# Blood Feather



## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

Hello, and I really do apologize for being such a newbie at birds.

My dove has a blood feather that snapped and was bleeding. I pulled out the entire quill of the feather and now more blood is coming out. Will She be okay? I thought when blood feathers break, they should be pulled out to stop further bleeding. I heard this somewhere before so I proceeded with that. 

Did I do the right thing? And will she be okay?


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

She will be ok, but you did the wrong thing. Pulling out a blood feather is like pulling out your finger nail, that had to hurt. Next time this happens just pinch it closed for a while so it will stop bleeding..
Dave


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

Dab some flour onto the bleeding area. This will help the blood clot & seal the "leak".
When the flour hardens, DO NOT pick it off, let it come off naturally when the bird bathes or preens.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Quazar said:


> Dab some flour onto the bleeding area. This will help the blood clot & seal the "leak".
> When the flour hardens, DO NOT pick it off, let it come off naturally when the bird bathes or preens.



This............


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Pulling it was the right thing to do. If you leave it in, it will usually get bumped and start bleeding again. Just pull it out in the same direction that it is growing, then apply blood stop or similar to the site of bleeding. It will stop it. But yes, you did right by taking it out.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

I always pull broken blood feathers too. I made the mistake of not pulling one once...I thought the bleeding was stopped. The pigeon apparently did bump it again, it started bleeding and the poor thing lost a lot of blood by the time I realized what had happened.I'll not make that mistake again.


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## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

Quazar said:


> Dab some flour onto the bleeding area. This will help the blood clot & seal the "leak".
> When the flour hardens, DO NOT pick it off, let it come off naturally when the bird bathes or preens.


I'll make sure to apply it next time, thank you  
She is doing fine now and the wound seems fine now that there is no more bleeding.


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## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

Jay3 said:


> Pulling it was the right thing to do. If you leave it in, it will usually get bumped and start bleeding again. Just pull it out in the same direction that it is growing, then apply blood stop or similar to the site of bleeding. It will stop it. But yes, you did right by taking it out.


I never knew that could happen.. Thank you for the advice though, and I'm content to know that this was okay.


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## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

Charis said:


> I always pull broken blood feathers too. I made the mistake of not pulling one once...I thought the bleeding was stopped. The pigeon apparently did bump it again, it started bleeding and the poor thing lost a lot of blood by the time I realized what had happened.I'll not make that mistake again.


Well I see now that if I hadn't pull it out, I probably would have ran into what you are telling me. There is always a lesson learned. Thank you!


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