Rescued a pigeon out of the street. Its bleeding. I have no idea what I am doing!??!

[Kelly5303]

I found a pigeon flopping around in the middle of a busy street. I pulled over and put in a box. It is bleeding slightly under its right wing. I don't know if pigeons carry diseases. I don't know if it wing is broken. It will lift it up sometimes. I live in North Dakota I always see the pigeons sitting on top of buildings but is it actually too cold out side for the bird. I was looking for a rescue place around here but the closest I could find was four hours away. I called a couple vets and they said that they would look at it for around $300. The local college said their vet department couldn't look at it because of rules and policies. I don't want it to die, but I have no idea what to do with it. Help me please!

[Pidgey]

Don't worry about diseases, the risk is 10,000,000 times greater that you'd be killed picking the bird up by getting hit by a car.

How much blood? I'm going to fetch some stuff and be right back.

Pidgey

[Pidgey]

It probably got hit by a car (welcome to Pigeon-Talk, by the way) and it may have broken the wing or shoulder, but it could also have been hit by a hawk... anyhow, here's a drawing of the skeleton with names of parts that you can use to describe better where you think the main injury is:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/skeleton.html

Pidgey

[Pidgey]

If you can describe how long ago you found the bird, whether you've got it in a house where it's warm at the moment, the current state of the bird (restless, panicky, blood still dripping, hunkered down, breathing heavily... anything else you can think of) then we can get on with figuring out where to go from here...

Pidgey

[Kelly5303]

Not a lot. It was in a box with white paper in it so I noticed the blood on the paper. It isn't drips. It is more like thin swipes. I noticed that the blood seems to be located at the joint. About equivalent to the human arm pit. I was afraid to lift the wing up to see how bad the bleed was because I don't want to hurt it more. Thank you for your helpful response so quickly.

[Kelly5303]

I picked it up about three hours ago. It is atually sitting on my deck right now. It is now all puffed up in a ball. It sits in the same spot unless I go out there then it will quit puffing out and walk away from me. Its looks to me like the wings are in the same position on both sides. Hawks are rare here and it was by this one roof that there are usually a lot of pigeons on so I am guessing a car is what happened.

[AZWhitefeather]

Originally Posted by Kelly5303

I found a pigeon flopping around in the middle of a busy street. I pulled over and put in a box. It is bleeding slightly under its right wing.

Welcome to Pigeon Talk Kelly.
Thanks so much for rescuing this poor pij.

Please click on the link below & follow the steps according to how the pij is acting. These initial steps are vital.
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=8822

Cindy

[jazaroo]

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for steeping in and helping this poor bird out and welcome to Pigeon-Talk.

It might be a good idea if you could bring this bird inside to warm him up, it will help him a lot to start. If possible, a few pics of the injury would be nice in order to make better determinations for him.

Good luck with this little guy,

Ron

[Pidgey]

Is your deck glassed in and warm or is it cold out there? The reason why I say that is the bird could probably use a little warmth right now and it's safer inside by a long shot as the bird can't get away from anything. Frankly, there are very few diseases that you could get from one and they're so rare in the wild birds that it's amazing. I've been rehabbing pigeons for years and no problem.

So, if you could get a box and line it with some papers, get him a heavy, squat bowl with at least a half-inch deep of water so that he can get a drink--he's probably feeling thirsty about now. You wouldn't happen to have any wild birdseed, wouldja'?

Pidgey

[Kelly5303]

I got our extra large dog kennel out. Put an old blanket in it. When I went outside to bring bird in, it walked away from me flapping its wings but not getting off the ground at all. It seemed to stumble and fall forward every couple of steps. Once i got it in the kennel all it does is sit in one spot. It still sits slightly puffed out but not as big as it was outside. How do I know when the pigeon is warm enough?

[Trees Gray]

Thank you for elping this needy bird.

Usually putting a heating pad under them (with a blanket between them and the heating pad) set on low, will allow them to warm up, this is used indefinitely until the bird is better.

You can usually tell when they don't require heat any longer as they will try to find a place to stand off of the heating pad.

Did you read the link on the initial steps?

[AZWhitefeather]

Originally Posted by Kelly5303

I got our extra large dog kennel out. Put an old blanket in it. When I went outside to bring bird in, it walked away from me flapping its wings but not getting off the ground at all.
* It seemed to stumble and fall forward every couple of steps.

Once i got it in the kennel all it does is sit in one spot. It still sits slightly puffed out but not as big as it was outside.
** How do I know when the pigeon is warm enough?

* It's very possible the bird is extremely dehydrated or starving. Falling face forward is one symptom of these two conditions.

** Would it be possible to put a towel lined heating pad, set on low, covering half the carrier? If he has the choice to move on & off the carrier as he sees fit, that would be best.

Cindy

[pigeonperson]

Kelly,
This is going to be rough without any medications or even the ability to properly stop bleeding. I want you to get a very adhesive tape like duct and tear off a strip.

Cut the strip lengthwise to make it less wide. Have somebody hold both wings together so that the long flight feathers on one wing are exactly aligned with the flight feathers on the other wing and touching each other. Wrap the tape around both wings in the back so they are taped together. The closer you tape to the body, the better.

This is to immobilize the wing to try and stop the bleeding. Whether it's broken or not, the wing still has to be immobilized for three weeks. If you only tape the damaged wing to the tail, there is going to be too much play allowing the wing to move and that's no good. We want clotting to occur.

Do you have any wild bird seed? You need to put water in something that will not tip over and have it by the bird at all times. Hydrating him is vital right now. I hope he drinks but if not, put his beak into water for a second and hope he starts to drink on his own. He isn't feeling well now so I don't know if he will eat. You may have to feed him by opening his beak and putting seed into the back of his throat. Don't use anything that has unshelled sunflower seeds in it. If you have some dry dog food, you can wet it and feed that to him but you will have to open his mouth and put it in deep or he will spit it out. If you have wet dog food out of a can, just take small pieces out with your fingers and get them down him.

Without a vet's or a rehabilitator's help, what you can do is pretty limited but by doing these things, you may be able to keep him going until you find somebody. Where are you located?

[jazaroo]

Hi Kelly,

Here is a to a video make by one of our other board members, Cynthia (cyro51), showing what pigeonperson is talking about.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uU1SO0ZJoow

If you don't have a heating pad available maybe you could move the cage to the warmest part of the room. Please provide the bird with some water in dish that is not easy to tip over a at least an 1" deep for now. It may be possible that if he does not drink on his own, that you will have to give some fluids to him, do you have a syringe or eye dropper around the house?

Ron

[Kelly5303]

I have a heating pad in half of the kennel. A sturdy water dish and some of my mom' s wild bird seed. I haven't seen it eat or drink. I heard something about using the tape that sticks to itself that is made out of what looks like cheese cloth instead of duct tape. Thanks everybody for the help. I don't feel as overwelmed anymore.