Bad News For Sir Dusty

[FoxersArtist]

If you have been following my updates on Rose Breasted Cockatoo, Sir Dusty, you may know that the little fellow has been increasing some unusual and potentially very harmful behaviors which include him falling to the ground while biting the flesh of his wing while spinning in circles. We have discovered that while this mutilation behavior was something he was doing before, it had been in moderation. Now that we have been ignoring sir Dusty's other negative behavior, he feels he must really crank up the volume to get our attention by making his situation even more dramatic. The past few days, Dusty has been doing this biting behavior frequently. In his cage, outside of his cage and with force. He is covered in blood and in pain. I tried to design and outfit him into a sock that would keep him from being able to open his wings to bite them, but he flailed until each sock outfit was off of him. I'm afraid that if I use a tighter sock, he won't be able to breath without struggle.

Yesterday Dusty's parents came to visit and he was a gentleman with them as he always is. He stepped right up and accepted over an hour of petting and cuddling without even a small sign that he was going to panic. Unfortunately they and I both know this tolerance he has for them is short lived because when he lived with them, his tantrums were terrible. As soon as they got ready to leave, he started one of his fits which lasted about 15 minutes until i could talk him into staying on his newly accepted perch in the kitchen. Today he started throwing his tantrums just as soon as my kids got up and came out into the livingroom and then again when i returned home from taking the kids to their sitter. He flopped around biting himself for at least 20 minutes and I did what I could to ignore the behavior, seeing as he has started biting himself no matter where I put him. I think his best hope is to be completely ignored at this point. Within half a minute of Dusty stopping his fit, I zoomed over to his cage and started praising him for being such a quiet and good boy. He has been loving and cooperative ever since that interaction.

Dusty is going to the vet in just a short while to be evaluated. He is covered in wounds and is on antibiotics and pain killers. We are crossing our fingers that he has not damaged himself as bad as he looks and are also hoping that this new behavior is just a short phase and that Dusty will once again pull out of it while continuing to accept new "norms" for his life.

Dusty after his fit this morning. The blood on his head is from all of the wounds on his wing.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/BloodyFace.jpg
-Anna

[birdie]

Anna~ does he seem to get worse after a good visit with his owners? I know his visits seem to go well, but just wondering if the next day they trigger something else in him.

[too&me]

That poor guy has such a driven personality and triggers very quickly. I am hoping that the substitute behaviors come into play more frequently.

[FoxersArtist]

We just got back from the vets. Not so good news for mister Dusty. I toweled him on Sunday to examine him and see the damage he had done after his first mulilating session and although there were a few spots where he had gotten to the flesh of his wing, most of the damage was seen in mangled blood feathers. Yesterday he threw at least 3 of these mutilating tantrums and two today before I got him to the vet. He has torn all the skin off the the insides of both wings and the damage is extensive. The vet mentioned that even on the pain killers I am giving him, he must be in incredible pain. Most of the blood feathers he still had on sunday have been chewed down into little nubs and we opted to leave them that way for Dusty's safety. If we were to pull the feathers, Dusty would have to be put out and the procedure would have to be surgical due to the extent of the damage. We discussed the possibilities of Dusty having seizures and I showed her the video I showed all of you of dusty flopping about. She said that though it looked like a seizure it was impossible to tell what was behavioral and what was not. She said that if it was a seizure, it wasn't the kind that could be detected with bloodwork - it happens because he gets too wound up. Still, I watched him quietly and calmly climb down, walk to the center of the floor of his cage and just start systematically rolling and biting. I told her about that and she agreed that it likely would have occured suddenly or the bird would have been disoriented before the event. Just one week ago dusty had almost an entire set of primaries back on both sides and his tail feathers were starting to grow in. All the blood on his crest had finally faded. It's amazing how suddenly things can change.

