WARNING: Sophia’s Fly Strip Accident

A warning to all bird owners. Last night we had a near tragic accident with our Umbrella Cockatoo, Sophia. She normally does not startle so badly by flies, but this time she got spooked and flew from her cage. This is the one and only time she has ever flown in the direction of the kitchen rather than to her safety point of the living room curtain rod. Since it has been hot, and our central AC is not currently working, we have been having a lot of days of windows and doors open to try to keep the house cooler. This has increased our problem with flies. To battle the flies, especially in the kitchen area, we hung a few fly strips. You know the kind, sticky strips in a small canister that hang in a spiral strip. Well as Sophia flew into the kitchen, her wing clipped one of these sticky strips and it pulled the thumbtack out and entangled her. In a panic she began thrashing and attempting to fly which further entangled her in this sticky mess and began ripping out feathers. She continued to flail and attempt to fly, hitting her cage, the window and her toy play stand. It took me a minute or so to catch her as she was in a blind panic. In the process of catching her and getting her to my back bath to attempt to clean her up, she bit me several times. Now we both have battle scars. The only way we could get the fly strip off was to soak her in baby oil and carefully remove it. She lost a lot of feathers in the process, including some bleeders. She was extremely exhausted after the whole process of removing it and cleaning her up. She still has some of the sticky stuff on her, but I think its best to let her rest a day or so. My Vet said to just leave her with the baby oil residue for now until she is calmer. She is not herself today, very subdued, but she does want mommy to pet her and love on her and did say a few “pretties” today. I have to keep a heat lamp on her because her feathers are not giving her much insulation at the moment.