Parakeet with vent problem

Question
Hello!  I have a 2 year old female parakeet, kept with one other (younger) bird. She is smaller than the other, and in the past month, has had a dirty vent.  I cannot find any abnormal or unformed droppings in the cage.  Appetite is normal.  I rinsed her with water, and noticed that her vent area had lost feathers, and the skin looked raw and ulcerated.  I thought I saw a white, thread-like material protruding, so my husband caught her (she hate handling) and I cleaned the entire area with mineral oil.  I could not feel an egg, and on closer examination, all material on the vent came away on the Q tip.  I coated her skin liberally with mineral oil and released her.  What do you think?

Answer
Hi, Beth.  Thanks for posting.

Usually when a bird has a dirty vent, there is some type of intestinal problem going on.  The vent area is dirty because the droppings are no longer firm like they should be.  Has she lost any weight?  You might keep an eye on this as weight loss is a good indicator of illness.  I'd recommend getting your keet to an avian veterinarian (not a dog/cat vet, but an exotic animal vet) ASAP to see what's happening with her.  The vet can run some tests to determine what her problem might be.  When this condition lasts only a couple of days, I don't usually worry much about it, but since this has been going on for a month, perhaps longer, you need to have this keet evaluated by a bird vet.  

Birds hide illness until they can't hide their illness any longer.  Then it's usually too late to help them.  They hide illness because predators are attracted to birds (other animals as well) who are sick (they are easier to catch).

Don't hesitate to have your keet evaluated by a bird vet.  I've seen birds die as a result of dirty vents that weren't investigated or not investigated early enough.

Chrys