# Pigeons dying suddenly



## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Hi Everyone,

Two of my pigeons have died and another pigeon is sick.The sick pigeon is a hen , her pair has died this morning.The cages are close together and it could be that the pigeons are dying due to the same disease.The pigeons that died stopped eating and suddenly died after 2-3 days.It's a strange situation and I have never faced this situation before.

I am treating the sick pigeons with enrofloxacin since it is a broad spectrum antibiotic and multivitamins.She ate this morning but vomited what she ate.There is some strange growth on her toes , not sure if it's one of the symptoms of the disease.Check out the pics.

Let me know if anyone of you have been in a similar ordeal and have figured and come out of it.

Thanks

Nazmul


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If they stopped eating, you should have hand fed them. Lots of things could cause that. Canker is one of them that would cause vomiting, but then even medication could cause that. I would treat them with Enro and Metro for canker to cover more bases. And you need to hand feed them or they'll die anyway. Are they drinking more or less?


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

That yellow color, though it does not point to a specific illness, does occur if the liver is damaged. 

I have seen that, in combination with rapid death, in a bird where a necropsy found a viral infection. It was either Adenovirus type 2 + E.Coli, or a Rotavirus (about which I know nothing). 

That doesn't mean your birds have the same problem, though.

No idea about the foot.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

When is a viral disease, the feces are yellow but formed (having a shape) and in puddles:




















In this case, the feces lost their shape. I've seen this at some baby diagnosed with canker following lab test, but it was no so yellow. Also, few weeks ago, my pigeons were frequently passing droppings with almost as yellow feces at yours. I found out they were eating some toxic construction material, the spray foam used to insulate joins:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_foams_(insulation)

This was happen during the day, when letting them in a glass-covered balcony. I covered those places with foam so that they won't have access to them, and the droppings lost the yellow color.

As John says, yellow feces indicate liver damage, which can be caused by diseases (adenocoli , e. coli are known for this and I think canker too can do this), or ingestion of toxic things, or drug overdose etc.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Are you hand feeding them? Also would have a vet do a necropsy and check a live bird and its droppings also so you don't have to guess what is wrong and you can save your other birds.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Unfortunately not everyone has a vet or can afford a vet check or necropsy.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

There are also places that will do a fecal analysis online which should be cheaper than a vet. Was it Foys? Somebody posted about this recently.


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Thanks for the reply guys.She died this morning.

She ate properly day before yesterday and vomited what she ate yesterday and died this morning.Its hard to believe that I have lost three pigeons within one week.|

The virus was a bad one.Such rapid deaths have left me speechless


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Many thanks for enlightening me about the diseases.


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Whats strange is that the pigeon that died today was active and ate day before yesterday.I thought she is fine.She showed symptoms yesterday and died today.Isn't that very very strange ? The liver failed within two days ???


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

cwebster said:


> There are also places that will do a fecal analysis online which should be cheaper than a vet. Was it Foys? Somebody posted about this recently.


Many have complained about the results from Foy's not being very accurate. When samples are mailed they are not fresh, and different bacteria will continue to grow during shipping. Fresh dropping samples are accurate, but can't do that through the mail.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Nazmul said:


> Whats strange is that the pigeon that died today was active and ate day before yesterday.I thought she is fine.She showed symptoms yesterday and died today.Isn't that very very strange ? The liver failed within two days ???


How do you know how much she actually ate? Birds are usually sick for a while before they start to show it. You don't know that it was the liver failing that killed the bird.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Namur, am very sorry for the loss of your hen. I hope whatever is causing this has ripen its course and that your other birds will be ok.


