# paralyzed and ill pigeon...urgent help needed!!!!



## sandy123 (Dec 19, 2015)

I found a pigeon and at first it seemed fine but for past 4-5 days his health is continuously dropping. 

first his legs got paralyzed followed by green watery poop. also he can't eat properly and open its beak while breathing. there is not vet shop in our town.. please tell me what to do.i have no experience with birds of any kind.

i am trying to keep it hydrate and feed him. also i am keeping it warm as much as possible.

please help soon.can't see him die


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Is there any way you can get him to an avian vet? Or if you could post a picture of him and hopes droppings maybe someone can give suggestions here. Thank you for helping him.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

From your description it would be just guessing to try to decide what illnesses it is, unfortunately. Is this a full grown pigeon or a baby/young one?

Is there a pharmacy, even if no vet?


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## sandy123 (Dec 19, 2015)

it's a full grown pigeon...

from threads present on this website and other resources i am guessing he has paratyphoid? i have started using amoxicillin course.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Hope he us on the road to recovery soon.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If he is not eating, then you need to hand feed him. If he is open beak breathing then may have something respiratory going on. What is he eating and how much? Drinking? If he isn't eating for that many days, that would cause him to get weaker. 
Can you post pics of bird and droppings?


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## sandy123 (Dec 19, 2015)

he is eating fine but i don't know what is the normal water intake of pigeons? 
i am feeding him pearl millet (known as bajra in my area) and bread. he got weak but em hand feeding him to compensate the weakness.
i will post the pics soon


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

You need to leave a crock of water with him 24/7 that he can reach.


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## sandy123 (Dec 19, 2015)

i have uploaded the images... kindly reply soon


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## kunju (Mar 14, 2012)

I would suggest to treat for canker along with the antibiotics. Canker is not always visible, but you can check if he has whitish growths inside his mouth. Keep up the hand feeding. You need to feed till the crop is full, yet soft and mushy. 3-4 feedings daily.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

sandy123 said:


> he is eating fine but i don't know what is the normal water intake of pigeons?
> i am feeding him pearl millet (known as bajra in my area) and bread. he got weak but em hand feeding him to compensate the weakness.
> i will post the pics soon


Stop giving bread, it can block the gissard. Three pigeons died to me when I begin giving them bread.

The aqueous condition of droppings is a sign of an enteritis, an infection of the bowel. Such bird needs liquid food, it's perforated bowel can't digere solid food. 

The paralysis of the leg can be caused by lack of calcium or by coccidiosis, which can be responsible of enteritis as well. In either case, administration of calcium and D3 vitamin for several days is necessary.

For coccidiosis, beside some coccidiostatic medicine, vitamin A is necessary to rebuilt the neuronal transmitters of the olimbs, destroyed by the germ.

There is a type of product at vet drug stores, that contains the vitamins A, D3 and E, which you can buy and use.


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## Whytpigeon (Sep 14, 2015)

sandy123 said:


> i have uploaded the images... kindly reply soon


He is one sick under weight pigeon. But you already know that. Hopefully you have the right medication or antibiotic other wise your killing good bacteria as well which can disrupt his digestive tract. A broad spectrum antibiotic may be more helpful when doing the guessing game. I would treat for canker as well and follow up with probiotics, if you can get them. Unsalted raw peanuts crushed up in pieces could get some weight on him I would add it to his feed. After a few weeks I would deworm him and follow the directions of the dewormer exactly.


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## sandy123 (Dec 19, 2015)

what is the treatment for canker? 
can anyone prescribe some home remedies for his illness as he is weak and antibiotics have their side effects. it is also risky to use too much medicines 
also i should do the 5 days antibiotic course or continue the medicine until he recovers?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Antibiotics should go 10 days, anyway, and Metronidazole is good for canker. 50 mg once daily for 7 to 10 days.
You are not going to cure this bird with home remedies.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Lovely bird! Thank you for taking care of him.


