Fly Strips

[mateustheferal]

At about five in the morning where I live, my pet conure got really spooked and started flying about the bedroom. He ended up flying into a fly strip I had near the window. After getting the poor guy untangled, he now has sticky glue stuff on the feathers of his wings.

I'm wondering if it would be okay to use a dish soap like Ajax or Dawn to wash it off, because I can't get to an avian vet right now. Does anybody else own birds here?

-Mateus

[House of Chimeras]

We've never lived with a bird, but Dawn dish soap is safe on feathers. Its used on marine birds and mammals to get oil of of them after oil spills. That might be your best bet.

- Earth Listener

[mateustheferal]

@earth Thanks, I wasn't too sure if it would be okay to use on him since he's got glue and not oil on his feathers. I guess it's generally the same thing in this case, hopefully he won't get sick from any toxins in the glue, but he isn't acting sick and his body language is fine, so things should work out alright.
-Mateus

[Doppel]

Aug 18, 2011 10:39:13 GMT @mateustheferal said:

He ended up flying into a fly strip I had near the window. After getting the poor guy untangled, he now has sticky glue stuff on the feathers of his wings.

Knowing the manufacturer of the Fly Strip may help, as they sometimes put up MSDS online, which you can read to learn how to get it off or to know if it is toxic in any way.

Here's one MSDS from a random manufacturer of fly strips:
msds.farnam.com/m000412.htm

SECTION 4. First Aid Measures
...
IF ON SKIN: Solubilize adhesive in vegetable oil, mineral oil, or waterless hand cleaner, then wash with mild soap and water. Repeat if necessary.

It says that Vegetable Oil or Mineral Oil (Not sure what "waterless hand cleaner" is, do they mean alcohol-based sanitizer?) should dilute the adhesive and then mild soap and water should get it off once weakened. You may have to give it a few passes though.

It also says "Non-Hazardous 100%" at the beginning so I won't worry about the bird getting sick.

-Doppel D.



EDIT: Just looked up "waterless hand cleaner" and apparently it's some laboratory/industrial grade gel, not the hand sanitizer I was thinking about earlier.

[mateustheferal]

Doppel That was pretty useful. But I already found a different site(one for owning birds) and someone said that if I put peanut butter on the sticky feathers, then directly apply Dawn dish soap that it should come off easily in luke warm water. It worked very well, and my bird hasn't shown any signs of getting sick so the "non-hazardous" part is probably true.
Thanks for the link
-Mateus

[House of Chimeras]

@mateus -

That's great to hear that you found away to get everything off safely and he's okay. I'd just keep a good eye on him for a while to be sure that nothing effected him.

- Zeoriel

[Deleted]

@ mateus

It would freak me out if anything like that ever happened to my pets...

[mateustheferal]

@zeoriel Yup, I haven't left my house all day and just stayed with him nearly the entire time. He's doing very well, just a little spooked, and I didn't have any problem tucking him into bed earlier.

@seric I was pretty freaked out, it's so abnormal for my bird to freak out that badly. But I knew that if I didn't stay calm for him it would have ended badly, especially considering my dog decided she wanted to try to go in for the kill. Which in itself was strange because she never tries to mess with my bird. But since he was flopping around it must have triggered instincts(typical bird hunting dog for ya)

-Mateus

[Deleted]

@ Mateus

I'm glad he's okay.

The first time my dog met my cat outdoors, she tried to kill her (cat being prey here). I moved so fast I don't even know how I covered that much distance in so short a time... I hit her really hard. She deserved it, though. She had met the cat before and knew that she was NOT prey.

She would still pick on her and bite her after that, though. No matter what I tried to do. We didn't find our spray bottle until recently, but I think that would have done the trick (the dog is deathly afraid of water.)

How did you stop your dog, anyway?

[Doppel]

Aug 18, 2011 22:54:24 GMT @mateustheferal said:

Doppel That was pretty useful. But I already found a different site(one for owning birds) and someone said that if I put peanut butter on the sticky feathers, then directly apply Dawn dish soap that it should come off easily in luke warm water. It worked very well, and my bird hasn't shown any signs of getting sick so the "non-hazardous" part is probably true.
Thanks for the link
-Mateus

You're welcome. Good to know the Peanut Butter fix worked, though if I had a bird that had ran into a Fly Strip I would use vegetable oils as my parents would totally flip if they saw me spreading peanut butter on a bird.

