Injured African Grey

Question
We have a 3 year old Timneh, who is healthy and happy.  She talks like crazy and is the boss of the the animals in our family.  Since we travel frequently, she boards at the bird facility where she was born and raised when we travel.  Boarding her has never been a problem, even though she started letting us know she really preferred staying home.  We just boarded her for a week and a half and upon a return had a call from the shop owner telling us she had picked herself seriously, all in one night, and that she had to be taken to the vet.  She was missing most of her feather on her tail and wings.  The vet said her wings were bruised and she was put on pain meds.  The shop owner kept her with her all the time to make sure she was taken care of and doing okay.  When my husband picked her up yesterday, he was told that she is was suffering from separation anxiety and that we needed to spend more time with her and give her more attention.  We were also told to move her from her present location which is at a window.  And, we were told that she needs 11 hours of sleep per night.  My husband felt horrible when telling me all this when he finally got her home.  I was shocked at how she looked, but was more concerned about the claim that she had picked all her feathers, since she had never once over-groomed herself and she was not a feather picker.  She appeared to me to be wounded.  The only area of her body that was injured or picked was her tail and wings.  It was my feeling that she had become hung up on a toy or the bars of the cage and flailed around to release herself.  She is not picking now, and all of her feathers other than tail and wings are perfect.  She is talking, eating and behaving very normal.  Before she arrived, I had a parrot for 23 years, so am not a newcomber to the world of birds.  She has two cages, a tee perch and a playpen.  She comes out of her cage as soon as we come home from work, and stays with us until we go to bed.  She has a huge variety of toys, listens to the radio when we are gone, and has a better diet than most people.  In my opinion, she has a very caring and happy environment.  

Can you tell me if you have seen a case of overnight sever feather picking.  Can you also tell me if you have seen a bird seriously injured from being hung up on a toy or flailing around?  We are very upset about this episode and don't want to see it repeated.

Thanks so much.

Answer
So sorry to hear about your bird. Though its frustrating that you will probably never know what happened. There are many articles stating how dangerous most commonly used parrot toys are, though usually these result in the loss of toes, limbs or the parrot getting strangled. In theory it is possible that she did decide to pluck her feathers out because she was scared or unhappy. Maybe someone or something scared her, they dont cope well with any change and it certainly wouldnt take a grey long to pull out lots of feathers. Hopefully this wont happen again, all you can do is wait and see. Keep up the good work, good luck