budgie death

Question
Hello - I lost my dear budgie Chickpea last night.  He was 18 months old and shared a cage with her sister Parsley.  They got along most of the time, they would preen each other a lot.  They only fights they got into was locking beaks here and there.  But most of the time they got along just fine.  They have been sharing a cage their whole lives.

Chickpea was happy and healthy.  Yet when I came home from work yesterday evening I found her dead on the bottom of the cage - her face all bloody.  I assumed she had been bleeding from the nose and beak, so I assumed aneurysm, stroke, something along those lines.  I took her to my vet for a necropsy this morning and they called me this afternoon.  The vet said Chickpea was 100% healthy.  All her organs were great, good weight, nothing was broken or out of place.  She even had food in her belly so she had eaten right before she died.  The vet said the blood on her face looks like trauma...that she was beaten up and bled to death.  Part of her cere was missing.

What doesn't make sense to me is that I seriously doubt Parsley would attack her, but IF she did...Chickpea would have fought back and Parsley would have had blood on her, feathers out of place, etc.  But she didn't....Parsley looks good as new.  And even if Parsley did do that to her after she died...you know, trying to "wake her up", what would have made Chickpea just drop dead if the necrospy showed she was perfetly healthy?

It is killing me - Chickpea was my little baby...and to not know what happened is killing me.  And even worse, to know that the necropsy showed she was in great health...I am trying to get to the bottom of it for some closure and to hopefully stop blaming myself for her death.  

Have you seen any similar instances like this in your experience with birds?  Any ideas or theories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading.

Erin

Answer
Erin,

Based on the information you provided I would say Chickpea and Parsley were playing as usual. Birds are small creatures and a small amount of blood loss is a lot. The death was prob from loss of blood. The only other thing I've seen cause damage like that in a cage would be a mouse. But in the case i thing the wound was accidental and death from blood loss.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Wayne