# Help me help him...



## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

Ok, right, I'm new here...

So I live in France and I'm pretty sure no one will help me take care of this little chap, so it's going to have to be all me I'm afraid. 

I found him at the side of the road, wings tucked in, as far as I can see no blood. He had his eyes closed but opened them when I picked him up. He didn't struggle much when I picked him up, so that's a bad sign, but then again, I didn't expect him to move at all. 

I'm really not very good at this on my own, I'm too scared to hurt him more by examining him for his injuries. 

I've made him some of the water sugar solution but he's not drinking and I'm a bit scared to just put his beak in the water...(again don't want to freak him out) ...so I put some on the end of a cotton bud and dabbed it on his open beak...

He's sat in a little open suitcase on a hot water bottle (not too hot)

And!!! I found in my cupboard some of the antibiotics that is mentioned as being good ( in date and everything)...but how the hell to give it to the poor beast?? I have 1g tablets, so that means just a little crumb of the the tablet, right? 

Right now I'm looking at him, he's got his eyes closed, he does keep moving a bit every now and then...good sign? 

Thanks in advance for any helpful advise and please respond quickly because I don't want him to slip away while I'm flapping on what to do.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

can you post a picture of the bird, this may be a young bird that has not learned to eat on his own yet..or it may not be..a picture of any droppings would be good as well.


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

spirit wings said:


> can you post a picture of the bird, this may be a young bird that has not learned to eat on his own yet..or it may not be..a picture of any droppings would be good as well.


Yes I can try...but I've seen young pigeons before and I'm pretty sure he's an adult. In the last few minutes he's started moving more, but still not drank anything.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

frog pigeon said:


> Yes I can try...but I've seen young pigeons before and I'm pretty sure he's an adult. In the last few minutes he's started moving more, but still not drank anything.


after they feather out and are getting out of the nest they look just like an an adult.. you can try to tell if they are young by how developed the cere is above the beak.


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

spirit wings said:


> after they feather out and are getting out of the nest the look just like an an adult.. you can try to tell if they are young by how developed the cere is above the beak.


Ok, so yes maybe he's a young'un still...I've taken pictures I'm just trying to figure out how to show you them now...they're on my computer via blue tooth? jeez I'm crap!! Sorry... give me a mo.


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

Hope this works???


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

looks like an adult..but kind of hard to see .. broad spectrum anitibiotic would be in order as we don't know what is his illness is.. not sure what you have there but it may beable to be crushed and put in a syrup or water and force fed... hope someone can tell you how much soon as he looks like he needs it now.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I pm'ed Karyn to see if she can help you.


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

The last photo is it's pooh, which I'm happy he's even been able to pooh... sorry for the poor quality, but the light isn't too good and I didn't want to shove a light in his face.... so?


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

Another face shot there...sorry again for the bad quality. And that's the size of the pill...1g


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Need to know what type of antibiotic. Yes, looks to be an adult, looks in pretty bad shape, but we will try. Can you guide his beak into some re-hydration fluids (to 250mL of water add, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon baking soda aka bicarbonate of soda). make it tepid. Here's how to guide his beak:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpost.php?p=522565&postcount=11

Karyn


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

Thank you...In your opinion shall I try to give him some of the antibiotics before waiting for maybe hours for another reply? It says on the info 1/4 of a 50mg tablet per 100g of pigeon...My tablet is 1g!! so that's just a tiny little bit of it.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

frog pigeon said:


> Thank you...In your opinion shall I try to give him some of the antibiotics before waiting for maybe hours for another reply? It says on the info 1/4 of a 50mg tablet per 100g of pigeon...My tablet is 1g!! so that's just a tiny little bit of it.


Again, before advising on dosing I need to know what type of antibiotic it is, for example, is it Ciprofloxacin, Augmentin, Septra and so on, this is very important, the type/kind, it should be on the pill bottle.

Karyn


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

It's written Amoxicilline mylan. I'm going to try to guild his beak now...(oh please work) Thank you for you time and advise it's really kind.


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## frog pigeon (Oct 18, 2011)

Oh ****...he's slipping away from me... :*( I can't get him to drink!  he just shakes his head when I try to do that guiding thing...It's not working...Please someone help me...this is horrible, I feel so helpless.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

frog pigeon said:


> It's written Amoxicilline mylan. I'm going to try to guild his beak now...(oh please work) Thank you for you time and advise it's really kind.


OK, that's what I needed. You need to crush this pill up into as very fine a powder as you can, I use a shot-glass and a round end kitchen knife. Once ground up I want you to add 10mL of honey to the powder (this is 2 teaspoons, but you must use a cooking teaspoon), stir this in well, cover and let sit 20 minutes and you will have a 10% Amoxicillin suspension to dose with, 100mg/mL.

Ideally, you would have a 1cc syringe, the kind without an attached needle to give the medicine, but for for now you can use an eye dropper and give him 6 drops of the suspension, this will be 0.30cc on a 1cc syringe.

When you are giving him his meds, since you are handling him, you can do a few things, give him a good look over for wounds injuries/scratches and also open his mouth, have a look inside, and see if you see any yellowish cheesy growths.

Also, since he is not drinking, and from the look of his dropping, we need to get him hydrated, you can do this by wrapping him in a small towel, place him in you lap (you can give the meds this way as well) make sure his head is tilted down and slowly dribble the hydration fluid to the side of his beak, a drop or two at a time (to give meds open beak and place once drop at a time and let him tongue down each drop). In each 1mL there are about 20 drops and we want to get 5-7mL into him, so you need to take your time and try and have him drink 100-140 drops, until drinking on his own, he needs this 3-4 times a day. Will worry about food later, hydration and meds right now.

Also, we may need to change/add to the meds, can you buy drugs there without a problem?

Karyn


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