# Found pigeon with tag. Please help!!!



## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

I live in the mountains outside Albuquerque New Mexico. Ifound a beautiful dark pigeon. He is hurt but resting. he has a tag but all it says is 38 on it . I have no idea what to do to find his owner!!!


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

tango said:


> I live in the mountains outside Albuquerque New Mexico. Ifound a beautiful dark pigeon. He is hurt but resting. he has a tag but all it says is 38 on it . I have no idea what to do to find his owner!!!


If that's the only info on the band, then you probably can't find the owner. What kind of injury does the bird have? Can you post a picture?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

And if all it says is "38", neither do we. Those kinds of tags can be bought way too many places and for way too many reasons. If it was an AU, NBRC, or some other such association it would be a lot easier.

That said, can you describe the injuries and his condition more?

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

You can start by reading this one, too:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9457

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Can't type fast... He/she was on my porch under a small dresser. She came out when she heard my voice. When I came home 2 hours before there were feathers and a tiny bit of blood so I thought my cat had killed a bird. she is sleeping upright in a cage with food and water - blackoil sunflower seeds and a few raw peanuts is that ok? Thanks for getting back to me.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

She might not recognize that as food could be the only problem.

Problem: It's the beginning of the weekend and you've got a bird that's probably been hurt by a cat or some other predator. Cats (and most other predators including us) carry a specific germ in their gums that's usually lethal to birds within a period ranging from 12 hours (smaller birds) to several days (pigeons typically last the longest). You need an antibiotic like Amoxicillin or Clavamox (Amoxicillin with Clavulanic Acid) for that. Don't suppose you have any, do you?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

I do have some cephalaxen, will that work? And what would the dosage be? In terms of food what else would you recommend?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Keflex (what you've got) is a good drug for birds and we can make it work, but I'm going to have to do some digging to see if it will work against this particular likelihood. That's not a normal medication in these instances but that could be due to its relative unavailability.

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

I also have peicillin a friend just brought over. How about that.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Exactly what kind of Penicillin is it?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Its for humans and says penicillin vk 500 mg. The cephalexan was for a dog and I have to go get that from a friend


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Gimme' a few...

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Going up to friends house to get keflex back in 10 minutes.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Penicillin VK is a natural Penicillin that's formulated to survive stomach acid and get absorbed better. It actually works quite well against Pasteurella, which is our biggest fear. It's not prescribed much because it's very narrow-spectrum. It will likely work here since not much time has transpired since the wounding.

Now, all we gotta' do is figure out a dosing strategy and get that started. We'll keep the Keflex in our back pocket at the moment.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Okay, let's shoot for 50 milligrams per kilogram of bird per day.

Is this a capsule or tablet... ?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

How in the world do you give a pill to a bird?? Just to let you know the bird is resting really well and the cage is covered. Thank you so much for helping. So many times I've rescued various animals and have had no help.


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Tablet. Do I need to weigh him. Don't have a scale.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Does he seem normal sized, REALLY big and heavy or what?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

He seems normal size but also could he be fluffed up from trauma?


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

An average pigeon is going to weigh about a third of a kilogram. A small breed like a tumbler or roller might be more like a third of a kilogram. A homing pigeon could get up to half a kilogram but it's not as likely to be your bird. Can you measure the width of the leg just above the spread of the toes and halfway up that bone?

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Let's call it a third kilogram. That means that you need to divide that pill up 30 ways. What's the smallest regular pieces that you can get it divided up into?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

I think I'm feeling stupid. Do you mean the length from the toes up or how big around his leg is and I dont know kilograms well at all sorry.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

We're going to mix the ground pieces into some water for dosing and it's just best to mix up less at a time to keep the antibiotic stronger.

So, if you can cut the pill up into four or eight pieces, we can mix up just a little bit at a time.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

tango said:


> I think I'm feeling stupid. Do you mean the length from the toes up or how big around his leg is and I dont know kilograms well at all sorry.


Oh, don't worry about it (kilograms) because we'll take care of that part.

Just measure the width of the bone by holding a ruler beside it horizontally.

Pidgey


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Just out of curiosity, what do you have to measure water with? Do you have a dropper or syringe that you can measure a single milliliter with or are we going to be going with quarter teaspoons?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

The leg is 3 or 4/16s. I've cut it down to 30 m. I think i can go down to 15 m.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Okay, he's not a big bird so we're right with the 1/3 kilogram.

