# Wood pigeon babies with airways infection



## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Hi, I wonder if you could give us some advice please.*

At present (since yesterday afternoon) we are caring for two probably 8 or 9 days old wood pigeon babies, which have been found cold and wet after their nest has been destroyed by rain and storm. They weigh about 66g each now, having lost a little weight over night. They show some laboured breathing, which is stable or at least not worse, since we started Baytril 2.5% yesterday evening. We got the feeling, that their gums are little bit on the blue side, probably due to their infection. Can you please advice us regarding the following questions?*

What would be a healthy weight for a 1 week (8 or 9 days) old woodie?

How much should they put on per day ? They seem to be stressed easily (probably due to their respiratory infection), so no way we could get the recommend 15ml formula into them. At the moment the maximum is about 3-4ml per bird per feed (active feeding, not tube feeding).

As we noticed an elaborate breathing in both (one slightly more than the other), we started with Baytril 2.5%, 0.04 ml twice daily. They only had their second dose this morning, but there is no significant improvement*as yet. Would you recommend a higher dose?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Stephan.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

*Thank you for helping the babies.

Please check this link for advice on caring for baby pigeon you might find some answers there. 

There is also info on rescue centers.

Others with knowledge on woodpigeons will be along to help.

http://www.pigeonrescue.co.uk/caringforababypigeon.htm*


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Many thanks. I have checked this website, and I am now in email contact with Cynthia and Janet. Unfortunately, there is no other rescue on the Isle of Wight, apart from us. Janet found and gave us kindly some data from a couple of years ago, when she raised some Woodies, which gives us at least some idea. The Baytril dose seems to be okay as well, but as it seems, we need to be more patient to give the Baytril a chance to work. The latest update is, that the last feed was a lot better for both of them, which is hopefully a good sign. Thanks again for your advice.


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

I will ask Janet (amyable) to have a look at this thread, I know she was working on gathering the information about quantiy and weifght at one time but can't remember whether that was for dovies or woodies.

How many feeds are you doing a day? You could try the warm defrosted peas, even at that age they suddenly become self feeding if they like what they are given. Also, put a dish of very small seed near them, I had one baby woodie that started to feed himself immediately when he had those little seeds available.

Can you post a photo?

Cynthia


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Sorry Cynthia, I have crossposted here and on FB (email). Please see above. Pictures are on public FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/WightNature

They had three feeds yesterday since they arrived with us (2.00pm), after they have been found the day before by somebody else. And the had four feeds since this morning until now (2.00pm). Last feed was very good and promising. 

I am contact with Janet, who gave us some weight data. 

Many thanks, Stephan.


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

The FB photo album is called 'Cedar and Oak'.


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Sorry, me again. We just discussed again the low weight of the otherwise normally developed appearing bird. Although the finder of the babies was very sure about these babies being Woodies, do you think that those babies could be Collared Doves, as this certainly would explain the low weight?


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## ThePigeonShack (Jun 14, 2012)

they do look like ring neck doves


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

teocallipittz said:


> they do look like ring neck doves


That would be the collared dove here in the UK, right? It would make sense, as they are not as big as I would expect them to be for a Wood Pigeon. And they don't look malnourished at all, as the should be with 66g. A Wood Pigeon should weigh about 125g at this age, according to the figures Janet has kindly provided. 

By the way, here is a brief update, they both had a good meal of about 7ml each, which I would regard as normal for them, not reaching the 15ml per feed as recommended for a Woodie though. The breathing of Oak is almost back to normal, and we think that Cedars breathing has improved as well. Both started the first time begging for food and have occasionally preened. So we hope that they are on the way to get better.


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Just thought I'd update on here too as after finding the data I'd kept on hand reared Collared Doves it would seem far more likely these are in fact doves and not Woodies.
I should have thought to say look for the white edge to the wings that Woodies have!
In fact these maybe older than we thought but are actually a good weight and likely to be around 12 days old.

Good luck with them, they are gorgeous.

Janet


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

amyable said:


> Just thought I'd update on here too as after finding the data I'd kept on hand reared Collared Doves it would seem far more likely these are in fact doves and not Woodies.
> I should have thought to say look for the white edge to the wings that Woodies have!
> In fact these maybe older than we thought but are actually a good weight and likely to be around 12 days old.
> 
> ...


This is great news. Thank you all very much for the advice, and sorry for unintentionally "misleading" you.


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## Birdbabe (Jan 24, 2006)

Thank you for helping them, keep them warm and fed and they should do great. poor liitle guys were probably really cold.


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Definitely collared doves!  Baby woodies have massive banana beaks and even at that age the white wing stripe would already be well formed and visible even when the wing isn't open.


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Feefo said:


> Definitely collared doves!  Baby woodies have massive banana beaks and even at that age the white wing stripe would already be well formed and visible even when the wing isn't open.


Thank you very much. That explaines it al!


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## 12788 (Nov 15, 2008)

Just another brief update. Over night the breathing of Cedar deteriorated again, and Oak got a bit worse as well. We arranged an urgent appointment with the only avian vet here on the island, but sadly Cedar passed away peacefully before we could get to the vet. The vet "scoped" Oak and found Canker at the bottom of the crop, a bit unusual without any other visible signs higher up. This obviously means that the airways are involved as well. He is now on Metronidazol (and Baytril), but as you certainly know, the future is not looking promising when they catch it that early, combined with the stress due to the accident and being wet and cold for how many hours we don't know


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