Lovebird health

Question
Hi Chrys.  I am also a breeder of peachfaced lovebirds.  I have 17 of them
altogether, two of which I adopted 7 months ago from a friend who was
unable to care for them.  One of these lovebirds, a one-year-old albino, had
some feathers pulled out a few weeks ago by one of my, let's say, unfriendly
lovebirds.  Of course, I have kept my bunch separate from the two newer
additions since neither party seem to want to get along.  However, over the
last couple of days, the albino (Sunshine) has been picking at the same area
and today it started to bleed.  The skin appears very red and iritated, and she
is having trouble relaxing because of it (she continually shakes her tail
feathers which certainly indicates that it is bothering her considerably).  I live
on Vancouver Island, Canada, and we are having a very unusual cold snap.  
The electric heat in my home is on 24/7 and I was concerned that perhaps
the dry air could be further iritating Sunshine's skin, so, I have put on a cold
air humidifier in the hopes of that helping, but have only done so in the past
24 hours.  We have no qualified bird veterinarians in our town and the closest
bird vet is a 2-hour drive away.  I would really hate to have to resort to taking
Sunshine on such a trip that would certainly cause her more stress than she
appears to need right now.  Have you any suggestions as to possible causes
for this problem and/or any helpful advice to help soothe my baby?  

Answer
Hi, Margaret.  Thanks for posting!

Have you picked this lovie up and examined this area to see if you can see what's going on?  You really need to do this so you can see what's bothering her.  It could be that when the feathers were pulled out by the other bird that some blood feathers were broken off resulting in the bleeding.  Any broken blood feathers will need to be pulled out.  If it's skin that's bleeding (or perhaps there's a sore there), then that will need to be cared for.  If your home is dry, then yes, the extra moisture will only help dry skin, if this is what the problem is.  

Please handle your bird and take a close look at the area to see what you can see.  Come back and let me know what's going on.

Chrys