My pigeon missed a dose of canker medication- now what?

Hello. and thanks heaps for that :-) I rang the bird boarding place today and the lady who runs it is an avain vet nurse and she said she will take him even if he has canker and she will give him all his medications and food and water, but I have to take him to the avian vet first so he can get a check up and get more medicine she said, so I will do that

You are all right. Today I manage dto catch him to give him his medicine, and his left eye was oozing a bit of yelloew stuff and he had crusty yellow stuff around his beak and then I opened his beak and looked in his throat and it has that yellow stuff in his throat again, the same yellow stuff that the avian vet showed me was in his throat on his very first visit to her. Does that mean that the canker came back? I am so sad I have been crying all day

I will take him back to the avain vet first and then I will take him to the boarding house for birds

My boyfriend is yelling at me telling me to stop wasting my money but I am not going to listen to him at all as I love my bird

Thanks heaps to you all for your help :-)

Hi Christina,
I'm thrilled that you were able to catch him.

No, the canker didn't come back. I never went away.
And yes, it does sound like it has gotten worse, just as we suspected it would.
BUT, you caught him and will be able to get him the care he needs and that's what's most important.
You will need to act as quickly as possible though.


I will be thinking, and sending, positive thoughts that he make a complete recover.


I realize sometimes the significant other doesn't always understand about us .
But, please ask your boyfriend to be patient.

Please keep us posted.

It's great that you managed to catch him, Christina. Please don't let him fly away again or he's as good as dead.
As it is, his condition is VERY serious, and you will need to take action immediately. Either taking him to the vet and then boarding him to be treated, or treating him yourself. At this stage the first option is the better one, because with all those canker growths he may suddenly become unable to process his food -- and need specialist handling, including crop-feeding -- or he may become unable to breathe, which is always fatal.
I'm sorry you felt upset to see the state he was in, and I hope it's not too late to save his life.

Teresa wrote:

It's great that you managed to catch him, Christina. Please don't let him fly away again or he's as good as dead.
As it is, his condition is VERY serious, and you will need to take action immediately. Either taking him to the vet and then boarding him to be treated, or treating him yourself. At this stage the first option is the better one, because with all those canker growths he may suddenly become unable to process his food -- and need specialist handling, including crop-feeding -- or he may become unable to breathe, which is always fatal.
I'm sorry you felt upset to see the state he was in, and I hope it's not too late to save his life.

I agree with everything Teresa has said. He needs treatment ASAP or he will die. Sending healing thoughts for him. Let us know how it all goes.

Hello again to you all, how are you all going? :-) I just wrote another message to you all about my pigeon, but I couldnt find the reply button on this thread yesterday, so I started a new thread. The new thread is just above this thread in the pigeon and dove chit chat list of topics. I hope I did the right thing, please can you all let me know if I did the right thing

Hello again to you all, how are you all going? :-) Thanks heaps to all of you for telling mw what to do as I didn't know at all. Well, I took him in his cage to the avain vet, and the avain vet yelled at me a bit for missing some of the doses of medication, but now that you all told me about canker, I can see why he yelled, I guess I would have yelled too if I was an avain vet

Then the avian vet filled up all the 3 bottles of medication again that they had given me last time (as I boughtl the 3 bottles of medication back back to show them) and the avian vet said my pigeon has to start again and have the whole 7 days of medicine again, just like you all said :-) Plus the avian vet gave me antibiotic eye drops to put in his eye, the eye that was watery.

So then I took him to the bird boarding place and the lady is so very kind indeed who works there, she is really nice and she knew exactly what to do. She put him in a nice cage which is really big, and she put him in a cage next to a heater as she said he has to stay warm. The whole room is full of birds in cages on the whole 4 sides of the room, and she said that the heater in that room is special to be climate controlled for birds

She put him in a big cage which is on the bottom shelf near the floor so he won't be intimidated by the other birds she said. THen she wrapped him up in a towell and gave him his medications and eye drops. I sat in there too for 30 minutes while he settled in, and I talked to him and told him that I loved him very much and that I would come back in 7 days to get him.

Then she put him in his cage and said she would give him some lunch next and water.

Does that sound all okay what I did? THe avian vet said I should bring him back in 7 days to the avian vet again, and then he will have to go back into the boarding house again for one week more after that the avian vet said. Why does he have to go back in to the boarding house for another week after that do you think?

My only concern is that in that room where all the birds are, there are about 50 birds, mostly colourful parrots, and cockatiels, and lovebirds and other small colourful birds, and the are ALL sqawking at once and the noise is VERY loud in there. Do you think my pigeon will get stressed out from the noise?

They all looked so cute though! My pigeon was sitting in the middle of the cage and looking depressed. He was just sitting there. I hope he doesn't think I have abandomed him. What should I do? When I got back to the car where my boyfriend was waiting for me, as he drove me there, I burst into tears and I cried all the way home. He said to me why are you crying its only a bird and I told him to shut up

Now I am missing my bird very much. I hope the avain vet doesn't make me pay too much more. So far up till now I have paid $822 with everything including the first vet who was not an avain vet and didnt have a clue but it was a 24 hour vet and I was desperate. That was the first thing I did and that was jus before I took him to the avain vet

Now that I have to take him back to the avain vet and another week at the boarding house, it is going to be more than $1,000 all together. Gosh, no wonder my boyfriend and my Dad have been whinging a lot to me about it. But I am still going to pay it, I have to, he is my best friend.

The other day I was so sick worrying about it that my family thought I might need to go to hospital, because I have got a chest infection too myself at the moment and gastro as well, and I was so sick that everyone stopped whinging to me and they all stopped saying not to take him to the vet, I think they could see how much my bird means to me. I sure do miss my pigeon!

Hi, I replied to some of your questions in the other thread, so I'll just comment on the others.

Christina wrote:

Does that sound all okay what I did?

Definitely YES! , with capital letters, neon signs and bells on!

Quote :

THe avian vet said I should bring him back in 7 days to the avian vet again, and then he will have to go back into the boarding house again for one week more after that the avian vet said. Why does he have to go back in to the boarding house for another week after that do you think?

That's because his canker is so advanced that he needs treatment for a longer period of time. It's good your vet said that up front.

Quote :

My pigeon was sitting in the middle of the cage and looking depressed. He was just sitting there. I hope he doesn't think I have abandomed him.

No, he doesn't. Birds look depressed when they're very sick. Sometimes, especially from a distance, it's the first (or even the only) sign that a bird is ill.
It's also important to remember that he wasn't born a pet. He's an independent bird, who values his freedom, and when he gets better he will want to be free again. You need to be prepared for the fact that he won't see you as his best friend, even after all you did for him, especially if he's got a mate. It's natural that you would want him to be affectionate to you, as you consider him your best friend, but I've never known it to happen, except with birds that have been hand raised. It's not their fault, it's their nature. Just the simple fact that he comes as close to you as he does is a powerful statement that he sees you as a friend, as most would stay well away from humans, who can be so cruel to them.

Quote :

I have got a chest infection too myself at the moment and gastro as well

I hope you're feeling much better now.

Best wishes for you both, and keep us posted.

I'm glad you were able to get your little rescue to the 'boarding place' where he can be observed and treated.

Please keep us posted on any updates you get.