# Ferals Being Poisoned? (found two dying)



## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

I've been covertly feeding the feral buildings behind my apartment building for years. I go out late at night and throw pigeon seed up on the carport roof. It makes a noise so I have to do it around 3 am when everybody else is asleep. If I don't stay up that late, I'll go out during the day and try to covertly throw it onto the ground near my car (which is isolated so others won't see it).

This morning when I went out to my car the pigeons (who have come to recognize me because sometimes I put seed out in the daytime - they are smart!) ... they were hanging out on the carport roof waiting for me, and a couple flew out from inside the carport. Then one flew out STRAIGHT AT ME. It pretty much flew into my waist, then flopped onto the ground, then drunkenly flew a bit but couldn't aim and ended up on the ground again where it did these grotesque somersaults, unable to control its motor functions. It then crawled under a car. I got a box and put it in the box and took it to Animal Control, which had a tech look at it ... they have transport to a humane society about 20 miles away that does wildlife rehab, but to be honest I thought this one was a goner.

I asked them to test for poison but the clerk said they only test for poison when it's suspected, and this could have been injured flying into a window, or whatever.

I suppose that could have happened. But my batch of pidgies doesn't do that! This one's wings were fine, it seemed undamaged, it just was flopping around drunkenly like it had ingested some neurotoxin or something.

Anyway, tonight I took the dog out for her last pee run, and saw a little lump next to the fence and realized it was a pigeon. I thought it was dead, and didn't want my dog to approach it in case it had been poisoned, so I got the dog into the car and then got a box to put the pigeon in. Then I realized it was still alive. It was lying on its back, and still breathing. I did not want to disturb it because I thought it was dying, so I came back into the building to post this message. I will go back out and put it in the box after it dies.

Now I REALLY suspect poisoning if two birds have been struck ill like this in one day.

There is one pair that have been attempting to nest on a fire escape, they drop twigs through the bars onto the driveway and generally make a mess. There is a young woman who lives in an apartment overlooking that fire escape (the other apartment next to her is vacant). I have been monitoring the nest from the driveway below because I was going to say something to her in case they had eggs...maybe ask her to let me take the eggs away. Well, a couple of days after they made the nest, I looked up and it was gone and there were even more twigs on the driveway pavement. Then a week later, I saw broken eggs. I think the woman is going out there and sweeping the nest off, with any eggs they might lay. I don't mind this because the eggs are extremely new and the embryos haven't developed, and the vacant apartment is being rehabbed, so better to destroy the eggs early rather than later, as would surely happen.

I found a jug of window washer fluid next to a neighbor's car and I threw it away, it was bright blue and I worried that the pigeons might have gotten into it somehow (though it was sealed) ... the one who flew out at me today flew from that exact spot. I looked around for anything the pigeons might have eaten but didn't see anything. There are ledges of course where people might have thrown out poisoned bread, if they are above my head I would not be able to tell.

The only other possibly toxic effect might be that the vacant apartment was occupied until two months ago by a crazy elderly hoarder who never opened her windows, and her apartment was FILLED with mold. The cleanup crew has an air scrubber machine venting to the back of the building. But there's a pair of pigeons who sits on that ledge right under the hose that is venting, and they seem fine.

Is there another explanation, other than poison, for why two birds would die in the same day? They are all healthy and well-fed, at least to my untrained eye.

And of course, they might be ingesting poison elsewhere, not on my immediate property, but since they like to hang out here overnight...they would die on my property.

It's very sad. And I don't know that there's anything I can do about it.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

That is a very sad situation. I don't know what veterinary or laboratory facilities exist where you are, but were that to happen here we would start by send a body to a veterinary laboratory for post mortem to establish the likely cause of death.


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## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

Hi John, I know that the local authorities only perform necropsies if you suspect poisoning, and then I think the animal has to be your pet.

In any event, I went out to see if it had died. It hadn't, so I was going to pick it up anyway and put it in a box so it wouldn't be lying out on the pavement like that, and then I realized that I couldn't lift it up because its head was wedged tightly under the fence between our parking area and the next door neighbor's back yard. All I could see was his neck. I do not know how its head got so tightly wedged. Anyway I couldn't leave it like that, so I went and got a hammer and chisel and thought I would try to pull the board out and slide it over under the next board which had a large gap under it. I swear I felt like I might be doing more harm than good, as I could imagine if I pulled it the wrong way I'd be choking the poor bird.

