Wing problem

by Peter Marquez
(Ormond Beach, FL)

Hello I have an 11 year old african gray we moved from Connecticut to Florida 6yrs ago. Ever since we've been here our bird gets ingrown feathers or cysts, thats what other vets have told us. For about 4 years he had several per day. I would look through his feathers and found them and removed them. They would only be on his wings.

Because of the cysts he would get a lot of puss and it irritated the skin on his body and eventually the skin became extremely raw. It would scab, but never fully heal. The puss would get on his other feathers and irritate his other feathers.

I brought him to a vet in Jacksonville and another in Daytona.I spent a lot of money on vet bills and medications. The cysts don't happen as often now, actually maybe one every 5 months and under one wing it is completely healed and feathers have grown back. However under the other wing he still has puss scabbing but we don't find any cysts and the skin is still irritated.

The vets did blood tests and everything was fine. One vet wanted to operate on him to look at the inside of the wing, but I was advised by another vet that I shouldnt have that done. Also at that point I became unemployed so an operation was not an option for me. The vet gave me a topical cream but that is not helping. He eats well. He does not pick his feathers. He is a happy bird. He talks and plays. He poops regularly. Our issue is the constant puss and irriation underneath that second wing. Do you have any ideas?