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Old January 22nd, 2007, 04:28 PM
Pat M. Pat M. is offline
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Location: orange county, ca
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Exclamation emergency pigeon question!

Can anyone please, please help us figure out what is happening to one of the two adult pigeons my husband has been caring for at work the last year. The first thing my husband noticed today was that the large white male pigeon he has been feeding & watering was in a different roosting spot than his usual place when he arrived at work this morning.

The pigeon looked completely healthy & was acting normal on Friday before my husband left work for the weekend. Upon arriving this morning he immediately recognized that something was terribly wrong with the male pigeon. His feathers were unhealthily ruffled, he was tipping way back & looked as if he was losing his balance. He had his head tucked back & was convulsively turning his head to the left. When my husband tried to climb up to the rafters to help the pigeon, he flew down normally, but again immediately lost his balance on the ground, walking shakily, as if drunk & then proceeded to hunker down outside & pull his body & head back. My husband is so very concerned & feels the pigeon appearas to be in pain. I've spent all day on the phone searching for an avian vet to help, but to no avail, since 'it's just a wild pigeon'.

does anyone know what these symptoms mean. Please, please, if anyone has any suggestions or know's what could be happening to our beautiful feathered friend, please help!
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Old January 22nd, 2007, 05:51 PM
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Maya Maya is offline
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I'm sorry, it's such a helpless feeling not being able to do something right away.:sad: It almost sounds like he may have an ear infection. I don't know anything about birds really, but if he's off balance and keeps tipping his head to one side that would make sense. I hope you can get a hold of someone soon.
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Old January 22nd, 2007, 10:53 PM
Boubou Boubou is offline
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It's a long shot, don't really know much about birds, but when my sister had Doves, she awoke one morning to find one of her doves not being able to perch and acting really weak. She took him to a bird vet and she gave him an injection of calcium. It was almost immediate. Within an hour, he was standing up straight and looked alive. She then gave him calcium supplements as well as some cubed cheese and he never had a problem since then......
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Old January 23rd, 2007, 04:12 PM
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Maya Maya is offline
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Have you found anyone to help yet? Is he hanging in there? I can't believe how difficult it is to find help for wild animals, it's disgraceful. When you said your husband tried to help him was he trying to catch him? I was just curious because I thought if he is not protected or trapped in his state he might wander off. A sheet or light blanket thrown over his head to catch him is probably the best way. Of course you need to be able to bring him somewhere for treatment.
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Old January 24th, 2007, 02:43 AM
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dustybird dustybird is offline
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I hope you were able to find help. I don't know a whole lot about bird illnesses but is it possible that he could have ingested something he shouldn't have. Also anytime we have had sick wild birds we just didn't tell the vet it was wild, around here you can have them as pets but even when we brought a sparrow in they didn't say anything. Not much help but there are alot of pigeon fancier's around maybe if you can find a listing for some they could be of some sort of assistance. Could he have flown into a window, sometimes they act that way, have found a few and putting them in a dark large box for a little while(with air of course) seems to help them to calm down and get over the shock and then a few hours later are back to normal. It's really hard to say what could be wrong, just going by past experience. I hope he will be ok.
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Old January 24th, 2007, 02:55 AM
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dustybird dustybird is offline
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I found these sites that list wildlife rehab places you could try one of them.

http://www.wwccoc.org/
http://www.csubak.edu/FACT/Californi...bilitators.htm
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactA.htm
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