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hawk attack injured baby collared dove help pleaseHi there i just registered with this forum as it seems to have the most info on what i need.
last night i had a phone call to collect a bird, that appeard to have 1 leg and 1 wing. i live in a quiet area with lots of wildlife and have a macaw and a cockatoo so most people think i'm the person to call, although i have helped wildlife in the past i am no expert. back to the bird, not sure of the age but it does still have a little down, its left eye is injured and i think it will lose sight in this eye or maybethe eye. its left leg looks broken at the top socket as it hangs loosely from the abdomen but not severed just looks badly broken. injured right wing plucked feathers and a few small lesions. its neck has some bald patches where its obviously been plucked, poor thing has no tail feathers. its shoulder has sometypeofinjurytoo but stuck up so hard to tell. i checked for bleeding and although it had been bleedingat some point it wasn't when i got there and hasn't bled since. a witness thinks it had a very narrow escape from a sparrow hawk, and they managed to guard the dove until i got there to prevent further damage. i will get some pictures up asap wasjust wondering if there was anything i could bedoing in the meantime to help this bird. our local vet doesn't deal with wild birds as i found out with past experience. i have splinted broken legs before on other birds but the breaks were never that high up. please let me know if there are any treatments i can give and where ishould get them from, i'm willing to help this bird and don't mind passing it on to someone with more experience. many thanks in advance. i will keep updating. once again many thanks geebop1978 
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Hi Geebop, Poor little thing must be frightened to death. I'm pretty new here myself but I know you won't have to wait long for someone to respond, what is your location?
Here is a good link about emergencies with injured birds. http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f6/bas...dove-9457.html Sandie.
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Hi Sandie thanks for replying. i am in colerne which is near chippenham uk.
i have contacted someone who is experieced and am just waiting for a reply. i have kept the poor baby warm and dry all night and left some food and water although not sure if he's had any yet, looks very alert with his good eye and droppings look normal moist but not runny and no evidence of blood. no fresh blood either so not bled since i've had him. i will keep my fingers crossed and wait for help lol. he seems to be coping quitewell considering his injuries and his breathing looks fine too,i just took some pictures of him to add and send and it didnt seem to bother him (don't like saying it). once again many thank Geebop1978
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Hi, I've just found this site on google, its a sanctuary fairly near to you, I read in one of the newsletters on their site that they take feral and wood pigeons etc, (not all of them do!)
Might be worth giving them a ring? Even if its just for some advice. And they have a shop in chippenham. http://www.wildthingsres-q.org.uk/index.php Sandie. Last edited by Sandie; 4th July 2008 at 03:43 AM.
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just thought i'd put a quick link on for the photo's they are on my photobucket the link is
http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/l...d%20by%20hawk/ once again many thanks have spoken to a few people, and trying to sort some expert care out asw i want to give him the best chance possible. geebop1978
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What a sweet little thing, I hope she gets better. She's in very good hands by the sound of it!
 Sandie.
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geebop, good morning and thank you so much for taking this dove into your home.
Our general treatment for hawk attack is to give the bird Baytril and also to apply Silver Sulfadene ointment to the wounds. In your case, you're dealing with some extensive injuries with the broken leg, wing and eye. I am hoping the eye may not be so badly damaged that it will lose it. The leg in particular will need to be stabilized soon. We have excellent people in the UK who may be able to help you with a good place to take your dove. You need to be very careful that you choose a place which does not euthanize doves or pigeons. I'm going to PM one of our members, Cyro51 (Cynthia) in hopes she can get with you shortly. Again, thank you.
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Maggie
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hi there thank you all for your kind words. i have spoken to few rescue centres and sanctuarys who all seem to think that putting this dove to sleep would be the best option. i just feel its such a shame seeing as though it is so young and seems to be a fighter, i'd like to fight for it too. i have heard of 1 legged 1 winged and 1 eyed birds surviving quite happily in captivity, so i want to try to help this one too and if it means keeping until a grand old age then that's fine by me too, bless it. i always thought sanctuarys were supposed to try everything to help recovery, but as i was told it's not endangered and it's wild so they don't feel much point in trying. i given rehydration fluid and he/she still seemsto be doing quite well, no breathing problems or unusual droppings. no fresh blood from anywhere either. his wounds seems quite clean for now but i dont know how deep these injuries are. vet said he would amputate the leg because of where it's broken if he wasn't a wild bird. i'm looking for some baytril and silver sulfadene now as kindly advised by Maggie. i will try to treat myself to the best of my capabilities if i have the right materials so suggestions of what to get and where are very welcome. i have just set up the infrared baby monitor/camera so i can keep an extra close eye on him without disturbing too much.
i will keep trying for help and await some replies from the numerous calls and emails i left lol i will also keep updating here too. once again many thanks kind regards to all Geebop1978
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Bless you for caring! The dove is actually an adult, it already has its collar and has an adult beak, but they grow up so quickly that it has probably not been fledged very long. If a bird has managed to escape from a sparrowhawk the we owe it to him to keep him alive. My main concern is the leg. I had two pigeons come to me with one leg just dangling, my vet thought that they would both need amputating. One made a full recovery, the vet said that the other pigeon's leg was dislocated, so I did not try to treat it and it ended up with a twisted leg which he still walks on. I think that if I had corrected it then he would have been able to walk completely normally. Because of this I think that if you can set the leg in its normal position without causing the dove too much stress (if he starts to pant stop immediately) you should do so. I use a bendy straw padded inside with cotton wool.
