# pigeon with severe head injury



## LurchingElf (Mar 11, 2016)

Hi!
Im new here. to be exact i found your forums while i was looking for a solution for my pigeon, not sure if i would have found remotely appropriate advice just by searching trough the threads, but since every case is different i think its best if i tell my exact case.
I found 3 days ago a pigeon in a bush hiding on the ground near my apartment building at night. i picked it up since it seemed disoriented beyond being sleepy(since it did not pay attention to my dogs sniffing for it). as further examining it in light i noticed a head injury on it, i thought maybe it got beaked by another bird. so i decided to bring him home(i dont know its gender, but i came to refer to it as a male). i put him in a papered out carton box and put him near the heater, since i thought he must have been cooled out sitting on the ground in 6'C. probably was a bad idea, but i was unaware that its not good idea to heat them up when head injuries are involved, and most importantly i tough that his wound would be just a flesh wound.
but it wasn't. as he warmed up it started to look better so i gave some seed and water to the box, but he did not touch it on the first day, i tough he is just scared and distrustful, so wanted to give him time, since the wound was already closed with dried blood when i found him, i tough he should be okay after he gets comfortable and starts eating. 
But by the end on the first day, about 16-18 hours after finding him, his head have swollen up, like seriously! i could feel liquids under his skin, the wound was on the right back side of his head, bit above and to the back to his ear, roughly in the same hight as his eye. around the wound on the back and on the whole right side the swelling have occurred, his eyelids around the right eye also swollen, and some dried on blood seemed to have glued them shut tight. also his mood was really passive, he was hardly moving at all, he was mostly sitting or laying on the belly slightly tilting his body to the side.
Thinking that the swell must be pressuring his head, (and since it was past 20 so medical help was out of question) i decided to cut off some of its feathers around the wound that were glued together with blood, so that i can see the wound better, and as revealing the wound i tried to make small incision to let the excess blood down, quite a lot of blood came out compared to how tiny a pigeon is, it was even a bit foamy at some point, try to gently squeeze it out of the swollen areas, and after that i washed it out with saline solution. after clearing the wound i noticed that the slightly triangle shaped wound does not stop at the surface(skin), but seem to have matching indentation on the hard white-ish texture(bone-skull) under it also. and as i was gently squeezing out the blood (then saline) from the right side facial area, i felt the face moving and weird loose way. my hunch is that the skull has a circular fracture originating from point of trauma running all the way to the beak above the right ear and eye. after cleaning the wound i applied sterilisation on the exterior and i smeared it with a small amount(steroid type) anti-inflammation cream(human purpose one, but only a little), after that i bandaged it up but tried to be as light as possible so that the bandage will not obstruct his breathing, after i put him back to the box, he was just standing there holding his head high up, i think i felt weird from the bandage blocking his sight.
in the morning (about 8 hour later), i tried to give it some water from a syringe, but had trouble swallowing with the bandage on, so i took off the bandage off and gave it drink, but not food yet since the wound is not completely closed, it was still seeping a bit of blood, and i did not want to accidentally apply pressure on it with forcing his mouth open for feeding.
i put him back to rest, and tried to give him drink ever 4-6 hours. throughout the second day he started becoming a bit more alert but he gradually started to develop a repetitive motion of turning his head to the left slowly then suddenly pulling it back. looked like a broken wind-up toy. by the evening it started to look concerning, he was also walking around in circles, like he is drunk and unable to keep his balance. judging the location of the wound, probably one of his balancing organs behind his right hear was heavily damaged or even entirely destroyed. also in the evening his head started to swell up again but during the drinking he put up a bit of a fight and he opened up his wound accidentally, so i squeezed out bit more blood and let it dry in on its own. since then the blood did not recollect and there was not significant swelling and the wound dried in and haven't opened up.
but his behaviour have gotten worse. the head turning from right to left have changed to down to up, which caused him to flap around uncontrollably because as he reaches up perking his like looking to the sky, he looses balance and starts to flap around in distress. i decided to tie his wings to his side gently so that he wont injure himself while flapping around in confusion, and positioning him near the edge of the box seems to help him to stay calm for a short while, but he keeps somehow slipping up from the light ties, and ends up fluttering. during early morning and also around 16(afternoon) today he was having some trembling of the head. during the time i give him drink or food he is more flat down while handling, there head twitchings and tremblings and head tilting upwards come like fits, seizures, if i hold against with finger gently to prevent him reaching critical hight, then he doest try to flap around and regains focus after a few second. today i manage to force feed him twice, but only a little. i choose small breadcrumbs soaked in water before feeding, and only a small amount.(in the neighbourhood people are feeding feral pigeons with bread, so i guessed that is what he is most familiar with) i am not sure how well he would tolerate seeds, since he is pretty young, still has the fluff in the tip of his feathers. but i was planning on trying to switch to that soon. generally throughout the day he became more energetic, the food seemed to helped a bit but his balance is seriously concerning me.
he is starting to open up and use his right eye again, except his head injury, he seemed to be entirely unharmed on his body, wings decent, legs perfect, his tail feathers are still in growing state come had quills on it, maybe a bit malnourished but seem okay in general. due to the head injury, his tail feathers and belly feathers are dirty, suggesting he have spent at least a day in the ground before i found him but nothing that cannot be maintained. 
my main concern is will he ever be able to recover enough to live a painfree life, with at least decent amount of balance to sustain a sitting position on a rod? i know that probably will never recover his balance enough to learn to fly, therefore will not be able to live free. but if i could provide him with an at least acceptable life that would be good. but i certainly don't want to prolong his suffering he will surely not be able recover.
as for professional help, i am hesitant about it. im somewhat short of funds. and feral pigeons are not really considered as animals worth saving here in the eastern side of Europe, so im am not sure if the vet would not just say that its better to put it down without really even checking it. and i am not in the financial position either to insist on surgery to save him on my own expenses. so i would really appreciate if a specialist vet could read trough my description and suggest if there is a point going all the way and spending all that money to save him, or is he a lost case to begin with.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Its never a lost cause unless they are actually dead, so keep him comfortable warm and well hydrated. Well fed. If he is young, he could have had many different things happen, another adult bird beat him, or hit by car, or animal attack, no matter the point is to now continue supportive care. Hydration was key, should have and can now still give electrolyte fluids via syringe or mouth or soak his bread in a bit of sugar water, warm sugar water. Feed this bird 4 times a day and pictures would help greatly. Being that he is young and the degree of injury, if just external, he will recover, if internal, he can still recover if kept quiet and somewhat dark and calm. IF you can get two good feeds into him thats fine or 4 smaller ones. You can google CBL and Beanie or how to feed a pigeons that wont eat and look at how I feed the grey one little handfuls of seeds in the mouth, IF the bird has no swelling or obstruction at this point and can swallow your bread, you may try some seeds, alternatively, thaw frozen peas and corn in WARM water and then feed one at a time as you see me do with the peanuts in the video, about 20 to 30 per feeding twice a day will be just fine.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