But luckily the plan worked and I was able to slide it out. I picked it up (in some bubble wrap) and it blinked and looked at me and almost looked alert. So I don't think its throat or neck was damaged, incredibly.

While it had been lying there I got a look at it under the wings and one seemed like it might have been injured. I didn't want to bother it by spreading its wings so I'm not sure.

I had a nice big cardboard box in my car so I held him for a while, he seemed exhausted and was sort of nodding off, eyes closing. I put him in the box on a bed of bubble wrap, and he just lay there on his back, eyes half closed, not moving. 

I didn't leave food or water because he's too far gone for that.

It's 2:30 in the morning here, I will check on him when I wake up and I suspect (nay, hope) he will be dead. He absolutely seems like he is dying and I think it would be best if he didn't linger.

I'm just glad he's safe inside my car in a quiet dark safe space, and not lying with his head and neck twisted under a fence anymore. He has plenty of air, I left a gap at the top of the box.

I hope he is not suffering. I was tempted to wring his neck to save him any pain but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.


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## longlive_pigeon (Aug 17, 2012)

Please refer to the following link
It provides way of saving pgis who have eaten poisonou food, in case if any further poisoning occurrs.


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## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

*Not poisoned!*

Well, knock me over with a feather. When I went down to check on the pigeon, expecting to find him dead, he was standing up in the box looking alert! Unfortunately I think he has a broken wing. 

My choices for treating him are limited. If I take him to Animal Control in San Francisco they will evaluate and maybe send him to the Peninsula Humane Society that does wildlife rehab, but they'll probably put him down. If I take him to WildCare in Marin, they usually put down the birds I bring to them. 

I know a pigeon rehabber in the east bay but that person is a bit difficult to get in touch with. 

So, I'll see what I can do.

I didn't give him water but I put seed in the box (which freaked him out a little, he flopped around and I could see his right wing was not right).


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*I would not rule out Paratyphoid. * GEORGE


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## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

I drove the little guy over to Wild Care in San Rafael this afternoon. I will find out tomorrow whether they have decided to rehab him. From what I have heard, they do not rehab unless they can release him back to the wild. I know that he has trouble with his right wing, I saw a bit of damage when he was on his back (not a huge amount of blood, but it was night, and I didn't have good lighting, and I wasn't about to probe when he was so traumatized). Today I put seed in the box and I think I could hear him pecking away on the drive up to Marin.

The intake person said that he has a malformed beak, overgrown? But seriously if it prevented him eating he would have starved long ago.

I can't believe I left him alone for several hours last night, thinking he was dying of poisoning, when in fact his head was stuck under the fence, poor guy. I think he was in shock and exhausted, so he was just lying there half on his back, breathing, but not moving. I do not know for the life of me how he got his head wedged under there. That is, however, the exact spot where I had put out some seed yesterday so maybe he was reaching for a seed. Still, with the wing damage, I have to think he flew into the fence and then got it wedged, but it almost strains belief, it's such a freaky thing.

Anyway, he was standing up when I went to drive him over to Wild Care, and also when we opened the box.

I asked about sanctuarying him if he can't fly, and I didn't get an answer one way or another, she just said to call tomorrow. I had to sign him over so it's not up to me anymore.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow they will tell me what the diagnosis is/was. 

After all he has gone through I hope he pulls through.

What a resilient little bugger, to be lying with his head wedged under a fence for god knows how long (certainly, hours more after I first found him) and then to be semi-comatose, lying on his back with his eyes half closed, not moving, seemingly near death, and then in the morning to be standing up, and in the afternoon to be eating!

WildCare is moving to a bigger facility in the near future, I read it in their most recent newsletter.


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## longlive_pigeon (Aug 17, 2012)

How relieved. At least it is not poisoning and no more innocent death is goingto follow. I am always fear that poison will take away pgi life in massive scale. Hope your rescue will be fine.


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## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

I called this morning and was pleased that he is still alive. They said that he has an injury to his right wing, and he has head trauma and a severely overgrown beak, and is quite emaciated and weak. They are tube feeding him to strengthen him, they don't think he's well enough for solid food. He's in an incubator, and they are going to try to do xrays today if he is strong enough, so they can get a long-term diagnosis. They think the head trauma is maybe a week old, and the injury to the wing could have been from a predator trying to grab him when he was injured. They don't know of course. But the trauma is maybe consistent with him running into a window. 

I'm happy that he's still alive this morning and that they are going to give him a fighting chance.

What causes an overgrown beak?


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