Golubiatko's new life: a diary of a PMV pigie

Golubiatko means "Little Pretty Pigie" in Russian.
I found Goubiatko on Portland State University grounds, very sick, on March 30, 2009.
From April 9, 2009 to April 11, 2009 I treated her with Baytril thinking that she had Salmonellosis which turned out to be not the case. The really visible and sudden improvement in her condition came when Matilda instructed me to de-worm her, too, with Ivermectin. I administered Ivermectin (de-wormer) on April 10, 2009. One day after Ivermectin, Golubiatco could even stand on one foot (she could not even stand on two feet the day before) and her poop instantly became more solid and more like normal Pigeon's poop. She still has one eyelid closed very frequently (but both eyes are wide open if she is excited, etc): sits with only one eye open but that will pass soon I hope like all other symptoms passed. She is still tube-fed - still does not eat food on her plate even though the dish with various seeds and grains has been sitting in her cage for few days now - but that will pass soon. Now she is prettily perching on the top of the cardboard box and not fluffed up like she is used to.
Click on the picture to view:
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The seeds and grains have been in her dish since Charis brought it to me, but it seems Golubiatko does not see very well yet or has no appetite: she never even gets close to it. She only perches on the cardboard box and never sits on the floor anymore - indicator that she is able to judge the height. But she does not come down from the box to her dish.
Another funny thing: she stomps her feet a lot - I think Pigeons do that but I just noticed. Stomps as if she is trying to get some message across - not stomping as if from some paralysis or some convulsions. Tries to fly a lot, looks more alert now and attentive.
P.S. (Linguistic stuff, from a linguist): I am very surprised that Russian language has too many ENDEARING terms for a word. For example, I called my Golubiatco by following endearing terms: Golubko, Golubka, Golubiato, Goluba, etc, and they are all endearing derivatives of the same word, "golub" ("dove"). I found Russian too "feeling", too "emotional", too "gutteral" or "animal", like Italian or Spanish, and not as abstract as English. Of course, English has its advantages of being more abstract language, but other (more primitive languages like Russian, Italian or Spanish) have their own advantages when it comes to emotions. So, it is a "double edged sword", so to speak, from a linguist's point. And it is this little beautiful and helpless "Golubiatko" that is the reason to a deep philosophical thoughts, ideas and challenges that are very relevant to my field (linguistics, mathematics and its relations to other languages [math being higher and more abstract language]).
Thank you, Golubiatko, for giving me food for thought. In return, I will tube-feed you until you start eating grain on your own, just like you were the reason for generating my own ideas for my profession. Two way street, Golubiatko. I love you, Goluba.
PS: the Latin name in the zoological Classification hierarchy of animals is Columba. Very close to Russian "Goluba".
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April 15, 2009: for the first time, I saw Golubiatko wondering around her cardboard box and trying to peck some corn kernels. But she did not eat it: it appears that she now can see kernels but is still unable to eat them. She tried about 4 to 5 kernels, but they ended up still on the floor. I remembered I did not tube-feed her this evening: perhaps she is hungry but apparently she is still unable to eat on her own despite her first attempts.
Another thing: the stomping of her feet is definitely sign of nervous system problems (can not be mites or worms - that was taken care of a while ago). The only explanation for her feet stomping is partial lack of feeling in her body, including feet. Thus, she is stomping trying to get a feel of the surface she is on. She gets feedback of her stomping through her hearing: her hearing is one sense that is more or less unaffected by the PMV. She is stomping just like I was stomping when I sat in some weird position and my leg went numb - I stomped that leg trying to get the feeling back. So, the stomping should go away, in a month or two, as her nervous system recovers.
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April 16, 2009: about 30 minutes after tube-feeding, Goluba walked around her cardboard box and tried to peck some kernels (without eating them). Her sight definitely is improving. Another evidence of improving sight: she now notices my hands well in advance when I attempt to pick her up for feeding. She tries to flee of course. In the past, she noticed my hands only when they were only about an inch away from her. Now, it is one foot away.
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"Pigeons have fantastic hearing and can hear the breaking of the waves on the shore of the ocean on both coasts. When you go to your loft in the morning you can begin by talking to the pigeons in your loft and they will hear and begin to pay attention, and even look in your direction. This is an important part of their training. It is a good idea to always talk to your birds as it lets them know you are coming to the loft, and most important, that food is on the way." http://flyingllamacomputers.com/anatomy__of__the__pigeon.html
Also, "Hen Will attempt to feed the cock bird by sticking her beak into the cock’s beak."
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April 16, 2009, 3:30 pm: Right before I wanted to tube-feed Goluba, she jumped down to the dish with seeds and grains, and attempted to eat again. This time, she managed to grab some small pieces broken seeds or broken corn pieces, guide them with her tongue and swallow them, while the large and whole grains and seeds still fell on the floor. So, she managed to swallow about 8 small shells or pieces of broken seeds. Clear progress. So, she is hungry but she clearly does not get any biological feedback on her attempted feeds and that's why she quits right away. I presume her feelings are still gone (in her tongue, throat, etc). So, these are the last tube-feedings, I presume and in couple of days she will feed herself.
