# Can pigeons make you sick?



## Debadoo

I got scolded by my co-workers for picking up this poor little pigeon. Everyone siad they are "disease ridden", etc. Is this true? Could I get sick from the pigeon? I washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap after touching him. Just wanted to check. Thanks!!


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## Pigeonpal2002

Hi Debadoo, 

This is mostly a myth about pigeons. There are *some* things you can get from a pigeon, but the same can be said about almost every animal pratically in regards to transmittable diseases. Most don't cause any serious problems in humans other than mild flu symptoms. You should always wash your hands after handling any wild animal like you have so you are fine.


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## Victor

I probably am put more at risk hand feeding my backyard squirrels! Definetly wash your hands after handling any animal is the best advice.There are probably more germs  on the employee restroom door. Share that with your co-workers!


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## SmithFamilyLoft

Debadoo said:


> I got scolded by my co-workers for picking up this poor little pigeon. Everyone siad they are "disease ridden", etc. Is this true? Could I get sick from the pigeon? I washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap after touching him. Just wanted to check. Thanks!!


 Hello Debadoo,

I know this is not very scienctific, but in all my years, I never once "caught" anything from a pigeon. According to my doctor, I have caught a ton of stuff from people !!!  

So, if you want to stay heathy, stay away from your "disease ridden" co-workers. They can give you a whole list of illnesses. And instead, stay home with some pigeons !


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## Debadoo

SmithFamilyLoft said:


> Hello Debadoo,
> 
> I know this is not very scienctific, but in all my years, I never once "caught" anything from a pigeon. According to my doctor, I have caught a ton of stuff from people !!!
> 
> So, if you want to stay heathy, stay away from your "disease ridden" co-workers. They can give you a whole list of illnesses. And instead, stay home with some pigeons !


haha! Great advice!


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## Birdmom4ever

No, you aren't likely to catch anything from a pigeon. Most diseases carried by feral pigeons are harmful only to pigeons, and the majority of them are pretty healthy. Pigeons are very hardy birds. Just as a side note, we have over 60 pigeons. We routinely give them kisses and have never caught anything from them.


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## Pigeonpal2002

Hi Birdmom....


Your comment about giving "kisses" to your birds I just HAD to address With my two hand reared youngins' I smother them with kisses all the time too, since they are not afraid at all. I have found now, the male is indignant to these adornations....the young hen, well she doesn't seem to mind at this time. 

Also on a side note, I'd like to mention to anyone that has pet birds that if they do "kiss" their birds, please make sure that they are not "wet kisses" or that any of your saliva can come in contact with your birds mouth or mucous membranes. Even us humans have bacteria in our saliva that can potentially hurt our pets. I always "dry kiss" my birds on the head or shoulder but never mouth to beak with wet goobers.


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## winged

ive heard who have had a job cleaning up pigeon poop, who had'nt caught anything


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## Birdmom4ever

Good point, Brad. Yes, I'm careful to give them only dry kisses. But I just can't resist burying my face in those sweet smelling, powdery feathers.  As you say, birds are more at risk from bacteria in our mouths than we are from anything we might get from them.


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## Brooke

I have also saved many wild pigeons and have never caught anything. Besides their flees grossing me out nothing bad has ever come from helping an injured or sick wild pigeon. I was also easily able to rid them of their flees (not the same type that dogs and cats have).


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## Pigeonpal2002

Again, I feel the same way Cathy....LOL. Once I pick up one of the "babies" I'm drawn to their sweet smell and innocent way of being. My male youngster has started to take "offence" to being handled almost. The Hen, well she seems to eat it up and partially closes her eyes while I nuzzle her head with my nose and coo into her ear They are just precious little babies to me. I've been taking them outside lately, onto my front porch to enjoy the fresh air and sights/sounds of the world that they have never known. They both cling to me like sandwich wrap and I LOVE IT The sense of trust is heightened once we go outdoors. They both seem to know instinctively that I'm their provider/protector and it's a very special time that I have with them


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## Victor

*You go boy!*

That is excellent advice Warren.That is pretty much what I wanted to add earlier BUT I was hesitant about doing so thinking it might be considered  "inappropriate"! But if it comes from a Moderator, then I double second that motion!


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## pdpbison

Hi Debadoo,


Washing your hands well with normal Soap and Water and doing so vigorously with lots of friction will do as well or better than less friction and antibacterial Soaps.

Too, overall, if you want to get some really good diseases, handle the Salt Shaker or Ketchup Bottle at any cheap restaurant, then touch your eye, bite a fingernail or touch your mouth. Wet Leprosy, Hepatitis, cholera, you name it, can be obtained much more easily now with so many third world people who came here with no health inspections like the old days. Aids, rhuebella, Whooping Caugh, Diptheria, on and on and on and on, many new resistant strains of Tuberculosis, Staff ( includeing the so called 'flesh eating bacteria') and so on...

Which make wild or feral Pigeons seem mighty clean compared to the realities of domesticated primates colloquially called people-animals.

You could kiss sick Wild Pigeons all day long and end up safer than touching that 'Salt Shaker', public door handle, or anything people touch.