*Keeping the bird warm is good, but not on the wound/blunt trauma area itself.

Please do not make any incisions or cuts in the youngster, this should only be done by an avian vet.

The bird needs antibiotics, and pain killers. 

If you want to help stabilize this bird please make sure he is eating enough. Try peas and/corn it is less stressful on bird. Also, add a good calcium/D3 supplement to the diet is necessary since this is still a young bird.

http://www.pigeonrescue.co.uk/peasandcorn.htm 

For healing of blunt trauma to head you can use a homeopathic called arnica montana, it helps reduce swelling, bruising and cleans up the blood, especially when used the first few days of injury. I have used it on bird and have seen noticeable and faster healing. *


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

If the wound has swollen so much, there is a serious bacterial infection there. As in such cases oral antibiotics are sometimes not strong enough, I would ask a vet to give the bird a shot with the antibiotic called Lincomycin - Spectinomycin, or at least with Enrofloxacin. 

From my experience, Linco-Spectino is an extraordinary efficient drug, it saves the bird if sepsis was not installed and gone too far, because I have to say, *such infections advance fast toward sepsis and sudden death can occur unexpectedly. So is not time to lose*.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Thank you for helping the poor bird! Pigeons are tough. Our dearest Phoebe pigeon was nearly decapitated and had a broken wing but with help recovered a great deal and lived with us for eight happy years.


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## AndreiS (Jul 28, 2013)

Bird needs urgently an antibiotic, as such infections evolve fastly toward sepsis and death. If possible, give injectable antibiotics as are stronger.


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