# Pungent Sour smelling mushy droppings?



## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

I have a really lovely natured racing pigeon living with me that was in bad shape when I found him last winter ( last summer for you guys living in the USA). He had several large gaping wounds under his wing, he was pooping yellow froth & he was very weak. I decided to keep him.

Anyway I gave him 3 different courses of antibiotics, Baytril for the wounds, followed by sulfa-3, and then doxycycline because his droppings were still bad on the sulfa antibiotics. But I have never been able to get his droppings looking just right even though he has been wormed, treated for cocci and canker since then. To make this a bit more complicated, I gave him a mate & a nest box, so his droppings became huge and even more disturbing looking because of sitting on eggs.

He doesn't act sick in any way, but his droppings now look like large mushy piles of light kharki-green coloured poo, with a really horrible sour stench to them. 

I'm just wondering if any experienced pigeon keepers here would normally associate this stench with anything in particular, say yeast or bacterial infection? I'm not sure what to try first- a course of Nilstat for yeast, or get him on antibiotics again. 

Thanks for you input.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Whenever I have a bird that is treated, like you did, and the droppings still aren't right, I send it out for a culture. It's just so frustrating going thru a couple of coarses of meds 'that should work', but don't give the results we think are right 
As far as the huge droppings....that is common when they are sitting on eggs. They hold it in longer, so when they do go, its HUGE. And I have noticed that it's 'smellier' than normal in that case.


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

Hi MS freebird,

Thanks for sharing your experiences, I bet you have a lot!. I have a total of eight pigeons who are all taking turns sitting on eggs at the moment, and my racing pigeon is the only one with droppings that consistently smell so horrible & sour, and are just a large pile of wet mush. His mate, on the other hand, does huge but healthy looking droppings, well formed etc. I suppose that suggests that what he has is not contagious at least.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Bella_F said:


> Hi MS freebird,
> 
> Thanks for sharing your experiences, *I bet you have a lot!*. I have a total if eight pigeons who are all taking turns sitting on eggs at the moment, and my racing pigeon is the only one with droppings that consistently smell so horrible & sour, and are just a large pile of wet mush. His mate, on the other hand, does huge but healthy looking droppings. I suppose that suggests that what he has is not contagious maybe?


LOL, Actually the last couple years have been pretty quiet with illness  Roughly 200 birds, and maybe 3-5 birds with ailments a year. I've had less illness since I moved and built the 2 new lofts. I'm convinced now that mice were getting into my lofts at my old house. I've had no cases of salmonella or e-coli (knock on wood) since I moved here 3 years ago. I've had a couple cases of coccidia, worms and babies w/canker. With this many birds....Worms is what I have to stay on top of!
Have you tried giving him a course of metronidazole? That's what I would do.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

you might try some probiotic on him for a few weeks and see if it helps, also some organic apple cider vinegar in the water a few days a week.


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

Msfreebird said:


> LOL, Actually the last couple years have been pretty quiet with illness  Roughly 200 birds, and maybe 3-5 birds with ailments a year. I've had less illness since I moved and built the 2 new lofts. I'm convinced now that mice were getting into my lofts at my old house. I've had no cases of salmonella or e-coli (knock on wood) since I moved here 3 years ago.


Your new lofts are awesome, I bet they keep the stress levels down as well, with the way you've set them out so well. I can relate to the rodent problem, I already found a rat in my loft and I thought it was rat and mouse proof. Also we just found a HUGE snake skin in our yard, it looks like a very large python skin. So I'm going to be busy in the next couple of weeks trying make sure rats and snakes can't get in.



> Have you tried giving him a course of metronidazole? That's what I would do.


I did give him that when I first took him in, its pretty much one of the standard things I give any rescued pigeons. He was also given spartrix when i treated his mate as a precaution. 



> you might try some probiotic on him for a few week


Thanks Spirit Wings! Today I was thinking about that- I wonder if probiotics can help much once a bad bacteria has already taken hold, or would they only be useful just after a course of antibiotics?

I guess since noone really thinks a sour smell is typical of any ailment in particular, I'll start with treating for yeast infection, then try him on the metronidazole/sulfa combo again.


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

Just as an update, I treated with nilstat, metronidazole, & sulfa-3 antibiotic and the bad smell went away, but the droppings became much wetter. I adjusted the treatment by swapping the sulfa-3 antibiotic with doxycycline, and that seems to have done the trick.


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

I still tend to agree w/ Ms. Freebird....a poop culture isn't all that expensive if you can get to an Avian vet somewhere.

Just takes the guesswork out of it. Particularly since this guy was probably riddled with problems when you found him.....


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

Jaye said:


> I still tend to agree w/ Ms. Freebird....a poop culture isn't all that expensive if you can get to an Avian vet somewhere.
> 
> Just takes the guesswork out of it. Particularly since this guy was probably riddled with problems when you found him.....


I would love to find an inexpensive Avian vet to do basic tests for me on mailed-in samples & prescribe medication without me taking the bird in. I haven't had any luck so far and I still feel put off about the closest Avian vet to me; he killed my last rescue with giving it a toxic wormer , plus he charged me $500 for basic tests. I felt very ripped off.


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