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Help! One of my baby pigeons is injured!!!!!!One of my baby pigeons who is not even out of the nest yet was attacked by another bird. There is a big hole that is bleeding on the top of his head. I dont think the parents are feeding him anymore and i dont know what to do. If I hand feed him i dont know what to do about the injury. Any advice?
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Sorry to hear about the baby.
How old is the baby? You will have to hand feed, and what you feed will depend on age. Seperate the baby and get him in an isolated area, prefarably your house where you can watch him. Give him a clean bed lined with paper towels, a cage or box, free of noise, air drafts, and traffic. It would be advisable to have a avian vet or rehabber look at the wound, especially if the baby continues to bleed and if the wound is large and deep. Dab it gently with clean towel. If it has stopped bleeding, I would gently clean it out with some colloidal silver for infection. Once that is done, dab it dry gently with soft towels, make sure it is completely dry and not bleeding. You can use a little Neosporin ointment on it for now. It is important for it not to get infected. Once the bird is calmed down, down make sure he is warm and comfortable. Offer the bird some water and seed, if it eating on its' own. If not, please get back with us and tell us the birds age, as well as update us on the wound. Treesa
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 Every negative event effects my ability to own my APBT, please be a responsible owner and keep your pitbull out of trouble. Last edited by Skyeking; 28th June 2005 at 12:23 PM.
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Have you brought the baby inside to a safe place for now? A little box with something soft to lie on, maybe.
Next, about how many days old is the baby? Is he still a tiny yellow fuzzball, or has he grown some and got to the squabbie stage with feathering coming on well? The wound can be safely cleaned up with a sterile saline solution - it has no possibly harmful chemicals. We get it from a chemist (in the UK), which presume is a pharmacy in the US? Is it still bleeding? I think someone in the US could advise on what to use for that, aside from just using paper kitchen towel wadded up to try to stem it as an emergency fix. We have used what we call here 'cornflour' on smaller bleeds to help stem it. Get him safe first, then I'm sure several of us can advise on hand feeding, unless you are already experienced with doing that. John
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John  "Pigeons know more than we think - and think more than we know" ~ John D.
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ThanksI have handfed pigeons before so i am ok with that, but i wasnt sure how to clean an injury on a pigeon. His feathers are just starting to come in. I have a safe place to put him in. I have to go see how he is doing. Thanks for posting.
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Good News!!!!!I just saw the mother feeding the baby. It seemed happy and was chirping merrily. Earlier it looked dead. Maybe it was the heat. It's atleast 80+ degrees here. Should i still clean it's head?
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Hi,
best clean him up anyway. There can always be little infectious organisms in a loft, so may as well be safe. Sounds good so far John
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John "Pigeons know more than we think - and think more than we know" ~ John D.
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Thanks A Lot!!!Thank you for all your help.
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Unfortunately I've seen this happen fairly often. Another bird in the loft "scalps" a baby, usually during the period when the parents stop brooding it but before it can fly on its own. I've seen chicks that were an awful, bloody mess survive with no lasting problems. I used a powdered antibiotic from the pigeon supply for this type of wound. The saline wash is good too, as a first step.
Mom and Dad should continue to feed the little one several times a day. Sometimes after an attack they figure out that they need to stick closer to the nest and guard the chicks, but this isn't always the case. Any idea who the perpetrator was? If so, it would be helpful to remove him (it's usually a single, unmated cock, though mated cocks will also scalp babies) until the chicks are older. Last year we caught one of our young cocks "red-beaked," with his baby brother's blood still on his face. It seemed he had a thing for his own mother and wanted to steal her and the nest box from his dad. Needless to say I was very annoyed with him. But after the attack his mom stayed close to the babies and he wasn't able to do any more harm.
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Hi Birdmom4ever,
Goodness, I can't imagine...have never seen such kind of attacks in my coop! Are you talking about the NFZ puffer? That is powdered 2% Nitrofurazone. I've heard it works well, but it is not intended for deep wounds, just surface cuts and abrasions. It is supposed to be a known carcinogen, but the racing people love it, as it works well and quick. Treesa
__________________
Every negative event effects my ability to own my APBT, please be a responsible owner and keep your pitbull out of trouble.
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Yahhhhh...
I was always happy with the topical Nitrofurizone powder, for all Animals and People-Animals, especially for punctures and 'eye-tooth' punctures which Cats or Dogs had done to eachother or to Birds or whatever. Something like this, I would think that regular old 'Neosporin' ointment would be fine. Unless the injury has foreign matter in it, I myself would not take too much troubles to even try 'cleaning' it, but, I would apply the Neosporin to it untill pretty much healed, leaving all scabs or so on to their own progression without me interfereing with them. The Neosporin keeps everything moist and of course is an antibiotic to guard against infections. Good luck...! Phil Las Vegas
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I've used both the NFZ puffer and Neosporin on scalped babies, with good results.
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Yeeeeeesh, this whole 'Scalped-Baby' thing is so painful in many ways to hear about.
How terrible sometimes, the odd agressions or hostilities which can occur between Adult Birds and other's Babys. My own little Crow-Baby ( who as a Baby was attacked 'Crows' supposedly, and badly pecked almost to death) had his version of it...had to grow for himself a whole new flesh and skin covering on the top half of his head, which he did so, too... Anyway... Poor little things... Eeeeeeeesh... When I had my Aviary-Loft-Flightpen and before that, my inside Birds ( around 30 pigeons, Nesting and roosting and so on...) I had one occasion of someone's delightful little Baby getting pecked badly by I knew not who. The little one lost an Eye to it and had some scalp punctures and back punctures and little tears. This just broke my heart. I did not know who did it but I would have likely pulled them from the Flock and made them live by themselves or something...if I could have figured out 'who'...I dunno... Such treason! Such behaviour, I do not understand... If cooped up and getting nutty from it, and imagining the need for fierce competition for limited resources maybe, maybe I could understand some pressure for immediately 'local' assertions or genetic advantage to dis-advantage other's offspring. All their Nest Boxes were the same ample size and height... But when free to fly all they want, free to come and go, I can not fathom what posesses them to do such things sometimes. Phil Las Vegas Last edited by pdpbison; 28th June 2005 at 07:21 PM.
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| avian vet, baby pigeon, colloidal silver, nest boxes, pigeon supply |
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