new2pigeons

:'( elizabeth didnt make it either. One day last week she was normal in the morning but by the afternoon she was toppling over and wouldn;t swallow her food. Then her head started to pull right back and her pupils dilated until you couldnt see the iris! She seemed barely alive and i thought she was dying there and then but this went on for another 20 minutes and then i had to put her out of her misery :'( Thats a very kind offer wiley and i may just take you up on it net year - I really miss pidgy, he had blossomed into the most lovely friendly bird

He didnt make it. They seem to do that - get you all excited because theyre looking a bit better, eating and drinking, and then die. After all that. Dont think I ever cared for an animal so intensively over such a longtime, but it was worth he because he was a little sweetie. The cat that did it is getting handed in to the RSPCA. >

i washed his wounds with diluted tea tree oil, he didnt complain or struggle but I'm very worried one of his wings is broken - I cant tel whether a bit of bone is sticking out or if its just mangled flesh? trying not to prod him too much. He tried to stand at one point but seems reluctant to put one foot down. he was pecking at the towel so i tried him with a handful of chick crumb I had handy (his corn is on the allotment) and he pecked quite enthusiastically! So i then gave him a pot of water wth colloidal silver +calendula complex in it and he gulped it down. That makes me hopeful.

thanks very much I'll turn it off - i'll tyr to locate some anti septic but I *know* the vets will only want to put him down - he is vermin after all i have collodal silver - thats a natural anti biotic.

Hi all, 'Elizabeth' the woodpigeon is doing great! She's got all her feathers and is very strong and healthy. Annoying too! Pidgy is not os great. He has only just this week got over whatever infection he had - his eye swellings have gone down, the mcuus cleared up and he's blossomed into a gorgeous adult bird - paler smooth feathers and a green sheeny neck. He also makes cooing noises and dances for me when i feed him. I've been letting him out for short periods and yesterday I left him out all day and was very relieved when eh came home for the night himself. but today I wet up a couple of hours ago and found him being eaten alive on the floor by a nasty cat up the allotments. I think it mustve jumped up into his hutch and got him cornered - he never goes on the ground? he's not looking great - no damage to his head or eyes and his feet are OK although he doesnt have the strength to stand. But his back and wings have been literally chewed, he has puncture wounds. One is very deep on his wing, right down to the bone. He is quiet and lying down, but he's holding his head up and twitches his not-so-bad wing and tries to do baby squeaks when i go near. i got him to take a little water with rescue remedy for the shock. i can give him colloidal silver as a natural anitbiotic and more of the medicines I've been giving him recently but I just hope he makes it through the night. he's under a heat lamp. I'm gutted because I've nursed him back to health twice and now this.

I've seen a few pics of woodpigeons though an they're identical? Guess I'll just have to wait and see what it grows up into! Its doing very well, very strong and hungry!!!

aw you wouldnt want to see - his eyes are all swollen up, its not very pretty!

She's eating so well!

My local chemist is a trained homeopathist (hope that the right word!) and recommended a calendula complex with calendula and echinacea to help him fight it off. I've given him a dose of that and bathed his eyes with cold tea, which is supposed to draw out infection and it worked! I got two loads of gunk from one eye and hes still quite spirited so i'm quite hopeful - with try the vicks though awell. The baby appears to be a woodpigeon - I've been doing some more research on the net today and other people have reared them successfully on water and chick crumb - which I have a ready supply of! It's eating anything I give it from a syringe so I'm quite epecting it to do very well. Here's a pic:

Vets are legally now not allowed to give anti biotics out without seeing the animal! It would be £12 for the vet just to look at him as a small pet, free for a wild animal but they are classed as vermin so they would just put him down O dear. So I'll be trying grape seed extract because thats a natural anti biotic. If he gets too much worse though and looks to be really suffering I'll need to cull him i think

Thanks very much for your help everyone! Off to try the vets now....

Yeah its the same with my chickens - achieving something with them is an added bonus compared to just getting to spend time with them! Funny how some people get so much pleasure out of a bunch of birds!

