Ostrich Losing Feathers Is Soothed by Owner's Honey-Based Skin Ointment
A Belgian ostrich owner grew concerned in July when one of her birds was shedding feathers that she said “were not ready to fall out naturally,” but managed to comfort the ostrich with some homemade honey-based skin ointment.
The owner, Wendy Adriaens, told the story of the bird’s ailment on September 3 in a series of TikTok video clips, the first of which showed a range of feathers laid out on a table with blood at their end of the quills. “Found these feathers in their barn this morning,” Adriaens wrote. “That’s not normal,” she added.
Unsure which of her birds had lost the feathers, Adriaens investigated and found one of them had developed a bald spot on its neck, with painful, bleeding follicles. Fortunately for the ostrich, Adriaens makes her own honey-based ointment, which she rubbed into the bald spot, easing the bird’s pain.
“He’ll survive!” Adriaens assured viewers, before showing the ostrich stroking his beak against Adriaens. “Did he just say thank you mommy?” she jokingly wrote in the caption.
Adriaens told Storyful she had taken several ostriches into her sanctuary in Wuustwezel, a municipality in northern Belgium, and developed close bonds with the birds, wanting to give them “the best life possible.”
“I could never guess or imagine at that point how kind they would turn out to be toward all humans, even small children,” she said. “They really long for attention and affection. Now they are well known and loved by everyone who knows them,” she added. Credit: Wendy Adriaens via Storyful
