# Ok, this time I caught a dove with rapid breathing/diarrhea/dropped wings



## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

Ok I really am getting tired of dealing with these sick birds now, they are coming one after the other. 

This time, one of the feral doves I have been feeding for about 5 years came to my balcony again for his meal. But this time, after he fed himself, he decided to sit on the table in my balcony. He stayed there for at least two hours. I observed his behaviour during this period and for the first time in 5 years I saw him with the tip of his wings dropped below his tail line. He was mostly sleeping during the time he spent on the table. Then when he tried to poop, he had to really sit down, apparently he was having an issue doing it and the droppings were not hard, they were soft and looked like they were broken into little pieces. They are light green in color. not only that, but he also defecated a huge volume of a reddish looking fluid as well. He also was breathing rapidly and with each breath his wings were going up and down. He drank lots of water before leaving.

Today, in the morning he came back to me. He had the same conditions, but the liquid in the droppings were white in color this time. It also looked foamy. So ı went to the pigeon expert again and he gave me a small bottle of oral drops names Hipradoxi-S that contains doxycycline as the active ingredient. Good but the problem is after I gave this to him after capturing him, he started showing respiratory problems like open mouth breathing, making a crackling noise when breathing and such. The guy said it is normal, and I should not give him too much of the medicine next time. Though I am really scared. 

He is in my balcony right now, puffed up, in heavy sleep. His tail has started to move up and down each time he takes a breath and he is breathing heavily. What do you think his condition is and what else can I do to help him.
Thanks.

http://kus.gen.tr/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Kumru-9.jpg this is not the picture of the bird in my balcony but he is of the same species with this one.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Ok so you have mouning type dove. The reddish colour poop could be coccidiosis. If so go back to your pigeon guy and get meds for that as well. Do NOT release the bird go catch him and bring in house in a box in a warm spot. If respitory, then he needs to heal and will have a hard time flying, go get him, and put him in box in warm bathroom. You will have to WARM him first, then hydrate with a bit of water and if you have bit of sugar water or gatorade then give that and make sure the water is warm not cold and not HOT. 
Then leave till morning and do this all again with the meds in the warm water. Hold bird and dip his beak into the cup of warm water and allow him to drink, if he doesnt drink. Dip your finger in the warm water and let drops of water fall into the side of his closed beak and the drops will osmose into his mouth and he will swallow on his own. Then AFTER he is warm and medicated, you can get frozen peas and corn and give him about 20 pieces of both TOTAL only 20, so 10 each and keep warm and quiet and medicate. See how it goes.

The doxy will take care of most bacteria and even if he has ecoli with it or coccidia, you can medicate for coccidia AFTER the respiratory ailment, that is the worst right now. Also have quick look over the bird to see if he is injured from cat or hawk attack, but dont handle this bird till tomorrow to do that as his respiratory heart rate will go up worse when handled too much when stressed.


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

Dude, too late I already followed your suggestion. I captured the bird, warmed it up in my palms, gave him sugared water. Pressed his head into the water for him to drink, and after he drank it, he started making noises. Like something is grinding inside him. He had an open mouth breathing for a while. I put my ear against his back and there were some kind of noises coming from the inside. Now he has calmed down and even then he is making a whizzing sound when he is breathing. I put him in a box, in a warm spot, near the heater.

Should I also give him baytril with doxycycline? Does baytril eliminate the said bacteria in question?
He has no injuries btw.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Lol great, NO, one or the other but not both, I believe they are similar family of drug, go with the baytril for now. Also when u dip the beak make sure u dont dip the nostrils in. And do it for shorter duration so he gets a chance to breath in between. Minimal handling so as not to ramp the heart rate and make sure it is eating. Ya Baytril is a great drug for respiratory. Also not a dude, a lady lol CBL is for crazy bird LADY lol. P.S. GOOD work man. Whats ur name. Mine is Maryann


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

CBL said:


> Lol great, NO, one or the other but not both, I believe they are similar family of drug, go with the baytril for now. Also when u dip the beak make sure u dont dip the nostrils in. And do it for shorter duration so he gets a chance to breath in between. Minimal handling so as not to ramp the heart rate and make sure it is eating. Ya Baytril is a great drug for respiratory. Also not a dude, a lady lol CBL is for crazy bird LADY lol. P.S. GOOD work man. Whats ur name. Mine is Maryann



Whoops, sorry. I should have taken the hint by looking at your avatar. Crazy bird lady sounds much better than crazy cat lady.
My name is Berat. nice to meet you Maryann. And thank you very very much for your responses.

