Possible beak injury

Question
Hi my name is Peter and I have an approximatly 25 year old cockatiel. I'll give a brief history of his health.  He has been very healthy all his life until  about 7 years ago when his flight feathers began to grow with the shaft part facing upward.  He has not been able to fly but we let him walk around and he seems to enjoy it and is not in any discomfort.  Yesterday, we had a little accident.  Last night he seemed very spooked and nervous, so I took him out of his cage.  He then jumped off my finger and hit the tiled floor kind of hard.  He has jumped off before but is able to land smoothly he just cannot fly up.  I picked him up and noticed a few blood drops off of his beak.  Probably the amout of about 3 drops out of an eyedrop bottle.  The blood stopped and has not reappeared now, about 18 hrs later.  He is in obvious discomfort and gave me a little bite on the finger, but shook his head and looked in pain  immediatly.  I don't see any crack or damage to the beak but I am worried about him healing and what to feed him. I don't think he can eat seeds but has eaten some soft bread.  
       I am worried about taking him to a vet because he is very attached to me and won't let any of my other family members even pick him up while I can handle him very easily. Any info or suggestions will be greatly appriciated.  Thanks, Peter.  

Answer
Hi, Peter.  Thanks for posting your question and situation.

Your tiel may have pushed his beak into his face when he fell or otherwise damaged his beak and/or some other part of his face/head.  He could also have some type of internal injury that was causing him to bleed via his mouth.  You really need to take him to an avian vet for an evaluation, particularly since he appears to be in pain.  If he doesn't eat for a couple days, he may not survive, especially if he can't drink water (try dropping warm water through the side of his beak using an eyedropper or even dripping warm water off the side of your finger into his mouth...water is very important).  The avian vet will be able to handle him, although stress will be a factor (an avian vet can deal with untame birds so your tiel shouldn't be a problem).  Your tiel might be in shock and shock can cause more problems than the injury itself (even death).

You could also try dropping warm human liquid nutritional supplement food, such as Ensure Plus or Slim Fast (vanilla) into the side of his beak for some type of nourishment until you can get him to an avian vet.  He may have serious injuries that aren't visible on the outside.

Do this as soon as possible (at least call an avian vet for advice if nothing else).  Your tiel needs nourishment in order to heal if he is injured and/or to deal with shock.  Keep him warm and in a calm, quiet location, and make the trip to the bird vet as easy as possible in order to keep stress to an absolute minimum.  Often times, a trip to the vet can be very stressful on a bird, but I think in this case, it's very necessary.  This would also be a good time to have his wing feathers evaluated to see what's going on there.

Chrys