# Help !!!



## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

There has been a Pigeon in my garden since 8 am this morning, it's now 4pm.. it seems to have hurt it's wing, i've tried feeding it and giving it water but it's not touching it.

The weather is quite hot here so ive moved it into my shed where its warmer, now its just sitting there, I'm about to put it into a box now if I have to keep it for longer... i'm afraid it might die  it looks quite old.

There were also one or two flies sitting on it before, which doesnt look like a good sign...

Here's some pics I took of it with my digi cam.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Yes, definitely bring the bird in. Is that an injury I see on the top of the head? That's an unusual color for a pigeon .. might it be some type of dove? If you can advise where you are located perhaps we can find some assistance for you and the bird. Something is definitely amiss.

Welcome to Pigeon-Talk and thank you for helping the bird.

Terry


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

It doesn't look quite like a pigeon.
Where are you located? We might have members in your area who could be close enough to help.
Please keep the bird warm and if you have a syringe or eyedropper you can give him some water, don't force any food in him for now. 
If you notice the bird gets stressed when you handle it, leave him be for now.
Place the box with food and water in a quiet and semi-dark area.
He might be too stressed or too young to eat.

Reti


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm in the UK, Birmingham, England. Its like 25 degrees today and its real warm in the shed I left the door open a little and now its walking around, I left some water and bread there, it's hasn’t touched all that and is now pecking at the grass


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

We have several members in the UK, maybe one of them is close to you.
You can private email John or Cynthia or wait until they log on and see your post. They will know what kind of bird you have and how to care for it.

Reti


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, he's definitely young--look at the base of the nostril ceres, they haven't filled in with pin feathers yet. He's probably sick, starved and hurt. Has he drank any water at all? He might not know how!

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Reti said:


> We have several members in the UK, maybe one of them is close to you.
> You can private email John or Cynthia or wait until they log on and see your post. They will know what kind of bird you have and how to care for it.
> 
> Reti


Ok thanks

It's just sitting in the grass now



Pidgey said:


> Well, he's definitely young--look at the base of the nostril ceres, they haven't filled in with pin feathers yet. He's probably sick, starved and hurt. Has he drank any water at all? He might not know how!
> 
> Pidgey


No it has not


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Okay, let's try this first--let's see if we can get some water down him. Get a cup or bowl and get it at least an inch deep of water. Holding him still, push his beak down into the water about halfway. See if that gets him started drinking.

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Hey I put some water into a bottle cap up to it's beak, and it's drank like nearly two caps full then it wouldnt drink anymore.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Some of the things that we need to get specific on:

The fly on his beak--see if you can smell an odor of rot around him.

The head--I enhanced the image and it looks like Terry may be right, is that a wound with dried blood on top of his head? It doesn't look mortal but he may have the sense knocked out of him.

Also, can you feel his breastbone (keel, like on a boat) and see if it protrudes a lot or is there enough breast muscle that it's fairly rounded?

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Yeah I was looking at its head earlier but can't see much there.
There’s definitely a problem with it's left wing it was just trying to flap its wings just now and it was falling all over the place, but it is walking around a lot more now.

No I can't smell anything

Edit : Actually there is a little mark towards the left side of its head, I think it might flown into something.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, let's keep him quiet in a box with just water and some papers in it if possible for now and see how he recovers in the near term. We'll have to address the wing in a little while. 

Can you go ahead and feel the breast to see how fleshed out he is? The wing can be actually hurt and it can droop because of really low energy supplies--their left wings often do that when they're almost starved and what not.

The reason why we want to get him quiet in a box is because he'll just continue to burn precious energy while trying to find safety by almost blinding walking around. All he knows is that he needs to "get out of here" but he's not sure where "here" is or where the "there" that he's looking for should be. That's not necessarily the case but it's likely. We'll need to assess that in more detail. 

You also might try putting some bird seed in front of him and see what he does with it if you have some. But I think you've got a real young "squeaker" here that might not know what to eat--he knows he NEEDS to eat, he might just not know what. The injury on his head might have come from a peck from another pigeon that didn't want the competition and he hasn't grown assertive enough to fight back yet.

Thanks for all you've done so far!

I've got to go run an errand for a couple of hours--there's several others who can help.

Pidgey


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

That is a young woodpigeon. 

Please check it over very, very carefully for fly eggs, particularly at the base of the feathers on the wings and on the tail. I didn't check a dove carefully enough last week and it errupted with maggots. If that happens you have to pick them all off with tweezers.

You will also need to open its beak and look inside its mouth to see if there are any cheesy yellow deposits. That is canker, let us know what you see.

To feed it defrost peas and frozen corn (don't use tinned stuff), make thenm into a paste, open its beak gently and push the food to the back of the throat. Aim for about a tablespoon.

