[Wakanda]

I have a pair of pigeons nesting in my balcony and the day before yesterday, the 16 day old babies were attacked by a hawk. The hawk killed one baby and the other was injured. I attended and applied medicine on the visible injuries like on its tummy and under the wings where the hawk caught it. But that day, it's one eye seemed was very watery and had a silvery coat on it. I didn't do anything for the eyes because I didn't want to make it worse. Now, 2 days later, what I have trouble understanding is if the baby has gone blind in one eye. It's eyes on both sides look completely different. One eye is a bit droopy but that could be because of trauma, stress and weakness. But for the other side, the upper side of the eye seems swollen and the eye itself seems a little sunken in. The day it was hurt, I couldn't see the pupil at all, only completely black eye with thin silverish coat on it. Now, I can see the pupil but the eye seems kind of looks like an anime(big, wide) a little bit. It's night time right now and the baby is sleeping the balcony with its parents and haven't clicked a picture yet, so I can't attach a picture right now but I'll post a pic of both eyes tomorrow morning. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me what could be the issue with that eye, if baby has gone blind. And if there is a way to know for certain of the baby is blind in one eye. And if it will be all right.
Thanks.

 

[Marina B]

Please post a photo. You can also move your hand in front of his eye and check for any reaction. Is he otherwise fine? Eager to be fed by his parents?

 

[Wakanda]

Please post a photo. You can also move your hand in front of his eye and check for any reaction. Is he otherwise fine? Eager to be fed by his parents?

Hello Marina. Thanks for replying. It's currently 1:30a.m here. I'll make sure to post the pics first thing in the morning. Yeah, he is eager to be fed but what I noticed is that I made a hiding spot for the baby in the balcony so the incident doesn't repeat and now he doesn't come out at all from there, just answers the adult pigeons calls with intense squeaking. This continued for a while and when the adult realised that baby is hungry but is not going to come out, he managed to squeeze himself in that space with quite difficulty. However, I feel that the not coming out if the hiding spot may be his fearful reaction to the trauma of the injury and the attack because he was very terrified after it. So, maybe he is just trying to keep safe. Otherwise, when I place him outside, he runs back in his hiding spot without running or knocking into anything, which might have indicated blindness.
But, I have tried moving my hands in front of it's eyes, then the baby doesn't really react. It just keeps on staring. However, I think it's more in the sort of indifferent or maybe resigned(hopefully not) way than anything else because the baby is not very scared of me after I took it inside with me when the attack happened and tended to the wounds.
He seems otherwise fine. The first night of the attack, I was worried that he wasn't going to make it, but it's been two days and he seems better.
Hopefully, you'll be able to get a better idea after I post the pictures tomorrow.

 

[Wakanda]

The right eye

The left eye

It has swelled today as well. It wasn't as swollen yesterday. Also, the shape of the eye has become a bit distorted.

 

[Marina B]

That does not look like an injury, might be the start of pigeonpox. Pox is spread by bites from infected mosquitoes. There is no cure, those growths will keep on growing and after a few weeks will become dry and fall off by itself. He will be fine as long as the pox does not start growing inside the beak. The pox will probably cover his whole eye eventually.

Sometimes they get secondary diseases like canker when they have pox. Keep on monitoring his droppings and his overall behaviour. If the droppings stay brown and firm, then you know he is getting fed by the parents. If it becomes green and creamy, then they either have stopped feeding him or he is having problems digesting food. Do you put down water and food for the parents? If so, you can add apple cider vinegar to the drinking water 2 times a week. 5 ml acv to 1 litre of water. Put this down as their drinking water for the day. The little one will benefit from it. The acv helps with digestion and to keep the good gut bacteria in place. Vitamins over the food will also help as this will speed up the healing process.

 

[Wakanda]

Thankyou for the reply. Yes, the parents feed him well.however, his eye infection has increased a lot. I am posting pictures of his eyes again. Please tell me if this seems like pox. His eye is almost completely covered with whatever that is. Will he go blind now, whenever his eye is healed?
Also, the sparrowhawk came today again. I have been keeping a close eye on the baby ever since the incident. However, today the hawk came just during very early morning. I happened to wake up listening to all the commotion outside and chased it away before it could cause any harm. However, the baby is very scared again and very jumpy. The parents are perched on the grill of balcony but haven't fed the baby at all today. a
There are a lot of pigeons in the area where I live and those pigeons seem very restless as well. Don't know if that is because of the hawk or some other reason. Could this be the reason that the parents are not feeding the baby?
here are the pics :-

 

[Marina B]

The pox will keep on growing. It's not on the eye itself, but on the eyelid and covering the eye. I'm sure the eye will be ok once the pox fall off. Problem is, this might take another couple of weeks and I don't know if the parents will continue to feed him for so long. They start weaning the babies at a certain age.

Do you still have the hiding place for the baby? Make it long and narrow so that the hawk won't fit in there. Do you put out food and water for the parents? What do the droppings of the baby look like?

 

[Marina B]

How is the baby doing?

 

[Wakanda]

Oh all right. Hopefully the eye will be fine then. I do place food and water in my balcony and have a long and narrow hiding place for the baby on the large windowsill. Also, it is visible from the window of my room, so mostly, I also keep an eye on the baby as much as I can as the hawk has has come three more times but when the baby gets out for food and is squeaking and running around so i think that is what draws its attention. The droppings are dark green with a little white and are not visibly watery.
Thanks for your help😊