![]() ![]() I was/am on it to treat the nerve pain from a herniated disc in my neck. They also find it helpful in treating nerve disorders. They have found that it helps some people with depression but they find that a lot about epileptic drugs. I certainly had resigned myself to nothing working, until this vet's suggestion.Īctually, gabapentin is an epilepsy drug. I'm sure that it's not a cure-all for every bird that plucks or mutilates, but I wanted to share this experience in case other birds can benefit from it. I'm not sure whether she'll ever be able to get off the gabapentin, but it's been a total game-changer for her. She's not a zombie bird, her activity level and behavior are unchanged, except that she doesn't pluck anymore. It's now been 6 weeks and Odette has not plucked a single feather, despite the fact that she now has a TON of pinnies growing in. After 3 years of nothing helping, I almost couldn't believe it. I gave her first two doses, and the next day she just stopped plucking. The theory is that the plucking may be related to especially uncomfortable sensations in the skin, especially when new feathers are growing in. It's used to treat neuropathy and nerve-related pain, and is now being increasingly used in birds that pluck. Gabapentin is not, strictly speaking, a psych med. After additional medical workup (again finding no physiological cause), my new vet suggested we try gabapentin. We opted to stop trying to treat the plucking, and just love her as a naked birdie.įast-forward another year - After I moved to Seattle with the flock, Odette started mutilating in addition to plucking, including causing herself a very severe ulcer under her wing. We discussed possibly using fluoxetine or haloperidol, but my vet and I felt this would only sedate her and would not actually get at the root of the problem. We did very extensive medical workup (including xrays, bloodwork, skin scrapings/biopsies, and even a full barium scan series), with no meaningful findings, leaving us with no choice but to conclude that it was psychological. I tried different (made-for-birds) topicals, including Feather In and Avi-Vera, to no avail. I tried multiple different environmental and behavior modification techniques, to no avail. It started out slowly and over time got much worse, so that by about 2 years in, she was all but bald except for her head, tail, and long flight feathers. We treated her and the rest of the flock extensively, but she continued to pluck. ![]() My vet initially believed that she had giardia (and she may have, the tests were always equivocal). Unfortunately, at the same time, she slowly began plucking. After about 3 months with me, she settled down and began to trust me to the point that she began enjoying and asking for scritches and cuddles. My cockatiel Odette was abused as a baby, to the point where the rescue, the vet, and I were originally unsure about whether we might need to consider euthanasia because she was just so constantly terrified that it seemed like she had no quality of life. I wanted to share some really positive news about my chronic plucker/mutilator, in the hopes that it might help others. ![]()
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