# HELP Injured feral pigeon, Sydney Australia



## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

Hi there, We found an injured "feral" pigeon in the middle of the road in our suburb. It was unable to fly or walk and looked like it had been hit by a car. It was getting dark and cold so I picked it up and carried it home. There was blood on it's beak that I cleaned gently with cooled boiled water and cotton wool. But the beak was partly open as if it couldn't shut it. I googled your site and have implemented most of what I have read regarding getting the bird warm, dark box with heat pad underneath, given the hydrating solution of sugar and salt and then a quick check of injuries. I did not expect him to make it through the night but was pleasantly surprised that he was alert and looking around with his beak closed this morning. I have bathed his eye and wounds on his back near the wing and a deep one under his right wing, he can now open the injured left eye and is drinking. I read on one of the posts about giving antibiotics so have given some of my 12 month old sons Penicillin, it is CILICAINE V oral suspension, each 5ml contains 150mg penicillin, I have been giving the bird about .5ml, is this the right dosage?? I thought I could give twice a day am and pm. I'm doing this due to the depth of the wounds in case it was a cat and not a car. We want to help this little fellow as much as possible and can't really take him to a vet as there is very little compassion toward feral pigeons and they will just kill it. Tonight we have given some multigrain baby cereal mixed in baby formula and warm water, runny enough to give in a dropper, he thought this was yummy and we hope he will get well enough to want seed and of course be able to fly and walk again too! Thankyou for any advice and help for our injured feathered traveller.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Hi Reg, thanks for you care and concern for this little guy and here is a link below with some information on feeding, if you post up a photo of the little guy it will be helpful in assessing him. The dose of 0.50 CILICAINE V (Penicillin V) will be 15mg of pure medicine in each dose, we are going to want to up this 0.75cc (3/4 of 1cc syringe = 22.5mg, twice a day) this will be about 15 drops and you can give it slowly.

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f6/rescued-feral-help-please-48513.html#post522672

Yes, wise not to take him to the vet without a plan, as the information, and some experience here is that they euthanize feral pigeons in Australia as a matter of wildlife laws on the books, unless the bird is claimed as a pet.

Karyn


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## Ede-bird (Jul 7, 2010)

Thank you for helping this little guy.  The wildlife laws there are NOT pigeon friendly by anymeans, but there are alot of people here to help you out until the wee one is ready to be set free.


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## kamz (Jan 23, 2010)

Hi reg. Just wanted to welcome another australian to pg talk. Thanks for caring enough to stop and see if the pigeon was ok and secondly for taking it into your care! I always find it comforting to see other Aussies on here helping out pigeons in need

Can we c some pictures? 

Suz


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, Reg.

Quite honestly...you have done everything perfectly so far ! It is good news that your lil' pal is responding so well, too.

Can you post a photo ? Also, how does the inside of the mouth look ? Is it pinkish, or grey/blue ? Any signs of any light-colored specks or growths ?


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

*Our little Aussie battler doing well ...*

Hi everyone, thankyou so much for the replys. I will get some pics tomorrow and check inside his (we think it's a he!) mouth. Well he's still alive and now wants to jump out of the box. so we find him sitting on the study floor looking very pleased. We are now giving the correct dose of Penicillin twice a day but still need to hand feed him with a dropper. We are giving multigrain baby cereal mixed with baby formula about four times a day from a 1ml dropper, he has about 5 of these followed by water. Is this enough food? He is not interested in eating himself and prefers to be like a chick and be handfed. I will take him to an Avian vet on Wednesday as I'm sure his right wing is broken and left leg. Had to wait until the public holidays were over or we will be charged a fortune! I would bandage the wing myself but I'm not sure of an open wound underneath it, as I bath his wounds in weak salty water and treat with bactroban cream daily. Anyway I'm going to tell the vet he's a pet! Which if he doesn't ever fly again or walk properly that will be the truth. My little 15 month old (hence all the baby food for the pigeon!) loves birds and is fascinated by all the fuss our feathered mate is getting. I want my son to grow up with compassion for all living things and know how to be of assistance to all creatures great and small.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

reg333 said:


> We are giving multigrain baby cereal mixed with baby formula about four times a day from a 1ml dropper, he has about 5 of these followed by water. Is this enough food?


You are going to want to get about twice that amount into him over a days' period of time, so 10mL 4 times a day, with water after each feeding. When you get a chance, if you could post up a photo, this would be helpful. Glad to hear he sounds like he is getting stronger.

Thanks,

Karyn


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

*Pics of Aussie pigeon*

trying to upload pics, not sure if I'm doing it right, have a few of the injuries and the wing that is dropped down.

Ok, a little large! His beak also looks off centre, maybe dislocated?


