Surely I did not hear that!  But I did. “Doctor, Ms Used 2B Client is on the phone and wants to come in.  She says that The Other Vet Clinic (TOVC) cut her bird’s tongue off and it is bleeding everywhere.”

I took a deep breath.  I didn’t need this. We are already short staffed and appointments are stacked on a Saturday morning, but a bleeding bird can die and she and her birds are good folks.  Austin and I worked through the appointments and were caught up by the time that Mattie arrived. But it wasn’t just Mattie!

Layla is the only hawks head parrot that I have seen outside of Australia. But I had no time to appreciate her beauty as I evaluated the situation.  Blood was everywhere in her carrier.  I hoped that it had been splattered from Mattie, but the pattern was obviously from the inside of the carrier. Her mom said that she had been so focused on Mattie that she hadn’t realized that Layla was also bleeding until after she had called us. Layla was bleeding significantly.  About half of the cage had blood soaked into the wood. I suspected that Layla was in better shape than Mattie, but I knew that I could save Layla.  I wasn’t sure the sulfur-crested cockatoo would survive.  And the hawks head had a significant amount of blood loss and was in danger also.

Austin got out Layla with a towel.  In addition to a toenail that was dripping blood where it had been cut too short, several pin feathers had been torn from her wings.  I suspect that whoever handled her had been afraid of her and had used leather gloves.  Leather gloves are not allowed to be used on pet birds at Guardian Animal Medical Center. When you are wearing leather gloves to handle birds, you cannot feel the bird.  It is easy to compress the chest and thereby suffocate the bird.  I’m certain the other staff did not mean to rip feathers out of Layla, but because they couldn’t feel through the gloves, they did.  Regardless, we quickly had Layla’s toe cauterized to stop the bleeding and I finished pulling the pin feathers that were broken. We gave her subcutaneous fluids to combat the blood loss. I did note before we put her back in the carrier, that Layla still needed a nail trim.

As we were working on Layla, the rest of the story came out.  Ms Client had taken the birds to TOVC because it was closer and the head doctor was a family friend. She had known that birds should never have their beaks clipped because of the danger of splitting beaks back into the skull. It is not a good idea to do the toes either because they are more likely to bleed.  Small birds don’t have a large volume of blood and it doesn’t take much blood loss before they are critical. She asked the clinic if they used a dremel and was told they did. 

Regardless, Mattie was in bad shape.  There were significant blood clots in the floor of the carrier and the owner said Mattie had been gurgling on the way to GAMC. Mattie used to like me, but today she wanted nothing to do with me.  That was okay, we have safe chemical restraint and soon she was sleeping peacefully.  Sure enough, the owner was correct.  The tongue had a notch cut out of it. While I was getting Mattie under anesthesia, Austin called the clinic to see what had happened. They were unaware that they had cut the tongue, but said they had clipped the beak too short and had used silver nitrate to cauterize it. They said they did not have a dremel tool and always clipped beaks and nails with dog toenail clippers.  Austin had heard the owner and asked twice if this was true.  He tried very hard to remain professional.  I explained to him that the clinic may have a dremel tool, but the staff that did the beak trim may not know it. Typically weekends are not staffed as well as weekdays.  These staff members may have been doing the best they knew how to do. Austin was not impressed with my explanation and said he would never trim a beak with nail clippers and that I would skin him alive if he did something like that. Since he was correct, I wisely decided that Mattie was asleep enough to examine her tongue and see what I could do to fix it.

The tongue was dripping blood, but it pooled in the bottom beak and most was probably swallowed. I had just sutured a dog tongue that a groomer had sliced last week, but this did not look like it would hold sutures well.  Neither did it look like the silver nitrate sticks would actually work with this much bleeding and in the wet mouth. I decided to try the new clotting matrix that I had picked up at the last conference.  I had not used it in a bird before (it is easier to prevent problems than fix them), but it is made to use in the abdomen with military field trauma. I decided that it was something to try rather than let Mattie bleed to death. Days later I would remember that the sales rep had said we could use it for dental procedures. Overall, I have been really happy with this clotting agent.  I have used it on abdominal wounds and lacerations.  Now I have used it on a cockatoo tongue.  Even as good as it is, it took three applications to get the bleeding stopped.

Finally, I took a look at the rest of Mattie.  Mattie had a tear of her skin over her wing.  She could have done it in the induction chamber, but there was no blood in that area of the chamber. Her beak was amputated way too short.  And to top it off, she also still needed a toenail trim. But all of these things could be fixed later.  We gave Mattie fluids and some pain medicine and woke her up.  I went in to explain that Mattie would be staying for the weekend.  In addition to the fact that she had scared me half to death from her blood loss, I thought her beak might be sore enough not to eat for a few days.  Mattie would stay in the hospital. My weekend off disappeared as I came in to fill her crop with food twice a day for the next few days.

Monday, I called to talk with the doctor in charge.  He had not been working that Saturday and would not be able to get all of the facts until later. He promised me that he would get to the bottom of this.  He said that they did have a dremel tool, but he didn’t like birds anyway.  While he did offer to pay, I declined his payment as a professional courtesy.  Although I would testify as an expert in court that clipping beaks with nail trimmers is malpractice, I feel like vets give their all to clients and I will not throw another vet under the bus.  Well, not if he learns from this time.  I feel strongly that quick, easy and profitable is not right unless it is okay all of the time for the animal. Hopefully, TOVC learned this.

I think the owner learned that not all vets are created equal.  I have a lot of extra training to see exotics and especially birds. Even routine care for birds is not simple. And simple things can easily go wrong.

So for me, I worked hard, came in extra and got nothing.  Well, except for this facebook post with a photo of the happy owner and cockatoo from my exam room. “So happy to be able to bring this baby home... she was even talking some on the ride home. Thank you so much to Guardian Animal Medical Center and Dr. Wixsom for the awesome care. No doubt in my mind that you saved her life.”

Yeah, that is pretty awesome and so was the next day’s food gift basket! Maybe I did need this.

Dr. MJ Wixsom owns and practices at Guardian Animal Medical Center on Bellefonte Road in Flatwoods.  606.928.6566 and online at www.GuardianAnimal.com