# HELP! Injured Mourning Dove!



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

Hi, my grandfather found an injured mourning dove in his garden. it is a female, we know because it laid an egg while he had it (Probably infertile) and he brought it to me because I have a lot of pets. All of her tail is missing and a large portion of her left wing is gone. She is in a large cage that he had. I have some reptile carpeting and tree bark hides to put on the bottom (She cannot fly) some vine ropes to put up for her and some hay. for food, I have some mullet, crickets without back legs so they cant hop out, and whatever bird seed my grandfather had. He said she had been eating uncooked rice for the last 2 days he has had her so there is some of that. I was wondering if this set up is ok, and what else should I do for her. I haven't touched her yet and haven't put in the supplies, in case some isn't right. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know what I can do to make her comfortable until she can be released, or even IF she can be released.
Thank you!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi and thanks for caring.

OK, *first of all...is there any sign of blood *or scabs or skin tears or anything like that ?

IF SO, she/he needs antibiotics immediately...and really needs to see an avian vet if you can find one. ASAP. If not , you need antibiotics. Do you have any ? pet or human grade ? Penicillin, Cipro, Baytril Enroflaxin, Augmentin, Cephalexin, Trimeth Sulpha, Ampicillin, Ceclor, Amoxycillin...anything ?

Next, *post a photo* or several, please. 

Next, *when you say a large portion of the wing is 'gone'*...do you mean feathers ? Or was actually part of the wing torn off (i.e. bones and all) ???

I don't believe Mourning Doves eat insects, *so stop it with the crickets*. Wild birdseed mix is OK.

*Keep her/him in a very warm environment.*..talking 75-80 degrees F ambient air temperature 24 hrs.day.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

I hadn't taken her out of the cage last night, I wanted to do some research first, but I went to put in the items I gathered for her and was able to get her out and look a the wing and tail. There are no cuts or skin injuries where the tail is, just the feathers are gone, but the wing is in rough shape. It looks like it was ripped off just below the shoulder, bone and all, so no more flying, which means she probably can't be released. I cleaned off the area and it is all scabbed over and has started healing. I don't know how long she had been injured, but my grandfather found her 3 days ago and brought her to me last night. I will see if I have the antibiotics listed, or if I can find someone who does. I am in the process of moving, so I'm a little strapped for cash. she is warm, I live in south Florida and I have her on a shaded portion of a covered porch. She is eating well, she ate a handful of little black and brown birdseed. I am not sure what kind it is, my grandfather has been keeping the seed in an old pepper jar. I have millet in there, but I haven't seen her eat it yet. She poops. A lot. And it looks good, Not runny, white urates. This is the first time I've owned a bird, I have reptiles(lizards snakes, ect.) and guinea pigs, a cat and a dog. I will get some pics up, BUt she doesn't let me hold her for long, and I don't want to stress her out too much.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

can I put Neosporin on the wing? I know it's fine to put it on injured reptiles, but I don't know about birds.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

I have Trimeth Sulpha and in tablets, should I dissolve them in water? or grind them up and put them on her food? What is the best way?


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

*Angio...if there is an Avian Vet anywhere near you, get the Dove to that vet fast. * Tell them he/she is your pet, not a wild Dove.

If this is impossible.....read teh following posts carefully. 

~ *Trimeth will work OK, yes. *But you are going to have to either administer it orally, in a divided pill form or with plastic syringe diluted in water.

I do not know the exact dosage for trimeth, though. I will go try to find it for you.

You have t get the meds into him immediately, ASAP...there is only a 24-48 hour window after an attack to get the meds started. If he/she doesn't get the Trimeth started, he/she will likely die pretty quickly. Let's see what we can do, and do our best.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

OK, found it !.....with a 50mg/ml suspension the Dove needs .1cc twice daily.

So that means a Dove needs 2 doses of 5-7mg of Trimeth Sulpha daily.

(just talking to myself up to this point, here are the instructions):

I do not know what strength each pill is which you have. It should say how many mg each pill is.

1) If you feel you can divide/cut up the pill into a piece which is gonna be about 5-7mg (i.e. if the pills are 25mg/pill, then you give 1/5-1/4 of a pill)....do that. Wrap the Dove in a towel so only her/his head sticks out, hold him, and with the fingers of the free hand gently hold the head steady and pry open the beak, drop the pill into his mouth, towards the back of the mouth, and close the beak.

