# Hawk attack- ripped crop



## Jules (Nov 28, 2003)

I grabbed a pigeon that a red shouldered hawk grabbed. The hawk cornered himself in my fence and I wouldn't let him pass until he released the bird.
There are several open wounds which I've treated/cleaned with habitor. The main injury is to his crop. I've taken some photos, but there are not the clearest.
http://community.webshots.com/album/516208722SgaGms
I've got him on a heating pad with towels in a box. He's very shocky but surprisingly still alive and alert. I've given him one drop of metacam, but with the crop damage... I'm not sure if it'll get into his system.
How do I mend this? I'm willing to try and I will try and get & upload better close up photos, if someone can "walk" me through it.

Thanks .. Julianne


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi Julianne,


Ooooooo...

Because the outer skin is torn open, and it is hard for me to guess what tears, punctures or injury may have occurred also to his Trachea and Esophagus and Crop proper as distinct from the outer Feathered skin...

I think your best bet would be to get on that 'phone NOW and locate an experienced Avian Vet pronto.

There may be tears in the Bird's esophagus and these might be a pretty easy suture for an experienced practioner. But the internals there will need to be very carefully examined, sluiced out and cleaned, and sutured if need be, and then...the outer skin of the Crop area will need to be sutured closed also.


Also a regimen of Antibiotics should be soon started...but not yet, not untill the Bird has been examined and treated as I describe.

Do not try giving any food or liquids...

Otherwise, make ALL possible haste for this, as time is very much of great import here with this injury.

Keep the Bird "warm"...keep them at about your own Body temperature...use an electric Heating pad if you have one, and set it to medium with two layers of towelling on it and with a third little towell , loosely roll it into a "U" and set the Bird to rest in that nestled shape. You want the part the Bird layes on to be about 100 degrees, so add three layers of towell if it is too hot otherwise...

Tears to their esophagus and Crop proper tend to heal well once properly sutured, but time IS of the essence here, so no delays..! Make haste to find someone able to do the proceedure of flushing and cleaning and proper inspection/evaluation...and sutureing as needed.

If possible, do not permit anaesthesia..but if you feel confident TO do so, INSIST for you to hold the Bird, covering it's head with say the end of a child's cotton sock or something cut off for the purpose, and let the Vet then do their Work with you holding the Bird.

When you hold him, keep his legs back flat against his Tail...keep his head covered...and, he will behave and abide wonderfully that way...

Almost no Vets seem to know how TO hold a Bird so it stays still, so they rely on anaesthesia.

every Bird I ever let them use anasethesis, died, no matter how monir or surviveable the injury was...so, I vowed to NEVER let them do that again no matter what,, and I have not lost one since from it.

This will be the best possible way for the Bird to survive and recover...


Good luck...!

Phil
Las Vegas


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Hi Julianne, 

I really agree with Phil here...you should get this bird to your avian vet ASAP! It looks like there is significant damage done internally other than just the torn skin on the crop. Please don't sit around with the bird like that. Get it to the vet and see what they can do.


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## Jules (Nov 28, 2003)

I've called Earth Rangers. They're the only ones that do wildlife rehab. I've left a message... they should be open and they're usually very good about called right back. Let's hope they do.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Looks in pretty good shape to me, actually. It's good that it's fresh and we need to get it closed within 12 hours if possible. The truth is that the bird is in more danger of getting a bloodborne infection from the puncture wounds from the hawk's talons than it is from the hole in the crop. And, worse, from a vet or rehabber who doesn't want to mess with it.

Now, I can't see if there are any other puncture wounds from that picture. If the crop is the only thing that's actually ripped then you're okay. A needle, some cotton thread and a couple of weeks and you wouldn't believe the difference. Did I mention a prophylactic antibiotic? Yeah, you're gonna' want that. You only know for sure that you needed it if you don't use it and the bird dies of an acute infection. It's a little late then.

Anyhow, the wonderful thing about doing crop injuries is that the crop tends to seem to be stuck to the outer skin. This is because of the fascia--weblike growths of reddish-brown translucent membranes that go from the skin to the organs and act like bungey cords, holding things in place.

So, you need to determine the edges of the actual crop and clean them up with scissors if need be and then sew them together like a seam. You can include the outer skin if it presents itself that way. In the real medical way of doing it, you're supposed to use absorbable sutures to suture the crop separately and then suture the outside skin with whatever you want. If it's been open too long then you can leave the outside open to heal by "second intention".

As it turns out, a lot of racers get wounds like that and their owner's or their owner's wives sew them up all the time and they rarely use special stuff to do it. It really LOOKS bad but when you get down to the cleaning and de-feathering if necessary, it just turns into tedious work. Pigeons are incredibly tough and that bird could live for months with that thing open. It would form a fistula and he'd lose food and water out of it but, believe me, if it weren't for the dangers of other predators, he'd live. Pierpont did for a couple of weeks and only got into trouble BECAUSE of the ripped chest and the damage to the breast muscles.

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=11512

If you email me your email address, I'll email you all the vet manual pages that apply to this sort of thing as long as you still need them. The folks where you're going may take care of it or have the bird PTS.

Pidgey


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## EvilMonkey666 (Dec 1, 2005)

awww poor little guy. I hope he is ok.


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## Birdmom4ever (Jan 14, 2003)

Thank you for saving this poor pij. I've also heard of people sewing up this type of injury with a needle and thread and the pigeon recovered. However it would be best if the bird could see an avian vet who could suture the torn crop and give the bird injectible antibiotics.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

As to some things that came to mind if you're going to do it yourself, stitches only need to be tight enough to do the job. Get them too tight and they will hurt the underlying tissue. The bird won't care much at all when you're stitching the crop. Won't hardly notice, in fact. It's when you stitch the skin that they get a little sensitive. However, it's still better to not put them under a general because you have a greater chance of the bird aspirating things into the airways that you don't want.

You can use a suturing guide online to see how different techniques work. I'd probably go with the horizontal mattress to close the crop as shown here:

http://66.99.255.20/students/acfas/ClinicQuickReferenceGuide.pdf

Pidgey


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## Mistifire (May 27, 2004)

Oh thanks for that link Pidgey, its very interesting. More for me to study in my future (i hope) line of work. If you have any other information that you think may be helpfull for me to study to assist me in being more qualified in getting my vet assistant job I would apreciate it very much.

I always wondered how to keep them from pulling through the skin easy, that makes more sence.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Well, there's a lot of different suturing techniques and they depend on the type and location of wound, not to mention the person doing the stitching. 

In the case of the crop, you're not really worried about them pulling out, rather you're worried about the closure leaking. If you close the inner and outer wound, you REALLY don't want the crop leaking. The actual suture technique shown in the book is a lot more involved than the horizontal mattress and you'd want to use an absorbable suture (of which there are many).

If Jules was going to do it herself with cotton thread, then the overall procedure would be to use a simpler technique and remove them after a few days, then close the outer wound. The outer wound would be wanting to seal up on its own anyway so you'd almost have to keep it from doing it while you waited on the other.

If it turned out that all layers of the wound could be puckered out together and made into a decent sandwich, you could sew them all up at one time and be looking at the edges of the crop showing through like the meat layers of a double(vege)cheeseburger. Then, you wouldn't need to worry about the right kind of sutures or whether it leaked a little bit. That's the cheap and dirty way but it would work although no self-respecting vet would do it.

Pidgey


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