Milligrams? How many (somewhat equal) pieces have you got now?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

I'm not sure how to answer that except that ican get it to 15 milligrams maybe as little as 7 m.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

It's a 500 milligram tablet, right? To get to 15 milligrams, that'd mean that you've divided it into 33 pieces. That's small enough, by the way, because that's what's going to be going into the bird each day. You can take such a piece and either put it straight down the bird's beak or you can mix it into some water to put down the bird by way of a dropper.

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Sorry i'm really tired. I have a dropper with no mesurements on it also teaspoons.


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Ok can I by any cahnce just call you I know that is wierd but i'm not crazy or anything. But I definitly dont get the 33 pieces.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

How many pieces do you have? It'd be real simple to put 1/4th of the pill in 2 teaspoons of water and then give 1/4 teaspoon of that mix to the bird each day till it's all gone.

How about that?

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

ok sounds good.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Just use the dropper to get it down him. You may have some fun getting his beak open to do that but it's not that bad.

Whenever you get around to it, please try to describe the wound.

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Got it down pretty easy. I looked a little at the wounds they are under his wing and I need to wash it to see better I will leave him alone now and clean it in the morning unless thats a bad idea. But I dont think he is hurt very badly. I will let you know more tomorrow. Thank you for all your time and patience. I could not have done it without you.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Okey, dokey. Welcome. We'll hit it some more tomorrow, then. Good night.

Pidgey


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Good morning!! She seems to be doing well. She drank and ate some hemp seeds. She really liked those. In a few minutes I will be taking some salt water and cleaning her wounds. She is very sweet -I think I'm in love!! I'll go down today and get grit and harrisons food and some greens of some sort.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Yes, they do love hemp seeds. Since she's hurt, I guess you can consider that "medical marijuana".

Pidgey


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

tango said:


> Good morning!! She seems to be doing well. She drank and ate some hemp seeds. She really liked those. In a few minutes I will be taking some *salt water *and cleaning her wounds. She is very sweet -I think I'm in love!! I'll go down today and get grit and harrisons food and some greens of some sort.


OUCH!!............


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

Sounds like Pidgey's got you all set up....thanks for helping this pigeon. I wouldn't use salt water to clean a wound (as Renee so aptly put it, OUCH!  ), but warm water and a bit of Dawn detergent will kill bacteria and not hurt in the process. Stay away from hydrogen peroxide, as it eats away live tissue as well, which many don't know. If you can get a hold of a bag of wild bird seed, that will be more appealing to her probably. Sunflower seeds aren't too great since they can't break them open and can't digest them very well. A small bag of grit can be bought at most pet shops (they sell it for parrots usually by the pound), and this will help a lot in her digestion of seeds. I don't know if you have to give her any more pills, but dipping them in cooking oil first helps them go right down (a life-saving tip from Treesa!). Good luck!


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Thank you everybody for being so helpful. I'm very very sad to report that she died on the way back from the vet. I dont know what happened.She was in a box and when I put her in my car I checked on her and she was on her side and I thought it was from instability in the box,so I put her in a better position and left the clinic. Now i think she was actually dying. I dont know if she was stressed or what. I feel so bad. I cant believe how upset I am about it. I have never been around pigeons before and can't believe how sweet they are. She was a blue black rock dove I think. She also had light green eyes,very pretty. Thanks again


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## flitsnowzoom (Mar 20, 2007)

*So sorry*

Tango,
Thanks for caring for this little one. I know you did everything you could to help save her; sometimes it just isn't possible. At least she died safe and with somebody who cared about her near. 
Bless you.
Feather hugs and angel wings.


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## tango (Aug 25, 2007)

Can I post a photo of her on this site just to honor her. I Dont know how.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I'm so sorry to hear that. There are different ways to post pictures but you might just want to attach it to a post. What you do is click on the "Go Advanced" button below the text-entry window and then scroll down to the "Manage Attachments" button. You have to edit the image beforehand to get the filesize below 100 KB in order to upload it. You can do that with Paint if you use the Stretch/Skew tool under the Image menu.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Tango, I am very sorry and want you to know how much I appreciate your care of this pigeon. 

We have a forum "Hall of Love" that you can use to write something about her and post a picture. Many of us, unfortunately, have had to use this forum.

Did the vet give you any information about her?

Again, thank you so much.


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