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## boneyrajan.k (Jul 15, 2010)

Nazmul,don't throw away a dead bird.Dead bird is actually the most important thing in saving rest of your birds.Whenever a bird dies .....cut open the dead body:-
1.First open the throat and crop ,look for any visible growth..its a easy way to look for canker .or any other growth
2.Open the abdomen,and in-case if the death is due to worms,you can see swollen intestine and when you put an incision is such areas you will be able to see coils of live worms in the intestine.
Once you start practicing this with every dead bird,you will slowly become an expert and you will start pickingup findings more easily like the liver is abnormally large,growth in intestine,worms etc.Doing this can just save the rest of the birds.The most common cause of death of an adult bird is worms,so this way you can easily rule out worm infestation...as only way to save worm infested bird is to use dewormer medicines,antibiotics don't work against worms.


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Jay3 said:


> How do you know how much she actually ate? Birds are usually sick for a while before they start to show it. You don't know that it was the liver failing that killed the bird.


I checked her gut.Couldn't it be that one of the systems like immune system/digestive system or one of the organs like liver/kidney etc might have failed that's why the rapid death ?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Don't think the death was as rapid as you are assuming. Birds are sick for a while but try to hide it. It may not show that they are sick until they are on deaths door. Sometimes we just don't pay close enough attention to the small signs, so we miss them.


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

boneyrajan.k said:


> Nazmul,don't throw away a dead bird.Dead bird is actually the most important thing in saving rest of your birds.Whenever a bird dies .....cut open the dead body:-
> 1.First open the throat and crop ,look for any visible growth..its a easy way to look for canker .or any other growth
> 2.Open the abdomen,and in-case if the death is due to worms,you can see swollen intestine and when you put an incision is such areas you will be able to see coils of live worms in the intestine.
> Once you start practicing this with every dead bird,you will slowly become an expert and you will start pickingup findings more easily like the liver is abnormally large,growth in intestine,worms etc.Doing this can just save the rest of the birds.The most common cause of death of an adult bird is worms,so this way you can easily rule out worm infestation...as only way to save worm infested bird is to use dewormer medicines,antibiotics don't work against worms.


I actually did cut open one of my dead pigeons earlier , not this time.Will keep that in mind from next time onwards.On a side note , I had a hen that was egg bound about a month ago.I applied the suggestion that you gave me in facebook about 3-4 years back and she released the 2-3 days stuck egg.Many thanks for that suggestion you gave me.


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

Jay3 said:


> Don't think the death was as rapid as you are assuming. Birds are sick for a while but try to hide it. It may not show that they are sick until they are on deaths door. Sometimes we just don't pay close enough attention to the small signs, so we miss them.


But if a bird is eating and drinking properly can't we safely conclude that it is fine , although it was different this time ?


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Our much beloved Phoebe ate until an hour before she died. Pigeons hide illness really well. If a bird isn't eating it is an emergency, serious. Would try cutting open any that die as has been suggested in the interest of your other birds wellbeing. Hope nobody else gets sick. Best wishes.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

boneyrajan.k said:


> The most common cause of death of an adult bird is worms,so this way you can easily rule out worm infestation...as only way to save worm infested bird is to use dewormer medicines,antibiotics don't work against worms.


Can you tell what is the aspect of droppings at a worm infested bird? 
if possibly, with pictures. You can send them on my email as to not deturn this thread to an off topic discussion: [email protected]


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## Nazmul (Dec 8, 2009)

cwebster said:


> Our much beloved Phoebe ate until an hour before she died. Pigeons hide illness really well. If a bird isn't eating it is an emergency, serious. Would try cutting open any that die as has been suggested in the interest of your other birds wellbeing. Hope nobody else gets sick. Best wishes.


Thanks mate.


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## boneyrajan.k (Jul 15, 2010)

Nazmul said:


> I actually did cut open one of my dead pigeons earlier , not this time.Will keep that in mind from next time onwards.On a side note , I had a hen that was egg bound about a month ago.I applied the suggestion that you gave me in facebook about 3-4 years back and she released the 2-3 days stuck egg.Many thanks for that suggestion you gave me.


Oh glad to know that my suggestion worked out for you and you were able to help the bird out


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