stiff pigeon

[Guest Silverwings]

earlier this year to sort out a problem for a new starter , phoned me to say one of his pigeons was a bit stiff and not moving ? when i got there it was even stiffer ? dead infact, checked it all over and his other birds ,found nothing wrong ! loft was clean , top to bottom , for i left a last look at the dead bird ,and noticed a white liquid oozing from the air intake ? took a cotton bud swab of this liguid and put it in a jar toget it sorted ,a few days later i was suprised to see the white stuff had come to life inside the  jar....thousands of tiny flies had hatched  ? seems like the lavae had choked its host ? have not seen this before anybody else ?

[Guest]

Was the the jar closed with an air tight lid?

[Guest Silverwings]

yes mate rubber seal underside ,saw some article somwhere same type of condition  with pheasants, never got any further with this , the lad had a fish pond  ,looked a bit suspect wonder if his pigeon got it from there ? still bugs me but it was all i could come up with !

[jimmy white]

just wondered silverwings if the bird had been dead for long,i,e,an hour or so, as these small flies could have come from larvae layed there, after the bird was dead.

just a thought,

 

[Guest]

Maybe sounds a warning that animal species should be kept well seperated, the normal 'bugs' on one might not be so normal getting into another.

 

I would also have thought a fish pond would have been netted, to protect them from cats, gulls or crows.

 

And blowflies and their grubs are pretty hard NOT to recognise, even their numbers would be a clue.

[Guest Silverwings]

jimmy and bruno, at the time the lad said the pigeon had not moved for about an hour ,dont know how long it takes for rigor to set in or for larvae to grow and multiply to that extent ? ,the lad got rid of his remaining birds and loft not long afterwards so i could not follow it up .still food for thourght !