We opted to put Dusty under heavy sedation with narcotics for the next week to two weeks to allow the trauma on his wings to heal and to discourage him from throwing any more tantrums until they heal. The vet is ordering some special medication for us to use until we can get dusty over this mutilation hump - she didn't know which one yet, but thought maybe an anti seizure/mood stabilizing drug (used to treat bipolar and other mood disorders in humans) might work better than the prozac Dusty was on when he arrived. We agreed that Dusty would likely break his neck in a collar and my vet thought he would still be able to reach his wings anyway. I told her about my adventures with the sock and she didn't think anything like that could be kept on him. We talked about what to do after dusty heals and agreed that since what we were doing with dusty behaviorally before seemed to have such a dramatic impact positively, up until he snapped, that it would make sense to start over with training. I worry that his training was too fast paced for him to handle, but we tried to take ques from him as far as when things should change and when they should stay the same, so I'll have to chew on that for a while.

Please pray that the drugs work to keep Dusty calm and quiet and that they help to take away a lot of the pain he must be experiencing. I'll keep everyone updated as things need updating.
-Anna

[FoxersArtist]

Brenda,
this is something that I wondered about Sir Dusty's family visits as well. I thought I saw some corrilation between his parents coming and him acting up more than usual the next day. I am still not convinced as the strongest corrilation seems to be with Sir Dusty just having too much energy. If I skip a day with him, he may be fine for the day but the next day he's a wreck. There does seem to be a worse than average rate for Dusty the day after his parents come as far as the frequency of his tantrums, but not how intense they will be.
-Anna
Anna~ does he seem to get worse after a good visit with his owners? I know his visits seem to go well, but just wondering if the next day they trigger something else in him.

[Patty, Linus and Co.]

You know how they say "sometimes things have to get worse before they get better"? Maybe this is a perfect example of that. With his behavior worsening, it seems like he might accidentally show you what is wrong and to what extent. Perhaps there is no other way to find out the true nature of his problems.

[Macaw Lover]

It almost sounds like Dusty needs an electroencephalogram done to record the brain waves when this happens as it seems to be not likely a seizure as he seems to have control (to a certain extent) of when he does it as you have been able to interrupt them by your methods of having him step up, etc.

You want to question if he is having some sort of muscle/nerve pain which is so bad that he is mutilating himself trying to get it to stop but there again, you are able to control/stop the cycle some Anna so that does not seem to be the case.

Where is Dr House when you need him, if only he could figure out the diagnosis.

[FoxersArtist]

My mind has been running tonight...

Part of my job is accepting that things will be what they will be. ultimately, I do not have the ability to be in control of another creature, or things that may go wrong. i can just do my best. I have been milling over this situation all evening, trying to talk myself out of thinking about the blame I could put on myself for this sudden turn in Dusty's rehab as this is obviously not the way I wanted this story to go. I even had a friend tonight, who was worried about how dusty was impacting me, so she threatened to tell his owners how anxious he has been making me so they would come get him. My first thought of course was - who wouldn't be seriously anxious working with this bird? I think I do a pretty good job of not showing it while working with him, though I would be lying if I said he wasn't having an impact on me. In the past I would have crumbled over such a threat but I have come to a special place of understanding that things happen just because they do and there is nothing I can do about it. If Sir Dusty's parents decide they want him back tomorrow, then I can give him back with confidence in knowing that I did the best I could. I can also know that my friend was trying to look out for my wellbeing, regardless of whether I agree with the reaction or not. I have come to a place of peace tonight in realizing that perhaps my higher power knew that I needed a little break to step back from the very nerve wracking situation and it is clear and obvious that the parrot needed a break. Blessings can hide in even the most grim of places.

-Anna

[too&me]

I am hoping the healing that will take place may relive some of that stress on you both. What ever happens it sounds like you know it is not all in your hands, learning that is a huge step. It ook me years to get there. Hugs and hoping for the very best relief for his pain and healing for both his mind and body.

[Julie]

So much love goes into the care for these amazing creatures, and it is so hard to deal with the stress and anxiety associated with a bird that has little to no self preservation. Take deep calming breaths Anna, and know that you are making a positive difference and doing all you can to make life a better place to be.

[iti hoa's mom]

Not all things can be fixed. Anyone doing any type of care taking understands this. We don't know everything.

To continue what you do you must remain healthy and it sounds like a friend had some insight for you. A friend mentioned to me as I commented about not having some insight that if we did we would become islands unto ourselves and not need others.

{{{{Anna}}}} an old fashion hug