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

*more pics*

this is of the left wing, it looks like it's been torn at the shoulder joint.


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

left shoulder


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Reg, what you are calling "off center" in his alignment, is something that is refereed to in birds a "scissoring". Would it be possible for you to post a view from the other side and a bit above and straight on. Also, can you very gently open his mouth and see if you see any yellowish/cheesy growths in the mouth area. The scissoring could indeed be from the accident, but I don't want to completely assume anything, so best have a quick look, what you want to see in there is pink tissue, clear of any growths.

Karyn


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

Hi Karyn, had a look inside his mouth, nice and pink, no yellow spots. He looks very healthy apart from the wounds and breaks!


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

reg333 said:


> Hi Karyn, had a look inside his mouth, nice and pink, no yellow spots. He looks very healthy apart from the wounds and breaks!


Well that's good to hear. His beak does not look too badly scissored at this point, but I am unsure whether it could be some localized trauma/swelling that is displacing the beak, not allowing proper alignment, that will resolve in time, or whether it could be something more extensive. I am going to PM Pidgey, to have a look in on this thread to see what he thinks. In the mean time, keep doing what you are doing, and you could also apply a light coat of an antibiotic cream to that shoulder wound for now. How is he walking, by the way..., is there trauma to his legs?

Karyn


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Don't see anything about that wing so far that really worries me (don't read too much into that at this point) but the leg looks funny. I'm going to repost an old one regarding broken legs and how to deal with them:

It's possible to splint a broken leg on any bird with masking tape and it's pretty simple as well--that's what most vets do if it's not too complex of a fracture. You can take a look at this page and study the skeletal drawings to help you figure out the applicable anatomy:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/skeleton.html

In any case, you can roll up a towel into a donut that the bird can settle into the middle of in such a way as to take any pressure off of the leg easily. Sometimes, you can bring them in the house and treat them like the Queen of Sheba with food and water right in front of them and they'll behave pretty well. About the only thing they'll stand up to do is poop and if you dutifully keep that cleaned up and then gently put them back down, they can learn to take it real easy and heal up just like that.

Otherwise, you sometimes have to clip the feathers of the leg closely with scissors and use masking tape to immobilize the leg as shown here:










...and it might come out looking like this:



The break on this bird was high enough on the tibiotarsus that I extended the tape up and over the back to help it immobilize it--otherwise, following the drawings above wouldn't have gone high enough to actually do the job. I clipped all the feathers short where the tape went, too.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Difficult to tell about the beak with him all cleaned up--have to take some clues from your original post--but it sounds like he took a hit to the side of the face, possibly between the commissure of the beak (like the corners of your mouth, where the upper and lower lips meet) and the mouth. There's complex (and very light) structure there that might have gotten broken, including the bone of the lower jaw. It should knit on its own for the most part and I've never heard of a vet doing that kind of maxillofacial jaw surgery so we're just going to have to wait and see on that methinks. Splinting a face doesn't sound "doable" anyhow...

But on the leg, that we can work with and we'll know more about the wing when you post better pictures from above and from the side.

Pidgey


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## reg333 (Apr 24, 2011)

*Sad news*

I'm sorry to have to let everyone know that we couldn't save our lovely pigeon  I did take him to an Avian vet today and we discovered that he had a fractured beak and a very badly fractured left leg, quite high up that had caused permanent nerve damage, he couldn't move or feel his foot at all, and had no circulation going to his leg. The wing could have been fixed, it was the beak and leg. The last 24 hours he went off food, refusing to swallow the cereal so I went back to the rehydrating solution. Last night I held him in my hands while giving Reiki healing, he just relaxed and shut his eyes. This morning I put him outside to get some sunshine and fresh air, he fluffed up and preened which I thought was a good sign. We then went to the vet, I explained that the bird was a pet and I wanted an honest evaluation not based on cost if she felt it had a chance. She would have needed to amputate the left leg high up and crop feed for several weeks due to the condition of the beak, also the bird was in a lot of pain so needed pain killer twice a day. I had to make the tough decision to put our little mate to sleep, feeling this was the kindest thing to do. Very difficult when he had so much spirit. The vet costs would have been around $500 AU for anyone interested in estimates for this kind of treatment. This included the XRays, amputation procedure, crop feeding equipment and feed. My vet was willing to try and save him which meant a lot to me. I hope that he is in a beautiful place and felt some love and care while he was with us. I would do it all again if I found an injured bird or animal. Thankyou so very much for all your help, We know a lot more about these beautiful birds and how peaceful and strong they are.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Reg, I am truly sorry to hear this news and it must have been a very difficult decision for you to have to make, to release this little one from this world. Thanks for caring and giving this little one love, comfort and care, during his final time here with us, and doing all you could for this hurt pigeon.

Karyn


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