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I would never have thought this - but better to believe.
Yesterday in the afternoon we had our usual nap and I woke up, hearing the babies squeaking. I assumed that they were being fed. I got up but did not check the nest immediately because I thought everything is okay. I only saw in a blink that a foreign pigeon came from the nest but did not think anything bad yet. Sometimes they are just curious - but sometimes not
. But this I did not know at that point.
I talked to my sister for a while on the phone - still thinking that everything is okay - and after the call I checked the nest and discovered to my horror that Peppi, the older one had a small punture wound on his head that was bleeding and some more on the elbows of his little wings. Then I looked at Peppino, the smaller one and nearly got a shock - his little head was covered in blood, I saw several deep puncture wounds on his head, the blood was running into his eyes which he hardly could open, some more wounds on his wings but those were not as bad as the ones on his little head.
I immediately took both babies 10/11 days old out of the nest, put them on a paper towel and a warm water bottle and started to examine them both. Peppi seemed to be okay - he was feeping loudly - of course he had a shock. So I put him on a separate towel on the table. With trembling fingers I softly cleaned up little Peppino with a kleenex which I dipped in warm water and tried to remove as much of the encrusted blood to see how badly he has been injured. I cleaned up his beak that was encrusted with blood and all parts of the body where something was sticking.
First I thought his left eye was injured too because it looked blind and the eyelid was swollen. But after the cleaning he had a blank eye again. With a Q-tip I then disinfected all the wounds with Bach Flower Remedies Rescue drops, hoping that this would support the healing process. It does with humans - so why not with little pigeon babies. The wounds were still bleeding and again and again I tried to stop this . Eventually it did.
Also the sweet little guy realized that I wanted to help him and he stayed totally quiet, although the Rescue drops must have burned because it is alcohol. But he did not even whine a tiny bit.
The little head was all swollen up but at least he looked a little bit better after he could open his eyes again and moved around a bit. I had the feeling that he was not so in shock any more so I offered him a little water to drink - which he did. I held a tiny glass with a little water at the tip of his beak and he realized what is was - so he swallowed a little bit all by himself.
I cleaned the nest, put a kitchen towel in it because I did not want that a piece of hay would disturb him or get into his wounds. Now I had the dilemma whether I should put him back into the nest during the night with his momma or rather take him in. But as it was relatively warm outside, I thought it might be better if he was protected and comforted by his own mother - so I put the nest with both babies back where it belonged.
I was afraid that the wounds that had stopped bleeding would crack open again when he was fed by his parents but on the other hand I thought it might be better to bleed a little bit and get all the energy this little sweert guy could get from his parents. And so it hppened. He begged for food and ate - I took this as a good sign.
Every hour or so during the night I checked on the babies and was so relieved to realize that little Peppino probably would make it. It looked so hopeless yesterday and I was so terribly unhappy. After losing 2 babies in June this simply would have been too much. But after a good night's sleep the situation would be different - so I thought.
This morning I saw that Peppino was feeling much better. And although his little head was still swollen, also his eyelids a little bit, he seemed to be quite okay and was moving around quite a bit. Also he did quite a lot of poop - and this is really a good sign - isn't it?
I again cleaned his head with Bach Rescue drops and realized that the wounds were swollen but not as badly as yesterday and all were closed. So I assume that the healing process is in full operation. I only hope that the many blood has washed out all bacteria so that this little sweetheart does not get any infection.
I assume if tomorrow nothing has happened to the worse that the crisis has been overcome. I can only pray.
I can only assume what had happened: that a very aggressive cock was desperate to find a nest for the hen. So in a situtation where the babies were left alone this was the opportunity to take over and try to kill the babies. I have never heard of this behaviour before. DID YOU? At least not with pigeons. I know it from diurnal birds of prey but from pigeons or doves?
Foreign pigeons(apart from "our" family) which come to our balcony have always respected the nest and never tried to go into it, not to speak of taking it over. I am really shocked.
Do you have any advice for me what I should pay attention to regarding the wounds of little Peppino?
