# Wild wood pigeon hit by car



## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

Hi

We are trying to nurse a pigeon hit by a car outside our house 3 days ago. We took him to a vet who stitched a hole in his oesopheagus. Some of the seed he had in his crop had spilled out. They gave him an anti-inflamatory to take down the swelling and we have Baytril to give him twice a day (4ml) to try to counter infection. It took the vet an hour to do it and the pigeon has manged to survive that ordeal as well as being hit by the car.

We are keeping him in a box lined with a towel which we are changing daily. He has water in a heavy bowl and seed. I have also offered him bread soaked in water.

His eyes are bright, his droppings are wattery and white/green now though and he isnt taking food or water which is worrying me, other the water we are mixing wth the Baytrill and syringing into its beak, (we have to hold him and force its beak open to do this which I worry is just stressing him out more) He isnt moving a huge amount but is alert when we enter the room. 

I am worried he isnt eating or drinking more than anything else at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas, we really want to try to help him if we can but dont want to prolong the agony if it is kinder to take him back to the vets to be put to sleep - he has already been through a horrible time. Any advice hugely welcome!


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

*Thank you for helping the bird.

The bird (grown up pigeon) should be hand fed if it is not eating at least a couple of tablespoons a day of pigeon seed. 

It is easiest to force feed (frozen, thawed and drained and warmed) peas, they provide some nutrition and is less stress on them and you don't have to worry about hydrating the bird after feeding them.

Probiotics will help keep the gut stable and help solidify the poop. 

Gently open beak place one pea on back of tongue and allow bird to swallow, close its beak.

Make sure he is out of drafts of air and in a warm place, that will help him conserve energy for healing.

*


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## Dima (Jan 15, 2011)

Please feed him as Skyeking. There no reason to put the bird to sleep. Pigeons are resilient. Baytril may upset his somach and also the trauma from getting hit by a car its not easy on him. But he survived, he is alive and well taken care ( thank you for taking him to the vet). You can pop in his mouth in between defrosted peas also regular pigeon seeds.
_Here are some prewritten feeding instruction...

You can hand feed defrosted peas. Run some hot water over them until they are defrosted and slightly warmed. Put the bird on your lap and hold it next to your body. If it helps because you are having a hard time handling the pigeon, you can wrap a towel around it or put it in the sleeve of a tee shirt, with the head out the wrist. This method confines the pigeon without hurting him and makes it easier to handle. Gently open the beak and pop a pea at the back of the mouth and over the throat. It gets easier and faster, with practice, for both you and the bird.
You will need to feed 30-50 per feeding [depending on the size of the pigeon] and every time the crop empties until you know the baby is eating on his own. After a couple of feedings, most squeakers get the hang of it, pick up the peas on their own and naturally transition into a seed diet.
This is a wonderful method for teaching babies to eat because they feel the whole food in their mouth and it’s soft and easy to pick up and hang on to. 
The crop is located right below the throat and with food it fills up like a little balloon. The peas make the crop feel lumpy and squishy._


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

As dima says, there is no need to put this bird to sleep.
Woodies are a lot more "skittish" than ferals, and probably wont eat or drink if they are nervy of you being around.
If you dip his beak into the water so he learns what it actually is, he may start drinking on his own.
If you feed him peas and corn as suggested, he will get some water from that so drinking isnt as important at the moment.
If you keep him in a box or pet carrier, in a dim, quiet area, but also so that he can see out and see everyone going about their buisiness without makling too much of a fuss around him he will probably relax and start eating & drinking.


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## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

*Thank you!*

Hi 

Thanks so much for the reassurance and advice. I am so relieved to know we are not being cruel in trying to keep him going. 

His droppings look more solid today and I think he manged a small bit of very well soaked seed bread yesterday. We are going to get peas today and start giving him those when we are treating him with the Baytril.

He is very nervous of us which is understandable as from his perspective every time we are around we do something horrible to him. We have named him Woody anyway, which I am sure is a bad idea as we are now officially attached to the little chap. He is much more alert today though so I am hopeful we can help him. We feed the birds in our garden and the wood pigeons swipe most of the seed so it would be good to think he could be back and doing that with the rest of them soon!

I will let you know how we get on - thanks so much again, feel much happier knowing we are doing the right thing.


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## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

Ha-Ha, just popped in to have a quick check and caught Woody on his seed bowl stuffing his face - Yay!


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## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

*Pigeon recovering well but unsure when to release him*

Hi 

Thanks for all of your advice last week. Woody is doing really well and has been eating. 

We have given him antibiotic and he seems a lot stronger now. In fact, he has gone from sitting very still when we put the towel over him to give him the antibiotic, to trying to take flight. 

We still have a bit of antibiotic to give him (not much left though), but its a lovely sunny day here and as he is showing signs that he wants to be off and he seems strong, should we let him go today?

We dont want to let him go too soon fro him to end up not making it (we have had him a week), but we dont want to hold on to him if he is ready to go. We are also worried if he stays in the box too much longer he will lose strength. 

Any advice gratefully received!


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

Glad to hear he is doing well, can you post a pic of him ?
you need to finish the course of antibiotics first, and would also recomend keeping him a few days after just to make sure things are ok.
Do you let him fly indoors ?
he needs to be able to fly well before you let him go.
if not, he will maybe have enough strength to fly off, but not recovered well enough to fly long or avoid predators.


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## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

*Thanks*

Hi 

I am glad I checked first. We havent been letting him fly as I am worried about getting him back if he is fluttering around a room. He might hurt himself was my thinking. We have a lot of large windows and glass doors to the countryside outside too so I am worried he will go flying straight into them and hurt himself.

He has therefore been in the box for a week now which feels mean as he is obviously keen to go.

Any thoughts as to exercise/how to make sure he is strong enough and test if he is ok to fly?


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

If you let him out to explore the room in the evening, when its darker outside he wont fly into windows, also, its easier to catch him again by just puting out the lights, as they dont fly as well at night, and it lets you get closer to him without him freaking as much.


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## Littlemoe (Sep 12, 2012)

Ok, we will give it a go - he lost a huge number of feathers when he was hit (it looked like it had been snowing on the road when it happened.) We wondered if he will be able to fly as a result, or be able to stay warm at night now the temperatures are dropping. There are a lot of feathers missing around his neck and under one wing. He has a lot more fight in him now though which is good as he was very subdued at the start of last week. 

A friend used to keep pigeons and he has offered us a pen to put in the garden so we thought we might try him in that in a couple of days. We dont know how big it is yet though. We thought it was best to finish the antibiotics before we do anything else though as he may be hard to catch to give him those once he is out of the box. 

I will post a pic - we set up a perch for him in the box which he really likes as he spends all of his time on it. He kept getting on the edge of his food bowl & tipping it up until we put it in. Now he sits on it and pecks the seed - he is a really handsome!


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## Dima (Jan 15, 2011)

It would be grat if before releasing him, you could provide him with vitamins and or/ probiotics. After use of antibiotics it will help the intestinal flora to get back on the track.


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