[Kira]

Hey, I live in an apartment and yesterday morning we found our usually hungry and active feral pigeon not moving around and sitting in a corner of our balcony
We thought it was resting and staying in shade since it's pretty hot and kept the water and food out as usual but even after two hours or so it didn't seem to move nor eat or drink anything which was quite unusual
It was constantly pooping around the area and wasn't moving much when we approached it other than shivering and moving his head back
Since we haven't faced a situation like this and because we've never raised any other pet let alone a pigeon we were quite clueless and scared obviously did not want our furry mate dying
It wasn't letting us touch it so we trying using a dropper to help it drink some water and it wasn't doing on its own
I did see a few posts here asking to warm the pigeon first before giving fluids or food, and I'm afraid we didn't do the step
At night yesterday night it was still at out balcony sitting right outside the glass door and so we kept it in a small cardboard box
Today morning it's still pretty much there and I'm afraid it ooks weaker, it's avoiding the water given
We took it inside as of now and we do not have a heating pad so we're warming a cloth continuously and putting it over it's body so as to warm him.
Can someone help me out with this situation?

This is how the little one looks as of now
Being inexperienced we're quite concerned as of how to bring it back to its usual state

 

[Doves Witness]

It was constantly pooping around the area and wasn't moving much when we approached it other than shivering and moving his head back

Did or do the bird's droppings contain a notable amount of green or brown (fecal matter), as well as white (solid urine)? In the posted picture, it looks like there is one dropping visible that doesn't include much fecal matter, that indicates either that he isn't passing much food, or isn't eating much food.

How cold is the weather? The "shivering" and lifting his head back (as if to peck at you) is likely the bird warning you not to get too close because he was afraid.

A little lemon juice in drinking water (1 teaspoon or less per cup of room-temperature water) will provide electrolytes and other nutrients in an easily digestible form. If his droppings have included a notable amount of green or brown solid poop, then it is safe to feed him solid foods such as raw, unshelled sunflower seeds, dried or thawed-from-frozen peas, dry mung beans, rice, oats, wheat, etc.

After he has had some electrolytes and food he should perk-up noticeably within a couple of hours. If not, he may have wounds or injuries that aren't obvious.

 

[Kira]

Did or do the bird's droppings contain a notable amount of green or brown (fecal matter), as well as white (solid urine)? In the posted picture, it looks like there is one dropping visible that doesn't include much fecal matter, that indicates either that he isn't passing much food, or isn't eating much food.

How cold is the weather? The "shivering" and lifting his head back (as if to peck at you) is likely the bird warning you not to get too close because he was afraid.

A little lemon juice in drinking water (1 teaspoon or less per cup of room-temperature water) will provide electrolytes and other nutrients in an easily digestible form. If his droppings have included a notable amount of green or brown solid poop, then it is safe to feed him solid foods such as raw, unshelled sunflower seeds, dried or thawed-from-frozen peas, dry mung beans, rice, oats, wheat, etc.

After he has had some electrolytes and food he should perk-up noticeably within a couple of hours. If not, he may have wounds or injuries that aren't obvious.

He just pooped a bit and it was fully white with a small amount of green in it

Here the weather isn't cold, it's pretty much very hot and he had been in the sun for almost a whole day yesterday so I suspect he can be dehydrated

He's not lifting up his head as for now but when we place a warm cloth over his body so as to warm him he's moving a lot trying as to push off the cloth but he has kept his head pushed into the box

I have no clue as to how to heat him as most of the posts say it is quite a necessary step

 

[Doves Witness]

If the weather is very hot, don't give him more heat. If he is cold he will fluff-up all of his feathers to trap air within the layers like a blanket. He doesn't appear to be doing that in the photo, so I'd say that he is already warm and possibly a bit warmer than he would like given that he is holding his feathers down flat.

If you give him a dish of water with lemon juice or other electrolytes, does he drink on his own? If you give him seeds, does he eat them?


EDIT: Heat should not be provided if the current ambient temperature is already ~ 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Source: "Journal of Wildlife Rehabilitation, Volume 26, Number 4"

http://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Volume-26-No.-4-Winter-2003.pdf

 

[Kira]

If the weather is very hot, don't give him more heat. If he is cold he will fluff-up all of his feathers to trap air within the layers like a blanket. He doesn't appear to be doing that in the photo, so I'd say that he is already warm and possibly a bit warmer than he would like given that he is holding his feathers down flat.

