Pigeon has difficulty eating seed...need advice!

[elletea]

A couple of months ago I rescued a baby pigeon with a broken leg. I took it to a bird rehabilitator, who set the leg and advised me on how to care for it. I had her for a month and fed her by hand until she started eating seed on her own, at which point she went back to the rehabilitator and was teamed up with another pigeon. She continued eating seed herself, but then we noticed she wasn't putting on weight. At some point she stopped eating and the rehabilitaor did tests and found she was sick and put her on medication. The first two types didn't help, but the third did and she started to rally. However, she still isn't eating seed on her own. I have the bird back at my house again and I am back to feeding her by hand. It looks like she tries to eat seeds on her own, but they fly out of her beak. This is what happened when she was a baby too, but eventually she seemed to get the hang of it. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about this. I have been feeding her individual seeds, guiding them into her beak and trying to get her used to swallowing them again. I am wondering if there is something wrong with her beak or throat, making her unable to eat on her own? Has anyone ever heard of this? I am very fond of her and really want to see her succeed. I can't keep her as a pet and feed her by hand forever - I already have 5 animals! If she can't eat on her own her future doesn't look too bright...I hope someone can help! She is almost finished her medicine, and she seems active enough, but she doesn't fly very much and she is still very small and a bit scruffy looking. She seems to love being held and climbing on me (I don't encourage it but she keeps at it!)

If you have any advice about how to encourge her to eat on her own and/or possible causes for her apparent inability to do so, I would really appreciate it. She's so sweet! Right now I am feeding her softened puppy chow and seeds, but she doesn't eat much period.

[kittypaws]

Hi Elletea,

I don't have experience of sick pigeons ( just a love of pigeons) but I can tell you that just "hang tight" - people will come back to you today with advice on what to do with the pigeon.

When you say she can't eat by herself does she throw the food around or just has trouble trying to pick the food up - seems odd if she used to be able to do this.

She does sound "imprinted" too which means that it may be difficult to release when she is back to normal as she is so used to people...

Anyway as I say - this is a great forum - people, I promise you today, will post helpful advice. It may not be in the next hour or two ( depends where you are geographically!!) but most definitely in the next 24 hours -

You've come to the right place for advice.

Tania

PS - please advise where you are located?

[Trees Gray]

Hello and Welcome to Pigeon Talk,

Thank you for helping this bird.

Do you know what the rehabber treated her for, or what exactly the medication was that worked? Is the bird drinking by herself yet? How do her poops look and does she poop alot?

It could be the medicine that has decreased her appetite, or something going on in the crop, or even just that it is a youngster. Some youngsters are hard to wean once they have been hand fed for a while. Her growth may be just a little off due to her having to generate new cells for healing at the time it needed to be expended for growth, and the medication itself could have an overall effect on her. But that can be resolved once she is off the meds and gets on a regular pigeon diet and nutrition.

I suggest, that you give her some avian probiotics (if she hasn't had any), once she is off the medication. She may be heavily depleted in gut bacteria, which the medication or stress can deplete. You can even give a human grade probiotics from a health store, or an avian probiotic, like Benebac. I would also recommend putting a drop of organic apple cider vinegar in her drinking water. this will create the perfect environment for good intestinal gut flora, and crowd out any bad bacteria.

My babies thrive on these things, and are fat and sassy.

To encourage her to eat, you should leave a deep small dish of seed around her 24/7 as well as a spill proof bowl of water. You should push a seed with your finger and generate an interest that way. Perhaps the best time to encourage her to eat is in the morning when she is empty.

Others will be along to help. It is hard weaning a loner, as my youngsters pretty much encouraged each other as they get curious and learn to eat watching the older babies. If you can bring an older youngster or two around her, that may help.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by elletea

She continued eating seed herself, but then we noticed she wasn't putting on weight. At some point she stopped eating and the rehabilitaor did tests and found she was sick and put her on medication.

What did she have?

[elletea]

Thank you to everyone writing back with advice! I really appreciate any and all...

I can't remember what she had - I'll e-mail the rehabilitator and ask her - but here's the medication she was/is on: she just finished a round of nystatin; has been taking albon and panacur and will finish both of those soon - today's the last day for the panacur and tomorrow I stop the albon.

She's with another pigeon who eats fine.

He was on nystatin as well, and one of them - I'm not sure which, I'll try to check it out today - had pretty runny poops.

