Oh no, another one!

Just brought jome another patient from the park, where he was hiding in a lump of grass. My clever dog found him. He limped away from me while he could, but made no attempt to fly. Caught in broad daylight, not a good sign! :(
He's an adult, normal weight and size, limping noticeably. On the way home a few drops of liquid identical to that of the pigeon who died fell on my arm. Must have come from the beak. Liquid is cloudy, light brown to yellow, sour smelling.
The face and eyes are fine,and the bird is alert and responsive but VERY subdued. Not fluffed up. There was food in the crop, not sure if there was a lump or not because of that.

Injured right thigh. Could be a tibiotarsus fracture, either way it's swollen at the top, where there are LOTS of broken feathers.

He's warming up right now. :Need some help

Teresa wrote:

Just brought jome another patient from the park, where he was hiding in a lump of grass. My clever dog found him. He limped away from me while he could, but made no attempt to fly. Caught in broad daylight, not a good sign! :(
He's an adult, normal weight and size, limping noticeably.

* On the way home a few drops of liquid identical to that of the pigeon who died fell on my arm. Must have come from the beak. Liquid is cloudy, light brown to yellow, sour smelling.

The face and eyes are fine,and the bird is alert and responsive but VERY subdued. Not fluffed up. There was food in the crop, not sure if there was a lump or not because of that.

Injured right thigh. Could be a tibiotarsus fracture, either way it's swollen at the top, where there are LOTS of broken feathers.

He's warming up right now. :Need some help

Given that description, I would suspect canker accompanied with sour crop.
Does it feel or look like there is any liquid in the crop?
Have you checked the inside of his mouth?

I haven't looked inside his mouth yet, but I will do so in a minute.
Sour crop is fungus-related, isn't it? I was thinking of quickly popping up to chemist's and getting some Nystatin, if they have it, in case I need it.
I was going to give him Baytril + Flagyl. Does that sound right?

Sounds right. Start with flagyl and nystatin. ...follow with baytrill 12 hours later.

OMG, he's covered in BITES!
There's nothing broken, but there's plenty of bruising, and he's very sore!

He didn't want to be examined at all, and wouldn't allow me to investigate the source of the blood on his wing, so I gave him a drop of Metacam and resumed 15 minutes later. There are lots of broken and cut feathers, and places where the top layer of skin is missing on the right hand side of the body. Same for the back of his neck. Once you start parting the feathers you can see the damage. He's covered in bruises. The wings are okay, the blood on the right wing came from a puncture wound on the side of his body near his right leg, but the wound is very shallow. His leg isn't broken, he can use it but it obviously hurts to stand on it. His back and tail feathers are very mucky, like he was dragged over poop. His feet were very warm to the touch.
I disinfected the wound and bare patches, put on some bacytracin/neomycin cream on them, and gave him a dose of Clavamox straight away.

He hasn't been vomitting at all, but produced two alarming poops of yellow mucus. I've never seen anything like this. There are no growths in his mouth or throat, nothing that I could feel on the crop, but the inside of his mouth is a bit sticky with mucus.

He's very alert and bright-eyed, studying his surroundings attentively when I took him in the kitchen to dissolve the med, and turning his head round to give me a filthy look after he'd taken it! However, he became more forgiving when he saw Piper, and took to watching HER instead...
I gave him some tepid hydrating fluid. He didn't seeminterested in food just yet, so I let him rest in his warm nest for a couple of hours.

Just now I heard some strange sounds, checked on him, and he's producing spit bubbles from his beak, and swaying! I think I'll go and pick him up.

His breathing is very fast.

I've been walking around the room with him, telling him he CAN'T die! The bubbling has stopped, but his breathing is rapid and shallow, often with half-opened beak. He appears to breathe better by the window, in the breeze, so I put him there in the carrier, but with the hot water bottle under him.

Should I give him any other med? It doesn't sound like a good idea somehow. But I did get the Nystatin.

Did you give him the flagyl?

No, just the Clavamox for the bite injuries. Should I give it to him now?

Teresa,
From my experience, the sticky/mucous mouth is an indication of advanced canker. In this case internal, as you didn't notice any noduals in his mouth.

It sounds like he may have become grounded due to lack of nourishment (unable to eat properly) because of the 'possible' canker and something caught him, causing all the body trauma.

Bless you both. What a sweet baby he is.
I will be thinking positive thoughts that he begins to show sign of recovery SOON.

Teresa wrote:

No, just the Clavamox for the bite injuries. Should I give it to him now?

yes...please.

Done.
I was worried about giving him any more med while he was having so much trouble breathing. Thank you for your advice.

Try to get some rest. It's late where you are.

Matilda wrote:

Try to get some rest. It's late where you are.

I've still got lots to do... Haven't had a minute to myself today between work and my charges. My kitchen looks like a bomb's hit it, the pigeon towels need washing before one of the cats tries to eat them, and the dog needs another walk... Wouldn't it be nice if we could grow extra arms and legs? Not pretty, but nice!

Wish I were there to give you a hand.
Yes in deed, there are times when extra arms and legs would be a godsend.

He's just died. This is SO, SO HEARTBREAKING!

I'm so sorry. You did everything you could.
XOXO

Can't sleep. Three losses in four days. The first I found already dead, the others you know about.

There's got to be something that can be learned from this: Yellow, paint-like urates, no poop component + near-empty crop + well-fed, healthy-looking bird + alert.

Liver failure -- if so, caused by canker? Aspergillosis? Poisoning?

Adenovirus+E-coli?

Peritonitis caused by bite wound?

Yellow, paint like urates indicate liver involvement.
...you said well fed...so the bird was not thin?

Was it a young bird?

The more I think about it, it sounds like the bird had young bird sickness which is a combination of things, most often canker, coccidia and worms. From the picture, the bird looks young to me.
I really hope the rest of the flock stays healthy.

I am so very sorry, Teresa.

Teresa wrote:

Can't sleep. Three losses in four days. The first I found already dead, the others you know about.

There's got to be something that can be learned from this: Yellow, paint-like urates, no poop component + near-empty crop + well-fed, healthy-looking bird + alert.

Liver failure -- if so, caused by canker? Aspergillosis? Poisoning?

Adenovirus+E-coli?

Peritonitis caused by bite wound?

There is such a combination of factors. Without a necropsy, sadly its pretty much guess work.

I honestly think you can r/o poison, in this case anyway.

Thank you, Charis and Cindy.
I'm not sure about his age, I thought older than 4 months and younger than 2 years. He weighed 300g when he died, that's as much as Piper, and she's pampered.
Thankfully I haven't found any more sick birds since.

300g is a pretty good weight.
As sick as he was, I would have thought he would have been lighter.
I'm wondering if some of that weight was excess fluid.