Rescued another pigeon, perhaps with PMV :(

Hey All,

Last night Priya found a young pigeon which had fallen down in her apartment. It was 2AM in the night and she had tough time in catching the bird. The bird has got it's head twisted completely and unable to fly Suspecting it to be PMV but not sure so far Priya also noticed that the bird was bleeding near it's neck. She got it to her home kept it with her. I brought this bird to my home this morning and placed on a hot water bag (it is warm, not exactly hot). I have not yet examined the bird for any physical injury but I am sure it has got hurt near its neck , I was able to feel some wetness when I touched that area. It looks like an young bird, must be less than or around 5 months old. So far the poops are little watery, green with white patches.

I have kept a towel to support it's neck and the bird seems to be comfortable with it. I am thinking of hydrating this bird with water + glucose + little salt in another 1 hour and then start with little amount solid food (soaked greenpeas kind of). I will also check for injuries. After that comes any vitamin or medicines. Could you guys please let us know if I am missing out on anything or anything wrong in my approach ?

I am yet to take the photos, will post them once I have them ready.

Thanks again.

Hi Dev,
It sounds like your plan of action is right on.
Warmth (usually about 25-30 minutes on supplemental heat is a good rule of thumb), check for injuries and then slowly begin to rehydrate.

I will leave the medicating thoughts to others with more experience.

Will be looking forward to the photos.

To both you and Priya, a BIG and for helping this little one.

You really do need to find the source of the wettness on the head. If he has a head injury, you don't want to warm him. If you find a cut on head injury, it wil be difficult to know if the injury was the result of neurlogical issues or if the injury caused the twisted neck.

As far as hydrating goes and with the injury/illness...at this point you don't know if the bird can even swallow and so proceed with a very small amount until you know for sure. The same with food.
I think the next 12 hours will reveal a lot.

Great save by both of you.

Thank you very much Cindy and Charis.

I will start checking the bird for injuries in another 30 mins time. It has been close to one and half hours since I brought this bird home, just giving it sometime to settle. I will let you know guys know what I find. Just praying to god that everything goes well with it.

If you haven't already checked it out, here is the link to the Basic Life Saving Steps thread, Dev.
This will help you determine to what degree the little one is as far as alertness and dehydration, if any.

Thanks Cindy for the link

I have been hydrating this bird and feeding it soaked greanpeas. I was checking the bird for any kind of injuries but could not find anything except the slight feather loss below it's wing. I investigated his neck many times to find out the cause for the wetness, but could not find any injury there. Priya told me that while they were trying to catch this pigeon, there was some water around and this pigeon flew up to that. The wetness has gone now. I believe it was just water on it's neck. I am keeping him warm and feeding it regularly.

The bird is active but has very bad neck twisting From whatever I know, I don't think there is any particular medicine for PMV, should I be starting with any of the vitamins or any other medicines?

Thanks.

The poor bird was in a terrible mess when i spotted it last night. I caught it with the help of my apartment security. It was flapping like crazy and rotating on the ground with its head twisted completely when i approached it It was a terrible terrible sight as i have never seen anything so bad before. I went cold.

Infact we were sure it wouldn't make it :( But looks like the angel has a lot of will to survive as he is still going strong.

From what Dev observed after he got the bird home, the injury, which we both thought was big and getting scared of, infact looks to be a small one. It definitely has either been pecked by another bird or got hurt somehow (probably as a result of its fall :( ), as it had some bleeding around its neck area. But the bleeding had stopped when we found it and had formed into a crust. That coupled with the wetness (there was some water on the drive way where it had fallen), made us believe it was severely bleeding/hurt.

The wetness has gone now and the blood has got dried up. Dev hand fed it a little mushy peas and water which it has kept down so far.

But the head twisting is very very bad...so i don't know if it is PMV or some other severe neurological problem. Keeping fingers crossed and prayers for its recovery and survival. Hope he makes it. Dev will keep us posted.

spdevanand wrote:

Thanks Cindy for the link

I have been hydrating this bird and feeding it soaked greanpeas. I was checking the bird for any kind of injuries but could not find anything except the slight feather loss below it's wing. I investigated his neck many times to find out the cause for the wetness, but could not find any injury there. Priya told me that while they were trying to catch this pigeon, there was some water around and this pigeon flew up to that. The wetness has gone now. I believe it was just water on it's neck. I am keeping him warm and feeding it regularly.

The bird is active but has very bad neck twisting From whatever I know, I don't think there is any particular medicine for PMV, should I be starting with any of the vitamins or any other medicines?

Thanks.

Yes, any inputs on additional supplements or medicines would be a big help. I am going to go now and re read all the useful info here on PMV and how to care for such birds

Hi Priya and Dev,
There are several illnesses that have symptoms of head twisting.

Now that you've had him for a while, Dev, are there any other significant symptoms that you've noticed?
How are the droppings looking?

Cindy,

This bird's droppings are little watery, dark greenish and very little white patches. Bird likes to drink water when I feed it. Food is accepted during hand feeds.

