Handrearing crop issues - 2 wk old baby pigeon

Keep an eye on your email!!!

thank you again teresa ...

todays update ... EggBert has had no food and had apple sauce early on but even that wasnt emptying well ... he has done a good few poops still. he started to look very "pale" and wrinkly so i rushed out and bought some rehydration solution ... i gave some to him warmed up at around 2:30 pm and i WAS certain he had aspirated it as he began making all sorts of strange noises and his tweet went very strange :( ... petrified of certain death i hav bought him into work with me however he appeared to get over that incident and seemed to get a bit pinker in colour ... cannot hear any breathing problems and tweet back to normal. he is still quite alert. i hav jus given him another small amount of rehydration water and he again made the same strange noises and seemed to snort some back out but this time it was over after a few seconds and is now settled and resting quietly but still alert. i dont know if it was jus the taste of the rehydration solution that caused that reaction?? i really hope so rather than aspiration but there is no open mouthed breathing etc ... i hav jus looked right down his throat again and there would appear to be a tiny whiteish film right at the back. i smelt a poop earlier and it kind of smelt yeasty, not bad jus a little different.

i hav a day off tomorrow and will search high and low for someone to see him, if u do know anyone near to me i would be so grateful ... Avian vets are so hard to find and i hav tried EVERYWHERE local. the one that saw him last week is experienced with birds as an enthusiast but not officially qualified?!?! he did seem to know a lot and was able to flush crop etc but there is also a language barrier with him and i struggled to understand him. i really want someone to establish the cause of slow crop and medicate!!!!!! a friend of mine at work has some experience with birds and when he looked at EggBert he thought he looked quite well other than hes not fully feathered yet.

i am so grateful to hav this forum and to hav such great support. thank you so much

Oh, I thought it was a vet he had seen last week! Was it a rehabber you took him too? Who was it?

Sometimes a good rehabber will know as much, if not more than a vet, considering that most vets don't really have much to do with pigeons -- except for vets who are pigeon enthusiasts. And they may have just the right meds at hand.

These are the people I contacted in the UK, and I'm sure one or more of them will contact you soon. They're all brilliant, and I personally trust them completely: Cynthia Roberts, Linda Mitchell, Janet Amyes, Alison (Ali Blackbird), Revati Poole, Maciej Sek, Pigeon Angels (FB) and Folly Wildlife Rescue (specialists in hand rearing). None of them are in London except Maciej, but they may have other contacts they trust.

If Eggbert is looking 'wrinkly' he has reached a dangerous stage of dehydration, and will need a sub-cutaneous injection of rehydrating fluids. Failing that, you need to administer small amounts of rehydrating solution very often, even simply by dipping your finger in it and touching the side of his beak.

Babies can aspirate very easily if they are given water which manages to go 'the wrong way'. If you're using a small syringe to give him the water, you need to make sure the tip of it is well at the back of their throat, best if his beak is pointing up too, to make sure the water doesn't come back and get into his trachea. Even a very small amount of water in a baby's lungs is enough to cause pneumonia and death.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'the taste of the rehydrating solution'. Any drink must be administered way beyond his taste buds, at the back of the throat, so he shouldn't taste it at all.

Does he drink at all by himself, if you dip his beak in water?

I think your co-worker is wrong, or Eggbert wouldn't be showing signs of underdevelopment, slow crop, and now, from what you say, a yeast infection and dehydration.
How did you come by him, do you know if his parents were healthy?

Hello again, yes the guy he saw was a vet however when i confirmed that he was an Avian vet, she informed me he had no additional qualifications however does work with birds a lot and has experience.

the rehydrating fluid i am givin the same way i give food and water in general which is a syringe with a rubber nipple, he puts his beak inside the nipple and drinks the formula/water down himself ... this has always seemed successful and i was always reluctant to direct it down the throat in fear of getting down the wrong pipe. im in such a state now and feel helpless :( i really hope he hasnt taken any fluid down, he is not showing any signs of distress?!

if u agree, i will then continue with the fluids the same i hav been? he has jus done a large poop which was dark green. i really hope someone can help me ... i am willing to go tonight if needs be?

thank you so much

Here's our resources list for London. Most of those are wildlife sanctuaries, but they are pigeon friendly. I'm sure they would help you and Eggbert.


