Infection - Big Problems

[Lady Tarheel]

Phil, than you SO MUCH for the suggestions. I may try them all!

On one of the sites I looked at in connection with this it said that silky chickens would also eat the roaches and for some reason they don't come down with the disease. Also, they can't fly well so they wouldn't compete with the pigeons for perching rights.

[fromjennie]

Maggie,
my heart goes out to you, and I'm so dreadfully sorry to hear of this tradgedy. Being quite new to all this, I'm not able to offer advice for treatment, but can only imagine your heartbreak. These creatures fill our hearts and bring us a special joy. We can only love them and try our best to make them as happy in return, in the time we share with them. I want to wish you every continued strength and great couragefor combatting this outbreak whilst coping with your terrible loss.
Best,
fromjennie

[vouteman]

Originally Posted by Lady Tarheel

Hi everyone

We have a crisis in our "keeper" aviary. Most of the birds are moulting now so it has not been unusual to see them puffed out some. Yesterday morning, everyone was fed and watered as usual. Lewis went for his walk, came back home and checked the aviaries. He brought Ringo in because he was breathing heavily, open mouthed, puffed out badly. He went back to the aviary and brought in Simon who was doing the same thing. Simon is my very best buddy and I took her from him and held her. She started convulsing and Lewis took her back and she died within a minute or so. Right now, I'm not even thinking about the loss of Simon because of trying to do something for the others.

We immediately took her body to the lab and the pathologist called later that afternoon and said her "lungs" were badly infected and he would have to send off tissue to see what had caused this. He advised us to put all in the aviary on Baytril. I called our vet who said the same thing. So, we brought all 31 or so in and gave them Baytril yesterday afternoon. Most of them appear to be ok although 1 or 2 are puffed out some.

Ringo is holding on although I don't see how. He is puffed out twice his size and his sides visually move in and out. He is on a heating pad.

Last Sunday, Boss Hog, who is a white homing pigeon, had similar symptoms and we brought him in and put him on a heating pad in a quiet room and I gave him one dose of Baytril. Monday morning we took him to the vet. She examined him and said he had concussion (though we don't know how that could be) and gave a steroid shot. He seemed to improve slightly but I put him back on Baytril on Tuesday. His stool is extremely watery. He remains in the dining room.

The odd thing about whatever this is, is the birds continue to eat pretty good but there has been a weight loss for the 3 that appear to have it. All birds were treated in August for both worms and coccidiosis and then had a round of Probios afterwards.

I just don't know what is going on but we're trying to hang in there. Although the other birds in the other 2 aviaries are special, the ones we call our "keepers" were extra special and we love them very much.

Please remember us in your thoughts and prayers.

You might ask the vet to look for air sac mites. They look like little specks of pepper in the air sacs. Your best bet if you have a respatory problem is to use two different types of medicine at once. Some cases are almost impossible to clear up. Sometimes the problem gets into the marrow of the pigeons bones. When this happens you will not cure them. I would think twice about taking a pigeon to a vet if he said that your bird had a concussion. There are not many avian vets and sounds like the vet you went to wasn't a avian vet?
You might as well treat your pigeons yourself than to take them to a dog/cat vet. They just don't know how to treat pigeons. Check with your state university or extension agent to see if they will look at the birds. They have to kill three birds to do a necropsy on them. At the University of KY they don't charge a penny. I don't know if she is still here but at one time Dr Tuttle a renown avian pathologist was teaching at UK and doing research work. Her husband is a well know pathologist also. It will only cost a few cents to find out if they will do it.

[george simon]

Hi VOUTEMAN, Welcome to pigeon talk.I would like to point out to you that this thread is almost 2 years old, if you go back to post #38 you will see that Lady Tarheal did infact have extensive test done..........Read the section on comments. You will see that AVIAN PATHOLOGISTS at the College of Veterinary Medicine, at North Carolina State it was determined that a protozoal parasite was the cause of the lung damage............I would like to point out that just above the name of the person making the post you will see a date and time of the post is will tell you how old the post is. GEORGE

[Lady Tarheel]

I apologize for not responding to the last three posts. LOL, lately, things are so busy I'm lucky if I see all the threads!

Jennie, thank you for your concern. You have probably noticed by now that this happened in 2006 but because of the subject matter it was made into what we call a "sticky" so it stays visible all the time. The protozoal infection is not something we see or are able to diagnose often on the forum so it was made a sticky so members could see what the symptoms were and how we dealt with it. And, yes, it was a terrible tragedy for us particularly losing my personal favorite pigeon Simon and our dear Ringo. But, thank God, we did not lose any others.

Vouteman, thank you also for your comments. I did want to touch on the part you mentioned about vets. There are very few Certified Avian Vets in the entire US. The nearest one to us, aside from NC State University Vet School, is one city over from ours. Sadly, the vet school closed its avian clinic and no longer treats birds. As George mentioned, the pathologist is a Certified Avian Pathologist and he does confer with the vets at NC State on almost all bird necropsies. This pathologist is an employee with our NC Dept of Agriculture at their laboratory and they perform necropsies on all types of birds and animals. They charge about $5 for a necropsy and you don't have to take three bodies for a proper diagnosis.

We have immediate access to two vets, neither are certified, but both have years and years of experience with birds. In the case of Boss Hog being diagnosed with a concussion, I can't fault that particular vet because he also had symptoms that would point to that also. I just had a "gut" feeling that this was not the problem and put him back on Baytril....which I'm so glad I did. That vet, while not our main one, works with other rehabbers in our area and is very good. Our main vet has worked with us for about 14 years so I know she has a great deal of experience. My point is that I don't feel you have to have a certificate saying you are an avian vet to know what you are doing.

George, many thanks for your response.