In fact , wash your hands vigorously any time you every touch anything the 'public' has touched, or anything at any pre-school or grade school...

Too, those germs which a Pigeon may have, are opportuning on it's almost certainly compromised immune system from some stress of injury or diet it had been going through. If a person is healthy, the chances of getting anything from the routine handleing of a Pigeon are very low, or more low than getting things from other people, where the germs are those which are suited to our 'cooler' body temperature.

Birds run much higher, some as high as a 105 degreed F.

I think Pigeons run about 104, but I am not sure now.

Anyway, yes, if having touched any Wild animal or domestic one such as a people-animal, do not touch your eyes or mouth, and, wash your hands vigorously with lots of friction as soon as possible.

Phil
el ve


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## feralpigeon

Hi youse,

Just a quick follow up to pdp's post. It is true that scientific studies have shown that it is not whether the soap is antibacterial or not but the actual friction under running water which is getting most of the germs off. Additionally, it is recommended that you include wrists, and lastly the duration
of time....If you sing "happy birthday" as a timer, that would be a good way of timing the wash time.

fp


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## Victor

We are all " flying" behind ya Debadoo, so get a copy of these replies and educate your co-workers !


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## feralpigeon

vdog505 said:


> We are all " flying" behind ya Debadoo, so get a copy of these replies and educate your co-workers !


Actually vdog505,

I've learned alot here myself, and as a result, I promise to stop billing w/my
ferals......  FOR THEIR PROTECTION!!  

fp


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## pdpbison

Hi fp,


Lol...

But...it is true, that young birds especially, can get from us, germs that may or could or will harm them...so it is good we are careful for their sakes and our own.

Our mouths especially, compared to a normal Pigeon mouth, are full of dangerous ( and for us, normal) germs. Likely, a healthy Pigeon's mouth would be among the cleanest in Creaturedom, and the mouths of toothed omniviors, the least. 

I think one of the worst, if the mouth of the famed Gila Monster, whose normal (Lizard's toothless) mouth bacteria is enough to make their bite qualify as 'poisonous'.

Eeeeeeeek!


Phil


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## Birdmom4ever

My first pigeon (since I've been an adult) was Percy, a lost roller hen who bonded to me after recovering from a serious illness and lived in the house for 9 months. She was "sight-mated" to me and would give me kisses whenever I came home. I didn't let her put her beak in my mouth, but she gave me soft pecks all around my mouth and nose and I still remember her pigeon breath. She had the sweetest breath, like new-mown hay on a summer morning, if I may be so poetic. So unlike many mammals...including, unfortunately, my own species. I was struck by how completely wholesome she was in her entire little being. How could anyone call such a creature "filthy," or say that pigeons are "rats with wings" ??!!


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## feralpigeon

Hi Birdmom4ever,

Your poetry comes from a place of knowing and by all means, wax poetic.
DD does the same thing w/me....they are so sweet it is truely unbelievable 
the stigma which has been attached to them as a species by a far dirtier 
species ie our own, the two-legged rats of the universe.  
I cringe every time I hear that term, and many times from people who would
be considered otherwise empathetic human beings.

fp


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## Feefo

> if you want to get some really good diseases, handle the Salt Shaker or Ketchup Bottle at any cheap restaurant, then touch your eye, bite a fingernail or touch your mouth.


Oh, yuk, Phil! I had never thought of that, but you are so right!

And of course handling coins that have been touched by other people (who knows who or what they had touched before?) is much more likely to make you ill than handling a pigeon!

Cynthia


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## pdpbison

Hi Birdmom4ever,


Quite so...

I know also the sweet warmth of their breath as they might preen one's eyebrows or ears. When they are well fed and healthy, their Feathers or themselves wholey, smell like fresh sweet Grain.

I had an adult recovered from mishap Pigeon fall in love with me a long time ago. When I'd get home from an errand, she would fly onto my shoulder and vocalize some little Pigeon idioms and preen my ear a little. She liked being with me whatever I was doing, so she'd nap or sit near or just be there gently interested or interacting. Eventually , curious about what would happen, I started handing her little broom straws and Feathers and slender twigs and so on, they way they hand them to eachother, but for them being in my fingers of course, and she began assembleing them into a nest. But I could go no farther...lol...

Later, she elected to reciprocate the attentions of another lovely Pigeon, which was the offspring of some of my other resident recovered ones who had elected to stay had layed and raised babys, so the two of them then, made a nest and layed eggs and raised happy robust Babys of their own. I would sometimes give them a break in their incubating or keeping the hatchlings warm by offering to put my hand over them, which the usually weary nest sitter, him or her, would be grateful for so they could go off and have some water or poop or stretch their wings and legs, and then come back to sit again after their little break.

The feral Pigeons often have quite trying and difficult Lives, as we know...or it is so here, certainly, anyway, and with decent food and kind environs, become such glowing and charming and gentle creatures, readily socialized, or poised to resume all their wild traits as need be...who sometimes of course squabble among themselves in their way...for the highest nest-box or other claims of privelege or assign, which they work out with their fellows.

Even their poos, when from healthy Birds, have no odor anyone would mind ( unless one let them accrue immodestly, then, well..maybe...!)

