# Rock Dove with broken wing



## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

Please help me to know what to do. I was walking on the side of the road and saw a Rock Dove that looked like it was struggling to fly. I approached it slowly and it allowed me to pick it up. I was surprised to find it did not try to bite peck or scratch me but instead nestled me and ruffled its neck feathers. I have been giving it water and chopped corn for the past few hours it was starving and ate very feverishly. I want to make a sling for it but don't know how. I've named him Peter and have taking a strong liking to him and I have been singing to him. Is there anything else I should do? How do I mend his wing? Can I keep him? Thanks to any with answers :]


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Hello and thanks for caring.

here is what NOT to do:

Do NOT take him to a Wildlife rescue or care facility. 95% of them just kill Pigeons.

Here are some options on what TO do:

1) Find an Avian vet in your area. This really needs to be done in the next 24 hours, because infection can set in and birds succumb quickly to infection. Take him in, but first make sure they will treat a Feral Pigeon and confirm with them that they agree to allow you to leave with him. Usually not a problem...Avian vets DO wanna get paid, however, so this proposition would have a cost. BUT with a broken bone, really, the best chance to have the limb viable again is to have it set and splinted by a professional Avian vet.

2) If that is a no-go (although again I URGE you to try that option)....then:

~ post a photo of the Pigeon here; try to get a good shot of the injury (go to 'advanced' button below reply window)

~ flush out the wound with tepid tap water 

~ look for any further injury

~ put him in a quiet and warm enclosure (box, cage, pet carrier lined with a towel) and keep in a room or space with an ambient air temperature of at least 75 degrees F or 22 degrees C.

~ nice work on the corn, good call...also try to put some birdseed or whole-grain bread in there with him (her ?)

~ see if you (or anyone in the house or a neighbor or friend) have any antibiotics, either human or pet grade, such as:
Penicillin, Ampicillin, Amoxycillin, Cephalexin, Clavamox, Baytril, Cipro, Enroflaxin, Augmentin, Ceclor, or Trimeth Sulfate.

Some folks here have had (limited and spotty) success with home-splinting, so we may be of some help if we can ascertain the location of teh break and you CANNOT find a real vet. 
IF ultimately your pal does not regain flight ability...YES, you certainly can keep him/her. Since she could not ever be returned to the Feral world, it would be the humane thing to keep her. Heck... I have a whole bunch of unreleasable rescues. They are quite the clan !

Even Ferals can develop into fun pets/companion birds. People have 'em all the time.

Thanks for caring and helping !!!


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## Miss-Sassypants (Sep 25, 2010)

Hi there,
Thank you so much for caring and loving the dove. The bird is truly lucky to have found you.

Jaye has given awesome advice. Please update us on the progress!


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

Ok so I checked my phone book and online for any avian vets in or around my area. I found there is a Binghamton pet clinic whom I called and they said they couldn't help me but they referred me to a woman named Gale who is a wildlife rehabilitation specialist. I called her and left an urgent message on her phone and about an hour ago she called back and told me that judging by the description this pigeon will never fly again. She said I cannot keep it because I don't have a license and said for me to take it to Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton which I am nervous about doing. For some reason the idea of him in a zoo worries me. He won't be able to fly so he may be heckled by the other display birds and he would always be on the dirty ground where all the other birds droppings are and he'd have to constantly enviously watch them fly around while he can't. I just won't do it. As for Peter, he tries to move his wing but to no proper success. His shoulder is an open wound and you can see the bone sticking out. Me and my mom put gauze and alcohol taped to his wing to keep him from becoming infected. We also gave him baby aspirin and some Patato bread. I always stroke his head lightly to comfort him and sing him the Beatles. I have not left his side. I am very worried. I don't want him to become infected or for his wing to become worse.


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Do NOT do what she says. One absolutely does NOT need a license to keep an unreleasable Feral pigeon. If it were a Crow or Jay, yes. But not a Pigeon !

No zoo will keep an unflighted rescued Feral pigeon. Although, you can, just for kicks, call the Zoo and ask them if they do take in rescued, unflighted Feral Pigeons and care for them (food, shelter). If the say 'yes', ask to come over and meet the person so they can show you the Zoo's Pigeon House.