Any clue on how we can differentiate this symptom from PMV ?

From the way you have described the poop, it sounds like the bird hasn't eaten enough to have much body to his droppings.
Short of having at least the droppings evaluated for bacteria and parasites, I would offer supportive care and see how he is in another 12 hours.

Priya...I just realized that you found that great vet that treats birds. Perhaps he would do a fecal and examin the bird.

Matilda wrote:

Priya...I just realized that you found that great vet that treats birds. Perhaps he would do a fecal and examin the bird.

Who? Unfortunately the problem of finding good vets to treat birds remains the same here Charis :(
Did you get confused with Mohammad Dilawar, whom i mentioned in a thread on sparrows? If so, he is a conservationist based out of Mumbai. So he is not the one

No...it wasn't him but I can't find the one I was thinking of. I do have a list of vets in India that say they treat birds. I have no way of verifying that they do or if they are good with birds.
Here's a link though and perhaps you can find one from this list.

http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-resources-misc-f38/india-veterinarians-that-treat-birds-h-thouugh-k-t1855.htm

Charis,

From what ever I can remember, none of the Vets in Bangalore had the facilities to examine the poops Infact I have still not located any vet who is good in diagnosing the problems by looking at the birds

Btw, when I tried to access this link "http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-resources-misc-f38/india-veterinarians-that-treat-birds-h-thouugh-k-t1855.htm", I was thrown this error message "Sorry, but only users granted special access can read topics in this forum." May be I need to be added some other group?

The bird is continuing to be as it was. Poops have changed to solid, light green (it was watery & dark green). I am keeping it warm, hydrated and also handfeeding. Do you guys think I need to check for any other symptoms or anything else?

Thanks.

Is the poop stinky?

spdevanand wrote:

Charis,

From what ever I can remember, none of the Vets in Bangalore had the facilities to examine the poops Infact I have still not located any vet who is good in diagnosing the problems by looking at the birds

* Btw, when I tried to access this link "http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-resources-misc-f38/india-veterinarians-that-treat-birds-h-thouugh-k-t1855.htm", I was thrown this error message "Sorry, but only users granted special access can read topics in this forum." May be I need to be added some other group?

The bird is continuing to be as it was. Poops have changed to solid, light green (it was watery & dark green). I am keeping it warm, hydrated and also handfeeding.
** Do you guys think I need to check for any other symptoms or anything else?

Thanks.

* I'm sorry about that, Dev. No you should be able to view that thread without any problems. I'll go take a look.

** I would just observe the little guy and if you see anything you feel looks to be out of the ordinary go ahead and post it.

spdevanand wrote:

Charis,

From what ever I can remember, none of the Vets in Bangalore had the facilities to examine the poops Infact I have still not located any vet who is good in diagnosing the problems by looking at the birds

Btw, when I tried to access this link "http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-resources-misc-f38/india-veterinarians-that-treat-birds-h-thouugh-k-t1855.htm", I was thrown this error message "Sorry, but only users granted special access can read topics in this forum." May be I need to be added some other group?

The bird is continuing to be as it was. Poops have changed to solid, light green (it was watery & dark green). I am keeping it warm, hydrated and also handfeeding. Do you guys think I need to check for any other symptoms or anything else?

Thanks.

I was just able to open the link from the post above so I don't know why you can not. That is really strange.

Dev,
I just checked and you should be able to view that thread.
When you have a minute, give it another try and let me know what happens.

Matilda wrote:

spdevanand wrote:

Charis,

From what ever I can remember, none of the Vets in Bangalore had the facilities to examine the poops Infact I have still not located any vet who is good in diagnosing the problems by looking at the birds

Btw, when I tried to access this link "http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-resources-misc-f38/india-veterinarians-that-treat-birds-h-thouugh-k-t1855.htm", I was thrown this error message "Sorry, but only users granted special access can read topics in this forum." May be I need to be added some other group?

The bird is continuing to be as it was. Poops have changed to solid, light green (it was watery & dark green). I am keeping it warm, hydrated and also handfeeding. Do you guys think I need to check for any other symptoms or anything else?

Thanks.

I was just able to open the link from the post above so I don't know why you can not. That is reaaly strange.

It sure is!!

Cindy: Thank you, the link is now accessible to me

Charis: Nope, the poops are not stinky, them seem usual.

How is the neck today? Still twisted?

Yeah, still twisted I have kept a towel wrapped next to the bird. I often check and make sure the bird keeps his head straight on the towel I still can't imagine what these poor birds must be undergoing.

Bird is active, drinks water and even when I hand feed there is no problem in swallowing the food. Checked inside his / her beaks and dint find anything unusual.

I know you will continue with the supportive care. You are a blessing to the pigeons in your care.
How is the bird other wise? Can she stand? Can she grip with her feet? Anything else unusual you notice about her condition ?

Apart from head twisting, she stood up a couple of times on her own with her head straight. But could not move or fly. Most of the time her feet do not have the strength to stand. She always keeps herself laying down but can use her legs if she wants to move a bit. I will try and get the photos by this evening.