Possibly sick pigeon

[Flying_Pidgy]

I was just feeding my pigeons and i noticed one of them ate very slowly. and moves slow. she drank water and is eating but very slowly. I am sure she should be hungry now.

[Pidgey]

Well, you're going to need to give more info than that, it's just not enough to go on. Are you sure it's a hen? Did you pick her up to see if she's lost weight? Can you bring her inside, put her in a box with papers so that you can check out the poops?

Pidgey

[Flying_Pidgy]

I believe it IS canker. I just checked her mouth and there are yellow thing on the left side of her mouth. I will give her spartix for the treatment. Luckily i have the pack because of another pigeon that had canker and recovered.

[pigeonperson]

A behavioral change and this is one, has to raise suspicions about potential illness. Can you isolate your bird and watch for additional symptoms? Watch her droppings over the next 24-48 hours. Watch her water intake to see if she is drinking much more or much less. Take a look in her mouth for any signs of canker. Has she been wormed recently? Is there any odor to the droppings? Check her eyes to see if they are watery. Check her sinuses for any discharge. How is her breathing? Could she be egg bound? Is she lowering her head towards the ground? Is her tail going up and down as she breathes? Feel her body for any abnormalities.

[pigeonperson]

Do you have enough Spartrix to give her a 5 day treatment, one pill per day? Even after the canker is gone, the mucous membranes have to heal over or she will get another attack. This could take a month or more to resolve.

[Flying_Pidgy]

Yes i have 45 or so pills left. They expire in 2010. The instructions say

Dosage:
1 tablet per pigeon

a single oral dose is fully effective against trichomonas columbae.


--
It drank water and ate alitle food about 10 minutes ago and the directions say

" preferably all the pigeons in the loft should be treated at the same time, before feeding. at the time of treat ment no waterbowls should be left in the pigoen house, they can be put back two hours after feeding. This treatment can be repeated everytime there is a risk of reinfestation . I.e. at the start of the breeding season during the first half of the nesting period after purchase, after " getting lost" etc.

[Flying_Pidgy]

how long should i wait before giving her the first pill?

[Pidgey]

When you've got a loft, if you have one pigeon that tests positive for the canker organism, it usually means that more or all have it. To have Trichomonas doesn't necessarily mean that a bird will come down with the clinical disease but it usually means that a percentage of the nestlings will die of it. There are strains of trichomonas that don't cause little to no discernible symptoms and, given the choice, you'd almost rather have them because they'll usually cause immunity to the more virulent strains. But, it's kinda' hard to tell who's who in that microscopic world so the tendency is to flock treat at the first sign.

Pidgey

[Pidgey]

Why would you wait?

Pidgey

[AZWhitefeather]

Originally Posted by Flying_Pidgy

how long should i wait before giving her the first pill?

You don't need to wait. You can give your bird the Spartrix now.
I would suggest giving the pill around the same time each day though.

Cindy

[Flying_Pidgy]

It says 1 is effective. i gave my other bird one and it was healed

[Pidgey]

Sure. For the moment. They can get it again, you know. The organism that causes the disease is a flagellating protozoa. That means it's a little bug that's got little whips that it slings around to move around. They're fairly energetic. What you probably want is to get rid of all those bugs in your entire loft. That's why most people who have lofts end up flock treating.

Now, you can treat them as they come up but some can slip by with an inner canker where the lesion occurs on the inside of the bird where you can't see. The bird's obviously sick but you don't know why. Sometimes, they can die so fast that you didn't know they were sick because they had you fooled right up until the moment they keeled over. Want an example? Hang on a minute and I'll go get you one.

Pidgey

[Pidgey]

This is a painful story, but you can learn a lot from it:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?p=168406

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=18664

Pidgey

[Flying_Pidgy]

thanks pidgy, the good thing about spartrix is that it says it is safe to re treat when there is a risk of infection.

[Flying_Pidgy]

I just gave it 1 pill of spartrix. I believe it swallowed it