# sick pigeon/symptoms



## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

I have a sick pigeon with the following symptoms: tuffed feathers, standing still in a squating position, eating little but, drinking lots of water. Any help from anyone on what she has and what I need to do for her?


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Hi Dcollins, 

There are a number of reasons for the condition you describe this pigeon to be in so it's hard for us to diagnos or identify anything specific. Do you have an avian vet you can take the bird to at least for a fecal analysis? 

In the meatime, please keep this bird isolated, warm and quiet. Provide good quality feed and fresh water.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi dcollins387,


What do the poops look like? 

What has this Bird been fed lately?

How is the Bird kept? (Indoors, outdoors, what kind of enclosure or cage and so on...)

Has it been kept with other Birds untill now?


Might help as for some guesses or further questions...


Phil
Las Vegas


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## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

The hen is outdoors in a wire cage. I live in GA and it is hot and we have had a lot of rain. My birds are underneath trees.The poop is dark green and runny. Yes, she was with other birds, but they seem fine. I picked her up yesterday and she threw up just plain water. She just stands, squats. She is drinking alot of water.


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Excessive water drinking can be a symptom of coccidiosis. From the Chevita site: 

Symptoms of the disease:

Acute course:
Visibly affected pigeons produce malodorous, muco-aqueous, greenish and sometimes bloody diarrhoea. They are listless, have puffed-up plumage and drink profusely, with reduced feed intake. 

A lot of rescuers routinely treat new intakes for canker, cocci and worms as do a lot of fanciers. Have you given her any medications for these conditions? You could consider this while seeking a firm diagnosis via tests.

How old is the bird?

Cynthia


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## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

I just checked on my jacobin hen and she is a bit more perky. It is cooler out today. It has been very hot this week. Sure do hope that this just a weather issue.


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## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

I ordered some Medpet EMBAZIN SOULTION from Jedd's yesterday. It is a medicine for coccidiosis. Is coccidisis a contageous thing?


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## pigeonmama (Jan 9, 2005)

Could she be having egg problem ?
Daryl


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## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

She is 1-2 years old. I just wormed her on Sunday.


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## dcollins387 (May 28, 2004)

If it were an egg problem, how could I find out?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, I think the "egg problem" that Daryl is referring to would be "egg binding." You would be able to actually feel an egg-shaped mass back near the tail just in front of the vent.

Was she sick when you wormed her or has this come up since then? What did you worm her with and why?

This "dark green and runny" poop--is it almost BLACK dark green and you can only tell it's dark green by smearing it on paper? And is there a LOT of it or little, tarlike piles? And by "runny" do we mean that there's a LOT of water mixed in ALL the time, or do the poops vary?

I'll tell you why I ask--I recently had a bird that came down with something like that and I ran lab on the poop and the worst of it was that there was mostly gram-negative bacteria (short rods, long rods, cocci, etc.) in it. Now, that probably won't mean much to you but the important thing was I got that bird on Baytril (which goes after gram-negatives) and pumped KAYTEE EXACT HAND FEEDING FORMULA down it because the probiotics in there can also help depopulate the gram negatives while providing nutrition at the same time. And if there's a blockage (vomiting is often a sign of that) it might make it past it.

Can we assume that will help your bird? Not necessarily. Might work but who knows? It takes an awful lot of detailed description, pictures and some true telltale sign (and there aren't many) to diagnose pigeon ailments over the internet and some diagnoses just cannot be made without lab. When you're shooting from the hip you can easily mess around for quite some time with this medicine or that one while the bird continues downhill. That's why when things get serious we usually just say, "get to an avian vet!" It's a tough call to make sometimes because of personal finances, I know.

Anyhow, if you can't get to a vet, can you post pictures of the poop and the bird while you're waiting for the other meds to get there?

Pidgey


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