[SweetBirdLover]

Ok, so I had a pretty sad night with a pigeon.
This pigeon always has hung around my yard in the past. I feed the birds, and she always stood out. She was brown and white and always twitched and seemed to have problems eating and walking. She would twitch like she had a neurological problem, sometimes.

Today, she was sitting in my yard. Earlier in the day, I saw her and she was fine.
So, now, I went over to her, and she couldn't fly. She could barely walk. So, I picked her up with gloves on, and put her into a box with holes in it and food and water. I called my local animal control so they could come help her, but they couldn't come til tomorrow. So, I put her in a pet carrier with food and water so no one could get to her. It seemed like her foot was hurt; it was curled into a ball.

A few hours later, I checked on her, and she was dead. :-(
Why did she die? Did she have a disease? Or could it have been from the foot injury?

Could I catch what she had? I only touched her with gloves, I tried not to touch the gloves much afterwards... Do pigeons ever have dieaseses that are highly contagious?

Thanks. :-(

 

[Reti]

Most likely she was sick for a while. I am sorry this poor bird died.
Pigeon diseases are rarely highly contagious to humans. The few diseases contagious to other species (other than birds) require close and prolonged contact. I wouldn't worry about it.

Reti

 

[John_D]

Hi

Sorry you lost one of your flock, and it was kind of you to try to help her.

Can you recall roughly how long it had been that she seemed to have problems with eating and walking? That might at least rule out some possible causes. Since you say she stood out, I'm assuming that you have not noticed similar problems - particularly with eating - in any of the others?

Firstly, since you took normal hygeine precautions when handling a sick bird, you should have no problem. Contrary to what some people might say (especially pest controllers), there's minimal risk of getting a disease from a pigeon, any more than from a domestic animal or pet bird.

There is an illness commonly called 'PMV' (paramyxovirus) in which birds will spin in circles, twist their necks so head is upside down, peck at food and miss, pick up food then appear to toss it over the shoulder.. and a few other things. This would normally end up with inability to fly quite soon after first signs. If the bird has behaved 'oddly' for more than, say, a couple of weeks then it was likely to be something else.

A common problem is 'canker' (trichomoniasis) which frequently shows as a cheese-like substance in the mouth and throat. Eventually, this will prevent the bird from swallowing. Pigeons with this can sometimes be seen to kind of stretch backwards in a very upright posture in an attempt to swallow food.

Either condition will result in time in starvation, since the bird can either not pick up and eat sufficient, or just be unable to swallow food.

Feet can become entangled with string, thread or other thiongs and gradually die off if it tightens and stops circulation. They quite often lose toes or a whole foot. If a foot gets infected, then it could spread, but it sounds like the problem was primarily with eating (from what I can gather).

John

 

[SweetBirdLover]

She had problems for a long time; I've noticed her for months.

I haven't seen problems like that with any of the others. I don't know if it was her, but I think there was a different pigeon with the same brown and white coloring as her that had the same problems... All the rest of my pigeons are shades of black and different colors... none that are strictly brown and white... so it made me wonder if it was some sort of problem within that color group...


I thought about her all day... I wish there was more I could've done :-(