# Crop not emptying, emergency!!!



## [email protected] (Sep 14, 2018)

Hello, I found baby pigeon 2 weeks ago, attacked by crow. Vet gave him something since his balance was messed up, and he was great before the day after yesterday. Then he started to have problems with digestion. First day he was having a hard time when pooping. I gave him more water, and he was pooping fine. But he is calm, doesn't walk (he moved only his wings yesterday). Today I noticed his crop is like swollen, mushy a bit, and I can feel grains through it. I suppose I gave him food I shouldn't (some parrot seeds, wet bread and corn flour). I read i should give him apple cider vinegar mixed with water and try to massage him. I did this, now he opens his beak a bit, kind of like he is choking, and i can see wet bread. Please help, is there anything I can do for this little guy?


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Try to get hold of baby applesauce without added sugar. Warm it up a little bit and only feed this to him until he starts producing droppings. Gently massage the crop, but not too hard otherwise food will be pushed back into the mouth. The applesauce will help with digestion. Hopefully it's not too late to safe him. One should never give those foods to a baby pigeon, peas are just so much easier.

He might also be lacking calcium, therefor not moving much.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Marina is right. Those are not food for a baby pigeon. The only thing you ca give him now is the warmed baby applesauce, as she suggested, mixed with a tiny bit of warm water.

You may have aspirated him. You don't feed them again until the crop empties. You are just adding new food to old, and it will sour in the crop. It isn't going through anyway, so no reason to give more food.
How are you feeding him? 
Once the food is moving through again, and he isn't breathing like that, you can feed him frozen peas which have been defrosted and warmed in warm running water. The amount you would give will depend on his size. Can you post a pic of the baby?

If you need to feed peas to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed.


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