poorly pigeon

[new2pigeons]

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!?

 

[Tony C]

new2pigeons,

                    If you go to this website http://www.chevita.com/

click on the Union Jack flag then on pigeon products then on Symptoms & treatments, you will find a list of pigeon diseases.

 

Best of luck

[new2pigeons]

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.

[new2pigeons]

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

[Guest]

Think this young pigeon is suffering from a number of problems.

 

Bread & milk won't sustain the bird. Needs grain and water. Perhaps wild bird food would fit the bill, and it will learn to drink from a jar of water if you dip its beak in it to just below the eyes..

 

On the illness front, there definitely seems to be something working on the eyes, possibly a respiratory illness. The growths around the mouth are also worrying and look like canker or pox.

 

Be sure to look after your own health [hygiene] ... keep it in a box on paper, discard the paper daily to the bin, and make sure you wash your hands after handling the bird and box and litter, and before you touch anything else.

 

Honestly don't think vet will be interested .... but good luck.

 

 

[new2pigeons]

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???

[Wiley]

a vet will read in the racing pigeon magazine a geeza took a racer to the vet and said he has to put it down as supposably there classed as 'vermin'I would have to agree with bruno here,about the canker or pox.Where do you keep this pigeon?

[new2pigeons]

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.  

[Keepsmilingqueen]

good luck with your little pidge, i hope he gets well ! he is lucky to have found someone so compassionate as you  ;D

 

all the best  

[new2pigeons]

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!

[Wiley]

going to be a hard job,however if ur interested in pigeons and build something a little bigger after may if u msg me ill bred u half a dozen if ur willin to pay for carriage

[jimmy white]

allthough the bird looks like to me a bad case of respiratory problems, but agree with keepsmileing queen, if your attached to the bird try the tylan it may do the trick, and if it does youll have one of the tamest pets going   :)    good luck

[new2pigeons]

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

[Guest CS]

Let us know what Vets says.... Good luck... Nat

[new2pigeons]

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

[Guest]

Sorry I 'jumped the gun', didn't realise pics were old and taken just after feeding.

 

There doesn't seem to be a standard 'street pigeon'. The ones I see are either a picture of health or at deaths door.     From what you have posted you seem to have landed a little fighter at least.

 

Would go with you all the way on using natural products rather than medicines. If the bird is eating & drinking well, then maybe add something to the food & drink? Garlic or cider vinegar to the water, mix in a spoonful of natural yoghurt with the grain? Anything that you know to be safe, cheap, easily available  and combats bacterial and viral illness?

 

For the respiratory problem: Other members have recommended a small smear of Vics vapour rub on the under side of the lower beak, just where it joins the neck, or Olbas oil drops on a cloth, hung where the bird perches. Keeping the bird in a rabbit hutch is fine.

 

 

Your second adoptee is a different kettle of fish. Sounds very much like a days old youngster  ... yellow down, no feathers, eyes closed, sleeps all the time?  ... and the cleaning out of the attic probably included its nest and parents. The parents feed them on milk for the first 5-7 days, then half / half soaked grain for another 2/3 days, then fully soaked grain. Its going to be difficult hand-rearing. Maybe baby milk, but getting it over would be a problem ... again something like an ear-dropper, short very slender tube, need to be a drop of milk at a time, and you wouldn't want to force the birds beak open at that age, so run it along the gap between the upper and lower beak from front to back?

 

Good luck.    

[Guest]

Craig posted this link over on the General Board. May help you identify the age of the second youngster. That forum may also help you too in how to rear it successfully.

 

 

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/553336546itICoG

[new2pigeons]

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:

 

 

[jimmy white]

my goodness youve certainly done well,,,good luck to you   :)

[new2pigeons]

She's eating so well!

[Wiley]

doing a really good job,any new photos of the first pigeon you had

[new2pigeons]

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

[Guest]

Yes, a first class job on both birds. Well done.

[jimmy white]

just looking through posts and see the youngest was found in an attic flat, i would very much doubt it would be a wood pigeon as they seem to stick to the trees for nesting,[not that that makes much differance :) ] but you seem to have a knack with them anyway,,,,good luck :)

[jimmy white]

maybe the pigeon pharmacy, would give you advice [on other post]  just a thought

but you seem to be doing well yourself ;D ;D ;D