# neck disease



## omamani (Mar 3, 2003)

I live in Kuwait and have come to know all the names and diseases in the Arabic language but I would like to know what you call it (in English) when the neck seems to give out and flip upside down. Is it contagious and is it curable or should they be put out of their misery?


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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Hello,
There are only a very few illnesses that can cause this. One is an inner ear infection. Another is paratyphoid (salmonella infection) in the brain but the third is the dreaded Paramyxo virus. This is a virus that attacks the brain and causes a loss of equilibrium in the bird. Up is down and down is up. They can't hit the food they want to pick up. They cannot fly straight. The droppings are usually almost pure liquid.
This virus is highly transmittable. If a bird can get through the virus with help from electrolytes, vitamins, antibiotics to prevent secondary infection and hand feeding, it will almost always be at least, permanently nerve damaged. It is not uncommon to find that the virus will attack again within two weeks after the illness appears to abate. You must, at the minimum, quarantine the bird immediately. Whether the pigeon is put to sleep or not is entirely within the discretion of the owner but be prepared to give critical care attention until the virus leaves the system. Once the virus does leave the system, the bird is immune from it but you must realize that virus particles can be carried by you to the rest of the flock unless you disinfect your hands and change your clothing including your shoes before you touch another bird.
There is a vaccine available that protects pigeons for about a year. People ususally give the vaccine every ten months because as it ages in the system it weakens.
Based on the frequency of which illness this is, I would say it is paramyxo and you have to act very quickly to protect the rest of your birds including disinfecting everything in your aviary and isolating every bird that starts to show the symptoms as you described.


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## maryco (Apr 1, 2002)

Hello and welcome to pigeons.com









You mean PMV? There is no cure but (God willing) I hope there will be because it is such a horrible disease.. 
The pigeon can recover with care, warmth and food but most pigeons are put to sleep by wildlife rehabs etc when they know that it is PMV because it is highly contageous and if released back into the wild they might still show some nervous signs under stress.

Here is a website with all the diseases in the english language








http://www.chevita.com/tauben/e-index3.html 

You can look up the symptoms and match them up to the ones you have in arabic.

Mary


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## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

Welcom to Pigeons.com,
Do you have a pigeon or have you seen some feral (wild) pigeons displaying this symptom? 
PMV also has a couple other distinct symptoms that will occur at times: Walking in circles, appearing to be disoriented, raise & shaking their heads violently for a few seconds. 
The site Mary recommended is very informative.
If you have any other questions or concerns please post them as our members will be happy to assist in any way possible.
Cindy


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Hello and welcome,

The symptom that you describe is called "torticollis" and is found in a number of diseases including Pigeon Herpes Encephalomyelitis , salmonellosis and Paramyxovirus (PMV). When the pigeon's head stays upside down for any length of time we refer to it as "star gazing", but that is not the medical term!

Cynthia


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## Christina Coughlin (Dec 29, 2002)

The same thing occurs in chickens. I had a bout of Vitamin E deficiency with my parrots and found out that a shortage of vitamin E can cause the same thing, the "star gazing" thing.

Christina


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Hi Christina,

Where would pigeons usually get vitamin E from? And how could I provide a supplement if I thought my pigeons were deficient?

(Feefo has done the "stargazing" since she had what I assume was a PMV relapse).

Cynthia


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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Cynthia,
This is a pretty good site that describes the need birds have for Vitamin E. Don't overlook the fact that this site has been prepared by Nekton, a bird vitamin mamufacturing company.(They happen to make excellent products for birds)
As far as I know, stargazing is a type of seizure activity and you do not have to reach too far in order to link it to PMV. Vitamin E in birds is needed for muscles among other things and it isn't hard to envision that a low level of it in the system might lead to muscle stiffness but that is a wild guess. http://www.nekton.de/Gebrauchsanweisungen/NEK-E/GE-E---E.pdf


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## Christina Coughlin (Dec 29, 2002)

Look for information on what foods carry vitamin E. Wheat, Oat Bran... Gosh, I know there is more. My vet and I did some major reasearch on it about two or three years ago and found that vitamin E deffiancy is a more common problem than once thought. It does not show up on blood work though until the bird is near death and even at that it seldom shows on a necropsy. You just have to know the signs.

Poultry farmers know a lot about it beacuse it is a common problem with chicks. Also, the symtoms humans show are very simular and you will also find a lot of stuff there too. 

When I had a bird that was down (paralized from the neck down) I would open up a capsul of human grade Vitamin E (natural is always best, though it is more pricey) and give two drops orally 4 times the first day. The second day they got the same dosage but 3 times and then I put it on the food twice a day for one week. I did of course have my vet helping me the whole time and He knew everything.

However, a Selenium defficancy will do the same thing, the differance is that my birds respond and begin to improve within a couple hours and were back to normal by the second day. If this is the case, like all medications don't fail on the rest of the treatment just beacuse they are fine the next day. If the vitamin E does not work then you can try the same thing with selenium. I have not needed to but there still could be something else going on there.

Sorry it is so long but I am always watching for symptoms like this thought I could try to help if at all possible.

Christina


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Thanks Christina,

I had thought that as only one pigeon in the aviary showed these signs it couldn't be a nutritional deficiency, but there must be that danger when pigeons are selective about which of the seeds offered they will eat. I will try a vitamin supplement.

Cynthia


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