I am sorry about Wild Things rescue, a few years ago they rehomed some feral pigeons with me and I had them down as a sanctuary that will do its best for all birds, then a few months later they rejected a wood pigeon because there were "more important birds" that they wanted to reserve the space for. I don't know if you have tried this place in Bedfordshire, the photographic evidence shows that they care for collared doves and wood pigeons. You could have them just look at the leg and advise you on how to treat it. But don't leave it there unless it can offer it a lifetime home... http://homepage.ntlworld.com/samanth...rd/pigeons.htm Cynthia
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...while all the time your dear full-throated pigeons will be heard, and the turtledove high in the elm will never bring her cooing to an end. (Virgil) Last edited by Feefo; 4th July 2008 at 06:22 AM.
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To me, the eye actually looks like it wasn't recently lost. If you'd found him with a lot of sticky goo all around the feathers of the eye then I'd tend to think it had happened very recently. I've got a bird, Unie, who has an eye missing and the empty socket appears much as this one does. I have to admit that flash pictures can be deceiving due to the "flattening" that the flash causes. However, some of the pictures are from the perspective of straight on the line of the beak and that side of the face looks like it might be a bit sunken in.
Therefore, it's possible that he's managed for quite awhile as a one-eyed bird and that would be very rare. He'd have to be one heckuva' fighter for life to have managed that. As such, there's just no way that I'd personally let anyone try to put this bird down until it became absolutely clear that there was no quality of life left whatsoever. The bird needs to be on some kind of antibiotic to protect against a systemic infection that could come from an unseen puncture wound, however small. Clavamox (preferred) or Amoxicillin (in a pinch) would do, but they're not the only ones. If you can keep him in such a way that he doesn't move the one leg for a couple of weeks, he might stand a chance. Given the eye, he qualifies as an "unreleasable" bird, though, and needs to go to an aviary to be loved to death (many years down the road, hopefully). Pidgey
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Quote:
Cynthia
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...while all the time your dear full-throated pigeons will be heard, and the turtledove high in the elm will never bring her cooing to an end. (Virgil) Last edited by Feefo; 4th July 2008 at 07:18 AM.
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hi there again thanks for all your replies. he/she is still doing well.
when i collected him yesterday his eye didn't look too bad, not swollen but slightly sunk in but the eye is still in there, it seems to have deflated more and sunken in more and he/she's trying to close the eye. i am at present trying to make a makeshift splint for his leg as advised by Cynthia (thank you). would anyone happen to know where i can get these treatments from as the vets i spoke to say they need to see the animal, and if he/she is that bad then they would euthanase. i would like to try everything before giving up on him but i dont want him to suffer in the mean time. i know of a good sanctuary that would take him if he were less injured as they took a crow off us that couldn't fly, he probably never will due to a deformed wing but he lives there happily. only problem is it's up the north of England where i am originally from and i am down south, although i am going that way at the end of the month so could drop off this dove then, if he makes it. i'll try to get somemore detailed pictures in a while. kind regards to all Geebop1978
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i haven't taken him to a vet as yet as most refuse because he's a wild bird and think he needs to be put to sleep, and i'm afraid if they agreed to see him they would try to euthanase, which is what most people from vets to rescue centres have said up to now over the phone. i aim to try my hardest to save this dove and hopefully if and when he makes a full recovery if he can't be released (looking doubtful at the moment but who knows) then i will try to rehome him with other birds his kind. i know i will get attatched and want my hubby to build a flight for him but i'll always do what is best for him.
thank you so very much regards Gaynor Geebop1978
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Normally, a freshly wounded eye would be streaming with fluid. I'm having a hard time imagining how it couldn't be. Unie had to have her eye "eviscerated" and the actual eyelids remained outward for quite awhile until virtually all of the remaining sclera disintegrated and was fished out with forceps over a long period. Only then did the surrounding periocular tissue finally get that "sunken-in" look. That's the only practical experience that I've had with something like that, though.
It can easily occur that an infection of what remains of that eye can migrate through the relatively short optic nerve (it's more of a Y-shaped stalk on them) and cause the ultimate loss of vision on the other side. That would be another reason for the bird to be on an antibiotic. Most vets are going to take one look at that little guy and immediately advice euthanasia. If you can find a vet who's willing to go the distance, you'd be doing exceptionally well. Pidgey
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Hi all i managed to source some synulox from a lady who had it for her dog with a leg wound. the tablets are 250mg, so i really need to know how much of this drug to give and how? also if i need to repeat?
many thanks in advance Gaynor Geebop1978
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