I've got very attached - just wish I knew as much about pigeons as i do about chickens so i could do/have done more? I've just been given another much younger one now - absolutely tiny, yellow and fluffy, don't know if I'll be able to hand rear something from quite so young! A guy found it in his attic that he's doing up and gave it to the lcoal kids - they knew about pidgy though so they brough it to me!

Those pics are not recent, thats food around his mouth - its not there anymore because hes on grain and water now' I keep him in a small rabbit hutch on my allotment - this is all in my first post along with his history and diet. Oh my goodness, I hope your friend left that vet and never went back! If they class arcers as vermin they certainly wont like a street pigeon! I wont actually take him, I'll just buy some Tylan from them for now because his symptoms seem to match those of Chlamydia.

No that pic is a few eeks old - and thats just his food round his mouth - he'd just been fed. He feeds himself perfectly well now, on grain and water as you say and even though hes ill he still has an appetite. Surely a vet wouldnt turn away business???

I dont know what I want to do yet - I like the *idea* of racing but I dont think I have enough time or money to do it! I do like to see those aerial displays of the ones that fly in unusual ways!

oh right thanks - I thought from what I've read today that van reets were some kind of super-pigeon and were the best so i wondered why anyone bothered racing anything else!?

How come one strain of pigeon came to be so much better than all the rest?

What the basics pigeons need housingwise? For my singular one I just have a very small rabbit hutch because hes got a wired section he can lookout of (and when hes well i leave this open for him to fly around) and a nestbox section for him to sleep in. but on a large scaled what do they need? What's in a loft? Thanks again!

Just a couple of pics of him a few weeks ago!

Thanks for the link - nothing totally matches up though - the nearest I can find is infectious catarrh or ornithosis/chlamydia something. Looking at other sites though the symptoms do match up to chlamydia (I assume its very different to the human form! ) so i think I need some Tylan for him. He's still quite bright in himself, eating and flapping and squealing at me - his one open eye is bright! I think there's a good chance he'll pull through again.

so you can only keep one 'type' then or you ened up with a load of weird crosses?

Hi, thanks for the reply! He's not a racer or anything - just a scabby wild one! He was a little baby when I found him, I hand reared him on bread and milk. He did very well and looked really good and healthy til i put him outside and then i think the stress and wet we've had recently has made him ill. I've seen some photos of tipplers - they're very pretty! but what is it they do? Theres quite a few guys with pigeons on my allotments - one of the flocks must be tumblers or rollers or soemthing like that (i think!?) because htye fly along normally, then tumble around and down like they've been shot, then recover and fly normally again! Do tipplers do something like that?

I picked up a baby pigeon in manchester (just your average townpigeon) and there's a post about him in the health section. but since having him I've got really into the idea of getting more! I've always wanted some pigeons but never really persued it - I got distracted by chickens in a big way: www.traditionalbritishfowl.co.uk - thats me! But I'd like some mates for 'Pidgy' (lol) and would like some information please! What are tipplers - i like the look of them in the photos but dont know what they do/how their competitions work. And, how does a pigeon race work? And, if you have more than one breed in a loft will they interbreed or do they stick to their own groups? That's all for now - thanks for reading! Natx

Hi all, Glad I found you and i hope you can help! I work in manchester and found a very young pigeon on the floor one day. He was still there an hour later and made no protest when i picked him up so i took him home. From research I believe he had young bird sickness, the symptoms seem to fit. But he got better with a dose of coxoid and a diet of bread and milk I had to feed him by letting him stick his beak into my fingers and I'd push it in. Once I was sure he was feeding himself and fully feathered and well able to fly I bought him a small rabbit hutch and took him to live on my allotment which is very close to the house and in a rural area so i thought he'd be quite safe and happy. Except now he's really quite ill. He developed lumps behind his eyes that have got bigger and bigger over the last two days until now one of his eyes has completely closed up, he's also sneezing/coughing/snuffling and has clumps of mucus caked around the base of his beak. I'll probably take him to the vet tomorrow but I'd rather avoid a horrific bill over a little town pigeon! even my chickens dont egt that luxury, but I just cant think of what to do to help him and dont liek to just leave him to get worse and die. Any advice for me? And does anyone in lancashire have any spare youngsters I could have/buy as company for him if he makes it!?