If you give him a dish of water with lemon juice or other electrolytes, does he drink on his own? If you give him seeds, does he eat them?

Okay, so I'll stop giving him heat if that's the case

About the water and food, no he isn't having it on his own, yesterday we had to use a dropper to make him drink a bit of water that had salt and sugar in it.

He's not having food at all, we've tried to feed him but he isn't having any of it.

 

[Doves Witness]

Try a small dish of water held just below the bird's beak, then slightly lift the dish so that the tip of the beak is in the water and he may drink on his own at that point. Be careful not to let the water cover the nares/nostrils just below the white operculum at the start of the bird's beak.

 

[Kira]

As of now he's somewhat like this, now he's drinking a bit of water as you can see but immediately shaking away his head when we provide more fluid

This is him now, it's really saddening to see him like this, if anyone can give in any suggestions it would be really helpful

 

[Doves Witness]

No signs of any injuries / wounds? If you hold his beak open and look inside his mouth and down the throat at the back, does he have any yellow growths or small white spots or white streaks?

As long as he is consuming water and food, and passing droppings with green/brown fecal matter, he has a chance to recover. If any of those three things stops completely, he would not be likely to recover.

If you gently feel the area of the bird's crop at the base of his neck, does it feel full?

 

[Kira]

No signs of any injuries / wounds? If you hold his beak open and look inside his mouth and down the throat at the back, does he have any yellow growths or small white spots or white streaks?

As long as he is consuming water and food, and passing droppings with green/brown fecal matter, he has a chance to recover. If any of those three things stops completely, he would not be likely to recover.

If you gently feel the area of the bird's crop at the base of his neck, does it feel full?

View attachment 101148


View attachment 101149​

As in the above picture of the previous post a little white wound can be seen on his right wing, this pigeon has been visiting us since a week and we indeed did observe a brown colored injury on his right wing, but couldn't do anything as he used to run away

We've been trying to make him drink the water from quite a time he's not having any, we've tried opening his beak to pour in the water to no avail

His droppings does have a bit of green in it and I'm hoping it's a sign that he can be saved

We felt his crop it doesn't seem to be full, but we did observe slight white spots inside his beak

 

[Doves Witness]

^ Plastic feeding syringe for water or liquified food.

​

It is possible to hand-feed seeds directly into the bird's beak, then gently stroke downward on the outside of his throat to get him to swallow. A feeding syringe can be used to squirt water down the bird's throat at the back of his beak, being careful not to get water into the bird's airway / trachea.

White spots inside the beak may be due to a yeast or fungal infection. A lot of naturally anti-fungal foods will help the bird to overcome a fungal infection. Raw, unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar diluted in drinking water (about 1/4 teaspoon per cup of water), garlic, ginger, coriander and others will kill yeast in the bird's throat, crop, and digestive tract.

Another possibility is canker, which normally produces yellow growths within the bird's throat / esophagus. It can also produce white mucus which may be visible at the back of the beak.


The little white spot on his wing looks like a down feather. They are normally under the larger feathers but if the bird isn't preening his feathers then they are sometimes left sticking out.

 

[Marina B]

Sounds as if he might have canker. Can you get hold of metronidazole from a pharmacy? Dosage will be 40 mg once a day for 7 to 10 days. You will need to crush the tablet and split the powder into the correct dosage.

I don't know if you will be able to get a handrearing formula for seedeating birds from a petshop? Try a porridge that contains no milk or sugar. Try making small balls by mixing the powder with a bit of water. Add the meds to this. Put one ball at a time deep inside the beak over the tongue and let him swallow. Easier if you have him on your lap when doing this. Feed him 10 balls and more when this gets digested. Droppings will change when food gets digested.

 

[Kira]

View attachment 101159
View attachment 101158
^ Plastic feeding syringe for water or liquified food.

​

It is possible to hand-feed seeds directly into the bird's beak, then gently stroke downward on the outside of his throat to get him to swallow. A feeding syringe can be used to squirt water down the bird's throat at the back of his beak, being careful not to get water into the bird's airway / trachea.

