# Rescuer Needed in SF, CA



## Elizabethy (Sep 25, 2007)

*UPDATED Rescuer Needed in SF, CA*

7/22/08 This king pigeon at the San Francisco ACC shelter needs a foster home (or adopter) and vet care to amputate an injured toe. This bird is at high risk for euthanasia. If you can help, either with a donation towards vet care or as a foster or adopter, please contact Elizabeth at [email protected] ASAP.


----------



## Dezirrae (Oct 6, 2007)

Hi Elizabeth - I just sent you an email... though I'm too far away to help with fostering/adopting I'd be happy to send a donation toward the vet care. Bless you for all you do to help these poor king's! Dez


----------



## Elizabethy (Sep 25, 2007)

*Donation Info*

Hello-

Here's a link to Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue's new division, MickaCoo, and the info about how to help-

http://www.mickaboo.org/mickacoo.html

How can I sponsor a bird?
That's easy! Just send an email to [email protected]. Tell us:

-Which bird you would like to sponsor, or if you would like to sponsor the bird of a particular species in greatest need, the bird of any species in greatest need.

-Your sponsorship amount and how you would like to donate: check, credit card, or PayPal. 

-If you would like to be acknowledged on our website and how: first and last name, first name and last initial, first name only - city and state added to any of these.


----------



## Elizabethy (Sep 25, 2007)

*Update*

Thank you all so much! We've gotten several donations towards vet care and promises of more if needed. We have a foster standing by and I've picked up the pigeon from SF ACC. 

I don't know that toe-amputation is going to fix this- the entire foot and leg is swollen from infection (pictures attached). He may just need some debrieding and a good course of antibiotics. He's a young bird, still squeaking when scared, and looks OK otherwise. He's eating and pooing and has been started on antibiotics and pain medication. He's had two foot soaks in warm salt water and is resting comfortably in his basket under the heat lamp. He goes to the vet tomorrow morning.

He is, of course, precious. This stuff is very hard and eats up time and money and energy and I keep thinking I can't keep doing this and then I think I can't stop doing this. I REALLY appreciate each and everyone of your help. Without it, this bird, named Gatsby by a shelter volunteer, would have been euthanized.

I'll update you all when I get the vet's feedback.


----------



## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

Thank you Elizabeth, and everyone who helped pay for it.  If the foster family is unable to keep him after he is recovered, he would do well with my birds as some of them are disabled. I could put him in the little aviary with the "gentle" birds and doves. Just let me know.


----------



## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Thanks yet again, Elizabeth, and to those who have offered to donate to the Gatsby cause! IMO .. that leg/foot will respond well to antibiotics and soaks in warm Epsom Salts water. Hopefully there won't have to be a big surgery bill.

Terry


----------



## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

I meant to add that I think antibiotics will help that poor leg, too. I once had a pigeon with very thin fishing string (not line, string that is used to tie bait on a hook) wrapped around all of her toes very tightly. Some toes were black. Her legs were both swollen and red and angry-looking. After we took off the string and soaked her feet in warm water, put on plenty of neosporin, and within a few days some of the toes had fallen off but the infection was way down. This was one of my first pigeons seven years ago and I did not have access or means to get oral antibiotics, so this pigeon should do even better, hopefully.  Pierre came out of it with a few toes that returned to healthy pink toes, and had no ill effects otherwise with balance or anything.


----------



## Dezirrae (Oct 6, 2007)

So glad he's out of the shelter - and thank you Elizabeth for picking him up & caring for him! Such an adorable piji too... hope the swelling goes down soon.


----------



## Elizabethy (Sep 25, 2007)

*Update 7/28*

Gatsby was a very sweet (and feisty) guest at my place and is now at his MickaCoo Foster Home with PT's very own Jaye. 

His visit to the vet on 7/25 revealed that left leg was swollen due to a fractured ankle. He received a shot of baytril and continues on a course of cipro & ibuprofen (for pain and inflammation). He got 3x daily soaks in epsom salts and put up with all this nonsense with only a few wingslaps and beaky bites. 

Gatsby is a wonderful young bird who escaped the butcher, survived alone on the streets and was saved from euthanasia by generous people from Pigeon Talk and MickaCoo (a new division of Mickaboo) who opened their wallets and their homes to him. I know he appreciates it.


----------



## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

Hi Elizabeth,

Woo hoo! I was surfing the forum and saw your post, that you are in San Francisco, as am I, so I clicked on it and was tempted to rescue him (despite my apartment full of cats!) but I see from subsequent posts that he has been fostered. He's such a pretty boy!

I'm curious, when you say he escaped the butcher, what do you mean?

Does WildCare in Marin ever step in to help these pigeons? I have brought several injured feral birds up to them (mostly pigeons, but also some others) and they have not been able to save any of them. I comforted myself knowing they had a painless death, at least.


----------



## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

SerendipityCA said:


> Hi Elizabeth,
> 
> Woo hoo! I was surfing the forum and saw your post, that you are in San Francisco, as am I, so I clicked on it and was tempted to rescue him (despite my apartment full of cats!) but I see from subsequent posts that he has been fostered. He's such a pretty boy!
> 
> ...


I think he was going to be dinner.