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April 20, 2009: For three weeks I have been observing the pigeons on Portland State University grounds. I remember there used to be many pigeons around, from about 2000 to 2006. The food carts locations have not changed. But now there are no pigeons in the parks or around University anymore. This makes me think that University poisons pigeons with some new and subtle poison and then workers secretly pick the poisoned pigeons, say at night on the roofs. I came to this conclusion because there are only few pigeons around PRIVATE food carts. Those private vendors are Chinese and Mexican mostly and they love pigeons and they would not poison pigeons. That's why there are only few pigeons around those carts. But University's grounds are humongous and colossal - but there are no pigeons there ANYMORE.
Another fact: my Golubiatko's symptoms can not be mapped to any specific syndrom (disease, or illness). This makes me think that this is a new syndrom (new illness) caused by new poison.
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April 28, 2009: I discovered that Golubiatko is almost absolutely blind in her bad eye. When I get her for tube-feeding I distract her with one hand (on her good eye) and approach my other hand on her bad eye. Even if my hand is few inches away from her bad eye side she does not react and I am able to simply grab her. If I attempt the same experiment but from her good eye she will try to run and fly when my hand is feet away. Because she approaches her dish and tries to peck seeds or bread sometimes (without success) I presume her "good" eye is not good enough either. Perhaps she is seeing blurred image with her "good" eye. Hopefully it will get better after 2-3 months. But she is preening herself and flies off her perch (hovers just few inches off the perch) for couple of seconds, about four times per day. Exercising, I guess. And she does not forget to go down to her food dish when she is hungry.
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May 9, 2009: I realized that the feeding tube smelled like foul acid during the first week of Golubiatko's sickness. Now, when I smell the tube after feeding her the tube does not smell like anything - just the way it is supposed to smell. Conclusion: she had very bad acid or fungi or something like that, too, during her first week of illness.
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May 16, 2009: Golubiatko began to clean her beak (against the cardboard box's edge) for the first time. She did it several times in the evening - before "retiring".
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May 19, 2009: The bad eye (the blind one) now is shrunk and looks like fried egg. If I had doubts in the past that Golubiatko might have some vision left in that bad eye, now it is absolutely clear to any fool that the bad eye is 100% dead: it is shriveled and shrunken just like a fried egg.
I found that "shrunken eye" could be caused by poxvirus: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1829&aid=2743
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June 3, 2009:
1. Golubiatko began cooing for the first time! She cooed about 6 to 8 times.
She is more active, more curious now. So, in general, she might be getting better.
She did it again: she cooed again.
2. I determined that she feels best if I tube-feed her THREE (3) times per day, about 25 ml each time. The formula that I use is Embrace (ZuPreem) "Baby Bird" Hand-Feeding Formula. I used to feed her only twice per day as suggested on many websites, but my observation of her led me to conclude she was hungry. Three times per day, 25 ml each, is the best so far: she is not restless, not looking for food so often. In fact, she now looks for food only right before her meals. Before, when she was hungry, she used to roam the cage at night looking for food and kept me awake at nights. Now she does not do that because she is not hungry anymore. Even though she was hungry she did not loose any weight during these two months: her weight was 11 oz when I got her and remained at that level for two months.
So, I think websites are wrong about feeding them twice a day. Further research and observations will either prove or disprove my theory (e.g. if she begins to gain too much weight).
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June 9, 2009: Golubiatko is back on twice per day (25 to 30 ml) tube feedings. It appears that three times per day, about 20 to 23 ml did not make anything better but Golubiatko's poop became more undigested. So, it looks like the common web information about tube feeding dose of 25 to 30 ml twice per day is a good recipe. My pigeon did not gain and did not loose weight on that diet. So, I am going back to twice per day.
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Final conclusions:
1. I kept Golubiatko on tube feeding too long. She was over-fed, via tube, and that's why she did not eat on her own. I should have stopped feeding her, once in a while, for couple of days, to see if she could eat on her own. I ass-U-me(d) that she could not eat on her own, after she recovered. It was true that she was not able to eat, but that was only for a few weeks, when she was very sick and could not even walk (walked only clumsily backwards, in circles).
2. Now, since I can examine her eye at any range - she likes me to put my face into her feathers now, my nose into her feathers, etc - I can see that the cornea of her damaged eye (the transparent membrane of the eye) does not have any signs of damages. Therefore, she did not scratch her own eye as I thought before. Only the aqueous humor of anterior chamber is shrunk (eaten away by the virus) and the iris is of irregular shape. So, the eye blindness was caused by the virus, for sure.
3. Another lingering symptom: loss of a balance, just a little bit. When she sits on top of my head she keeps sliding and cannot get a hold of the top of my head - she lost her feeling in her legs. She stomps when she walks - helps her to find the balance, by stomping sound and by vibrations of the stomping force into her body. I remember young bird, Inky, I had - he had no problems finding top of my head to sit there for hours, and my hair is the same: as silky (slippery) as it has always been. So, even though Goluba loves my head - she has trouble finding balance on top of it - unless I provide large head-phones for her to grip or woven hat (hair is slippery) to sink her claws into. Also, Goluba has diminished grip in her feet: Inky used to claw so hard into my scalp in attempts to keep balance that I always had to put a beany hat on or headphones for him to grab. Goluba has never clawed into my scalp: she lost that ability (viral nerve damage).