2) ....if the pills are too large a concentration (I dunno what you have again, maybe it is a 200mg or 500mg tablet in which case it would be impossible to cut up the pill into 5-7mg bits, for example) then you need to crush the whole pill and dissolve it in warm water to make a 50mg/ml solution.

For this you need a plastic syringe or eyedropper, either 1cc (1ml, same thing), 5cc (5ml) volume. Pet store or even a pharmacy should have those.

Do your math...you need to make a 50mg/ml liquid. So if the pill is 500mg, then you need to dissolve it in 10cc (or 10 ml) of water. If the pill is 250mg, then dissolve it in 5cc (5ml) water.

Now you have the liquid med, 50mg/ml. You need to give 5-7mg/ml twice daily. That means you need to give a dose of .1cc-.15cc (.1ml-.15ml) twice daily. This is a small amount, like a single drop. Give twice daily, meaning between 8-12 hours apart.

With the syringe/dropper, you need to dose the Dove with the liquid suspension you have created. Same towel maneuver, open the mouth, lay the tip of the syringe/eyedropper on the middle of the tongue and squeeze out the liquid slowly. Gently close the beak. She/he should swallow.



3) OK, if he is hanging in there, great. Neosporin is OK but you still to give the oral antibiotic for 7 days. 

Now...food. Is he/she eating any seed ? I hope so. If so, awesome. If he/she is still eating and pooping, great. But if not he needs to be hand-fed asap. 

Handfeeding: Get frozen peas, the smallest you can find. Thaw them in hot tap water until they become lukewarm (not hot). If the peas are tiny, feed them whole. If all you can find are the fat, big kind, cut the warmed pea in half, discard teh pea sking, and feed half a pea at a time. 

Again with the towel, gently pry beak open and put a single pea piece/morsel toward the back of the mouth but not all the way back. Close the beak. Hopefully he/she will swallow. After a few seconds open beak to check. Give him her 5 peas first feeding. Next feeding try 6, next feeding 7. Probably wait an hour or two between feedings. If he shakes his head after you close the beak, open the beak and pop the pea back out, he was choking.

Come back and tell us if she/he managed to survive the first dosages of the meds and a couple of feedings.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

Thank you for your help! I just did the first dose. I am worried, though, because my grandfather had her for 3 days and now I'm on my 3rd day with her and I might have gotten it to her too late. She seems healthy though, besides the missing wing. She eats a lot of the food we give her, drinks her water and poops good. But every time I go to hold her to put medicine in or Neosporin on, she tries to fly and bashes her wing into the cage, and me, and it starts to bleed, is there anything I can do about that? I tried to give her a chance to stretch out her wings and run around outside the cage, and she ran right back in it, hahaha


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

The fact that she is still with us is a good sign in and of itself. It IS possible that the wing wound did not actually make contact with saliva or claws or talons or whatever it was. It is possible she crashed into something or got caught on or in something (fence or branch or hedge).

6 days and she is not dead or showing negative signs....possibly this is what happened. Keep the antibiotic going for 7-10 days. That is great you happened to have some.

Doves are VERY skittish, I understand your dilemma....& cages are very hard surfaces. But now that the oral meds have begun, you can stop the Neosporin or reduce it to once every 2 days.

The only other suggestion I have is to either to switch her/him to a cardboard box or something smooth-surfaced, or put some pieces of cardboard wired to the inside of teh cage on a few sides so when she freaks out the wings hit the cardboard and not the bars. This will also make her/him feel more secure having a few sides of the cage not be transparent.

Here's a trick: when you want to hold her, darken the room to very dark (shut off lights and close blinds) befiore you go to pick her up. This way, she doesn't see you coming. Use a flashlight on and off quickly to locate where in the cage she is.

You have done very well. Important thing now is that she is eating and drinking and has the oral meds in her. Yes, just try to keep that wing wound from opening again and you are probably on the right track.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

Hey, I noticed today that there was green, "slimy looking," poop in her cage. Then, when I was with her this morning , she pooped normally a few times. It looks like it is mostly normal, but occasionally dark green. What causes this and how can I fix it?