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## superflyer (Sep 13, 2008)

Hi Sandy, is the leg paralysis gone? Most often leg paralysis is caused by Paratyphoid also called (Salmonella infection). Usually if a pigeon has leg paralysis the pigeon should be given the antibiotic Baytril, Baytril has other names like Enroflaxin. You can put drops of 10% BAYTRIL OR ENROFLAXIN on the tongue one by one letting the bird swallow each drop. The head should be pointed down when you place the drops on the tongue. Vets medicate down the throat but an inexperienced person can easily drown a bird this way. Usually it is best to dose heavy at the start. 2 to 4 drops of 10% percent solution depending on the size of the pigeon. And dose twice a day if needed. Two doses are needed if the bird appears to be rapidly declining or close to being on the way out.Hulled sesame seeds have lots of calcium they are very good for sick birds and paralysis. I have seen pigeons cured of Paratyphoid and leg Paralysis with one or two doses and seen a bird that needed 10 days of drugs. I highly recommend discontinuing drug therapy after the symptoms are gone but you need to closely monitor the food intake, weight gain and poop.Raw egg is the best food for birds that don't eat that have suffered digestive tract damage from bacteria or parasites Very often bacterial and parasitic stress happens at the same time It is good to briefly treat for both and tube feed small meals of raw egg during recovery if your bird is not eating. Pickle juice and apple cider vinegar have probiotics. Probiotics are also packaged and sold on the web. I have a jar of ProBios. I augment the raw egg with probiotics, sunflower seed oil, OR peanut oil, powdered whole wheat, honey, baby food very fine pea mush. I add these at things to the raw egg depending on the stage of recovery. Drops of oil are good at the start they keep things moving. The digestive tract is often swollen, constricted or blocked. Food can kill, it takes energy to digest and if the body is incapable of passing or processing the food it will do no good. Food can also interfere with healing of the digestive tract and kidneys. Nutrients are needed to heal and live though. When, what and how much to feed are critical decisions. Since your bird is eating you don't need to tube feed raw egg.You could feed gently cooked egg. Egg is super easy to digest and it has lots of energy. Hens often eat their own eggs when depleted. Raw egg must be tube fed with a syringe and flexible rubber tube. I like to tube feed multiple small meals. Each meal between 4 to 7 cc. 

Judging by the picture Jay has given vital advice. Keep a cup of fresh water handy at all times. Your bird needs a lot of water because his systems have been damaged. Pigeons
can live a long time drinking a lot and making watery poop. The main things to look for are
weight gain and mobility.


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## Whytpigeon (Sep 14, 2015)

sandy123 said:


> what is the treatment for canker?
> can anyone prescribe some home remedies for his illness as he is weak and antibiotics have their side effects. it is also risky to use too much medicines
> also i should do the 5 days antibiotic course or continue the medicine until he recovers?


Your home care would consist of using a heating pad to keep him warm and dipping his beak in a small cup of water so he drinks, if he is eating that is good if not then he needs to be force fed or hand fed. 

Hopefully a member that is in you're country or close to it will speak up and give advice on getting medications, that is if it's not too late. I say the bird does not have much time if I were to guess. But that is just from that one picture.


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## superflyer (Sep 13, 2008)

The normal body temperature of an adult pigeon is 109 degrees F. Extra care must be taken when using heating pads and lamps when a pigeon cannot move away when too hot. Very thin pigeons succumb quickly to excess heat when their keel bone is in full contact with a heat pad turned up a little too high. Since this bird has leg paralysis. I suggest a heavy towel on top of the heat pad. I use both a heat pad and a lamp with a 65 watt flood bulb. Do not use LED lights they do not produce adequate heat. If in a hot environment heat pads and lamps are not so needed. Caution must be taken with heat pads and lamps they can start fires and kill by making a bird too hot but they life savers.

Adult pigeons can smell and see water. They know what it is. You don't need to stress the bird by forcing it's beak into a cup of water. Touching the beak to water is a good practice for an orphaned yungster that has never seen or tasted water.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

Do the droppings of the pigeon have a strong, unpleasantful smell? They look like wet canker droppings to me, but that doesn't explain leg paralysis. 

The paralysis may be caused by depletion of calcium so you should start giving calcium, 40 mg daily for 5-7 days, then a 1-2 pause and again. You can buy from human drugstore tablets containing both calcium and D3, like this one, which is in 600 mg tablets, so if you buy something similar, you should give daily a 15th part of such a tablet:












I have some tablets containing 500 mg and I give daily a little less than a 10th part of a tablet.


Calcium + D3 should be given regularly to pigeons, even if they don't display leg problems, but in smaller amount than the mentioned dose. Food, even the best one, doesn't contain the necessary amount of calcium. If the bird stay longer in direct sun, D3 vitamin is not necessary, only calcium. Also, vitamins (B and A especially) should be given regularly, as wellk as other minerals than calcium. Probiotics are very helpful for keeping the bird immune to diseases and have a good digestion. You ideally would put daily probiotics in the drinking water.