If I were a bettin' man.....there would be no such thing.

This is the problem with Wildlife rescue facilities. They are so damn holier-than-thou when it comes to Ferals.

OK, so...all is not lost. Are there really NO Avian vets within 30 minutes of you ? Binghampton is a pretty large community, I would think there might be one practitioner (?)

If there really is not, then it's time to splint the wing yourself, and treat and help the bird recover.
A busted wing rarely makes a recovery back to flyability, so basically at this point ~ you have a new Pigeon Buddy, for keeps. Hope that is OK with you and your family.

I am gonna go find some online resources for how a bandaged wing should look. The good news is, any bone break on a pigeon (unless the bones are literally crushed) can stabilize due to scar tissue growth mending the whole area back together. Oftentimes not back to 'normal', but certainly back to non-debilitating and non-painful.

Any luck on the antibiotic ? You need to look for these ASAP, this is not a minor thing. This is not something which can be done leisurely over the next couple of days or so. You need the antibiotics real fast, and you need to splint the wing in the next 24 hours, I'd say.

check for more avian vets (use internet search) and I will be back in a while with some splinting ideas.

If anyone else with experience in wing breaks would like to pitch in (ahem...since this thread has already gotten 20+ other views)....please feel free.....


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

OK, so here they come...I will update as I find more. What youa re gonna need, if you can't find another vet, is the kind of bandage wrap which adheres to itself (in other words, you don't want just gauze wrap which you need to apply tape to.

Stuff like this kinda stuff, available at any pharmacy:

http://www.asia.ru/images/target/photo/50676692/Self_Stick_Bandage.jpg

So what you need to do, after flushing the wound clean (will have to hold the wing under gently running tap water, not cold, not hot, for several seconds, then pat dry with a paper towel), is to first make sure the site is not bleeding out (it usually doesn't, for whatever reason). 

If it is, you need to apply pressure with the paper towel and your fingers to staunch the bleeding, make it start to clot up and not bleed.

Next, you want to wrap the wing in it's naturally 'closed' (or non-extended) position, as the Pigeon holds the good wing up against his/her body. You will likely need 2 people, one to hold the Pigeons body still, and one to manipulate the wing and wrap it.
That is how you will wrap it, in the closed position. Once that is done, I would put a piece of gauze (the only gauze you would use) up against the break site, just to cushion it from the bandage wrap which will follow.

http://www.starlingtalk.com/fractures.htm

Take a look at the skeleton at the top of that page. Would you say the break is at the Humerus (connecting to his back) Radius/Ulna (middle section of 'arm' of wing, or Metacarpus (forearm section of wing) ? The wrapping diagram is halfway down the page. Figure 8 pattern, wrapping 2 sections of the wing after it is in it's non-extended position.

Page 14 of this document shows the identical thing:

http://www.blueridgewildlife.org/Articles/Basic Stabilization of Wildlife.pdf

I would suggest after doing the figure-8 wingwrap, you wrap it to the body as noted in the fist link. This will keep him/her from slipping out of the whole thing.

(The only other thing I can suggest would be...do you or anyone you know happen to know a farmer who keeps chickens ? Maybe find out if they have ever splinted a wing before, so they can help you).

Give it you best shot, other novices here have managed. Also, most people would just tell you to kill it. Avoid that advice, and avoid anyone demanding you surrender him/her to somewhere, they are not as caring as you are.


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

Thank you so much for all of this help, it means so much. The break is most definitely in the ulna/radius right at the corner like what I would consider his shoulder blade. Ill post a picture


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

Here he is, poor Peter and his broken wing


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

OK, so...looking at the skeleton in the link:

would you say it is the Ulna/Radius.... or the Humerus bone ? Hard to tell from the pic. 

There are 4 joints between the wing tip and body. If the first joint is from the Pigeon's back to the Humerus, the second joint is from Humerus to Ulna/Radius, third joint is between Ulna/Radius to CaropMetatarsus, fourth joint between Carpo and Phalanges.