to Pij-n-Angels, Peter.

for posting about Golubiatko.
Although Charis has told me about her and what a delightful person you are, it's great to have you share your story and photo of Golubiatko with all of us here on the site.

I'm glad to hear things are going well.
Please do keep us posted. We love pictures!

Again, welcome.

Cindy

Peter,
Golubiatco is absolutely stunning.
Many thanks for posting another photo of her.

Cindy

Golubiatko is looking very well, I hope he starts to eat on his own very soon.

Cynthia

Cynthia wrote:

Golubiatko is looking very well, I hope he starts to eat on his own very soon.

Cynthia

Well, it has been four days of Baytril but Golubiatko is still lethargic, does not eat on her own, and mostly sleeps, day and night, on the top of the cardboard box. Looks like two steps forward (being active a day ago) and one step backward (lethargic again), in her condition, even though the general condition is still better than before. The poop is still watery. Now what? Attempt to treat Coccidiasis? Makes me thing that if she had Salmonellosis, four days would definitely clear it up.

Hi Peter Rabbit. What a beautiful little pigeon. Have you tried worming him/her as Charis suggested. If anyone knows pigeons, it's Charis. And worms would be very common with a ferral pigeon. Poor little thing could have several things going on with her. Hopefully, she's a fighter, and you will get her through this. She certainly is a lucky little one in that you cared enough to take her in.

NiteOwl wrote:

Hi Peter Rabbit. What a beautiful little pigeon. Have you tried worming him/her as Charis suggested. If anyone knows pigeons, it's Charis. And worms would be very common with a ferral pigeon. Poor little thing could have several things going on with her. Hopefully, she's a fighter, and you will get her through this. She certainly is a lucky little one in that you cared enough to take her in.

Yes, de-worming was done on April 10, 2009, by Ivermectin.

I expected good results after 4 days of Baytril but results are not good enough and I am concerned that I am pumping the wrong antibiotic (Baytril) if she is suffering from something else.

Please post a picture of her poop.

Matilda wrote:

Please post a picture of her poop.

