[SilverFeral]

Dear all,

I have a 5 year pigeon with neurological issues. His balance is a bit off so when he lands he lands on his tail feathers. This causes tail feathers to break in time and almost every molt causes injury to one or several blood feathers / not all at once but spaced in between. The feathers don't break but split open in places causing bleeding - he bends them so they split on the bend. I usually use corn starch and pressure to stop the blood and then monitor closely until the feather dries out. If the feather is injured in a way that it is very loose I pull it out, but this happens very rarely.

I researched on line and opinions are divided. On one side it is said not to pull damaged blood feathers if the bleeding stops, on other that these feathers should be pulled always.
As this is happening on more regular basis for my pigeon I wanted to weight out what is the most optimal course of action.

In cases with my pigeon he usually looses amount of 3 drops of blood. Sometimes less. I watch out his feathers like a hawk while they grow out and in almost every case notice the injury right away.
Vets here don't know much about this and I would love to avoid going there as it would take me 40 minutes to get to one.

Thank you.

 

[Marina B]

Can't you cut the tailfeathers shorter? I know it's not nice to do, but a pigeon with neurogical issues shouldn't really fly as he can injure himself even more.

 

[SilverFeral]

Can't you cut the tailfeathers shorter? I know it's not nice to do, but a pigeon with neurogical issues shouldn't really fly as he can injure himself even more.

Hello,

Yes I do that to prevent deep injury for the feathers that have grown out. But the problem are feathers that are just growing.

 

[SilverFeral]

Hello,

Yes I do that to prevent deep injury for the feathers that have grown out. But the problem are feathers that are just growing.

Sorry you were probably talking about flight feathers so he can not fly at all. He flies very well, he never has issues in flight any more. It is just that he lands horizontally, like a helicopter, and right on his tail. In majority of cases he lands softly, but sometimes if he is in a hurry he just drops down and right on the tail. If there are any big long blood feathers then, he occasionally bends one and it splits. This happens once or twice every molt, rarely more, so it is so far in between that I think it would be much more painful for him to completely prevent flight. And also it is more heathy for him to fly, as flight is important to stay fit and for blood circulation.