----------



## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

SerendipityCA said:


> Hi Elizabeth,
> 
> Woo hoo! I was surfing the forum and saw your post, that you are in San Francisco, as am I, so I clicked on it and was tempted to rescue him (despite my apartment full of cats!) but I see from subsequent posts that he has been fostered. He's such a pretty boy!
> 
> ...


fp here....King pigeons were originally bred as "food" pigeons, least that's 
my understanding, so I think that's what Elizabethy meant by "escaping the
butcher". Wildcare does take in pigeons and does so for the area, their 
criteria being that the bird has to be releasable after caring for the bird. They will perform surgery and sometimes even bring some of the ferals to
Dr. Speer in Oakley who is ranked as third in the world among avian veterinarian surgeons and is also licensed in Europe as well as the United States. So the ferals do get needed care..... the "but" in the 
equation is that if the bird is still unreleasable they will euthanize the bird
and will not allow the bird to be placed in a home for the remainder of the
bird's life as an unreleasable. 

Montclair vet hospital will perform surgery there at their facility and will allow
for the feral to be placed if unreleasable after care. The other vet in the
area who won't euthanize unless a real "quality of life issue" is present
is Dr. Schuckman in Castro Valley. I try and spread the birds around and
base the choice on what's happening w/the bird and where they will fare best. 

fp


----------



## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

That's great to hear!! 

Yes, we have "live animal markets" in San Francisco where many animals and all kinds of birds are sold. A lot of the birds that end up at shelters such as SFACC come from the markets, either escaped, or bought by some kind person and turned in to the shelter in hopes of giving it better life. One of my dearest pigeons, Leonardo, was indeed meant to be a "meat pigeon", and ended up bought by a woman who didn't want to see him eaten. He definitely prefers this life.


----------



## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

That's good to know, about the area vets, and WildCare.

Yesterday I was coming back from a memorial service for my own mother when I saw a dead pigeon in my driveway (it runs the length of my building back to the carport area). I posted about this on another thread in the "Feral Pigeons" forum. I stopped because I didn't want to run over its body, put on my hazards and saw a pickup truck turning into the driveway behind me so I waved him off but he just sat there, so I went back to talk to him. I said "someone hit and killed a pigeon in the driveway and I don't want to drive over it so I'm going to get a bag to pick it up. You can go in the other driveway" (there are two). 

This guy's expression never changed, he didn't say a word, he just backed up and went around. When i came out with the bag he had already parked, and was walking back down the driveway. He passed the pigeon's body then walked past me without speaking, and this time he didn't make eye contact. It was a bit creepy.

The bird had been partly eviscerated, with seeds spilled out of its mouth (the seeds I had fed it and its buddies in the back area). I picked it up and washed off the blood under it, and the bloodstain about a foot away as well.

Then, I checked the bumpers of the cars in the carport, and the only one with a stain on the front bumper was the guy's pickup truck who had just come in. And, he parks in the space at the exact end of the driveway, facing out, and the stain on his bumper was in a direct line with the pigeon's body. He probably hit it on his way out, and was coming back when I saw him. I took a damp white cotton puff ball and swabbed the stain on his bumper, and one above it, and they both showed red on the swab.

I thought about it overnight and just felt so angry at this guy. So, I printed out a big note that said: 

"THERE WERE TWO

BLOODSTAINS ON

YOUR LEFT FRONT

BUMPER. I WIPED

THEM OFF SO I

WOULDN’T HAVE

TO LOOK AT THEM."

Then I printed out your "21 things you didn't know about pigeons" and stuck them under his windshield wiper.

A**hole!


----------



## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

I know how you felt, Serendipity, and I'm glad you found a way to 
deal w/the situation that you were comfortable with. 

fp


----------



## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Kudos to you, personally, Elizabeth, and to all the wonderful folks at Mickaboo. I doubt that the members here really have any idea of just how many pigeons and doves this cockatiel rescue has saved over the past few years .. it's awesome and greatly appreciated!

Terry

PS: Now .. please try to get them going on domestic/exotic ducks in Nor Cal


----------



## Elizabethy (Sep 25, 2007)

Yeah, that will be the MickaMoo division!


----------



## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

Elizabethy, there is another pigeon friendly resource in the general area here
that I don't believe is listed in the Resource Section. That would be Ohlone
Humane Society: Wildlife Rehabilitation and they are open Spring, Summer and
Fall....closed for the winter. They do accept pigeons and if the bird is
evaluated as unreleasable at the end of the rehabbing care, David will call and
allow you to come and pick the bird up so that it doesn't end up PTS.

Here's a link for Ohlone:

http://ohlonehumanesociety.org/animal/shelter/programs/wildlife_rehabilitation

fp


----------



## Ivor (May 12, 2008)

I don't post very often, but Charis told me about Gatsby, and by Charis I met Elizabeth, I'm glad you are in the area and help all these birds especially pigeons.

The last picture that I received from his foster family, looks healthier and very good looking, I love it.

Thank you Elizabeth and George you guys are wonderful!!


----------



## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Ivor said:


> I don't post very often, but Charis told me about Gatsby, and by Charis I met Elizabeth, I'm glad you are in the area and help all these birds especially pigeons.
> 
> The last picture that I received from his foster family, looks healthier and very good looking, I love it.
> 
> Thank you Elizabeth and George you guys are wonderful!!


They are definitely wonderful!


----------



## Ivor (May 12, 2008)

Thank you Charis, because I knew about Gatsby for you.. I know you are not in SF but you help all over the places... you are also a very special person here.


----------



## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

Ivor said:


> Thank you Charis, because I knew about Gatsby for you..
> 
> * *I know you are not in SF but you help all over the places...
> 
> ** you are also a very special person here*.


* I don't know of anyone who travels more than Charis, *by phone*, to find rehabbers, vets, or just about any contact that our members need.  Her success rate is incredible.  

** *And* extremely valuable. 

Cindy


----------