From you pic the injury appears to be along the Radius/Ulna, between second and third wing joint.

Would you agree with that ? 
This requires you to look at teh diagram and look at the bird. Also, a photo of the underside of the wing would also help, perhaps not quite as much a close-up as this last pic.

Any luck on antibiotics ?


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

I agree that the break is in the ulna/radius. Most likely the ulna because the radius is more of the outline of the wing and the ulna is more inward which us where the wound is. The underside of his wing is unscathed. Here's a pic of it it looks completely normal to me


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

I also managed to get penicillin from my neighbor but how much do I give him? And how often? I plan to wrap the wing only after he has taken the penicillin so that it isn't as painful for him


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

To give you a dose for penicillin, you will need to weigh the bird. A kitchen scale is a great way to weigh the bird in grams. 
Please...no more aspirin. Aspirin is toxic to birds. No more alcohol to clean the wound. You can make a wound wash with boiled water and salt. Another member will post the recipe for you in a minute. 
Broken bones in birds set very quickly. You can relieve the bird's pain greatly by taping the wing to the body to immobilize it. You need to buy stretchy tape that sticks to itself. You can find it in the first aid section of the drug store. I'll try to find a picture to show you what I'm talking about.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Rather than using alcohol, which burns, you can make a saline solution, by boiling a couple of cups of water with a couple of teaspoons salt for a minute, and let cool. And wash the wound with that.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Here is a wrapped wing, which is held against the body to both hold it in the correct position, and to help to relieve the pain by doing so. When you wrap to the body, you need to go under the crop, and in front of the legs. Not so tight the the bird has trouble breathing. He will try to get it off, and you may have to re-apply over and over..........


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Good advice given above. You have done well so far, except the aspirin, but that should do no harm that one dose. Penicillin will do little for pain. But it is great to prevent infection in the injured area or stop it if it has started.

Do you feel the Pigeon is in pain ? If so, Metacam (aka Meloxicam) is a good painkiller for birds, but it is not available over-counter. It is commonly given to cats and dogs however, so perhaps you can ask around to see if anyone has any onhand. I can perhaps send you some if you PM me with your address.

Crazy injury..it looks like he/she crashed into something or was struck by something. If there can be said to be good news here...it is that damage to the Ulna OR Radius usually has a good chance of stabilizing itself with proper attention because it's the only place on the wing where the undamaged bone can sorta act like a strut for the damaged one. This doesn't mean he/she will fly again, but the chances are greater than if it was a break where the Humerus meets the back or where the Radius/Ulna meet the Metacarpus.

Give us the strength of the Penicillin (usually mg per pill) and someone can tell you how to mix it and dose it.

Is he/she eating at all ?


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

I weighed him he is 12 ounces exactly


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

He loves to eat I've given him Patato bread minced corn and poppy seeds that I rubbed off a few bagels he pecks at them very feverishly I feed him 3 times a day so far he's been with me 2 days and when I eat he eats so we eat at the same time...the penicillin is 200 mg


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

So he is probably around 340 grams or so. A gram scale is more accurate than an oz. scale though.


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

That's a reasonably sized Pidgie.

So, have you wrapped it up yet ?


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

I wrapped his wing just like in the picture you provided he seems to be a lot more relaxed and doesn't ruffle his feathers anymore. I have him some pinicillan not the whole thing only a bit since its 200 mg and for the first time I saw him sleep. He sleeps standing up with his neck in and tilted sideways I think he's doing great


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi. OK, so the pills are 200mg ? A 350g Pigeon would only need about 60-70mg/day, this divided into 2 doses 8-12 hours apart. So each dose would be around 30-35mg.

That would mean a tad less than 1/8 of a pill per dose...if I have that right.

Glad you got the wing wrapped OK. If you feel he/she is still in pain, let us know.

How is the food intake ?


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## Pidgeotalot (Jul 31, 2013)

Thanks for the correct dosage ill make sure he gets that from now on. He eats very well I bought bird seed mix this morning I'm sure he will love this


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Awesome...


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