# Pigeons acting "crazy", please help.



## Tirsa (Jul 13, 2012)

Hi, I have a pigeon loft outside with round about 60 tumbler pigeons. Lately some of them has been acting really weird, they cant fly, when they try to eat their neck jerks back-sometimes throwing them over on their backs. I have never seen this before. A the same time I have others that looks ill one day and I find them dead the next. I have noticed they have either growths on their legs, or it also looks like dry blood on a wound, one has lost all his toes after getting these bumps, he also has the jerking symptoms. I do not know where to turn to, all of them have a special place with me. PLEASE if you have any ideas i would appreciate it. I live in south Africa, north west province.


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## abluechipstock (Nov 26, 2010)

PMV or paratyphoid


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

The first and most sensible idea would be to get them to a vet who is familiar with avian illnesses. Get one there, get dropping samples for analysis. I realise of course that not everyone has access to a suitably experienced vet.

Tossing seed over the shoulder, so to speak, is one common symptom of pigeon paramyxovirus. Something similar, though more of a stretching of the neck and head going somewhat back, can be caused by canker.

The 'lumps' are not symptoms of either. Swellings on leg and wing joints are a classic symptom of Paratyphoid. Lumps or boils on other unfeathered parts are more a sign of avian pox.

Neither pox nor PMV are directly treatable, as they are viruses. Paratyphoid and canker can be treated.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

This is a resource section about PMV, but I would not care to say on the basis of one possible symptom if this is one of the problems


http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f107/pigeon-paramyxovirus-aka-pmv-ppmv-pmv1-pigeon-12250.html

This gives brief information about other possibilities


http://www.pigeon-aid.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=160


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