Very important for your paralysed pigeon, beside calcium cure, you should make *gymnastics* to the legs of the pigeon, to *prevent apparition of ankylosis*, or joint stiffening. If joints are not moved for some time, they start to lose their elasticity and end by hardening, leaving the bird disabled for life. It happened to one pigeon of mine, which if would received such gymnastic, could been saved but now is condemned to stay on her belly all her life. So you should flex and straighten the legs for few times each day, even if the bird doesn't move them at all or feel anything.





A cause of paralysis which I met at four pigeons (including the one I mentioned) is related to coccidiosis. It can be the cause of your pigeon too, though coccidiosis usually manifests through a dark bluish-green color of droppings and a bad & weird smell of them, which seems is not the cause with yours, though is not excluded to be coccidiosis and not canker (in some situations, coccidia can cause yellowish droppings). From the four pigeons, three of these pigeons were found on streets with bad coccidiosis and the legs paralysed. One was received by me relatively healthy but aquired coccidiosis in my house (which is infested with this germ) and at some point started to not step on a leg at all. My vet told me at the first case I met that coccidia destroy the cover of neurotransmitters of the limbs and that this can be remedied by giving A vitamin. I administered A vitamin to that pigeon, without giving calcium at that time, and she mostly recovered. Other pigeon recently recovered as well (still limping but probably will completely heal). Other escaped before healing and the fourth is the one remained paralysed because of ankylosis.


So in the case of your pigeon, I think is the best of giving both calcium & D3 and A vitamin. A vitamin should NOT be given for no more than 3-5 days, than 1-2 weeks pause.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

superflyer said:


> Most often leg paralysis is caused by Paratyphoid also called (Salmonella infection). Usually if a pigeon has leg paralysis the pigeon should be given the antibiotic Baytril, Baytril has other names like Enroflaxin.


You speak about infectious arthritis, infection & inflamation of articulations. I think is not the case with this pigeon, as such affection is accompanied by pain and swelling, which the thread opener didn't mention.


And speaking about arthritis, in Romania lab tests at the main vet drug factory have revealed the main cause is not salmonella, in 95% of cases the pathogen was staphyloccocus bacterium. And probably this is the situation everywhere.

This is important, as staphyloccus has a low susceptibility to Baytril and other frequently used antibiotics. According to a specialist at the same drug factory, the best drug for arthritis is phosphomycine, as has the smallest molecule, able to pass through the thick articular capsule (read the page in the same link indicated above).


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

superflyer said:


> The normal body temperature of an adult pigeon is 109 degrees F. Extra care must be taken when using heating pads and lamps when a pigeon cannot move away when too hot. Very thin pigeons succumb quickly to excess heat when their keel bone is in full contact with a heat pad turned up a little too high. Since this bird has leg paralysis. I suggest a heavy towel on top of the heat pad. I use both a heat pad and a lamp with a 65 watt flood bulb. Do not use LED lights they do not produce adequate heat. If in a hot environment heat pads and lamps are not so needed. Caution must be taken with heat pads and lamps they can start fires and kill by making a bird too hot but they life savers.
> 
> Adult pigeons can smell and see water. They know what it is. You don't need to stress the bird by forcing it's beak into a cup of water. Touching the beak to water is a good practice for an orphaned yungster that has never seen or tasted water.



In using a heating pad, it should only be set on LOW, and covered with a layer of towel. I usually set it up so that they can get off if they want to. 
And dipping the beak in water is sometimes helpful if he isn't drinking. Even an adult bird who knows how, sometimes won't when ill. But if you put it in front of him, or gently dip the beak, then they often will drink.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

AndreiS said:


> You speak about infectious arthritis, infection & inflamation of articulations. I think is not the case with this pigeon, as such affection is accompanied by pain and swelling, which the thread opener didn't mention.
> 
> 
> And speaking about arthritis, in Romania lab tests at the main vet drug factory have revealed the main cause is not salmonella, in 95% of cases the pathogen was staphyloccocus bacterium. And probably this is the situation everywhere.
> ...



There are many things that can cause the stiffness in the legs. Without tests to find out the cause, hard to know.


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## Whytpigeon (Sep 14, 2015)

I guess it didn't make it ???


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

Jay3 said:


> There are many things that can cause the stiffness in the legs. Without tests to find out the cause, hard to know.


Let's make a little term clarification.
Stiffening can occur only in articulations. Incapacity of movement of limbs can be owed, beside stiffness or ankylosis, by fractures, lack of calcium, destruction of neuronal transmitters.


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