It just seems that she picks seeds up but doesn't swallow them - they fly out of her beak.

I'll see how it goes today...Thanks, and any further ideas or advice are appreciated! (P.S. I'm in Manhattan.)

[Feefo]

She may have or have had paramyxovirus . "Seed tossing" is one of the symptoms, they pick up seed them toss it away. Or she could have a neuroligical problem with the same effect, although I have only heard of seed tossing in relation to paramyxovirus.

This is a link to a video of an extreme example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWC58llOBzQ

Cynthia

[Pidgey]

For how long and how much Panacur was the bird on?

Pidgey

[elletea]

Paramyxovirus - is that "pmv"? The rehabilitator didn't tell me she had that, and she does tests. I'm pretty sure that when she gets a bird with pmv she puts it to sleep. Also - don't birds with pmv sort of list to the side and move their heads in a funny way? She doesn't do that.

Her poop this morning (after I gave her medication) was runny - green and white. I had her outside and she was very alert and interested, but she didn't have much of an appetite. She refused to eat the puppy chow (I didn't want to force it) but she swallowed some seeds and tried pecking at some herself (which flew into the air again.)

I want to keep her strength up but I don't know if I should force her to eat. I'm wondering if the medication just makes her feel lousy - maybe in a couple of hours she'll want to eat? She's sitting on her perch now, dozing. I'm so worried about her! I'm frustrated because when I had her with me originally she was fine, and after I brought her in to the rehab place she went downhill.

[Pidgey]

Well, maybe it's simpler than that. Pigeons, when presented with abundant food, will often put their beaks in the seeds and literally throw them everywhere, looking for the ones they like the best. When they're in an environment where they have to compete with others and there probably won't be enough to go around, they're rather less picky by force of necessity.

Otherwise, maybe there is a neurological disorder although that's pretty hard to prove. I rather doubt your rehabber does tests for PMV--my vets don't even do that. Anyway, Panacur's pretty tough on them and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if her appetite was off.

Pidgey

[alvin]

Ok, first things first. No matter what the bird has, or may not have, remember to do three things to all of your sick birds.

Keep them fed. If you don't think they are eating, feed them. It's better safe then sorry. Remember to include a pinch of grit every other day.

Keep them hydrated. Birds can survive weeks with a surprisingly small amount of food, but they can't go very long without water. It's also an easy way of giving vitamins and other suppliments.

Keep them warm. That dosn't mean HOT, but the most important thing is to keep them out of draughts.

It dosn't matter if the bird has PMV, Salmonella, Canker, or a host of other ailments, the above is the basics of supportive therapy, and never goes amiss.

Even if their appatite is low because of medication, they won't get better without nourishment.

[elletea]

Unfortunately, my pigeon took a turn for the worse today and died this afternoon. I had her outside this morning with me and hand fed her some seeds, but she wouldn't eat any puppy chow at all. I was planning to bring her back to the rehabilitator today so she could be tube-fed because I was concerned - yesterday she was a lot more alert. She was in her cage with her companion and one minute she was sitting there and the next she had fallen to her side. I picked her up and held her and she died. I feel horrible - I wanted so badly to see her healthy. I had her for the entire month of June and she was thriving. I wish I had kept her with me until she was well enough to be released - I feel like she must have gotten something from another pigeon. But I just watched a video I took of her back in June and she looked bigger and healthier then, so perhaps it's for the best, because clearly she was struggling for the last few weeks and I wouldn't want her to suffer.

Thanks everyone for your advice. The other pigeon is doing great and will be released probably next week. I myself am not doing so well! I really loved that little pigeon (I called her Peeper.)

[Trees Gray]

I'm SO sorry to hear the pigeon died. I can imagine how you must feel, as you have grown quite attached to it.

Thank you for everything you did for this bird, you gave it love and comfort and that is what is most important.

Sending you my sympathy and my heartfelt condolensces.

[TAWhatley]

I'm so very sorry for the loss of Peeper. I know how tough it is. Thank you so much for all you did to help Peeper.

Terry

[Maggie-NC]

Hi Elletea

I'm very sorry your Peeper didn't make it. I know you did your very best but it still hurts.

[christina11]

Awww im so sorry your little pigeon has passed.

You did all you could for it and thats what counts.

Rest in peace little pigeon.