Help - sick Pigeon

[Tiggrx]

Have just found a wood pigeon in my garden being attacked by the neighbours cat. I caught it and it's now in a basket in the house - but looks very sick. There are swellings around it's eyes and a lump on it's beak - obviously sick before the cat found it. Another neighbour said that it has been around the garden for a few days.

I don't think it will survive but am unwilling to leave it for the cats to play with. Can anyone recommend anything I might be able to do for it?

[eeyore]

Hard to say whats up with it without seeing it, could be avariety of diseases, or poisioning fro dressed grain , slug pellets, rat poison etc but if you want to try and save it an animal rescue centre is indicated.

if that isnt feasible it would be kinder to knock it on the head than to release it in that condition.

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

I'd tend to agree with Eeyore, if you really don't want to do that, release it in the country where it is less likely a cat will kill it

[Tiggrx]

Originally Posted by eeyore

Hard to say whats up with it without seeing it, could be avariety of diseases, or poisioning fro dressed grain , slug pellets, rat poison etc but if you want to try and save it an animal rescue centre is indicated.

if that isnt feasible it would be kinder to knock it on the head than to release it in that condition.

Thanks for the responses

I don't think any of the central London animal shelters will deal with pigeons - we have had similiar situations in the past.

I think it might have to be the knock on the head solution, but I shall have to wait for someone else to get home - not up to it myself

It wouldn't surprise me if it has eaten some rat poison as the have been rats around the street recently and some of our neighbours have certainly put poison down before (even in our garden without permission!)

[eeyore]

You might want to try this lot first role1.html if they cant help you they might reccomend someone who can.

If you do wind up killing it I recomend that you grasp it firmly arround the wings so that it cant flap or struggle and talk calmly and soothingly to it as you would to a baby. Then hit it in the base of the neck with something heavy such as a crowbar , or road pin - death will be instantaneous. If you are not up for this you coulsd also take it to the local vet who will put it down by lethal injection for a small fee

[Earth Hart]

Pity it's not healthy else I'd kill it & pot it. Best thing, ring its neck & bin it. Don't want diseaed birds being eaten by cat or Fox.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Earth Hart

Pity it's not healthy else I'd kill it & pot it. Best thing, ring its neck & bin it. Don't want diseaed birds being eaten by cat or Fox.

last time somebody asked about an injured pigeon several of us responded along the lines of "find a Rabbit and make a nice pie" but this wasnt well recieved so I thought I would keep my sense of humour in check this time

however EH is dead right about disposing of the carcase -- double bag it in poly bags and stick it in your wheelie bin - and make sure you wash your hands afterwards not only due to poison but also down to disease - even healthy pigeons can carry up to 32 diseases that are comunicable to humans.

[Tiggrx]

All over - a friend just came over and put it out of it's misery.

I've wrapped it well and disposed of it. Hopefully it didn't leave any parasites in the house...

[eeyore]

If you hover up well and disinfect any surfaces it might have touched in food preparation areas you should be fine

[Owl-Light]

Originally Posted by Tiggrx

All over - a friend just came over and put it out of it's misery.

I've wrapped it well and disposed of it. Hopefully it didn't leave any parasites in the house...

For future reference please find out where your local Wildlife Rescues are. They will take similar cases and are experts in dealing with them.

If the nearest is too far away, local vets will usually treat wildlife free and will pass them on to the nearest Rescue for rehabilitation/re-release at the first opportunity or at least put them to sleep with the minimum of stress and painlessly.

[eeyore]

It might be a good idea to have a list of wildlife rescue centres on here for such occasions, maybe on a sticky thread in one of the forums. In fact I'll go start one now - I'll put it in the treehouse as not sure where is best but the moderating team can always move it

[Owl-Light]

Originally Posted by eeyore

It might be a good idea to have a list of wildlife rescue centres on here for such occasions, maybe on a sticky thread in one of the forums. In fact I'll go start one now - I'll put it in the treehouse as not sure where is best but the moderating team can always move it

Excellent eeyore, I'll look out for it.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Sheryl LaBouchardiere

Excellent eeyore, I'll look out for it.

Its a sticky in the Wildabout Britain website forum

[Tragus]

Hi Tigger

Sorry I missed this thread
It seems that things have been taken care of, however it would have been better to take it straight to your nearest vets. Most vets will NOT charge for seeing wildlife and it may have stood a chance.
We have many pigeons coming into the centre all year round, and at this time of year it could well have been a disease called Trichomoniasis.
It is a disease that grows in the pigeons throat and crop, it is transmissable to other pigeons, usually adults pass it on to their young when feeding crop milk. Pigeons nest all year round, so be aware that there may be others with the same problem in the area.
Only yesterday we had 3 wood pigeons and 1 dove in with trich and all the Wood pigeons had to be put to sleep. The dove however wasn't as advanced and with medication is doing very well.

If your pigeon was thin, had dribbling and lesions around the mouth and a particularly nasty odour then it was more than likely trich. The fact that cats may have caught it is a secondary problem. The more the disease progresses, the weaker and thinner the bird will become. The lesions grow quickly in the crop, throat and mouth, slowly blocking the ability to eat or drink. It some severe cases it actually stops the bird breathing.

The advice to double bag the corpse is a good one, but either bury it deep or take it to a Vets for disposal. Anything (including if it is dumped on landfill sites) can tear the bags open and become infected.

Also it would be wise to disinfect and clean daily all your feeding stations and water containers as, I said before, it is transmissable.
Keep an eye out for other birds with a similar description as if caught early enough you can cure this disease.

Jo

[Helexia]

Hi I think I have a similar problem as this man, I live just outside of london and recently there have been two pigeons with this condition in my back yard, The first pigeon has already died, he accidentally flew into our pond in the middle of the night and drowned. The other one is barely hanging on and is having troubles eating...he throws his head back and looks like he has a hard time swallowing his food. We've been putting him in our shed at night so he doesnt get cold or do what the other pigeon done. I found him once already in the pond and saved him.
The funny thing is we used to have a flock of at least 9 pigeons always coming to our backyard. Now we have none except for this one last sick pigeon thats barely hanging on. It couldn't of been rat poisoning? And if it is, is there any way to cure it with home remedies?
Thanks for the help =)

[Lance Morgan]

There are alot of squabs around at the moment which have left the nest and are finding the lower temperature at this time of year difficult to adjust to. I've had one in the garden and seen one sitting at the side of the road as if a bit dopey.
Anybody notice how some birds particularly pigeons seem reluctant to fly first thing in the morning when approached by a motor vehicle. Quite a few get run over in this way.

[Helexia]

=( Got some bad news, well I guess its better this way, but the pigeon died this morning...we put him in the shed last night and in the morning he was lying on his back barely breathing. We had to finish him off...I think it was better that way...poor thing.

[Lance Morgan]

Kindest thing you could do really. At least its not suffering any more

[kshotton45]

The same predicament was discussed recently in the 'British Birds' forum under the 'Bird deaths' thread.
I had a pigeon with the same symptoms and had captured it with the intention of taking it to a vet. It never lasted the night. I'm afraid it's this 'trich' disease and by the time the symptoms show it's generally too late.
We lost our Coal tit through what we believe was the same disease. We still haven't put our feeders back out. We just feed on the paving slabs so there's no communal feeding. It's sad but the only way to beat it seems to be stop feeding the birds and make them disperse.
Does anyone know if the coming winter will help kill off the disease?

Keith.