LONDON

London Wildcare,
Beddington Park,
Church Road,
Wallington,
Surrey SM6 7NN

020 8647 6230

Have not got the facilities to keep unreleasable pigeons or to care for pigeons suffering from PMV.

http://www.londonwildcaretrust.co.uk...s_hospital.htm

Pigeon Recovery
8 Vermont Road
Sutton
Surrey

If there is no-one in, facilities exist outside the front door for leaving poorly pigeons, and the sanctuary owners are never away overnight. If at all possible, a small contribution posted through the letterbox when you leave the bird(s) would go towards paying for the bird’s treatment, food etc.

http://www.pigeoncote.com/vet/recovery/recovery.htm

Swan and Friends Bird Rescue
55 Copsleigh Avenue ,
Salfords,
Redhill,
Surrey RG1 5BQ
Telephone 01737 773712 or 07712 753919

Pigeons count as friends of the swans. Links to other sanctuaries.

Wild Rescue and Ambulance Service (Enfield)
Wildlife Hospital & Animal Centre
Trent Park
Cockfosters Road
Barnet
EN4 0PS

Tel: 0208 344 2785 or 07970 141282

Email address: rescue@wras-enfieldwildlife.org.uk

http://www.wras-enfieldwildlife.org.uk/gallerybirds.html


The method you describe for giving him water usually works well, but if he has an obstruction in his aesophagus or simply no appetite, he will need help.
Letting a drop at a time slide from your finger to the side of his beak, the drop will spread along the beak opening, and a couple of seconds later he will swallow it. That works, but it's very slow!
It's easy enough to give him water with a little syringe. If you look at his beak sideways, the air opening is about half-way along the length of the lower beak, not always visible because of the tongue, whilst the opening for the food is right at the far end, in his throat. The important thing is to bypass the air opening safely, and delivering the water to the very far end of his mouth cavity.

Sonja, you will have just received an email from Janet. She'd like to know which part of London you live in, and can recommend a vet.

Janet has Nystatin. That may be a life saver, if Nystatin is out of stock in the UK, as it is in Portugal.

Sonja can't access the forum right now, so I'm posting this on her behalf:

fantail39 wrote:

Hi Teresa , sorry I can't access forum on iPhone .. I hav rushed Eggbert to our local royal vet college in potters bar ... They r lookin at him now. I wil update u asap, thank u so much for ur support :'(
Sent from my iPhone

And I've just got a message, which I emailed to Sonja, from Maciej Sek, offering support, meds and even collection!

It is with a heavy heart that I bring you this news...

fantail39 wrote:

Im heartbroken to hav to tell you that EggBert was put to sleep around midnight :'( ... the vets at the college although not bird specialists, felt that EggBert was unwell and was not thriving. He was tiny, i didnt realise just how tiny, but they weighed him and he was next to nothing. They also identified that his crop was not right and felt it had possibly ruptured, they could do nothing to help. They gave me the option of taking him home and seeing the same bird vet tomorrow if i could, however they felt as did i that he would strongly suggest putting him to sleep so it felt like i was delaying the inevitable. I could not bear the thought of EggBert suffering :( they also felt that all these issues he was having, he would not hav grown healthy. It was the hardest decision ive ever had to make and even now i keep wondering if it was the right thing to do, but i looked at his bones sticking out, his now watery green poops, huge exploding crop and bad leg again, i jus couldnt bear it.

I cant stop crying and dont recall ever feeling pain like this. My heart is broken, he brought me so much happiness and i cant imagine not having him here anymore... i hope he is happy and at peace. I really dont know how im gonna cope the next couple of days without him, but i just didnt want him suffering or going through any pain and stress.

Im sorry that i failed EggBert, i keep goin over what else i could hav done and will no doubt keep torturing myself, but the decison i made was truly what i felt was best for him at that time.

May heaven wrap him in the comfort of angel wings. He is free of pain and struggles, bless his heart. We all can relate to the emotions and sunken feeling in our hearts when we need to make a decision like that. :o/ terribly hard.... he was well cared for and heaven must have needed him more. we can only do so much before a line must be drawn on what is equal to...... too much for their little bodies to handle. Bless his heart and Bless You, for giving him a fighting chance. Fly Free Little Eggbert

Beautiful words, Jenn...

Wishing you eternal happiness and the freedom of the skies, little Eggbert!