# Crusty, cracked, porous ceres (bumps on beaks) with some crustiness around eyes



## dananarama (Sep 25, 2012)

Hello,

I'm asking again for some advice for someone new to pigeons. After I lost 7 out of 9 of the first pigeons I brought home (two from deaths, the rest flew away after I was assured they would return home because they had never flown), I brought home 16 more on 10/15. A lot, I know, but I want to make sure I have enough that come spring I'll have baby pigis and at the end of it all have at least a dozen or so that will reliably come home from far away. I've kept the new birds separated in temporary housing from the pair I had remaining (which I'm now even MORE attached to) so I could observe them and take care of any disease or parasites before I let them in the loft. 

All of them are bright-eyed, uninjured, energetic, and eat and drink with vigor. However, the ceres (beak bump thingy) on most of them looks dry, porous, sticking out a little, cracked, and just overall a little crusty. Some of the birds have some of this white crustiness around their eyes as well. None of them appears to have anything wrong with either eye, and I've not seen anything like nasal discharge. They don't appear itchy at all, and I've not seen any obvious mites, though you must keep in mind I AM new to all this. 

I've posted a separate thread here that lists a procedure for treating new birds for disease / parasites. Right now I'm at the point where I've observed them for three days (this evening). Here are pictures of them. Is the cere crustiness from a disease or mite (scaly face?), or do they just maybe have some english carrier lineage or somesuch that makes this appearance normal? If it's a problem, will ivermectin take care of this?

Additionally, I have questions about dosing ivermectin in the form of pills called 'avio ekto endo' I got from Jedd's here. I'll post that on a separate thread. Here it is.

Thanks in advance,


Dan


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

I can't tell anything from your pictures. A bumpy cere, can be mite infestation or scaly face.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

I can't tell, either.

To me, they look fine for homers. Some our 'old boys' have the growth way bigger and more gnarly (not the hip-speak kind  ) than young homers.


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## dananarama (Sep 25, 2012)

Thanks for looking. I'll try to get a clearer picture of what I'm talking about.


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## minimonkey (Apr 7, 2005)

First off, so sorry to hear about your losses with the first round of birds  

I agree that these birds look fine, inasmuch as I can tell anything from the pictures. If you can get a closeup, that would be good. 

I'm no expert on homers -- I have one that I acquired as a rescue, and her cere (beak bump thingy, lol!) is a lot bigger than it is on any of my other pigeons ... it has a slightly rough appearance to it as well. It is definitely getting larger as she ages.

I hope you have much better luck with these pigeons than you did with the first ones ... they're good looking birds.


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