# Help with hurt pigeon-in saskatoon



## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

Hi im new here and not ussally the kind of guy to do this but....
there is a pigeon out side my apt window hiding in the corner, in saskatoon, canada and hes got a hurt wing i read a post that said there was 2 people in saskatoon here, and i was hopeing they could help it or some1 atleast i really dont want to go outside and euthonise it, or watch and know its suffering right above my head as i sleep and i cant really take care of it i was going to put it in a pet taxi and keep it safe for awhile but if there is some1 here that could take the hurt animal that would be great get back to me soon please i dont think this pidgeons wing is gonna get better without a little help soon, thanks for reading


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Please do bring the hurt pigeon inside and put inside a carrier. 

Provide some warmth in a draft free area and give him some water and seed after he has warmed up for an hour.

Then you can check to see what exactly is wrong with the wing, also...can you post a pic of the injured wing and bird?


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

well i put a cracker and dish outside filled with water bout 45mins to an hour later the water had a small top layer of ice, so i diddnt have the heart to leave him/her out there i picked him up very gently with a bit of papertowel over him and placed him in a pet taxi he has enuff room inside to sit and relax i dont know if he can turn around tho so ive made a small spot in the closet for him with a half a card board box to block him from wandering, there are two dogs here which we are allowed for they are small, is there a chance of sickness spreading? they wont be in the same room and i have a cell phone that might be able to take a good pic of the bird he is pretty big in my opinion but looks healthy other than the wing, i cant keep him for long tho my roommate might not aproove.

i will take a pic but im not sure how to post can i upload it on this forum? or maybe even kijiji if it comes down to it


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

Trees Gray said:


> Please do bring the hurt pigeon inside and put inside a carrier.
> 
> Provide some warmth in a draft free area and give him some water and seed after he has warmed up for an hour.
> 
> Then you can check to see what exactly is wrong with the wing, also...can you post a pic of the injured wing and bird?



diddnt c that link at the bottom, heres a few pics his wing doesnt look that great i really hope its not a break cuase i dont know how long hes been outside for like that the cell pics turned out really good tho hope you can determine whats wrong.
http://community.webshots.com/album/570696381OUtymt


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Hi ng,

First of all do not worry about sickness or disease. The chances of the pigeon picking something up from a dog or a human are much better than the other way around. Basically the pics seem to show a healthy bird with a possible fracture of the humerus (that part between elbow and shoulder), or possibly just a bad sprain. Somebody who can tell would need to look at it.

If somebody from Saskatoon comes up on the forum who can help, that will be one solution for you; the next is whether you want to take it to a vet, which may be expensive for you; or we can walk you through a splint-bandage, but it will take about 3 weeks or so of confinement to heal. Be wary of rehabbers; most will look at the bird and say it need to be put down. You do not have to leave the bird with anybody, you can take it home with you. As long as it is basically healthy these kinds of fractures heal very well and the bird is able to resume its lifestyle.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

hmm so far sounds good if i treat him myself with a splint bandage would he be ok in a pet taxi in my closet with the closet door open every now and then, also ive been giving him water and crackers what would he like to eat i dont really have seed, unless sunflower seeds, bread crackers ect thats all i have, and is putting on a splint bandage hard? and is it expensive, im not a rich guy


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

so i cant take it to the vet(RENT) and i dont know of any rehabbers in my city, how can i find some1 on this site from my city? How can i apply the splint bandage? is it a 1 person task? can some1 help me please


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## ceren (Feb 20, 2009)

from what I can tell, putting it in the pet taxi is absolutely the best thing you could have done for this pigeon. Putting a splint bandage on is an additional possibility, but some pigeons freak out and hate the bandages so much they won't stay on.

Here's links to a few threads on the topic:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f27/help-pigeon-with-a-broken-wing-711.html

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f20/found-pigeon-broken-wing-29390.html

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f6/who-here-is-good-at-setting-wings-19756.html

Wrapping the wing, if you decide to do so, may be possible on your own, but it would probably help to have a second person assist you. 

http://www.duckpolice.org/BirdWeb/PigeonResourceWeb/brokenwing.html

http://www.starlingtalk.com/fractures.htm










As for food - go ahead and pick up some wild bird seed or some pet bird food (cockatiel mix, maybe?) at a local pet store. 

So far, good job!


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

cool, as for finding some1 how would i go about doing that?
is it possible that wing will heal without the sling? he doesnt have it just laying out n e more like in the pics and he's pretty calm.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

If the wing is not splinted up, the bird may well lose the use of the wing and never fly again.