This is 24 hours worth of poop: I changed the newspaper lining yesterday, at 5 pm,
and it is now next day, 5:00 pm:

Peter...I don't think the poop looks bad, considering you are hand feeding her a formula.

I think you should try cutting back on the amount of formula you feed her so that she is a little hungrybefore the next feeding and maybe she will start eating on her own. Let's see what happens.

Matilda wrote:

Peter...I don't think the poop looks bad, considering you are hand feeding her a formula.

I think you should try cutting back on the amount of formula you feed her so that she is a little hungrybefore the next feeding and maybe she will start eating on her own. Let's see what happens.

Well, Golubiatko will have to feed herself today: no food for her today.
This is a 50/50 "fishing expedition" and not scientific at all because Golubiatko might have some sight problems left: she had MANY nervous system symptoms such as unable to walk or stand, unable to perch even on a book, unable to walk forward and walking backwards, one eye constantly closed, etc.
So, the symptom of inability to see or understand the food might be very real, or severe lack of appetite could be present due to yeast infection after antibiotics treatments.

What makes me think that the nervous system symptoms still persist is that Golubiatko stomps her feet too much when she walks: this morning she came down from the box and walked around the box in attempts to investigate the escape holes. While walking she put too much efforts in stomping as compared to a light walk of normal pigeons. In addition, the "investigative" behavior is almost lacking. This morning it lasted for about 30 seconds and after that she was back on top of the box for perching.
This made me change my mind about not feeding her at all. I will tube-feed her but only 20 cc/ml of formula (instead of 30 ml/cc) and may be only once a day instead of usual twice a day.

You're right...this is a fishing expidition of sorts. The best we can do is offer opinions based upon our personal experience with Pigeons.

My personal experience with Pigeons has taught me that often, when the bird hasn't eaten on it's own for some time, that bird needs to be weaned from the hand feeding formula. You want to give it enough to live and also leave it a little bit hungry so that when when the crop empties, the bird may be curious and look for food in the cage and start to eat. The other thing you might do is take some of the seed and pop individulal seeds in the back of her throat. Some times this will jump start their interest in food.

Cynthia wrote:

I know that many of you will think "Well, Cynthia would think that!", but there is still a possibility that she has PMV, though it doesn't really fit in with the timeline. She reminds me of Noelly that John found on his balcony unable to fly two Christmasses ago. He brought her up here for quarantine and during that period (2 weeks) she started to drink excessively and passed loads of watery poop. Around 10 days after her arrival she started "pecking and missing" and then showing torticollis. She has been symptom free for a long time now.

Some, but only some, of Golubiatko's poops look like those of PMV pigeons, a worm of hardened poop in a splash of water. This is caused by combination of the virus' effect on the kidneys and constipation. There is also the sleeping. Sleeping a lot and sleeping very deeply is one of the symptoms of PMV. I sometimes come across a pigeon in the middle of the aviary that is completely zonked out, which worries me immensely until I realise that it is Sir Sleepsalot, another of John's PMV survivors.

Cynthia

Yes, I had very difficult time differentiating between PMV and Salmonellosis, but I decided to give her Batryl anyway, just in case. The PMV symptoms were smeared (not straight PMV, or modified PMV rather). So, I think she did have PMV and is still getting over it. Will take up to 6 weeks I heard. Four more, then. So, if it was PMV then she will be still unable to eat on her own for a week or two or even more. Thus, I must tube-feed her I figured.
Finally, your post fits with the history of illness, medications' effects, and continuing symptoms. Thus, my suspicions that Baytryl was incorrect drug have grown in proportions and there will be no more Baytril after 4 days of it: I do not want to run risk of candidosis and other side effects of incorrect medication administration. It looked like PMV in the beginning and I will manage it as PMV for few weeks. Thus, tube-feeding is absolute must due to lack of ability to feed on her own. Your post, out of all the posts, makes most sense to me.

Peter...Cynthia has a vaid point but we still can't say for sure. I do think you should continue to support her.
Make sure there is food and water available for her. Her enclosure is a large space and I would put it on the floor and on the other side of the enclosure from the box she sits on.

Matilda wrote:

Peter...Cynthia has a vaid point but we still can't say for sure. I do think you should continue to support her.
Make sure there is food and water available for her. Her enclosure is a large space and I would put it on the floor and on the other side of the enclosure from the box she sits on.

