Very Rough Day

[pigeonperson]

About 12:00 P.M., I went to do some shopping in my area and on the way, saw a bird lying on the grass. He didn't move when I went over and he didn't move when I reached down to pick him up. My hand came away with a lot of blood on it. He had no tail feathers and seemed to be listing to the left side. For sure, he had been hit by a car. I ran him up as quickly as possible and the first thing was to find the source of the bleeding. He was hit on the top left side of the rump and there was a big gash all the way down to the muscle layer. I applied pressure, lots of it and every time I took my fingers away, he started to bleed again. I had to find a way to stop the heavy bleeding and the only way to do it was to suture this closed. A clotting chemical wouldn't do a thing for this kind of bleeding. I worked in blood to suture this and as I managed to get suture after suture in, the bleeding slowed down and then stopped. This bird lost a lot of blood. Trying to find the two ends of the skin while it's bleeding and not put the needle through the exposed muscle should give you an idea of how hard this was.
He got Metacam, Baytril and a lot of water. He's alive and resting. We'll have to hope that the preening gland was not damaged because I couldn't find it in all of this mess. With this kind of a hit, it's hard to believe that there do not appear to be any broken bones and without this suturing, he would have bled out so this was a must-do.

[Pidgey]

The body has a way of shutting blood flow down to a point when something like a limb has been severed. It usually loses a bunch in the interim, of course, and so the body goes into a deep shock, higher brain functions are shut down as well as whatever else is required to maintain life support to the very basic systems. I wish you luck on this one--how much of the back end do you think he lost?

Pidgey

[Victor]

Pigeonperson, it is a miracle this poor thing even had any life left in him. He was extremely lucky to have been found by you. It must be very hard on you.

[Pidgey]

Incidentally, Pigeonperson, are you still suturing with plain cotton thread? If you want, I'll send you some sutures (with the curved needles--those are REALLY nice) and instruments to work with. It takes a bit of playing to get the hang of it, but once you've got it you won't want to do it any other way.

Pidgey

[pigeonperson]

He didn't lose any of his back but all of the tail feathers and a lot of pin feathers are gone. Flights are intact. I just checked on him. He's sitting in the food cup so he's moving and some semblance of droppings have started so nerves to the crop and intestines are working. He looks more alert. That's all I know right now.

[Pidgey]

Probably got knocked senseless. I think I'd keep a sheet or blanket over the cage for a couple of days to keep the stress level down. And for goodness sake, don't let him see the TV when the local news is on.

Pidgey

[pigeonperson]

Victor,
I was hunched over for a long time so my back hurts but that's a cheap price to pay if he makes it. I think he will. These birds are so resilient.

[pigeonperson]

Pidgey,
Thanks very much for the offer. I have curved needles and a very good thread. I run everything through Nolvasan before using them so it's all sterile.

[pigeonperson]

Originally Posted by Pidgey

Probably got knocked senseless. I think I'd keep a sheet or blanket over the cage for a couple of days to keep the stress level down. And for goodness sake, don't let him see the TV when the local news is on.

Pidgey

I have a space heater on him and am just leaving him alone for now. He was staggering so yes, he was knocked senseless.

[Reti]

Great rescue pp. Good luck. I think he will make it.
When Olivia had her accident and had lost a lot of blood, to the point where she was gasping for air, I put her on ice. The bleeding stopped immediately and I was able to clean her out and see the extent of the inury. Plus, it slowed he metabolism down a lot and I was able to rehydrate her and give her electrolytes.
I sutured her three days later (that is when I found the courage to do it, thanks to Pidgey). But she made it, I never thought she would.

Reti

[Pidgey]

Shucks, Reti... you're a doctor. The only thing that made that one so tough for you was that it was your own child. All I gave you was enough of the distance and detachment necessary to overcome the fear and do the work. Or, rather, that the fear of NOT doing the work became greater than your reluctance. That's kinda' the key in this business, sometimes.

Pidgey

[pigeonperson]

Reti,
Thanks for the good wishes. Can you expand on putting the bird on ice a bit?
I know that the body temperature has to be lowered in certain human surgeries in order to prevent damage to organs but how is it applied in pigeons? How did you lower the temperature? just to the injured area or to the entire body?

[Pidgey]

Here's Reti's best accounting of the story although it doesn't expound enough on the chilling part for you, probably:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?p=140272

Olivia is one LUCKY dove.

Pidgey

[pigeonperson]

Pidgey,
I had no idea this had happened. This was a nightmare.

[Reti]

You're right, pidgey, how could I suture a crop and skin on a bird without anesthesia and MY OWN BABY.
I have no trouble doing anything like this to a human, but in children and animals I get too emotional, I just hate to hurt them.

PP, it is not always necessary to do this. The alternative here was the bird was severy hypoxic going into shock, the organs would simply die from lack of blood circulation and she if she wouldn't have a heart attack or stroke then for sure she would have organ failure and most likely kidney failure. I took out of the freezer cubes of ice, put them in a bowl covered by a washcloth and set her in the bowl. At the same time I was giving her pedialytes, I gave her 10-15cc's and was also massaging her chest to keep her heart beating. That all I did for about 20 minutes or so, then watched her for another 10 minutes. She became more alert and I let her warm up in room temerature for about 2 hours. When she started urinating (after two hours)I put her on heat, but first moderate heat and after her first poops I put her under the heat lamp. I kept her on fluids for a day and then started the feedings.
The idea is to slow down the metabolism so the organs have less oxygen requirements. You know that the organs can survive a pretty long time in the cold, the colder the better. When you bring them back though you need to do it slowly.
They do some surgeries under those conditions and all the organ transplants are transported in freezers. Also the recommendation is if you loose a limb or even finger, put it in an ice bag and rush to the hospital, almost always they can successfully reatach it.

Reti