Ask Lafeber

Question:

April 6, 2020

Treatment for feather plucking


What are your thoughts about haloperidol use in mutilation/feather pickers?


Answer:

Hi Richard,

I have used it in the past but seems that the long acting Haldol is best in old world species. At very low doses it has an anti-inflammatory effect. It is important to figure out an underlying cause. Avian bornavirus is most likely a culprit that we did not understand until recently. Dr Rossi has recently shown how we do biopsies wrong so that we don’t get any answers. So there are times when we have an inflammatory response due to for lack of a better term, allergens. But we can have them with ABV as well. There can be infections and changes in the immune system due to altered nutrition. We are trying to do that lecture at ExoticsCon and I am working on my part right now.

Hope this helps!

Susan Orosz PhD, DVM, Dipl ABVP (Avian), Dipl ECZM (Avian)

Bird and Exotic Pet Wellness Center, Toledo, Ohio

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