Help! My parrot is acting strange after flying into cooking oil.
I've had my orange winged Amazon for almost 10 years now. A few days ago she accidentally flew into a pan that still had leftover cooking oil in it (not while it was hot!).
I immediately tried to wipe it off her since her whole legs, butt and tail were drenched in it. She's a huge coward so she got really scared from the tissues and started flying everywhere and didn't let me near her. I also tried washing it off but she wouldn't allow it either so I just gave up to not stress her anymore. The problem is she's been acting strange ever since. She won't let me pet her anymore and she LOVED getting pet. She growls whenever I wanna pick her up and reaches for her legs to preen them obsessively. I'm scared this became a sort of anxious or compulsive behavior for her because she does it every time I want to pet her now. Yesterday I got her to take a bath and I even managed to clean her legs and tail off with a little soap (not fully but her legs are almost clean now) and she's still preening them aggressively to the point I'm scared she's gonna irritate her skin or start plucking the feathers.
I don't know if she's like this because of the oil and will stop once it's all out or there's something else wrong. Any advice would be appreciated!