open’ vet. This was extremely hard to find on a Sunday, but luckily the one vet that was open seemed to know a lot about birds.

On inspection, he said that the bird must have gotten his claw hooked on something and chewed to get himself free. Then as the foot was sore and bleeding, he proceeded to carry on chewing. He said that birds always pick at areas on their body that are in pain, and thus self mutilate themselves in this manner.

Needless to say, I had to tearfully leave her at the vet so that he could construct a collar and repair the damage to her foot.

I fetched her on Thursday, and she was a very miserable bird.

She didn’t eat for a few days after being under anesthetic so she was extremely skinny and she just looked so defeated.

She kept holding onto the cage, so I can only presume her neck was getting tired of holding her head up.

It is amazing how these birds use their feet for everything, so now she couldn’t even hold her food to eat it.

She also looked very unkempt as she obviously hasn’t been able to preen herself for days.

I took her home and have been feeding her out of my hand ever since, and she is slowly perking up.

Unfortunately, the collar looks like it is going to stay on for a few weeks until the foot has healed fully, or she will just go back and start chewing again.

The collar was made of the film that they use to take X-rays with. The stapled it together and then used Elastoplast around all the edges to soften them.

The bird collar has lasted amazingly well and is still in tact and on her ten days later, even though she is constantly trying to find ways of getting out of it.

As you can see her back toe on her right foot is completely gone. She will have to learn to live without it now.

The worst part is trying to get her to take her antibiotics twice a day. I have had to try various food sources to hide it in, and sometimes she eats it all, but most times not.

I have tried Pronutro, egg, banana, and bread, and the Pronutro porridge has been the most successful so far.

Seeing the syringe just causes her to panic and she spits it all out.

The vet has also given me Devil’s Claw to put into her water, which luckily she is drinking a lot of. This is supposed to be a natural pain killer.

Needless to say, she is slowly getting used to the collar, although it does limit her a lot.

For instance, she can’t hold her food in her foot and eat it like she normally does. She also battles to climb onto another perch as she can’t see where to put her foot.

I have now placed one perch in between her food and water now and she stays there for the day, then at night I have a perch higher up in the cage for her to roost on and this seems to be working well for now.

Her stitches come out on Monday and then once the foot has fully recovered and she is putting all her weight on it again I can remove the collar.

Can One Buy Bird Collars?

I was quite amazed to find that there was an array of bird collars for sale online, and a whole lot more comfortable looking than the one Casper has to wear, but in case you need one in a hurry, it is always good to have one in the house for emergencies.

If you want to find out more about a collar, simply click on the pictures. These are affiliate links.

Casper is slowly getting more perky and is eating a lot better now, although I still have to hold the food in front of her as she can’t get to it easily with her bird collar.

Update:

I finally removed the collar at the end of January, and the first thing that she did was preen herself from top to toe.

She occasionally wants to bite her sore foot, but she is gentle and hasn’t made it worse. In fact the foot is now almost totally heeled and she is getting used to not having that extra toe on her right foot.