Poisoned Pigeons in Alton, Illinois...

[hipcoolchic]

I did finally get ahold of someone at the Missouri Wild Bird Rehab, their number is 314-426-6400. They directed me to one of their members (Angela, I think?) at Riverbend Wild Bird Supply on Corner Court behind Golden Corral. Her number is (618) 462-6675. She's there till 4:00 today (Saturday). She said that she would take the birds to Treehouse, I guess that's some sort of Wild Bird Rehab to give them some poison medication called A....??

[Charis]

Thanks for the phone number correction. The fellow I spoke with at the Human Society was telling me the number from memory.

[TAWhatley]

The charcoal is activated charcoal. The product that the vets have is Toxiban but it is essentially activated charcoal. Depending on the type of poison ingested, vitamin K and atropine might be helpful also.

If you will do a search here on atropine you will turn up some very informative threads about poison and pigeons. Start at the oldest and work your way up.

Terry

[pdpbison]

Originally Posted by hipcoolchic

I did finally get ahold of someone at the Missouri Wild Bird Rehab, their number is 314-426-6400. They directed me to one of their members (Angela, I think?) at Riverbend Wild Bird Supply on Corner Court behind Golden Corral. Her number is (618) 462-6675. She's there till 4:00 today (Saturday). She said that she would take the birds to Treehouse, I guess that's some sort of Wild Bird Rehab to give them some poison medication called A....??

Hi hcc,


Might have been 'Atropine' which can be hepful for counteracting some kinds of Poisons.


Usally, the poison used is an Organophosphate...where, one must not let the Pigeon drink.


Water will accelerate the rate of the Poison's entering their system...and kill a Pigeon who otherwise may well have survived.


Usually, the medium for this Poison is large, yellow, whole Kernals of Corn, and, often, the Pigeon will throw some of them up.


If one is careful not to allow any goo or liquids which are in the Crop, to get into the Pigeon's Wind Pipe or Tracheal opening...one can 'massage' individual Kernals up from the Crop, up his Neck, and out his Beak, one at a time, preferably, having him laying on his side or at least inclined to be having his side lower than his bottom area, to do so...so any slight goo or liquids will be on the side of his Throat and not drooling into his Trachea, where, of course, they would kill him...so this is very important to understand.


If one can get it all out, then, there is that much LESS of it for his system to deal with, and, his chances for recovery would be far better.


One can feel these large Kernals in the Pigeon's Crop...being far larger than normal Seeds would be.



The brand often used, is 'Avitrol'...


But, of course, there are many other possibly kinds of Poisons, and not everyone who Poisons Birds is necessarily going to use the same thing anyway.



Atropine, and also Vallium are sometimes used for these Organophosphate incidents.


Sophisitcated proceedures, using Charcoal Lavage, flushing the Crop, after having 'massaged' all of the poisoned Corn Kernals out, can also help.


It all depends on how much of the Corn a Pigeon ate, how fast he is passing it to his Stomach ( where, a dry Crop causes a far slower passage, as well as not having Water leaching out Poison in advance of the Seeds being passed to his Stomach, ) so, it is crucial, either way, that he is NOT drinking any Water for 24 hours or so, or, not untill all the Corn is gone fro the Crop, either because it was massaged out, or because he digested all of it, either way, as far as Water goes.


If the Pigeon is still alive the next day, he will probably end up being alright again in a few days time.


They can get into violent sudden 'thrashing' and should be allowed lots of soft rumpled cloths and ample space, to protect them if this is happening.


Phil
l v

[Birdmom4ever]

It's disgusting that someone is poisoning pigeons there. Bless you for helping this poor bird. I do hope the rehab place can help him. Sad to say, they probably have experience with poisoned wildlife.

One of our pigeons got lost five years ago and was accidentally poisoned, probably from drinking contaminated runoff from someone's yard. He ingested organophosphates (tested positive at the vet's). By the time someone found him and called me he'd probably had the poison in his system for several days, according to the vet. He was unresponsive and having seizures when I retrieved him and rushed him to the vet's, but she was able to save him by administering repeated doses of atropine. Amazingly he made a full recovery and did not suffer any lasting neurological damage. It was very expensive, though.

[hipcoolchic]

The first bird I picked up was calm, not thrashing but unable to use legs or fly. Obviously disoriented. They do believe that the birds were poisoned by a local business and they are seeking action against them since they poisoned the birds without a permit. They used the poison mentioned in a previous post that involved corn. He did survive but another who ate more of the corn did not and was suffering from horrible seizures. It really is awful that anyone would consider birds enough of a pest that they would cause that kind of suffering. Our casino uses noise deterrents for the birds...that's so much more humane!