White spots inside the beak may be due to a yeast or fungal infection. A lot of naturally anti-fungal foods will help the bird to overcome a fungal infection. Raw, unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar diluted in drinking water (about 1/4 teaspoon per cup of water), garlic, ginger, coriander and others will kill yeast in the bird's throat, crop, and digestive tract.

Another possibility is canker, which normally produces yellow growths within the birds throat / esophagus. It can also produce white mucus which may be visible at the back of the beak.


The little white spot on his wing looks like a down feather. They are normally under the larger feathers but if the bird isn't preening his feathers then they are sometimes left sticking out.

He's not having anything no matter how hard we try

I just brought a syringe from the nearby store, we do have garlic and ginger over here will try giving it to him

Hopefully it's nothing too serious and he gets better

 

[Marina B]

He won't get better by himself unfortunately, one has to figure out what is wrong. Most important now is to get him hydrated and get some food into him. Try to get the tip of the syringe past his breathing hole, stretch his neck in an upward position and gently squeeze the syringe to release food. Little bits at a time.

Canker is very common amongst pigeons in India.

 

[Marina B]

Rather bring him inside your home. He will need additional heat. Get a hotwaterbottle, cover with a soft blanket and put this next to him in the box.

 

[Kira]

Sounds as if he might have canker. Can you get hold of metronidazole from a pharmacy? Dosage will be 40 mg once a day for 7 to 10 days. You will need to crush the tablet and split the powder into the correct dosage.

I don't know if you will be able to get a handrearing formula for seedeating birds from a petshop? Try a porridge that contains no milk or sugar. Try making small balls by mixing the powder with a bit of water. Add the meds to this. Put one ball at a time deep inside the beak over the tongue and let him swallow. Easier if you have him on your lap when doing this. Feed him 10 balls and more when this gets digested. Droppings will change when food gets digested.

The nearby pharmacy store is closed and all we can do right now is give in some water to the poor one, the problem is he's resisting alot

He isn't allowing us to feed him anything, we squirt a little water and he shakes it away I'm not even sure if he's swallowing it or not

Pretty much worried but really hope so he recovers

He's actually littered in the box quite too much, and it's now darkgreenish color with some white in it. It's in a more semi liquid form and i really can not make out much of it

 

[Kira]

Rather bring him inside your home. He will need additional heat. Get a hotwaterbottle, cover with a soft blanket and put this next to him in the box.

Yep he's inside our house, we kept a waterbottle covered in towel beside him for almost an hour or so in the morning, after which we tried to give some water which he did not drink

As of now we have squirted in some water with lime juice so that he gets energized, and all i guess we can do now is wait and see what else can we do

 

[Kira]

So a quick update about the pigeon

Since he can't ingest solid food, and we didn't want to take any sort of risk of him choking, we crushed garlic and added water to it making it liquidy and we gave him the liquid through the syringe

Although he took it in after sometime he vomited the entire thing out into the box, and i don't know what can be done about this

We did give him water with lime juice sometime ago he did not empty that out, but i guess he did not like the taste of garlic

What am I supposed to do at this stage?

 

[Marina B]

Can you get frozen green peas from a supermarket? Defrost a few in warm water till soft. Normally one can feed the peas whole, but with digestive issues (like this one) remove the skins. Open his beak and put a small piece deep inside the beak over the tongue. Let him swallow. Feed 20 halves (10 peas) and see if that digests.

Keep him warm and hydrated. Add apple cider vinegar (one with the mother, unfiltered) to his drinking water. 1.2 ml acv to 250 ml water.

Try to keep him going till pharmacy open and get the metronidazole.

 

[Doves Witness]

He's actually littered in the box quite too much, and it's now darkgreenish color with some white in it. It's in a more semi liquid form and i really can not make out much of it

If you are able to post a picture of the droppings it would help others to diagnose. It sounds as though he is getting more water, which is a good sign. The refusal of water is very odd. Both garlic and lime are anti-fungal and would immediately effect fungal or yeast infections in the beak, throat, and crop.

What am I supposed to do at this stage

Given that he is producing wet droppings now, perhaps just let him rest for awhile. Is he making any sounds while breathing? Rasping, gasping, wheezing etc?

 

[rshaud]

Why hasn't anyone suggested taking the bird to an avian vet or trying to locate an experienced wildlife rehabilitator?