Yes, the food that you brought is in the shallow and very heavy dish, on the floor, along with the water. But I am afraid the post-PMV nervous damage residuals are preventing her from feeding on her own.

Well I'm sure we will know soon enough what the problem may be by the time in which it takes for her to recover.
I still believe there is more than just one thing going on with her. Taking care of worms was a good thing to do.
We'll keep finshin!

Matilda wrote:

Well I'm sure we will know soon enough what the problem may be by the time in which it takes for her to recover.
I still believe there is more than just one thing going on with her. Taking care of worms was a good thing to do.
We'll keep finshin!

Sure, but this site tremendously alleviated MY OWN symptoms: worries and uncertainties about her plight, disease progression and treatment. Having so many BRAINS working together on one little Golubiatko's problem is an amazing thinktank. Your marvelous ThinkTank enabled me to use my Human medical knowledge and practice to be more certain about her diagnosis, treatment (or even stopping a treatment), etc. So, result is that Golubiatko will have proper care and treatment and will suffer less from side effects of meds or even unnecesary meds, etc.
What would I do without your Pigs & Anges, Matilda?
PS: any treatment is 95% diagnosis; any engineering project is about 80-90% design (means, discussions with the foam at the mouths of the participants, etc). And this is exactly what this site is doing: what would I do without this collective diagnosis and ThinkTank stylie "design" of my Golubiatko's treatment?
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As any doctor should do - I decided to post the result of eye exam. As we can see, the normal eye has narrow pupil and perfectly round shape of the pupil. The affected eye's pupil is wide, dilated, ELONGATED! and has irregular shape! That is the eye she keeps closed. Now I think that because the pupil is so wide open she perhaps is too sensitive to light in this eye and that's why she keeps it closed. The iris (pupil diameter) is controlled by nerves. So, PMV is most likely the disease she has.
The affected eye was facing towards the window with a lots of light. Even with this arrangement the affected eye had very dilated pupil (the pupil diameters should have been reversed if both eyes were healthy). I thought that it was the flash light of the camera that could cause this difference in both photographs but simply looking at her eyes, in any light, does not change the proportions of her pupils relative to each other.
Normal eye:


Affected eye:

Well ....I'm gald the system is working.

I called Cynthia and she will have a lok at the picture you posted. She will ask John to do the same.

I am not certain what causes distortions of the pupil. We have a PMV recocerey that has a single distorted pupil, most probably completely unconnected to her illness, but it is different...it is as if the pupil "bleeds" through the iris....we will have to find a photo. Strangely. wood pigeons have oval pupils.

Pigeons shed the PMV virus for 6 weeks after the symptoms first show, but do not necessarily recover in that short period. On PT we had a vet that rescued a PMV pigeon, after something like 17 weeks there had been no improvement so she decided to put her rescue to sleep...only to find that that very day she had made a "spontaneous" recovery. There is so much that e do't know about the disease.

Cynthia

This is a pic of Speckles, PMV pigeon, who has the 'strange eye'. As you see, the pupil is misshapen and dominates the lower part of the eye. Not sure if this affects her vision.

John

Cynthia wrote:

I am not certain what causes distortions of the pupil. We have a PMV recocerey that has a single distorted pupil, most probably completely unconnected to her illness, but it is different...it is as if the pupil "bleeds" through the iris....we will have to find a photo. Strangely. wood pigeons have oval pupils.

Pigeons shed the PMV virus for 6 weeks after the symptoms first show, but do not necessarily recover in that short period. On PT we had a vet that rescued a PMV pigeon, after something like 17 weeks there had been no improvement so she decided to put her rescue to sleep...only to find that that very day she had made a "spontaneous" recovery. There is so much that e do't know about the disease.

Cynthia

Thank you kindly for your info. I will also go along with my Golubiatko for as many weeks as necessary until recovery. Only if a bird in same condition for many months and only then I would start thinking about euthenizing it. But so far, Golubiatko and I have very high hopes for flying high again. I am pretty sure by now that Golubitako has atypical PMV ("atypical" for a standard web site description of symptoms of PMV, but we all know that viruses mutate and, thus, symptoms will change, too)