# I found a pigeon at the side of my road!



## meerkat16 (Jun 21, 2011)

My dad was was walking up to the shops and called me to say he had forgotten his wallet, i ran up to give it to him and as i did i passed a ferrel/wild pigeon sitting at the side of the road. After i had given my dad his wallet i walked back and i found that it's back feathers had been pulled out and you could see its pink flesh. I tried to pick it up but it tried its best to fly away but it couldn't get off the ground, i steared it away from the road and into a bush and ran back home. I grabbed a shoebox and i punched holes in the top, i then ran back and tried my best to get it into the box, it took about five minutes but i finally managed to get it in. 
I then walked speedily (not running as it would scare the pigeon) up the hill to my local vets half a mile away (I live in a sort of vally shaped road and i'm right at the bottom) It seemed very far away when i had a pigeon in a shoebox, it was hard as every so often it flapped about inside and i had to stop it getting out, every so often i released the lid a little to get more air in because i was afraid it would suffocate even with the air holes. I finally reached the vets and told them i had a wild pigeon, then i left to recover. I'm going to check on it later to see if it was ok. If your wondering, i didn't want to take it back home as i didn't want it to run amok in my house and/or drown in my low-to-the-ground pond. If anyone has any similer stories then post them here!


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## meerkat16 (Jun 21, 2011)

Oh by the way i live in England (Southampton) and i'm only a teenager so i didn't want my parents to yell at me for bringing a pigeon home.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Good for you! It is possible the pigeon was young and got caught by a predator, or was ill already which would make it easy for a cat to make a grab at it.

I've had similarly injured pigeons, who recovered after treatment - washing the wound, keeping it moist with antibacterial gel until it healed, giving a course of antibiotics to ward off any infection from being scraped by an animal, and (of course) giving it plenty of rest, food and water. 

At least your find has a chance, which it wouldn't have had if you'd just left it there.


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## meerkat16 (Jun 21, 2011)

Unfortunately i rung up the vets and the had to put it down.  I'm sad but i'm glad i did my bit. I'm a bit cross that i didn't bring it home now as i could have saved its life but it did have quite bad injuries and i would have woken up tomorrow and found it had died... Ah well.... At least i have a story to tell and also there are plenty more fish in the sea.... or pigeons in the sky haha!


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

I rather imagine the vet didn't have to put it down but chose to, because vets aren't usually equipped to look after wildlife for extended periods. In fact, some vets will put pigeons down just because they _are_ pigeons.


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