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Why do my birds feathers look so bad?

About three or four months ago we got his wings clipped and someone did an awfully messy job, it looked like they used very blunt scissors.

since then he's had two blood feathers bleeding and his feathers are just looking worse and worse.

I was thinking that since i can see new feathers growing in the bad clipping combined with the new growth might be mucking each other about or irritating him a little?

we took him to the vet for both of the blood feathers and he did comment on the bad clipping and said that might be the case, but i thought since it was such a long time ago they would have looked a bit better by now.

from what ive seen he doesnt have a problem with excessive grooming or picking though he does groom often.
he's about 2-3 years old

Also should i help him clean this leftover blood out with some warm water? i know im not supposed to use soap.
He's had a few baths since the last bleeding incident but there still seems to be a lot stuck in there.

I can take and attach more photos if needed.

help would be much appreciated. hes my baby and i dont want him to be unhappy

Oh you poor things! That must be traumatic!

Have you seen a specialist avian vet? It really isn't worth wasting your money on a regular vet, as they have very little knowledge about birds.
Btw washing the bird may stop the blood from clotting (and stay clotted).

Best of luck with it.

Yes the vet we went to has been trained for birds.
Even if the bleeding was over two weeks ago is it still not a good idea to clean him?

Maybe my eyes aren't very good, it kind of looks like some of those feathers have been bleeding recently to me.
When did you last go to the vet? I'm very surprised that your vet wasn't overly concerned about the state of those wings. I think there is a chance your bird is doing it himself, possibly as a result of discomfort as you suggested.

I really recommend going to a vet again. http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
What area of the world are you in? Someone here may be able to recommend a great vet.

My bf and I have just been through a major drama with one of our birds, he got baterial dermatitis on his chest and he started to pull out all the new feathers in that area. He needed antibiotics, antiinflammatories and a collar to stop him picking while the area and the skin biosy site healed. We actually had to take him to a couple different avian vets before we found the best solution.
Good avian vets are worth their weight in gold!

The last time we went to the vet was about a month ago and he hasnt had a any bleeding since then but there was a lot of blood matted into his feathers. Also the wings look a lot worse now than they did when we saw the vet.

They also look a little worse because he just had a bath. but basically a lot of his feathers are looking crooked or broken/shredded.

The vet gave him a course of antibiotics when we went in the second time for the bleeding wing.

Is it possible that the matted blood could have been mucking up the new feathers that are growing?

I'm going to give him a thorough bath today to get rid of the rest of the blood.

For now if his wings dont get any worse, i'll wait till his new feathers grow in and the feathers that got stuffed up by the bad clipping are gone.

but if it gets worse we'll take him back to the vet.

Poor little guy! I would love it it you posted how the bath went and how the wings look now.

hashford wrote:the wings look a lot worse now than they did when we saw the vet.

This concerns me and I would be taking my bird to the vet again - even if it is the same vet to see what they have to say now.

Although I do not clip my birds, I have read that a bad clip can cause many problems and some are quite serious. It is my understanding that clipping with dull scissors is very bad and that birds often find the frayed/broken/split ends of the feathers irritating. This can lead to picking and feather destruction which just makes things worse. I also believe that the damaged feathers can negatively affect new feathers growing in.

If you go to the vet again, I would ask how many bad wing clippings they have seen? Have many looked like this? What can be the complications? What should you be looking for? What can you do to mitigate the problems? When would it be considered to anesthetize the bird and possibly pull the feathers? What complications could come of this?

Has your bird been clipped before? If not, he could be having problems with landing when he tries to fly? If he has been clipped before, this could still be a problem if the clip is more severe regardless of how badly it was done. I am not sure if a simply 'messy' clip could affect landing but it would not surprise me considering we are speaking of aerodynamics.

Below - Something to read - this was a great article - very complete and informative - what I copied was the section of feather regrowth on clipped wings versus normal regrowth.

source: http://www.greg-parrots.co.uk/articles.php
SHOULD MY PARROT’S WINGS BE CLIPPED?
by Greg Glendell
(Originally published in Parrots magazine, UK, 2008)

...Normal healthy birds will not moult more than 3 flight feathers from the wing at once. Large birds (with large flight feathers!) take much longer to grow each feather. It may take a large macaw or cockatoo more than 18 months to complete a moult. But a small parakeet may take no more than 3 months to complete the same process.

Now, when a clipped bird tries to re-grow its wing feathers by producing the new ‘blood’ feathers, these are liable to be damaged. This is because unlike the normal wing, a clipped wing does not have adjacent old, full-length feathers to give the new blood feathers any protection during their very delicate growth stage. Bleeding can be profuse if such a feather is damaged. Birds which do not show any behavioural problems at the time of clipping often develop problems later at this stage. They start to pick at the new unprotected feathers and this may prevent proper re-growth of all clipped feathers. If your bird is clipped, it is best to restore flight immediately by having donor feathers attached to the clipped feather stumps. This procedure is called imping and can be carried out by an avian vet. I can supply donor flight feathers for most ‘pet’ parrot species to vets for imping. The bird should of course also be trained to fly to and from you, and to and from other familiar places on a verbal request from you. The bird should of course also be trained to fly to and from you, and to and from other familiar places on a verbal request from you.

Hello hashford,

There is some wonderful information here! Would you be so kind my friend to add another photo with dry wings? Did you give your bird a bath?

Best Wishes,

IMRAN-C

HMMM...disappointed no other info...Let's hope the bird got over the bad clip and all is now fine.

maybe he didnt like the replies

get that bird on a collar immediately. then maybe he has a chance..or he is doomed to suffer for a long time.
only an accomplished avian vet will do.