Badly hurt pigeon asap

[Tara967]

Hi, I just found a really badly hurt pigeon. One claw is curled up and he doesn't put any weight on it so he's constantly tipping, and on his back he's lost almost of his feathers down to the skin and one of his wings looks kinda stubby in one place. could this be some sort of disease?? please email me at tara967@hotmail.com asap!

[TAWhatley]

Hi Tara and welcome to pigeons.com! Thank you for caring for this injured pigeon.

Check the injured leg and foot carefully looking for string, fishing line, or hair tight wrapped around. Also feel the normal leg and then the injured leg trying to determine if the leg is broken.

You can clean the scraped area of the wing with diluted betadine and perhaps apply antibiotic cream to the area. Most likely this injury is from the bird dragging itself in order to move.

While the bird could have some type of disease, this seems to be more of an injury case to me.

Please keep us posted and if you would let us know your location, perhaps we can find someone nearby to assist you.

Terry Whatley

[bigbird]

Terry has a very good point here. The problems with this pigeon do not sound like disease, but rather something wrong with the foot. If string became entangled around the foot, circulation would be cut-off, causing lameness and this could be why this pigeon is in bad shape.
You need to determine why the foot is causing so much pain. This I believe will be the focal point. Once fixed, the bird will probably heal and become healthy after a time.
For the time being, you might consider placing the bird into a small cage to limit movement, and provide seed and water.
Please keep us informed if you will, so we can know how things are going for you and this bird.
Regards,
Carl