# help! wild pigeon, with mashed together nostles n more!!!



## seramaspecialis (Aug 1, 2006)

help! we found a wild pigeon in our back garden, and he has a half purp[e beak with most of the edging comming off in a dried blood crust he is very smelly and i believe the smell is comming from his mouth, and looking down his throat theres yellow lumps, or so it seems, about a quarter of the way down. his reflexes on wings and legs are good but he can not fly, though no broken bones. he's awake but looking dazed. he wont eat what should i do, if i take him to a vert there'll put him down, as i live in the cointry and they dont care for pigeons or rabbits.
need replie asap

thanksyou sarah


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## seramaspecialis (Aug 1, 2006)

oph and the most important thing!! you cant find his nostles and chunks of his beak are missing, he is breathing through his mouth and makes a clicky noise when sitting. he doesnt seem to be in any pain, more shock, and he has been like this since the morning, i have savlon and other things i could use i also have food rearing formular for pigeons, maybe this will help?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Don't suppose you could post a picture? Sometimes, they smack into something and the top beak gets folded in and punched literally down through the lower beak. It may even stick out the middle of the chin (for lack of a better word). Could you please check to see if that is the case before we go any further?

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

When that happens, the upper beak actually folds somewhere around the ceres and people have imagined that their upper beak was in fact gone.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

So, what you want to do is open the mouth and see if you can actually look down into the throat, see the tongue and the airway and pretty much something like you see when you open your own mouth in front of a mirror to look at your tonsils when you've got a sore throat. If you can't see any of that, it's probably because the top beak is folded under. There's no way to fix it other than reaching in with something and pulling it back out and popping it in place. There's another recent thread on that and I'll go see if I can find it.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Hello, and thank you for rescuing this pigeon. From your description, your pigeon likely has a disease called trichomoniasis. This is probably one of the top five diseases that can affect pigeons.

For the immediate future, please put the pigeon in a safe area, free from drafts and provide some heat for him. You can use a heating pad, placed under the container/cage he is in to help this. Cover three sides and the top with towels to trap the warmth. Place a towel on top of the heating pad to keep the container bottom from getting too warm. There should be enough room in the container for the bird to move off the heating pad area if he becomes too hot. You can give him seed and water and closely observe how well he is able to eat. If he can not swallow the seed you may have to feed him.

From your description, this is an advanced case of Canker (what we usually call trichomoniasis and personally, I would immediately get this bird to a vet because it sounds like the canker has already eaten away part of the beak. Birds can be treated successfully with medications such as Metronidazole, Ronidazol, Fishzol, Spartrix, etc. Time is of the utmost importance. 

Do you live in the United Kingdom? We have a number of members there who may be able to help you in locating a vet. I will alert Cyro51, one of our most respected rehabbers, to check your thread and possibly help you. Whatever you do, if you take the bird to a vet, do not let them euthanize him without getting back to some of us here. Canker can be cured.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Go here and read this one:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=17318

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Incidentally, Maggie, I was going to get to the trich part but was hoping that it was something more like this, actually. If it's trich and he's lost most of his beak, then it's actually worse. Anyhow, I gotta' go so you work it over on the trich aspect.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Ok Pidgey

I have PM'd Cynthia because by the use of the word "garden" I'm assuming this person lives in the UK.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Yeah, Cynthia's known her before over Dudley. She lives in Hertfordshire, a few miles from the A505:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpost.php?p=147507&postcount=23

Pidgey


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## seramaspecialis (Aug 1, 2006)

thank you for all your replies! just after my last post my mum came back in the house after picking up my sister and she brought a barn owl with a broken wing and the same injurys. so we rushed both to the vets and he unfortunatly put the pigeon down  and told us there was nothing he could do, but the owl may have a chance.
sorry its so sad he was sych a strong lil guy.
thanks again everyone.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

I'm so sorry the pigeon couldn't be saved. Just for future reference about the upper beak being poked through the lower one, here's some pictures of just such a case: http://www.rims.net/2006Oct08/

I was able to push the upper beak back up through the lower one, it popped right into place, and we had a happy ending.

Terry


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

There is an epidemic of canker in the UK at the moment. Collared doves are particularly susceptible.

It sounds as if your pigeon had canker and had suffered a beak injury. 

I am sending you some Spartrix tablets just in case you come across another one that is not so bad. Whenever you find a pigeon on the ground check its mouth for any yellow deposits, if you see them then give one tablet a day for three days. You can crush the tablet and mix it in a bit of water first if the throat seems blocked.

Woodies are difficult to treat but a feral pigeon that was treated for canker last night had half of it clear away this morning with treatment, but it has a long way to go. 

Cynthia


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## BrianNAmy (Nov 2, 2003)

It does sound like that guy was suffering from a canker and *at least* a broken beak. Unfortunately, most vets will do exactly what that one did with the pigeon if you bring one in. First of all, in order to be of any help, they’d have to specialize in avian medicine. Secondly, an injured feral animal that isn’t protected has no home and owner receives even worse care than a homeless person who falls sick on the streets.

The reason the vet took in the barn owl, and will at least make an attempt to treat it, is that the owls are a protected species. By law you wouldn’t be able to keep it, they wouldn’t be allowed to let you walk away with it and they wouldn’t be able to Euthanize it, like they did the pigeon (at least not without a long trail of paperwork). Chances are they’ll give it some first aid and then transfer it to a licensed rehabber (like we’ve gotten called on in the past).

Now, if you took the pigeon in and said “This is my pet, Sparky” and were willing to cover the medical bills, they’d probably treat it the same as any other pet; there’d still be the matter of being an avian vet though.

So you know in the future, Sparrows, Starlings and Pigeons are all non-protected species here in the US. This means you can basically keep them as pets without any legal issues. If you can find an avian vet and find any more of these types of injured birds in the future, you’ll be fairly well equipped to see they get the treatment they need. Short of a vet, you can look up local rehabbers, preferably song bird rehabbers. As long as you’re willing to keep the bird as a family member if it can’t be released, just about either of these types of people can help out.


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