We have another member in Birmingham who rescued a wood pigeon recently. Maybe she will be able to help you. I will e-mail her.

Cynthia


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Carole is near Birmingham but "no e-mail". Can one of the moderators contact her?

Cynthia


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Have sent her an email. She's on IM, but not online now

John


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

cyro51 said:


> nker, let us know what you see.
> 
> To feed it defrost peas and frozen corn (don't use tinned stuff), make thenm into a paste, open its beak gently and push the food to the back of the throat. Aim for about a tablespoon.
> 
> Cynthia


I tried but it wont eat it, i'm getting worried about it now, I don't want it to starve.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

They don't usually starve that fast. Did you ever feel the keel or breastbone to see how prominent it is?

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Also, it's probably not going to eat willingly from you--these birds don't work that way. Usually, what we have to do is hold the bird somehow (it's easy to roll them up in a towel so that only their head sticks out) and force feed him very gently. 

He's not going to want to open his beak for you and so you have to open it with fingers of one hand and hold it open with the fingers of the other hand while putting small amounts of food in and letting him swallow each one separately. You can do this pea by pea, corn kernel by corn kernel, or paste ball by paste ball.

It takes a little time but it works.

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

I fealt it, its seems ok.. sticking out a little


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Pidgey said:


> Also, it's probably not going to eat willingly from you--these birds don't work that way. Usually, what we have to do is hold the bird somehow (it's easy to roll them up in a towel so that only their head sticks out) and force feed him very gently.
> 
> He's not going to want to open his beak for you and so you have to open it with fingers of one hand and hold it open with the fingers of the other hand while putting small amounts of food in and letting him swallow each one separately. You can do this pea by pea, corn kernel by corn kernel, or paste ball by paste ball.
> 
> ...


I'll try now again


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, I see that he's good at splashing water. You might want to put the water right up to a corner and change the papers out. What we're looking for, though, is a poop sample on as clean of paper as possible. You might want to keep an eye on how much of your attachment memory you're burning up as well--at this rate you may burn all the picture memory allowed for your lifetime in one thread.

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Oh

Yeah I took that out now...

Hey a little good news, I fed it 6 peas and sweet corn pieces, I opened its beak again and it ate them.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Hey, great start! You'll be a pro in no time! If you'll go back a bit, one of the other posts (from one of our UK members who knows this variety of pigeon WAY better than I do) said to get about a tablespoon down. That's a good idea as these little fellows eat about that much maybe two or three times a day at this age. It seems to me from prior posts that I've read about wood pigeons, they're a bit different than the feral pigeons that we all feed in city parks. You really need to get in a real good conversation with Cynthia (cyro51) and John_D who have already posted on this thread.

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Yeah i've been reading this

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/archive/index.php/t-9249.html


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi PigeonBoy,

Welcome....here is another good thread discussing wood pigeons:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=10543

To find more threads concerning wood pigeons, go to the Search option at the top of the page and type in "Woodies" and many previous threads concerning wood pigeons will come up.

Hopefully, as Pidgey says, John D or Cynthia will be along to advise soon, if it is not getting too late by you.

Good luck,
Linda


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

It's good that you know how to use forum functions so well--that'll help you a lot.

What's generally not said very plainly though is that you can OVERfuss about the bird and keep it stressed. At the best it's not going to accept you for two or three days. It's not likely to die of dehydration and starvation tonight due to what you've already done. It can certainly pass away from internal injuries and such but we'll just have to wait and see on that.

You might want to review something about broken bones with pictures--it's not all that it needs to be in the diagnosis department but go to the very first page (www.pigeons.com) and click on the Emergency Care and Treatment link on the lower left. When that page comes up, read down to the applicable one on broken wings and click on that. You're going to have to look for obvious swelling, wounds, hard lumps--that sort of thing. If you can't find anything then don't do anything but continue to observe.

Pidgey


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

Bad news guys, I don't know if it's tired or what I hope it is, but it's head has gone back and it seems that it can't get up... I don’t know if it will make it till the morning. 

I've put a blanket in the box too keep it warm with food, and i'll keep checking on it through the night... but I don't know.


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

It's dead....


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Poor baby. I am so sorry.

Cynthia


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## PiGe0n-B0Y (Jul 15, 2005)

I can't believe it died so quick, when I thought it might be getting better


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Sadly this can happen with wood pigeons.

They are much, much more difficut to deal with than feral pigeons. Some will die of a heart attack just as a result of an adrenaline rush caused by being handled while others will survive being torn up by a cat or dog and having their injuries dressed by the dreaded humans. They are adorable and unpredictable.

When they are ill, injured or just unable to feed themselves we have to risk the handling rather than letting them die. 

Without your help it would probably have died at the hands of a predator. It was a lucky little pigeon to find a safe haven with you.

Cynthia


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