Certainly anyone with a loft or Aviary or flight pen, when cleaning up the poos, should be careful not to make dusts or to breathe the dusts. Even the most benign poos of any species will contain a wide range of normal bacteria which one does well not to breathe in as dusts or to injest otherwise, so care and prudence are allways our best guides with this.


Phil


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## lisa1

I have been doing some research and I was trying to find a page and cut and paste it to send you... but while I try and do that, know that you are fine and there are alot of myths about pigeons, mostly from ignorant people. Sure wash your hands, but you are fine. They don't carry diseases, etc. I will try and find that link/page for you...


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## zoo keeper

Birdmom4ever said:


> No, you aren't likely to catch anything from a pigeon. Most diseases carried by feral pigeons are harmful only to pigeons, and the majority of them are pretty healthy. Pigeons are very hardy birds. Just as a side note, we have over 60 pigeons. We routinely give them kisses and have never caught anything from them.



I kiss my birds all the time as well.  Glad to know I am not the only one who hugs and kisses their birds.


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## ComeOnPelican

I got the same thing at my work. There must be a nest on the roof or in the vent of our restaurant because every so o ften a baby pigeon will fall to the lower part of the vent and become a health issue for the restaurant. Before Sunday, they used to either let the porr birds drop to their death or somehow scare them back up. This little guy I saved for almost certain demise and as i was carrying it out the back door everyone says "what are you doing??? you'll get sick!!" I have to tell you. I live in the city, but I have handled MANY wild animals and have not once gotten sick from it. Even when our beloved chicken had newcastle disease, I was sniffle free.


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## re lee

Pigeon breeders lung desease Is one of the only things I know that a person can get. Thats if you over many years clean the loft And inhales the fine dust. You can in a non clean loft perhaps get deseases. But agin You can get that from a real dirty public restroom. Precations for health goes along way. Dust masks while cleaning. And air exchange in the loft.


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## feralpigeon

Here is a good link on pigeon breeders lung;

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=4643&highlight=pigeon+breeders+lung

It is referring to this as an allergic reaction. In this thread, it also refers to a fungal infection seperate from the breeders lung. I also thought that Ornithosis was contractable by humans, 
which I thought was bacterial. Could be wrong here.

fp


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## TAWhatley

*Ornithosis/Chlamydia/Psittacosis*

http://www.chevita.com/tauben/behandlung-englisch/spezificinfections_ornithosis.htm

The titled names for the infection are reportable diseases in the United States. This means if your birds have it .. you might have it, and you need to be tested. Treatment is generally a course of Cipro and all is well for most human(s). This is a nasty bacterial thing that can kill birds by the dozens within a few days. Definitely not anything to mess with. If you suspect this problem in your birds, then get help, and do it immediately. I saw it wipe out almost 100 birds (pigeons and doves) in a 72-96 hour time frame .. and, yes, the owner of the birds had to undergo the obligatory treatment.

Terry


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## Pigeonpal2002

FYI Everyone, 

This disease is called Chlamydia in humans, Psitticosis in parrot type birds and Ornithosis in other birds such as pigeons. Just to clarify why there are so many names for the same disease.


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## cooingsosweetly

*hangingoutwith birds*

some pigeons are hygenig, some are dirty, just like people. that is what i tell them. they are not disease ridden, and when someone makes a comment about a dirty pigeon, i ask them if their pet dog is a dirty dog. no? than the thought that all birds are dirty is ridiculous.


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## feralpigeon

Hi all,

To clarify my earlier message re diseases, the allergic condition is called
Extinsic Allergic Alveolitis. See the above link.
The fungal illness is called Cryptococcal Meningitis;

http://www.thebody.com/pinf/cryptococcosis.html#have

And the bacterial infection would be Ornithosis which Terri and Brad referred to
in their posts and the link Terri provided. 

I don't bring up the illnesses to bum people out, but it seems that awareness is
an important part of avoiding problems. And, ruling out allergic reactions which
can develop at any point in one's life to a source previously not sensitive to, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta does say human contraction of 
_diseases _ from pigeons is rare. As previously mentioned good hygiene
and common sense in handling any animal should be observed, that goes for human to human contact as well. We all still enjoy the animals and humans 
in our lives knowing this.

fp


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## Yaj

Debadoo said:


> I got scolded by my co-workers for picking up this poor little pigeon. Everyone siad they are "disease ridden", etc. Is this true? Could I get sick from the pigeon? I washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap after touching him. Just wanted to check. Thanks!!


I've rescued countless pigeons and the most recent little one has brain damage so I have to get really close and hold her during a seizure. I actually lean my ear against her head in order to stabalise her; she cuddles up to me so close I can feel her eye lid fluttering. I have never come down with anything, and to be honest I don't always have the time to wash my hands well afterwards. And I hand feed her because she cannot hold her head still. I'm more at risk catching things from the people I see who are constantly defumigating themselves because they are terrified of what they are being told will kill them (sure you know to what I'm referring). But basically no, you won't come down with anything horrible; don't keep away from these lovey, funny little creatures...rather keep away from your colleagues who judge before they know the facts.


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