The sketches that are provided above are pretty good, but it does take some practice to get them on the right way without damaging the bird in doing so. The suggestion to recruit a helper is a good one.

Basically you need some tape of the kind that does not stick to anything but itself. That you can buy at any good drugstore in rolls at the adhesive tape counter. You will also need a small roll of regular adhesive tape, 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. That you need to keep the non-stick bandage on so the bird does not pull it off. You will also need some pain medication; what do you have available?

Bird seed can be had at any supermarket or pet store, Be certain to give a small dish of water that can not be easily knocked over.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

i dont really have any pain medicine, wouldnt know what to get for a bird, and the bird is very calm he lets me pet him without flynching and he seems very awake and alert so i hope he trusts me enuff to put that on him because it is very noticable as shown inn the pics i supplied above i will get those supplies tommorow, how much is pain medicine for a bird? im quite broke, is it safe to get somekind of trainquilizer or sleeping dose of some sort to make it go easier? and whats the pricerange like?


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## kalel (Oct 14, 2008)

i think ur a great person to have taken in the pigeon. good for u. hopefully there are some rehabbers near where u live who can help. i dont think u should try any medicine on the pigeon until someone tells u its ok. i dont have much experience with using pain killers as i just go with what the vet supplies. over here in the UK seeing a vet is not too expensive but if ur broke it might be a problem.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

i googled this but i cant find the answer how do they sleep, he looks like me after a night of partying laying over heavily passed out on his uninjured side is that normal(but not completley laying on his side flat slanted near the wall of the pet courier


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Like I said, a fracture is very painful, for humans as well as birds. If your arm was fractured you would be laying on your uninjured side trying to find relief from the pain too.

Do you have any aspirin? Not tylenol, not 222, just plain aspirin? The sooner you get him splinted up he better he is going to be.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

i should ahve asprin if not i can buy it, i got1.2 cm x 9 m first aid tape and 1,2 cm x 4,5m first aid tape is that the right size and kind of tape the exact name is waterproof first aid tape, and if theres something that might work a bit better than asprin i gotta 50$ limit, also how am is supposed to feed him the pills mix it up in water?


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

Grimaldy said:


> Like I said, a fracture is very painful, for humans as well as birds. If your arm was fractured you would be laying on your uninjured side trying to find relief from the pain too.
> 
> Do you have any aspirin? Not tylenol, not 222, just plain aspirin? The sooner you get him splinted up he better he is going to be.



from reading the links above 1 says to let it heal on its own and the others say splint, should i try to splint im not the greatest at this kind of stuff i really dont know what i shud do, if i splint how do i apply pain killers if the sooner the better i kind of need to know how to give the bird asprin


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## ceren (Feb 20, 2009)

Hey, niceguy. The pigeon's definitely in pain, even some minor wing breaks won't make them sleep on their side like that. 

About pain medication: 

You have two easy options: Asprin, or Ibuprofen.
(DO NOT USE TYLENOL/ACETAMINOPHEN - It'll kill the bird.)

It's only going to take a tiny bit to help the bird. and I mean TINY. We're going for about 1-2 mg per dose.
(the drug formulary says 5-10 mg per kg, and a bird is usually about 1/3 of a kg.)

That's about 1/100th of a single pill. Yes, that's ridiculously small. 

So, what we can do here is take the easy route and pick up a small bottle of liquid "children's advil" or "children's motrin". If you can't find these, ask the pharmacist for "an ibuprofen suspension, nothing else in it." This should be pretty cheap, especially if there's a generic. Again, stay away from anything with acetaminophen in it! No children's tylenol!!
(you might want to print out / write this down, and ask the pharmacist, because I've probably confused you by now.)










Then we can help you do the math to dilute the liquid medication with water enough that the pigeon doesn't get a full child's dose of the medication. A child is a lot bigger than a pigeon. 

You'll want to get 2 or 3 drops of this into the bird a couple times a day. This is pretty easy - if you take a stick and drip a tiny bit along his beak, he'll instinctively swallow it to get liquid off his beak. 


_*For those interested in the math*:
I've done some early estimates, and it looks like the standard children's liquid advil / motrin preparations contains 100mg / 5ml = 20mg/ml . both brand and generics seem to use this standard.

So that's 20mg of medication per 1 ml.... and it turns out both the pharmacist's drop and the kitchen drop come out to 1/20 ml. Handy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_(unit)

So we can estimate there's about 1mg of ibuprofen per drop of medication. That's ridiculously convenient. 