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

Don't worry about it at all. As long as the poops are regularly occurring and most look typical, that's fine.

Just keep up the meds and make sure she keeps eating. You and your grandad have done quite well.....


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

So, today was my day off and I was able to go down to the feed store and pick up some actual dove food. I think she might have only been eating enough to stay alive, because I haven't seen her eat so much before! Today was the first time I've seen her crop full like that. Also, I've had a hard time trying to get her to drink out of a water dish, I have to drip water over her beak and feathers. she likes that though, if I stop the water she comes toward me until I start again and even drinks right out of the dropper sometimes. It's the only time she really enjoys interacting with me, but I want to make sure she is getting enough water while I'm at work, if you have any tips. Thank you so much for the help you've given me thus far, I really appreciate it! None of the vets here will take her, and the only avian vet is an hour away and won't treat her because its a protected bird :/ On top of that, we only have 2rehabbers. One only will take in dears and other small mammals, and the other treats birds of prey, where my little dove would be LUNCH. which is why I'm on here She's worked so hard to stay alive, I won't give up on her.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

OK, well tat is great news. It is good that she is eating well and also good that you have figured out some way to get water into her, and she is actually interacting with you when you do that.

You could try this, it works with Pigeons but again, Doves are mush more skittish than Pigeons so it may not work: Hold her head still, gently, and dip her beak into a shallow bowl of water (make sure you do not submerge her cere, which are her nostrils). Oftentimes when a bird touches a water pool they will start drinking.

See if that works.

If it doesn't, the other possibility would be to mix in some soaked seed with the dry seed. The only thing is, you need to do that while you are home (don't leave the soaked seed sitting in the dish all day).

Sounds like things are going pretty well. So she takes the medicine OK ?


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

Yeah, she seems to be doing fine with the medicine, but I noticesd something strange. She lifted her wings up and a lot af underwing feathers are missing. I took some pictures when I took her out this morning. you can see on one side they're starting to come back in.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

A Pigeon or Dove will oftentimes "drop" their feathers when hit or attacked...it's a defense mechanism so the attacker ends up with a claw or mouthful of feathers and the bird escapes. As long as they are coming back in that is great news.

The other thing you may wanna check for is lice or mites (do NOT worry, these kinds are SPECIES specific and do not cross over to mammals/humans). Just brush through his/her feathers and se if you see anything crawling in there...dark dots or such.

.....usually this can be treated with flea powder, but given the injury I would NOT do anything about it until the wound really is scabbed over and healing has advanced further than it has now.

You are doing a good job.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

I spend most of my free time with her, talking to her and trying to get her used to me touching her and holding her. She now will perch on my finger and let me look at her up close that way. She still doesn't like her wings or back touched, but I can pet her chest and neck some. I let her run around in my backyard yesterday and brought her up into my old tree house, so she could feel a little bit like a "normal bird." I gave her a bath and didn't see any mites or other bugs on her, but I'll dust her anyway, once the wound on her wing is closing up more.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

I wouldn't bathe her anymore for the time being. Just wait til the wound is really closed up and scabbing.

When that time comes, a spray bottle with warm water inside is a nice way to give them a bath. They like the spray, sorta becomes like a gentle rainshower.

Sunlight is good for them, not only do they like how it feels but it is healthy for their feathers. The only thing about being outside is, you don't want her to get the urge to fly and then do more damage to herself as a result. So, that is something to consider.

Also, be very wary of predators around, a hawk or cat can be on top of your friend outside quicker than you may be able to get to her.

Sounds good, though. I like the treehouse idea; again, just stay close to her so she doesn't decide to try to fly.


----------



## angio113 (Jun 15, 2013)

I spend most of my free time with her, talking to her and trying to get her used to me touching her and holding her. She now will perch on my finger and let me look at her up close that way. She still doesn't like her wings or back touched, but I can pet her chest and neck some. I let her run around in my backyard yesterday and brought her up into my old tree house, so she could feel a little bit like a "normal bird." I gave her a bath and didn't see any mites or other bugs on her, but I'll dust her anyway, once the wound on her wing is closing up more.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

That sounds familiar.... for some reason.....


----------

