Pet Story -- Cookie the Mollucan Cockatoo

Cookie is a very friendly five year old Mollucan Cockatoo. She was presented for a condition called self-mutilation, in which an animal will cause harm to its own body. Cookie had apparently been chewing and plucking at her feathers for three weeks, but recently she had damaged the skin and underlying muscle of her chest. Cookie’s owners were very concerned because there was a penny-sized hole of muscle damage that extended almost to the breastbone. Cookie caused this damage to herself in only two day’s time!

Physical exam was normal with the exception of the tissue damage and feather plucking. The first thing we had to do was prevent Cookie from causing further damage to herself. Cookie was fashioned with an upside-down e-collar. This allowed her to eat, drink and resume normal activity, but it prevented her from causing further damage. Next, we cleaned and bandaged Cookie’s wound with a special bandage that helped promote healing. Unfortunately, wounds of this nature require a long time to heal. Sometimes, they even require surgical intervention. Another frustrating aspect of this disorder is that once the wound is healed and e-collar removed, some birds will resume self-mutilating. For these reasons, it is important to try and discover the underlying cause for this abnormal behavior. To help rule out medical causes of the problem, various blood tests and fecal analyses were performed. These tests reflected the damage caused by the self-mutilation, but did not point to any medical causes.

Since we did not find any underlying medical conditions, we began to investigate her lifestyle and environment. Cookie lives in a large iron and oak cage. Her diet consists of a pelleted food (no seed) and some fruits and vegetables. Cookie’s toys include ropes and swings. She does not receive showers or baths. Cookie is part of a family and spends several hours a day with her owners. The only major change in the household was that the owner was spending more time at work after having been on vacation.

Mollucan Cockatoos are believed to possess the intelligence of a two to three year old human. These birds also form a very strong attachment with their owners. Because of their great intelligence and sensitivity, behavioral problems can occur frequently in Mollucans if they do not receive enough environmental enrichment to keep their minds stimulated. Self-mutilation is believed to release endorphins (the body’s natural pain killer). Because of this release, self-mutilation can become an addiction. Thus, it is imperative that the psychological factors are dealt with as intensely as the medical causes.

Cookie’s wound was cleaned, debrided, dressed with Silver Sulfadiazine cream and bandaged every other day. Infected wounds do not heal very well, therefore, to prevent infection, she had to take an oral antibiotic as well. Over the next three weeks, the wound healed slowly but surely.

While addressing her physical needs, we began to address her psychological needs as well. During this time the owners began to offer Cookie a larger variety of foods to help her occupy her time. They also introduced exciting new toys which they rotated weekly. After the wound healed, Cookie also began enjoying showers twice a week. We began taking the e-collar off for short supervised sessions. Finally, we removed the e-collar completely.

Unfortunately, old habits are hard to break. As of this writing, Cookie is still chewing at her feathers slightly. Every once in a while she begins to pick at her old wound site. To stop this picking, her owners place a bandage over the site, which helps keep things under control. While Cookie’s problems have greatly improved with better socialization and environmental enrichment, self-mutilation is a battle that she and her owners will likely face time and time again.