# Is my rescue fledgling okay? (bald spots, slow development)



## ThisBirdHasFlown (3 mo ago)

Hello everyone!
I am new here and found this forum because I am looking for some advice or help. I will try to keep this short but there is a bit of a backstory which might be important:

About a month ago we found two wood pigeon fledglings in our garden. The parents were still around so we left them alone thinking that they would probably learn to fly very soon and leave.

A few days later a hawk attacked one of them. We witnessed the attack but came seconds too late to scare away the hawk. We caught both of them and brought them both to the vet and the one that got attacked was injured so badly that it unfortunately had to be put down.

The other one seemed alright and the vet advised us to put her back in the garden, which we did.

Then we waited …. For about 14 days. The single fledgling didn’t seem to improve much. We read that they are usually in the “fledgling” state for only a couple of days but ours didn’t seem to grow much at all and hardly made any attempts to learn how to fly. We never saw the parents feeding her anymore but it could be that we just missed that. There were also big black flies on and around her and she didn’t move much, sometimes staying in the same spot for the whole day.

After 14 days we made the decision to capture her and bring her to the vet again. This time we were advised to keep her indoors from now on until it was ready to fly/in better shape or bring her to a wildlife rescue (most of them are currently refusing to take birds because of the avian flu). She was quite thin but the vet could not find any obvious injuries.

So for the last 10 days we’ve kept her inside. We’ve given her food (pigeon food mix & peas) and water with bird supplement drops. She went from being terrified of us to eating out of and even stepping on our hand and being quite comfortable around us.

However, something doesn’t seem right. It’s now been a month since we first saw her out in our garden and she still can’t fly although she's definitely starting to practise more. She looks basically the same as when we first found her so she can’t have been THAT young. That means she should definitely be further developed by now, right?

The feathers don’t seem to grow in properly and there are bald patches under both wings and a little on the back that haven’t really improved over time. She keeps soiling the tips of her feathers and her legs even though we clean her place once or twice a day (we’ve boxed in a little area in one of our rooms where she has places to hide and sticks to sit on). She just looks a bit “rough” and we don’t know if it is a reason for concern or if it’s just a little slow to develop. Maybe she's missing some crucial nutrients or there are some parasites/mites (we weren’t able to spot any)?

I should also mention that a few days ago I woke up to a blood puddle in the cage. It has never occurred again since and we were not able to locate the cause of the blood but we suspected that she might injured herself under one of the wings and had an open wound for a while. Whatever that was, it hasn’t come back but maybe that set back the development even more.

Maybe all this (except the injury, of course) is normal but I just wanted to touch base with other pigeon carers. She’s getting more active, adventurous and tame every day but it still feels like something is off and she should be developing much quicker.

The closest avian vet to us is more than an hour away and our regular vet doesn’t seem to know much about pigeons so I’ll try to get advice here before I put her through the stress of bringing her to a vet again.

Thank you so much in advance,
Mo
















__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content


----------



## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Can you post some photos of her droppings?


----------



## ThisBirdHasFlown (3 mo ago)

Hi Marina, 

Thank you so much for your reply! I attached some photos of her recent droppings. Do they look alright to you?

I picked up some Anti-Parasite Spot On Treatment today (beaphar) and I am currently doing some research to try and find out if she actually has mites. The slow growth of feathers, bald patches and occasional restless "scratching" might suggest "yes" but since the treatment has Ivermectin in itI assume it's not something you just use willynilly.

I've never looked after a pigeon so it's a steep learning curve


----------



## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

The droppings are a bit of a concern. The urates must be white and not yellow. Yellow urates can be a sign of canker. Should look like in the attached photo. She might have internal parasites as well. How old is she now? Pigeons can be dewormed when older than 2 months.


----------



## ThisBirdHasFlown (3 mo ago)

Thank you so much for your insight, I didn’t realise they looked out of the ordinary!

Assuming that she was about 3 weeks old when we first found her that would make her 7.5 weeks old now.
I went ahead and I applied the anti-parasite medication today to the skin of the back of her neck, apparently it’s effective against worms AND mites so hopefully that was the right decision and it will work well for whatever it is that’s bothering her!

She has moments of being active and curious during which she walks up to me for food, steps on my hand and stretches her wings but the majority of the time she hides in a corner and sits around/sleeps, even during the day.

I don’t know if that’s because she’s still quite young or because she isn’t feeling great. If there is anything I should keep an eye out for in particular please let me know!
I’ll watch her droppings to see if the colour changes and I’ll keep you updated 

Thank you!


----------

