# Very Sick Pigeon Breathing Heavy-what to do?



## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

A pigeon that I have a been feeding in the park for 7 years has suddenly become sick, so I took her home over a week ago and started giving her antibiotics because I thought she had an infection. I gave her metronidazole 100mg daily for 5 days and baytril 0.5ml daily for 10 days, I gave them 12 hours apart. She seemed to get better, was eating and drinking, walking around and flying a little during the first week. She had yellow feces the first few days, then it turned green. I also noticed she was sometimes breathing by opening and closing her beak. Yesterday, after she finished the antibiotics I decided to give her some aloe detox in water because I thought she might have damaged liver. I have been feeding her peanuts in the park which they say can cause fatty liver. However, this morning I found her breathing heavily, opening and closing her beak constantly and she went to hide in the corner and her eyes are closing. Someone suggested I give her Sudafed as it might be that she can't breathe properly because her nasal passages are plugged so I gave her 1/2 tablet Sudafed(nasal decongestant), but I'm not sure if it's helping. I'm not sure what else to do. I'm scared that she's dying. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

It's possible she might have a yeast infection after all the antibiotics. Can you get Nystatin from a pharmacy and also a small medicine dropper? Give her 0.5 ml twice daily. The nystatin does not get absorbed in the body so you can't overdose on that. It also works best on an empty crop. Also put apple cider vinegar in the drinking water, make quite a strong solution. 10 ml to 1 l of drinking water.

If she's not eating, try to forcefed her defrosted peas. First give her Nystatin, wait an hour and then try to get food into her.

It's possible that you did not treat long enough with the metronidazole. Usually treatment would be 7-10 days, sometimes longer.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Best would be to have an avian vet take a look at her. Where in Canada are you located? There might be a pigeon rescue near you.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

Thank you for the advice. I will try the nystatin. Is it available without prescription? What concerns me is that today she has gotten worse and she is breathing with her beak open. I saw her do that before a few times, but today she's doing it almost constantly and she's not eating much and went to sit in a dark corner. What does the open beak breathing mean? I tried to call some animal hospitals in my area, but they don't treat pigeons. I also gave her another dose of metronidazole this morning. Can the yeast infection be causing open beak breathing or is it something else?


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

cwebster said:


> Best would be to have an avian vet take a look at her. Where in Canada are you located? There might be a pigeon rescue near you.


I'm located in downtown Toronto.


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

Isn't 100mg of metro rather high? I've always read it's 50mg once daily for ten days for an adult pigeon. So many antibiotics can do more harm than good because they destroy all the beneficial bacteria as well as any bad and since you don't know what you are actually treating you could end up giving all manner of antibiotics and still not have a cure.
I probably would have tried to boost her immune system before giving her medication with natural live fat free yogurt, ACV, garlic and a calcium D3 dose - all on alternative days. Yogurt and calcium direct dose in a 1ml syringe of 0.02ml twice a week, a slither of garlic clove in her water bowl once a week and a few drops of ACV in her water on two other days. 
Would be a good idea to get her poop tested but now she has antibiotics in her system it may not give an accurate reading.

Edited to add - beak breathing like that usually indicates an upper respiratory infection which metro won't help, she'll need Baytril for that. Don't give her water because it's very easy to aspirate a bird that way, just dipping her beak in a bowl up to her nostrils is safer and she'll drink if she wants. Direct dosing of calcium and yogurt as I mentioned also has to be done with great care. A 0.02ml dose is very small but still it has to be given at the back of the throat and even though the dose is small I use three plunges to give my birds their calcium supplement and let them swallow in between. Keep her warm too if she has respiratory problems - seeing an avian vet would be the wisest thing to do. She may just be old for a wild bird and could be fading because of that as they don't live as long as captive pigeons.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

