Ill Pigeon Found on Saturday, need help/advice

Hello everyone, first I want to say how wonderful this forum is,
I'm so glad to know there are so many out there caring for these
wonderful birds!

(feel free to skip this part, I just wanted to show I've dealt with
similar situations before)
I feed pigeons in my yard every day *looks around nervously*
and have a few injured ones that I've brought in, following the
warming/isolation/quiet advice to the best of my abilities, most
of them are found in the early evening........until now I did not
attempt to care for one myself, normally waiting until the next
day when my nice Mother could take it to the only wildlife rehab
facility we have, unfortunately none of the dear birds we took to
them survived so because it was the weekend I knew
if he (I believe) survived the night I would do my best to help it.

I think he has PMV based on another bird I found and took to the
wildlife center, that was the belief. His symptoms are sun gazing
the inability to stand (when I moved him to change his towels he
rolled onto his back ) when I found him he was flopping
around.
His poops look OK imo, and overall he looks good, clean shiny feathers
no discharge from eyes or cere.
I started feeding him tiny pieces of a health nut bread moistened in
room temp water on Sunday, by opening his beak, and he swallows
it fine (that was all I had at the time to give him..).

I would greatly appreciate any help that can be offered about what
else I can do for him! Unfortunately I cannot take him to a Vet.

Does it sound like PMV?
Can I give him thawed peas & or corn...is giving wet pieces of "healthy"
bread OK also or should I stop that? At the time it was the best way to
hydrate him.
I read about giving apple sauce, should I do that?

Please advise me on how much I should try to feed him and how often??
Right now I've been giving him about three small cubes of bread
torn into very small pieces...(that seems to be all he's willing to tolerate
from me ) and last night he seemed to gain some pep when
I uncovered his cage he lifted his tail and wings in a slight 'attack mode".

Thank you for reading this and for any help you can offer, I want to help
him the best I can

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30314046@N06/5876735311/in/photostream

I just changed it's bedding and wanted to show a picture of his
droppings for any advice on how it looks.
This is from between feedings/overnight.

Hi Lula,

Thank you for helping that poor bird. I'm sure without your intervention he wouldn't have stood a chance!

Whereabouts are you located? We may have someone close to you.

Meanwhile, if he has trouble balancing and is stargazing, it may well be PMV, but there are other types of infections (namely Salmonella and hairworm infestation) that can cause almost identical symptoms.
The poops could indicate the beginning of a viral infection, but that's not guaranteed. The colour suggests he's not been getting enough to eat recently, and unfortunately that's to be expected -- if he can't balance, he can't eat or drink properly.

Food and drink:

Thawed frozen peas and corn, served warm, are easy to push into his beak (open the beak enough to do it using your nail to wedge it open). Between them , they have most of the nutrients he'll need, and they produce much better poops even in PMV patients. The bread is good too, and I bet he likes it, but the worry is that he might have a seizure during feeding and small pieces of bread will go down the wrong way. Peas and corn are too big to fit in his air passage opening, and so are very safe.
How many peas and corn will depend on his age, but he should have at least 35 x three times a day.
If he can't eat that many in one go, he will need more meals so as to make up the same total.
Meals should be at least 4 hours apart, to allow the crop to empty, with a longer interval during the night.

The best way to get him to drink is to put a bowl of tepid water in front of him, and gently encourage him to drink by dipping part of his beak in it, but his nostrils mustn't go in the water:

You can get him interested in water by letting a few drops run from your finger on to the side of his beak. A small syringe can also be used to give him water, but if you haven't done it before a lot of care is needed to avoid the water going into his lungs, as that is fatal. The trick is to give just a little at a time, and place it right at the far end of his throat, so it goes into the aesophagus and not the trachea:


Medication:

It would be a good idea to give him a gentle antibiotic. If he has PMV, the antibiotic won't affect the virus, but it will tackle the secondary infections that his depressed immune system won't be able to fight; and if it is Salmonella, the antibiotic will clear it.
Without knowing how old your patient is, and how much he weighs (would it be possible to post a picture of him?) I would recommend anything consisting of Amoxicillin+Clavulanic Acid (marketed as Synulox or Clavamox). Broad spectrum antibiotics like Baytril or Cipro could be used as a last resort, but for that we'd need to know his exact weight.

Apple sauce is good for them, but not a priority in this case. It is used (always warm) when they can't empty their crop properly, and it's usually fed directly into the crop. What is much easier is to put a few drops of apple cider vinegar (at the rate of a teaspoonful per litre) in their drinking water once a week -- it's good for their intestinal tract and discourages parasites.

Many people think that PMV and other viral infections are lethal, but that's hardly ever the case: most often, fatalities are due to secondary infections, or starving to death because of being unable to feed themselves. Neither Salmonella nor PMV will affect humans, cats or dogs, but they are very contagious to other birds. So if you have other birds in the house, and when you feed the pigeons, you need to make sure that it doesn't pass on to them. When I have a very sick rescue, I keep him in quarentine, and have a separate set of clothes to wear when I handle him, and I wash my hands and face very well before going near the other birds.

I hope this will help! Please keep us posted.

Hi Lula,

How's your patient?
Did he recover well enough to be released, or is he still around?