Well I had her looked at and was instructed to get a E-Collar for her which I did........she Screamed in horror when I put it on but both me and Becki were there petting and comforting her and she settled down fairly quickly and now shes sleeping THANK GOD...every time you blinked or turned around even if for a split second she'd tear at it again if not for the persistent dilligence on me and Becks part Rosie would probly not be here right now.......that being said Wishful and Janny the Vet liked both of your suggestions and suggested doing both for the remainder of the week with the collar on and if things don't improve or get worse bring her back in on Monday and we'll do something more drastic......and we have a multitude of aloe plants that are in the back yard and fresh he said that would be almost if not as good as what he could provide is natural and won't cost a dime the GSE and Epsom salt on the otherhand will but who cares

Courtney good luck this week getting Rosie all healed up. Now you and Becki get some rest after last night. Nancy

Hi Courtney. I am so relieved that you got Rosie in to the vet and she is stable, poor girl! Like Nancy said - get some rest. You'll be able to better deal with this situation and devise a game plan for Rosie's recovery when you're not so tired.

Good luck!

Annette

Oh Good I am so relieved everything is alright as can be.

Good Job!!!!! You are one good 'too family!!!!

Courtney, please let me know how it goes....I am going thru this same thing..I have a RB2 I adopted in Feb, she is not a mutilator but a scratcher. Her chest literally looks like road rash. She was completely bare on her chest when I adopted her, but has since then grew all her feathers back. She has not stopped the scratching though. I also have her in a E collar, but she has been collared every moment she is not with mer for 2 months straight now. SHe hates it and I know she is miserable but she scratches up her chest every chance she gets.
I have had her to the numerous times, everything always comes back fine and they say it is just something we both have to live with.
She had her wings cut in 04 for the 1st time, she would of been 5 then, she tried to fly and hit the floor damaging her keel bone and has been scractching away ever since non stop..
The vet reminds me to be thankful she is not mutilating, however she still draws blood on herself when she can with the scratching..

Tammy thats odd I wonder if maybe hitting herself like that cause a little undectectable bone spurr that causes irritation or itching seems odd she started it only after that incident happened......I've decided as soon as $$$$ permits again barring having to take her back on Monday hopefully that isn't necessary..that I want to get a full work up done blood tests the works to find out if theres anything else at all that could be going on Cause Rosie has never done this before she just started the constant chest preening and scratching about a month ago but it fit inline with her just being an over preener which isn't as bad as a plucker or self mutilator so I just figured that was her thing........but inlight of her causing such a severe injury to herself I can't help but wonder if theres more going on than is obvious on the surface.....Since Tuesday when this happened I have put her in her cage at all she stays in my room in Eye view of me and Becki for reassurance and comfort and so I can monitor her activities as they relate to her condition so we'll see how things progress........... but surely Theres gotta be something that can be done for your girl maybe make her one of those bird Jackets or sweaters or whatever they were called that someone on this site or maybe tailfeathersnetwork.com made that would just shield her chest from her beak so that maybe you could offset the need for the collar and make her life more enjoyable????....... I know with Rosie it's like flipping a switch the second that thing goes on my Rosie goes away and this nuerotic depressed bird appears all subdued and quiet no sounds no nothing just standing there hanging her head down which breaks my heart but it's necessaty...on the upside though in just the time I had it on her yesterday while I recovered from a nearly 20 hour non stop vigil on her when I took it off to allow her to eat and drink she didn't hurt herself she did start on several ocassions attempting to preen the blood out of her feathers but I ain taking any chances so I used a diversion tactic of***(I know ordinarily this is frowned upon but theres extenuating circumstances folks)***Scratching under her wings and on her back between her shoulder blades briefly which once I stopped a minute later would cause her to redirect her preening attention to her Back which she doesn't injure........anyway theres gotta be an answer for your little girl theres just got to be

Rosie is up to it again the Vets said she will have to resort to a more drastic measure because plan A. hasn't worked so we're back to Square 1...I discovered the secret to getting her to eat the Zupreem she wants the regular pellets not the fruit blend and,She wants water added to it no biggie there......she is still far from eating healthy though so I've got to work with her on that. But right now the top priority it keeping her alive

Courtney I'm so sorry to hear that plan A hasn't worked with Rosie. Best of luck to all of you in finding an answer to her discomfort.
For all the new too and bird owners this is a good example to show the benefits of getting pet insurance. Vet bills can mount so quickly with illness/injury in our birds. After last winter with Cassie $1000 just for a well visit, dislocated toe and sinus infection over the course of three months we got insurance on her. Cost us around $275 for the year, we got the extended which covers some routine care also. Just got a check from them for $14 for beak and nail trim.
Nancy

nb: avian pet insurance is not available in Canada...

Are you able to work out a payment plan with your vet? That's what we had to do when Bill was sick and needed surgery and months of medications and weekly check-ups. The vet simply got 5billion post dated cheques and the promise of my firstborn and we were good to go. Perhaps if you were really honest with her/him, they would be willing to make it work.

people have had some success with the jacket. Like you did by inappropriately touching your bird. The jacket may interrupt the behavior and discontinue it.

Our birds are very OCD by interrupting the behavior and taking away the site of the wound it may work. Its worked in the past. Do a search on here on how to much a jacket out of a T shirt and give it a shot it may work.

check these out

http://www.mytoos.com/forum/ubbthreads.p...true#Post158655

http://www.mytoos.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=2&Number=156534&Searchpage=1&Main=2668&Words=t+shirt&topic=0&Search=true#Post156534

re: vet bill.

I very much agree with spinnyspoo.
With everything we've just gone through with Luna, our bill was very high.
But they are letting us pay it off little by little.
Most vets are very good about this.
So I would at least ask them

ok Everyone I need help with Miss difficult again we went to a different avian vet today and they were going to fabricate a custom neck collar but Miss thing is too thick necked for it to work she says she doesn't know how to stop her she gave us a number to a lady that successfully created her own collar with some sort of thick leather but in either case what I need is a clear cut pattern for making one of those T-shirts you guys mentioned it seems like our best bet at this point any front side and back pictures aswell would help we're planning on buying a dollar store baseball cap and cutting the tip off and then sectioning off a piece and cutting it to shape and sowing it in to the t-shirt fabric

my only reservation is with the destructive ability of that mouth would she just bite the holding straps in half and be done with it??? is there an alternative more beak resistant material that could be supplemented for the straps in place of the T-shirt

This may help with our two Goffins. I have tried to make vests for one, but she shreds them, and I need better fabric.

Recently, our second too, Brandy, started the rubbing the beak on the chest and chewing her chest feathers thing, and I think in addition to giving her more vitamins (I'll try to find the link)
putting a vest on her might help.
Thanks for the links, Ketrel. Parrots are very complicated.

By the way, I have used Neosporin on birds' wounds, small ones.

Here is the first thread I viewed, and the excerpt about the
food and supplements is good info.

http://www.mytoos.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=156967

I recently cooked them a sweet potato after forgetting it for many months, and our first Goffin, Bubo and her buddy, Amazon Keikoa,
ate a lot!

Unfortunately, the others weren't interested except our Lilac Crown.
Our other plucker, our B&G, wouldn't eat much, and she usually tries everything.