Thank you for your advice. She stopped breathing with her beak open a few hours after I gave her the pseudoephedrine and a dose of metronidazole, so I don't know which one helped her with the open beak breathing and I'm not sure if I should continue the metronidazole if I already gave her a dose. I stopped the metro 6 days ago(she only got 5 days of med) because I noticed her feces turned green and I thought that meant she might have a problem with her liver and the metro is metabolized in the liver so the dose has to be adjusted and yes 100mg is too high, it should be 50mg. She already had 10 days of Baytril which she finished two days ago and that's supposed to cover respiratory infections. It's probably better to boost her immune system with what you suggested(yogurt,ACV,garlic,calcium D3) before giving her anymore medication. I called several animal hospitals and a wildlife centre and unfortunately there is no avian vet that will treat a pigeon in my area.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Hi!i found this on google. Dont know anything about them except that they mention treating birds. Glad to hear the open mouthed breathing has stopped. Hope the bird is all better soon.
http://thelinksroadanimalclinic.com/
Also found an interesting article about a Toronto pigeon rescuer.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20..._ann_martin_feeling_like_a_million_bucks.html


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If her droppings were yellow, she could have had canker, when it turned green, she probably wasn't eating and had starvation droppings. Which could easily be, because Metro can make a bird feel sick and often vomit. They often do not want to eat on Metro, even at the correct dosage. Why would you give 100mg of Metro a day for 5 days? The dose for an adult pigeon is 50 mg once daily, and 7 to 10 days is better. Canker can cause respiratory symptoms, so if caused by canker then Metro can help. But that was way over what she should have had. If not canker, but respiratory, Baytril is often used, but Doxy is often preferred. You have thrown so much at her. If giving Baytril or Doxy then you don't want to give Calcium, as it binds to the drug so drug is not absorbed.
As Freda has said, she may just be old and tired.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

cwebster said:


> Hi!i found this on google. Dont know anything about them except that they mention treating birds. Glad to hear the open mouthed breathing has stopped. Hope the bird is all better soon.
> http://thelinksroadanimalclinic.com/
> Also found an interesting article about a Toronto pigeon rescuer.
> https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20..._ann_martin_feeling_like_a_million_bucks.html


I did call the Links Road Animal Clinic, but they referred me to the Toronto Wildlife Centre where I left a message and they haven't called back yet.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

Jay3 said:


> If her droppings were yellow, she could have had canker, when it turned green, she probably wasn't eating and had starvation droppings. Which could easily be, because Metro can make a bird feel sick and often vomit. They often do not want to eat on Metro, even at the correct dosage. Why would you give 100mg of Metro a day for 5 days? The dose for an adult pigeon is 50 mg once daily, and 7 to 10 days is better. Canker can cause respiratory symptoms, so if caused by canker then Metro can help. But that was way over what she should have had. If not canker, but respiratory, Baytril is often used, but Doxy is often preferred. You have thrown so much at her. If giving Baytril or Doxy then you don't want to give Calcium, as it binds to the drug so drug is not absorbed.
> As Freda has said, she may just be old and tired.


I found the dose info for the metronidazole online and it was 50-100mg daily for 4-6 days and someone suggested I give her 1/4 tablet of the 400mg tabs. I found another source that said to give it for 14 days, but I stopped it after 5 days when I found out it should be 4-6 days and I was scared she might be getting too much.There are so many different dosages I found and I didn't know which one is correct. Now I know 50mg once daily for 7 to 10 days is the correct one. Thank you for the info.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

The pigeon hasn't been breathing with her beak open since yesterday afternoon, but now she seems to be acting strangely. She spends too much time in one spot, she moved to a new spot yesterday from where she was previously and picks at things like a towel or the carpet, looks at food, but doesn't eat and only drank some water with apple cider vinegar. She doesn't sit puffed up or is not closing her eyes, but her behaviour seems to have changed. She seems to be "high". I wonder if the medication could have caused it. I gave her 1/3 tablet pseudoephedrine this morning because I could still hear she made some sound that sounded like nasal congestion. I also gave her a dose of metronidazole yesterday, but decided not to continue with it because she already had a high dose before for 5 days which she finished 7 days ago. I wonder if these are any metronidazole overdose symptoms or if the metro was stopped too soon and now the infection came back. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I have never heard of giving pseudoephedrine to a pigeon. I wouldn't. That isn't going to help to treat whatever it is that is causing it.
Don't take the word for sites online about dosages, as you can get a lot of wrong info out there. Use a pigeon formulary.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

