beak picture

[Rocky17]

this is aicture of the beak that fell off. marie

[TAWhatley]

Thanks for these pictures, Marie. They certainly aren't pleasant, but I'm sure they will prove to be educational to others who may find themselves facing similar situations.

Terry

[Rocky17]

You're welcome, I was talking with Pidgy and I thougt maybe if he saw them he could determine what if anything was going on. No they aren't pleasant to look at. Marie

[Flying_Pidgy]

what is that.... ? what part?

[Larry_Cologne]

Thanks for the pictures, Marie.

Yellow stuff looks like canker was active, but I am not expressing this as an opinion of what was happening. I will leave that to the experts. Just words I would use to verbally help someone form or imagine a mental picture. Isn't it great that we are able to post pictures on the internet?

Question: how hard is the bone where it separated? Is it soft and rotten, cheesy-feeling? Or can you tap it with a piece of metal such as tweezers and feel some firmness?

Reason I ask, is: if theoretically someone someday could make a viable prosthetic beak which wouldn't fall of too readily, which could somehow be attached without too much mess and fuss and bother, could someone use the old beak as a model, after removing soft tissue such as dead skin and such?

Someday someone may come up with an enzyme soup one can paint on the rotten part of a bone to remove the dead stuff, then re-attach or re-connect the bones, without tissue rejection. Or use the rejected bone as a model for a prosthetic which will grow onto the damaged site.

Just speculating. Time to get back to doing something useful (scrubbed the dish draining racks and shelf, and did dishes, at 6:30 A.M. Wife was surprised and pleased. Now back to bed for a bit).

Larry

[Pidgey]

Well, actually the bone spars that run through that part are barely ribbons and I really mean that. I've got a jawbone from a dead pigeon that my dermestic beetles stripped down for me. It's amazing how thin that bone is--it almost looks like you cut two 1/8" wide strips of regular paper and glued them flat together out at the tips. There's only substantial bone back near the actual pivoting joint underneath each eye and this little fellow still has that.

The tip of the original beak is seen in the picture and all of that yellow stuff is inflammatory debris consisting mostly of spent leukocytes (like white blood cells) interspersed with dead tissue cells. Pretty much all of the organization of the soft tissues have been completely destroyed and this somewhat digested stuff is all that remains. It'll dry down eventually and almost get back to its original size or smaller but it's of no use, of course. The only portions that didn't seem to get destroyed is the keratin (fingernail-like stuff) on the tip and sides.

We'll just have to see what the bird has left when all the disease processes have been eradicated and the remaining tissues have finished healing.

Pidgey