pigeon found muddled in something

[sk8er]

Hi guys,
Found another pigeon. He was very dirty. All his feathers had something which would not let them settle down like other pigeons. Like a badly dried towel. o I took him in and gave him a nice bath twice and finally his color emerged. He is a checkered nice lttle bird. However, I have noticed even after tow nice baths his feathers have split ends and always appear dirty (like in mud), les sso after the bath. It gives me flashbacks of birds caught in an oil spill. Secondly, he does not appeared to be caught because of no signs of thread or anything on his feet. Talking about feet reminds me of another thing. The black "dirt" which covered his feathers also had feet and on rubbing them lightly, the old skin came off and beneath emerged fresh new red skin. I have seen many birds like him (although thsi is the first one I got in) and I always wrote it off to some skin disease. But I do wanna help this pijie and was wondeirng what I could do. ANy idea what disease he might have ?

[feralpigeon]

Hi sk8er,

Thanks for taking an interest in this little guy. The city birds many times just seem to get caught up in the nasties and dangers of urban life. Sometimes the hardship of the stress can cause the coccidiosis levels or the trichomoniasis levels in their body to rise thereby skewing the equilibrium that otherwise exists to become more than they can handle. Then they need the meds appropriate for those illnesses. For ferals it can be one of several problems, including the usual suspects being Canker (Trichomoniasis), Coccidiosis, Worms/internal parasites, external parasites.

Could you describe his poops, eating/drinking habits, etc.?

fp

[John_D]

Originally Posted by sk8er

Talking about feet reminds me of another thing. The black "dirt" which covered his feathers also had feet and on rubbing them lightly, the old skin came off and beneath emerged fresh new red skin

Hi,

Do you mean the bird has mites or bugs on him?

If so, then I'd suggest a purpose made anti-mite spray for birds (for pigeons in particular, if possible), or Sevin dust from garden stores. In both cases, the back, wings and under wings should be sprayed/dusted according to the instructions, taking care to cover his head and face.

Another thing may be like Moxidectin Plus, given orally, which is meant to kill worms AND external parasites. I think there is also something which can just be applied between the shoulders externally - but someone will have to come up with the name

John

[sk8er]

k. Thanks. He has no canker.

[feralpigeon]

Originally Posted by John_D

........ I think there is also something which can just be applied between the shoulders externally - but someone will have to come up with the name

John

Scatt, which is also Moxidectin, can be applied to the skin on back between the wings.

fp

[Maggie-NC]

Sk8er, birds can get into a lot of grease, oil, etc. There was recently some discussion on this topic under Reti's thread "Ugly Scab".. You may get some info there.

Maggie