I didn't know there was a pigeon formulary. Where can I find it?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

There are a few. I check them all out and compare. I'll get the links. Some are older and may not be up to date, but good to compare.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*Is my pigeon dying from end-stage liver disease?*

My pigeon has been for about the last 24 hours picking at things, like picking with her beak at the carpet for long periods even if there is nothing there, no food, she seems to be acting strangely, sort of disoriented. I don't know what to do. Is this a symptom of end-stage liver disease? I read at https://www.beautyofbirds.com/liverdisease.html that one of the symptoms of end-stage liver disease is that toxins build up in the bloodstream, resulting in central nervous system signs, such as disorientation and seizures.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

You would need a vet to tell you exactly what is wrong with the bird. That's why they are there. Just wanted to mention that the dose for Metro for adults is 50 mg once daily for 7 to 10 days, then reassess. The dosage for a very young pigeon would be 30mg.

Here are some of the links you can look at 


file:///C:/Users/Jay/Documents/Pigeons/MEDS/MEDICAL%20FORMULARY/Medical%20Formulary%20AvianMedicine.net.pdf

Common Drugs and Dosage Used in Treating Pigeons
http://www.homingpigeon.com/article/Dosage.html


MEDICAL FORMULARY FOR PIGEONS
FROM THE PIGEON COTE
http://www.pigeoncote.com/vet/formulary/formulary.html


Pigeon Medical Formulary
http://www.pigeonracingpigeon.com/2010/02/07/pigeon-medical-formulary/


Avian Medicine Formulary
http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/18.pdf


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

Jay3 said:


> You would need a vet to tell you exactly what is wrong with the bird. That's why they are there. Just wanted to mention that the dose for Metro for adults is 50 mg once daily for 7 to 10 days, then reassess. The dosage for a very young pigeon would be 30mg.
> 
> Here are some of the links you can look at
> 
> ...


Thank you for the info!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

You're very welcome. You can go through them when you have time and take notes and compare them.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

I once overdosed a laughing dove I was treating for canker. By day 7 on the meds she also started acting weird: could not fly, sit in one spot with the head at a strange angle and looked "spaced out". I thought that was it, I'm going to lose her. I stopped all the meds, concentrated on handfeeding her, acv and probiotics in the drinking water. After 2 days she returned back to normal and has been healthy ever since.

Don't give up. Are you at least handfeeding her? I don't think she would be pecking at things when she has liver failure.


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## Trimo (Jul 9, 2017)

I had two doves that breathed like that for a while but when I went outside to check on them they stopped this happened for a few days then I stopped noticing them doing it just figured it was cause I recently moved them into a new cage that also had my Barbary dove in it. A couple days after they stopped I went out there one morning to check the birds feed them and let them out to fly but both of the doves where dead legs in the air on the cage floor I didn't know what is was as the. Barbary dove was in the cage with them and I owned about eight of these doves that flew together in the Inclosed patio every day. I never found out what it was we thought it may have been many things but none of them made sense they ate the same food as the other birds can't have been a predator my dog would have barked at it. But since they died every other bird that's been in the cage with my Barbary dove has died all at night in seemingly perfect health 10 birds all different types 2 doves, 2 budgies 6 finches I was wondering when I saw this maybe it is a parasite that doesn't effect larger stronger birds as much but is still transmitted by them because the larger and healthier my birds have been the longer they lived with the dove and I don't know where the dove came from it flew over my fence one day riddled with lice which I treated and removed I've owned it for two years now and still have no idea what caused these deaths


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

Marina B said:


> I once overdosed a laughing dove I was treating for canker. By day 7 on the meds she also started acting weird: could not fly, sit in one spot with the head at a strange angle and looked "spaced out". I thought that was it, I'm going to lose her. I stopped all the meds, concentrated on handfeeding her, acv and probiotics in the drinking water. After 2 days she returned back to normal and has been healthy ever since.
> 
> Don't give up. Are you at least handfeeding her? I don't think she would be pecking at things when she has liver failure.