One last thing.
I really can not make up my mind right now. The guy told me to use Doxy for 5 days straight. Should I use Doxy for 4 more days before switching to baytril? Or like you said should I switch to it immediately? I will get the medicine for coccidia later on of course, hopefully everything resolves and I won't need to.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Hang on I will look at my medical book and tell you brb


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

Ok, thank you so much!
By the way, he has a mate actually, a WIFE he hangs out with all the time. He stopped hanging out with her about two months ago, weird. They are not coming together at all anymore. When I captured him early today to check his breathing and give him meds, she didn't even bother. She just fed herself and went away. So much for loyalty.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Ok here is what I would do, stay with the doxy it is fine. But I would re access in the 5 days if still even the slightest bit of breathing noise or heaving, then go for 7 days. Follow with probiotic. I use to say pish tosh for probiotics till it alone was the sole cause of my birds to STOP dying from salmonella, so I am a HUGE advocate of it since I saw a big difference in my birds health.


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

CBL said:


> Ok here is what I would do, stay with the doxy it is fine. But I would re access in the 5 days if still even the slightest bit of breathing noise or heaving, then go for 7 days. Follow with probiotic. I use to say pish tosh for probiotics till it alone was the sole cause of my birds to STOP dying from salmonella, so I am a HUGE advocate of it since I saw a big difference in my birds health.


Thank you so much for the response. I hope he pulls through. He looks very very weak now. Never seen him in such condition. It was only a few weeks ago that he was able to chase off every other dove and pluck their feathers over wheat grains. I will post updates later on with him.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Well when they are sick, they wont want to bother with eachother for breeding. You are gonna keep him inside tho for the duration of meds right. Are you able to post me pics? Also, ya the sugar water will make a dif even by tomorrow.


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

CBL said:


> Well when they are sick, they wont want to bother with eachother for breeding. You are gonna keep him inside tho for the duration of meds right. Are you able to post me pics? Also, ya the sugar water will make a dif even by tomorrow.


Well, he is kind of special to me, I can keep him inside for ever. Yeah He will stay inside with us for the duration of the treatment.
He has been visiting me for around 5 years now. He only goes away during late winter and comes back again with his wife when summer comes.
He is missing a finger and one of his remaining fingers is kind of deformed. His fingernail grew upside down, pointing upwards.
I will post pics tomorrow since it is 00.37 over here and he is fast a sleep and I will be too, soon. I will post one picture I took of him with his wife as well.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Great thanks have a good night


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

Hello again.
Unfortunately, the bird died in my hands this morning.
Nothing needs to be said. I will post a picture with his mate later on in memorandum to him.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Sorry to hear that, I will look for his picture in the memory section.


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## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

I tried creating a memorial section for him, it is waiting for an approval from the mods now. I have attached a picture as well for you to see Maryann. If it doesn't get approved, I'll post the picture under this topic.

It seems I am having a really hard time dealing with his loss. I am replaying his last moments in my mind again and again to see if I missed anything out and I have some questions now. Some things bother me and I gotta know some answers.

After I gave him his medication (Doxy) the bird started showing extreme respiratory problems. He was breathing heavily/rapidly with dropped wings before I gave him the oral drops. IMMEDIATELY after giving him only a couple drops of the medication as the pigeon guy suggested me to do, saliva started coming out of his mouth. The bird didn't move for a while after I put it back down and he started breathing with his mouth open. As I have stated before, he started making clicking/grinding noises when breathing, and to add to that, he started rubbing his eyes on his wings from time to time, like something was blocking his sight and he had to get it out of his eyes. Though his mouth closed back later on, he was opening it from time to time gasping for air, and he sometimes opened it in a similar fashion to yawning while trying to breath. Also, when I captured him at night, warmed him up and gave him sugared water, as soon as he drank it he started making those noises once again and saliva leaked out of his mouth. By the way, he drank lots and lots of water. Before the medication, he did not have such problems such as open mouth breathing and eye rubbing. I can't confirm if he was making noises while breathing before I gave him the drops.

Before the meds, there were only these problems:
Slowed down movements, he wasn't able to pick up the wheat grains in front of him like he used to do (started dropping them from his mouth) , had dropped wings, diarrhea, had trouble defecating as he really had to sit down and push hard, heavy and rapid breathing, sleepiness. 

I also am starting to think that the reddish liquid that came out of him when he pooped the other day may actually be blood. I can't think of anything else.

When he died in the box I put him in, there was too much water in his droppings around him meaning his diarrhea didn't stop at all. Clear saliva poured out of his mouth when I held him in my hands.

The instructions that came with the medicine says that 1 cc of it contains 100mgs of doxycycline. I gave him only a few drops, meaning he wasn't given even 0.1 cc of medication, surely it couldn't be too much, could it? 

What I want to know is, did I do the right 
thing by capturing him? Would he have died if I let him go? Did the medicine trigger some sort of allergic reaction in him? Am I the primary cause for his death basically, is what I want to know.

Thank you for your responses in advance.


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