# Panting after flying?



## Grim (Jul 28, 2007)

I noticed lately my birds when they are done flying seem to be panting heavily. I also have one older bird whose wings sound very heavy and loud in flight. Am I seeing respiratory problems? The ventilation in my loft IMO is good. They have access to an aviary, 3 windows, and a turbine vent.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Grim said:


> I noticed lately my birds when they are done flying seem to be panting heavily. I also have one older bird whose wings sound very heavy and loud in flight. Am I seeing respiratory problems? The ventilation in my loft IMO is good. They have access to an aviary, 3 windows, and a turbine vent.


How long are they flying? Of course it's POSSIBLE that there's a respiratory issue, but just because they're panting doesn't mean there is one. If your birds fly for 5, 10, 15, minutes and come down panting and it hot and humid like it is here right now, then they're most likely just cooling off. 
My birds will do the same thing, but this morning they actually got up and flew for 30 minutes at least,........I didn't really pay any attention to what time I let them out of the loft. Got a couple of young ones that only flew a few minutes and they came down panting.........but the other guys were just fine when they landed.


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## Grim (Jul 28, 2007)

I let them fly pretty close to dark so it was warm but I wouldn't say hot. They maybe flew for ten minutes. 

Also the one bird makes a lot of wing noise.. maybe she is overweight? Only recently have her wings been so noisy. Even when she flies over the yard you can hear her.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Grim said:


> I let them fly pretty close to dark so it was warm but I wouldn't say hot. They maybe flew for ten minutes.
> 
> Also the one bird makes a lot of wing noise.. maybe she is overweight? Only recently have her wings been so noisy. Even when she flies over the yard you can hear her.


I've got birds that make noise when they fly..........I don't think it's from being overweight.........I don't really know. On my OB team for instance, there's a couple of cock birds that when they come in from a race, we hear them before we see them. Most of the other birds, we never know they're home until they appear just over the trees. 
With the short time your birds are flying, I wouldn't worry so much about the panting.


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## Grim (Jul 28, 2007)

Ok thanks for the reply. They are getting lazy on me I think. I ams till flying them even though I have had some really bad hawk attacks. I still have not lost a bird. I had the group get scattered then had two return alone and a hawk came from the other side of the roof and almost got them. It was a pair of coopers and my birds flew and clinged onto my screen porch. If I hadn't been outside they would have both been taken. They tried to fly into my porch for shelter but bashed into the screen. After I chase doff the hawks both birds sprinted into the trap. I figure they have to learn and stay in shape or the day i do let them out they would have no chance.

This may also explain the shorter flight times.


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## Maacoman (Mar 10, 2008)

Hi Grim, I also fly my YB team before dark almost everyday. Ive noticed them panting after about a 15 minute flight. Some, not all. What concerns me is what happens after an hour or two race? 

I had my first hawk attack about a week ago. My bird miraculously after plunging into a group of palmettos with 2 holes in its side and bleeding , broke free from the hawk and flew off to meet up with the rest. Flew another 10 minutes came home and ate. Like nothing ever happened. Meanwhile I'm running in circles in my back yard like some maniac reciting every Italian curse I could think of looking for anything to throw at the hawk. It left as quickly as it attacked. Wow, that was something. Haven't seen the hawk since.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

If you've got this book or can borrow a copy, Dr. Marx discusses this I believe. I've got the book and I'll look, however the only way I could tell you what it say is to re-type it..........

A VETERINARY APPROACH TO PIGEON HEALTH – by Dr. David Marx, DVM.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Overweight, lack of exercise, and heat/humidity are the biggest problems I can think of for panting. My birds are panting from loft flying for the first time now...it's just been SO hot and icky. They aren't any different from dogs when they exercise. They have to pant to cool off.
Hawks don't help any with flying habits. I've had some of my birds so scared from hawks, they wouldn't want to fly and some didn't even want to leave the building. Temperature and feeding has an effect on flying times too. Birds like to fly early in the morning. I wouldn't fly them close to dark. Yes it's cool, but the birds will want to come in to roost. Plus it can stress them, and what if a predator spooks them and they spend the night outside? Owls become a problem then. Early in the morning they seem to have more energy and fly higher/longer, and it is cool for a while.

Your birds could have a respiratory problem like Renee said, so just in case you could give them a little bit of medicine. Terramycin is found in Tractor Supply and places like that, and it's good for respiratory problems. It's always worked for us and shouldn't be too hard on the birds. It's a broad spectrum antibiotic so you'll be preventing and cleaning out a few things. If you're gonna race pigeons, you've got to keep their respiratory system clean and healthy or else they won't do their best.

Just a suggestion


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

You will notice the birds panting any time they are out of condition for the weather. As they get in better shape for the weather they will pant less and not at all. When the temps heat up it takes more energy to fly as long Just as in humans. But as humans too get in better shape they do better. Flying the birds in some heat is good for them. WHY because in a race when the temps go up they have to be in good condition Of they end up lost or sittng down more trying to get home. As you fly the birds around the loft Increase there flying time. If they drop to the loft jump them back up As time goes by Its good to get them flying for 45 mins, to 1.5 hours at least And the more they fly the better they get.


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## Pigeon lower (Oct 23, 2007)

some pigeons mostly cocks clap there wings when there happy


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## Larry_Cologne (Jul 6, 2004)

My male rescue pigeon *Wieteke* used to pant a lot when 

(1) he did steep vertical flights indoors, also when "helicoptering" (flying from the floor to the top of a wardrobe, for example). 

(2) when it was hot

(3) when he had PMV, spread his wings and absorbed heat from a heating pad while also under a halogen desk lamp, and stayed that way for up to an hour. I thought of it in this case as a sort of voluntary induced fever. He recovered, and fed and raised two chicks to healthy (as far as I know) adulthood while recovering.

When pigeons fly in a gradual incline or when they fly level, there is more airflow through the lungs and the hollow bones per amount of energy expended than in a short upward flight.

I have seen Wieteke (and other pigeons) actually make *rapid clicking* sounds, with their neck skin vibrating inwards and outwards at the throat, the skin between the beak and the throat.

I wanted to make a video clip of him doing this, but didn't have he webcam set up at the time it happened.

This panting never lasted more than a few minutes, just like humans panting for breath after a short exertion to cool off.

I associate the panting more with overheating and the resulting effort to cool off, than with shortness of breath or oxygen debt.

To me, a longer flight time means more effective cooling off, because of increased airflow through the air circulatory system (small lungs, air sacs, and hollow bones.

When cars with air-cooled-circulated-water internal combustion engines go fast, the frontal air pressure forces air over the engine and/or through the radiator fins and removes heat. When the car engine is idling, the cooling depends more on the water pump working relatively harder (generally speaking: there are exceptions). 

Larry


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