I'm glad your dove survived and is healthy. I decided to stop giving her anymore meds and just give her the ACV in her drinking water and the probiotics and handfeed her if she doesn't eat. 
I stopped the 5 day course of metronidazole 100mg daily a week ago, although I did give her 1 dose yesterday because I was so scared when I saw her breathing with opening her beak, I didn't know what to do. Is it possible that she's getting the overdose symptoms now, even after the medication was stopped a week ago(except for 1 dose yesterday)?


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*My pigeon stopped eating today-what does that mean?*

My pigeon stopped eating today. She's just picking at the food, at the dish or the carpet, but not actually eating anything. I had to handfeed her. What does that mean? I also noticed sometimes her beak was open for a while. Could that be canker? She was on metronidazole 100mg daily for 5 days which she finished a week ago, however I didn't think she had canker at the time, I just used it as a preventative.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Without a vet you can't say for sure what it is. She may need a wide spectrum antibiotic like Baytril or Doxycycline for respiratory infection. Only an avian vet would know for sure.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

I gave her Baytril 0.5ml daily for 10 days, she just finished it 3 days ago. I wonder if it's a yeast infection. She was on two antibiotics at the same time and that may have caused a yeast infection. The treatment for that, the antifungal Nystatin is not available in Canada without prescription and I don't want to give her anything if I don't know for sure what she has. Unfortunately there is no avian vet in my area who will treat pigeons.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Can you get Medistatin online. That is the Nystatin for pigeons. It is a powder that you mix up. Don't need a prescription for it.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

After meds she needs probiotics for a few days to re-establish the good bacteria in her gut. Marina mentioned that already. And apple cider vinegar in her drinking water. About 1 Tablespoon to a gallon of water, which the good bacteria like, but yeast and bad bacteria don't like. Or put just a few drops of vinegar in a cup of water for her.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Yeast sometimes show as white dots way back down in the throat, not a growth as canker. You really should try treating her for that.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*My pigeon is breathing with her beak open again*

My pigeon is breathing with her beak open again since this morning. I want to give her the medistatin ASAP, but I need to order it and it takes time for the delivery. How can I get it ASAP? If anybody know how to get it ASAP, I will pay all the costs, delivery etc. , please let me know.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*Medistatin ASAP!*

Please help. I need Medistatin for my sick pigeon ASAP. What's the quickest way to get it and from where? I don't know of any stores in my area that sell it.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*Baking Soda for yeast infection.*

How do you use baking soda for yeast infection in a pigeon. How is it administered? Please let me know.


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*Open beak breathing with sqeeeking sound*

My pigeon is breathing with her beak open and making a squeeking sound. I don't know what to do. Please help me!


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Check inside her mouth with a flashlight to see if there's anything blocking the opening to the trachea. I'm sorry you are going through this, we can only give advice and not be there to help you.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

I've just googled: to use baking soda you can dissolve 1/2 teaspoon in 1/4 cup warm water. Is she at least drinking water?


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## Stanya Louda (Jul 11, 2017)

*Rip pici*

My pigeon Pici passed away yesterday at around 6:30pm. I feel completely devastated that I couldn't save her and responsible for her death. 

RIP Pici. I will never forget you. You will stay in my heart forever!


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

I am so very sorry. Sometimes they are very sick and it is so hard to know what is wrong or to help.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Sorry that you lost her. Sometimes it's just impossible to save them all. I think most of us here have memories of the birds that we could not save. Thanks for caring.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

MarinaB is so right. I get tearful thinking of Phoebe and Chloe who we tried so hard to save. All you can do is love your critters and dont look back except for treasuring the good times. Am so sorry for the loss of Pici.


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

Sad to read about your loss but you tried to save her and at least she passed away in a safe place away from predators. Sadly not all can be saved no matter how hard we try. x


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I'm so sorry. You really tried for her. Sometimes there is just nothing we can do.


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## sabaalhulow (3 d ago)

My pigeon is having difficulty with breathing what should I do please and also the canker what’s for


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

sabaalhulow said:


> My pigeon is having difficulty with breathing what should I do please and also the canker what’s for


Can you plse start your own thread. Go to the section "Sick and injured pigeons" and click on new thread. Also add some photos.


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