Yesterday in the afternoon we had our usual nap and I woke up, hearing the babies squeaking. I assumed that they were being fed. I got up but did not check the nest immediately because I thought everything is okay. I only saw in a blink that a foreign pigeon came from the nest but did not think anything bad yet. Sometimes they are just curious - but sometimes not
. But this I did not know at that point. I talked to my sister for a while on the phone - still thinking that everything is okay - and after the call I checked the nest and discovered to my horror that Peppi, the older one had a small punture wound on his head that was bleeding and some more on the elbows of his little wings. Then I looked at Peppino, the smaller one and nearly got a shock
- his little head was covered in blood, I saw several deep puncture wounds on his head, the blood was running into his eyes which he hardly could open, some more wounds on his wings but those were not as bad as the ones on his little head. I immediately took both babies 10/11 days old out of the nest, put them on a paper towel and a warm water bottle and started to examine them both. Peppi seemed to be okay - he was feeping loudly - of course he had a shock. So I put him on a separate towel on the table. With trembling fingers I softly cleaned up little Peppino with a kleenex which I dipped in warm water and tried to remove as much of the encrusted blood to see how badly he has been injured. I cleaned up his beak that was encrusted with blood and all parts of the body where something was sticking.
First I thought his left eye was injured too because it looked blind and the eyelid was swollen. But after the cleaning he had a blank eye again. With a Q-tip I then disinfected all the wounds with Bach Flower Remedies Rescue drops, hoping that this would support the healing process. It does with humans - so why not with little pigeon babies. The wounds were still bleeding and again and again I tried to stop this . Eventually it did.
Also the sweet little guy realized that I wanted to help him and he stayed totally quiet, although the Rescue drops must have burned because it is alcohol. But he did not even whine a tiny bit.
The little head was all swollen up but at least he looked a little bit better after he could open his eyes again and moved around a bit. I had the feeling that he was not so in shock any more so I offered him a little water to drink - which he did. I held a tiny glass with a little water at the tip of his beak and he realized what is was - so he swallowed a little bit all by himself.
I cleaned the nest, put a kitchen towel in it because I did not want that a piece of hay would disturb him or get into his wounds. Now I had the dilemma whether I should put him back into the nest during the night with his momma or rather take him in. But as it was relatively warm outside, I thought it might be better if he was protected and comforted by his own mother - so I put the nest with both babies back where it belonged.
I was afraid that the wounds that had stopped bleeding would crack open again when he was fed by his parents but on the other hand I thought it might be better to bleed a little bit and get all the energy this little sweert guy could get from his parents. And so it hppened. He begged for food and ate - I took this as a good sign.
Every hour or so during the night I checked on the babies and was so relieved to realize that little Peppino probably would make it. It looked so hopeless yesterday and I was so terribly unhappy. After losing 2 babies in June this simply would have been too much. But after a good night's sleep the situation would be different - so I thought.
This morning I saw that Peppino was feeling much better. And although his little head was still swollen, also his eyelids a little bit, he seemed to be quite okay and was moving around quite a bit. Also he did quite a lot of poop - and this is really a good sign - isn't it?
I again cleaned his head with Bach Rescue drops and realized that the wounds were swollen but not as badly as yesterday and all were closed. So I assume that the healing process is in full operation. I only hope that the many blood has washed out all bacteria so that this little sweetheart does not get any infection.
I assume if tomorrow nothing has happened to the worse that the crisis has been overcome. I can only pray.
I can only assume what had happened: that a very aggressive cock was desperate to find a nest for the hen. So in a situtation where the babies were left alone this was the opportunity to take over and try to kill the babies. I have never heard of this behaviour before. DID YOU? At least not with pigeons. I know it from diurnal birds of prey but from pigeons or doves?
Foreign pigeons(apart from "our" family) which come to our balcony have always respected the nest and never tried to go into it, not to speak of taking it over. I am really shocked.
Do you have any advice for me what I should pay attention to regarding the wounds of little Peppino?