Peanut butter has plenty of oils in them, probably having the same effect as vegetable and mineral oil in taking off the adhesive.

-Doppel D.

[mateustheferal]

@seric I was actually lucky to have been less than two steps away from the bird and the dog. So I just kinda grabbed and pushed her away from the bird after telling her "Halt!!" I've been training her and her brother to listen to commands in German and luckily she at least listens to "stop" without pause. We have the same sort of situation with our new kitten too. Both dogs will chase the kitten if he runs, but then they end up being scared of his claws and don't do anything. (Of course, I don't let them get too close either, just in case they do try to hurt the kitten)


Doppel Yeah, my parents looked at me funny when I put the peanut butter on the bird. When I explained what it helps with, they just nodded their heads and walked away. I'm glad we had peanut butter though, because we had just run out of vegetable oil and don't have any mineral oil.

-Mateus

[Deleted]

@ Mateus

My cat is too nice to claw the dog. XD She bats at her, but she never uses claws, even though she has them.

[mateustheferal]

@seric I actually trim the kitten's claws once in a while, and will continue to do so until he learns to be nice and not play too rough. xD
-Mateus

[Deleted]

For everyone's general amusement:
My cat once rubbed up against one of our fly strips and it stuck to her, naturally, and she began to rocket around the house with it stuck to her side. I had to catch her and give her a bath. I've never heard a cat make such odd noises. :B
She looked pretty pitiful...

[Deleted]

@ Naukha

Aww... XD. I never had to give my cat a bath, she knew how to keep out of trouble. :3 Although she did roll in the dirt occasionally, that was to get rid of bugs. And she always licked the dirt out.

[mateustheferal]

@naukha Wow that poor cat, they do make weird noises during bath time xD Our old cat once fell into our frozen pond during winter. She bent down to try to grab the goldfish(yes, they lived beneath the ice during winter) the ice broke and in she went. I'm glad I was looking out the window then I was able to get her out real fast xD Poor kitty got her bath then, never tried to eat the goldfish again either.

[Deleted]

@ Mateus

I would scream and freak out if my cat fell in the river or lake next to my house... D:

[mateustheferal]

@seric Yeah, it can be a bit alarming, but most cats are actually very strong swimmers. They just prefer not to xD
-Mateus

[Deleted]

@ Mateus

Even when there's a current?

[mateustheferal]

@seric Depends really. If the current is very swift and the cat doesn't have much experience with such things, then more than likely not. But most animals are able to tell when something is too dangerous to risk. I know some people who live in the country, they have cats that go swimming in the small streams and whatnot, but if it is the flooding season those cats avoid swimming. Instincts. With a pond or lake it's usually not too big a deal because there's not much of a current, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be cautious.
-Mateus

[Deleted]

@ Mateus

That's good to know, but I ask because the night before my cat disappeared, I had a nightmare where she fell in the river, and the only reason she lived was because me and my sister were there... unfortunately I'm not kidding. I don't think I have abilities of foresight in the slightest, but the dream really bothered me.

Although we did hear coyotes that night... I just hope she was picked up by somebody driving down the rode who thought she was a stray (she doesn't wear a collar) and is giving her a good last few months of her life (she has kidney disease and won't live much longer without prescription food.) Aw, now I'm crying again. Sorry to bring this on here, but I get very, very protective when it comes to her... and she just disappeared.

[mateustheferal]

@seric Ah, that's very unfortunate. I'm sorry about your poor kitty. But for as small as they are, they are very tough. She may have gotten to safety if she did fall into the river, and quite possibly picked up by a kind stranger, especially since she would have looked a bit roughed up no doubt. People have a funny sympathy thing for wet cats. You know, my first cat disappeared a couple winters ago. She was very old and kinda sick no matter what we did, and one day she wandered off and never came back. Often times(cats especially it seems) a pet, if given the chance, prefers to find nice quiet spot to pass away alone. This might have been the case with yours(and with kidney disease she was probably very tired), it's very sad that these things happen. But we'll always have the memories of them. *gives seric a big bear hug* I'm sure she is alright, and will be alright until the end. Keep your chin up friend, even though it's hard, and remember that she loved you as much as you did her.
-Mateus

[Deleted]

@ Mateus
Thanks, friend. But shouldn't it be a big BOAR hug...? ;,)

[mateustheferal]

@seric xD Ah, what a good point! I'll remember that in the future.
-Mateus