Please double-check my math?
_


There's also some pretty awesome wrap bandages that do a good job of sticking to themselves, no pins or tape needed - pharmacy should have those too. You won't need more than one. Once there's some pain medication in the bird, we can go ahead and try to bandage up the wing in that closed position, before the bone's healed in the broken position, okay?










And yeah, if you can get a helper to help turn the bird over, it'll make wrapping the wing a lot easier for you.

Do what you can to help the bird, we'll do what we can to help you.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Is there any way you can post a few pictures of the bird and the wing?

Pidgey


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

look on the first page i allready did the only post of mine with a link

thanks ceren imma go out n get that stuff cuz theres no other way every vet, wildlife plcae in my city will euthonize the bird in fear of west nyle??? which is a first for me i thought that came from mosquitos either way i doubt he has it, imma get those supplies and hopefully get a helper let ya know how it goes


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## ceren (Feb 20, 2009)

niceguy306 said:


> look on the first page i allready did the only post of mine with a link


Yeah, but it's really hard to see the wing in those pics. if you can get a couple more, it'd be helpful.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

ok ill try a few more, i got advil pediatric drops ibuprofen 200mg and non stick tape. is that ok


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I hate giving them analgesics when they've got unrestrained breaks. Pain will help them not move a joint or bone that's broken. When you've got it all taped up it's not so much of a problem. We have to be ultra-careful on dosages of analgesics, too, in order not to destroy their livers.

Pidgey


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

The formulary from the U of K suggests 5-10 mg/kg 2x3 PO daily for Iboprufen. That appears to provide a pretty good safety margin. So on a 350 gram bird that works out to 3.5-1.75 mg; 2.5 mg puts him right in the mddle, more or less.

So if you take one of the iboprufen capsules and carefully slice the tip off with a sharp knife, you can squeeze out the liquid content, put that 200 mg into 200 cc of lukewarm water. Now with a graduated eye dropper 2.5 ml (or about 2 1/2 eyedropper fulls of a 2 inch eyedropper will give a dose of 2.5 mg. But I would not give more than twice a day, 12 hours apart.

But first you have to splint him up. Do you have plain old adhesive tape to hold the non-stick bandage in place? If you do not, the bird will pull it right off.


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## Grimaldy (Feb 25, 2007)

Anyway it seems to be the left wing that needs splinting. If you put the bird face down on your lap, take the left wing and gently fold it back into place so it is tucked up like the other wing is, but hold it in the palm of your left hand. With the thumb of your left hand, start the non-stick bandage, holding the end with the thumb, about two inches or so from the bend in the front of the wing, pass the bandage over the wing to the left, under the top where the wing joint bends back, and under the wing to the right. The bandage should now look like it goes down the left side, under, and up to the right. Take up a little tension on the elastic, run he bandage over your thumb and around under the top of the wing again, just like in the sketch. Pull your thumb out and the bandage should stay in place. But this time run the bandage down towards the tip of the wing, about three inches from the end, under the wing, up to the top, and back up to the top of the wing where you started. Try to make one moe pass around, then tape the end of the non-stic bandage with sticky adhesive tape. If everything looks alright the bandage will look like a figure eight.
Next, tape the wing to the birds body; it has to be held up against the body about in the same position as the other wing. You do that by opening he good wing to locate the position under that wing where it joins the body. For safety sake keep that wing extended, pass your bandage around the body, around the splinted wing, and under the good wing, twice, not too tight or you will strangle the bird. Tape the end inplace and you should be done.

The bird will thrash around a bit because he won't like the tape, but give him some Iboprufen and he should settle down in about 5 minutes.

Whew!


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

well some bad news he must have passed sometime last night because he was breathing, i honostly think it was from no water he wasnt drinking even when i dripped it in front of him in a small dish and i belive he had been outside in the cold for some time,and i had finnally found some 1 to assist and help, when i took him out he was as limp, lifeless not breathing its too bad in my city there is no help for these birds and every vet directs you to there death, atleast he diddnt die in the cold while getting attacked by predators, thanks for all your help anyways, there was some hope and very fast responses.


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## ceren (Feb 20, 2009)

niceguy, no bird will pass from just not drinking - there were certainly more injuries or illnesses, just ones you couldn't see. 

Thank you so much for giving him warmth and a safe space, at least he didn't die panicked, harassed, and in the cold.


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## niceguy306 (Mar 26, 2009)

i hear that


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