Three ill pigeons within a week and half!!

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4life

4life

In the Brooder
Feb 21, 2016
40
1
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I posted over a week ago about a feral pigeon we had that came to our porch acting odd. We feed our backyard birds ( sparrows, Robins, Starlings, occasional Blue jays & Cardinals). Well we also started getting the city pigeons ( I live in Chicago). Well the pigeon that was acting odd we ended up capturing and we were going to take it to a wildlife rehab but it died during the night. Now we have had another pigeon acting odd since Tuesday. She has stayed on my upper back porch for the last three days and nights. Then this morning we got yet another one that is not acting right. That makes 3 in less than 2 weeks time. I have no idea what is wrong with them, then do have running poops though as it is all over my porch. Also some of the poop is green. Well now I have these 2 pigeons but tonight they have decided to stay on the first floor back porch bannister. I called the Flint Creek wildlife rehab that is not too far from where we are. They are a non profit wildlife rehab center. The guy I talked to this morning said to Take up all the water and food right now and to stop feeding all the birds. He said it could be something the pigeons have( an illness specific to them) that is spreading amongst them. He said pigeons will walk in their poop and sometimes poop in the bird baths and then another goes and drinks from it and illness can spread that way. I am going to try and capture the two and take them to the center tomorrow.

Today has been a very stressful day for me to say the least. We have about 15 pigeons who were coming here to eat with our other birds we were feeding. Well today they were not happy to not have food. Every time we left the house they bombarded us and were flying around us begging. Also, I saw them do the same thing to my neighbors!!! We live in the city and our neighbors are NOT pigeons friendly!! I am so sick over this. I feel like a **** to say the least. I know this is best for them as I do not want to have a whole flock of pigeons who are sick with whatever this is that they have. Here is the issue though. It seems every couple days we are getting a sick pigeon staying on our porch. I do not know what to do. Will the other pigeons stop coming here if we are not feeding them?? I don't think I can handle them coming here and begging for food, it breaks my heart. The guy at the center said it is best for them due to the sickness that is happening. He said if we bring the two sick ones to them, they can examine them and find out what is wrong and possibly help them. This has been so emotional for me. I feel like did I do something wrong? None of the other birds are sick though, just the pigeons. Also I was afraid maybe some A-hole around the area here put out poison. If that is case, I want the pigeons to go away from here for their own good. How long will it take them to fly off and not return since I stopped feeding and took the water up?? I am sick over all this. :(
 
Let us know what the Flint creek rehab finds. It might take a few days.
It is GREAT that they agreed to do so. There are GOOD PEEPS in this world.
smile.png
 
cavemanrich said:
Let us know what the Flint creek rehab finds. It might take a few days.
It is GREAT that they agreed to do so. There are GOOD PEEPS in this world.
smile.png
Click to expand...

I will. Do you think since we stopped feeding the others, they will fly off somewhere else soon? I hope so just in case some A-hole around the area put poison out and that is why they are sick. I feel so bad for them and it tears me up when they stay here begging for food :(. I hope they all fly away soon just in case some jerk is putting poison out. I hate living in the city where there are so many people who are not bird ( especially pigeon) friendly. We are forced to live in the city because my husband works for the Public school system here.
 
Hard to say If they will just abandon a known food source. I suppose that in time they will stop coming.
idunno.gif

The most important thing now is if the rehab center can determine the source of the sickness. I follow all threads I post to so I will know when you post an update.
 
4life said:
We live in the city and our neighbors are NOT pigeons friendly!! I am so sick over this. I feel like a **** to say the least. I know this is best for them as I do not want to have a whole flock of pigeons who are sick with whatever this is that they have. Here is the issue though. It seems every couple days we are getting a sick pigeon staying on our porch.
Click to expand...
The problem has nothing to do with your conduct. A lot of Society in general regard pigeons as vermin. Some communities or people set out poison to exterminate the problem. You may be witnessing the result of this practice.
 
Hokum Coco said:
The problem has nothing to do with your conduct. A lot of Society in general regard pigeons as vermin. Some communities or people set out poison to exterminate the problem. You may be witnessing the result of this practice.
Click to expand...
Update: So I captured the two sick ones. The one was so easy to get, I just picked him up. The female that has been up there for three days was a bit harder to get. She put up a fight. Poor thing, I felt so bad, I mean I can just imagine how it must feel to be grabbed and put in a box:(. I am going to get them to Flint Creek when they open at 8:30. I have a ton to clean on my back porch. There is liquid poop all over( it looks like skim milk) and also green poops too. When I walked up there to get them I wore a mask and gloves. When cleaning up there, is there any special precaution I should take besides the obvious with wearing gloves and a mask? I bought a solution called Clean up disinfected that has 2% bleach and a disinfectant in it. I am going to have to seal that area somehow so no other pigeons try and stay up there( meaning if I get more sick ones coming here). I feel whatever they have is contagious because I have 3 sick so far within a week. At least the wildlife place will be able to find out what is wrong with them.


Hokum Coco :Also, I thought about that, but wouldn't they have died quickly and not linger for days if they were poisoned? I am hoping the rest of the flock will stop coming here just in case, I do not want any other sick birds. We stopped putting out food and took up all water. Hope that will discourage them to find another place, hopefully a safer place. :(
 
Last edited:
Update: Okay so the wildlife center called and said that the birds have Trichomoniasis( canker)! The one was bad off and passed away already. The other one is not as bad and they are treating it. I feel bad, like maybe I was responsible somehow. We were ground feeding them but we always cleaned everything up, there was never anything to clean up though as they ate everything we put down within a couple hours usually. She said one of them could have picked it up someplace else and when they came here and used the bird bath it spread. She said that it is contagious through their saliva not the poop. The lady said any pigeon who gets it will die within 10 days. She said it is always fatal when they get it :(.

I told her that I took up all the food and water. She said that is probably best. It sucks she said because she is sure the whole flock may have been exposed or probably a lot more of them since it is super contagious. If any more sick ones come here she said to try and grab them and bring them in . She said at least they can maybe treat them if it is still early on. Sadly if they don't come here she said they will likely die from it. I am hoping not all of them was exposed.

Does anyone else on here know about this illness? Where does it come from? I asked her if this was common in the pigeon world and she said mostly it is pigeons and doves that get it as they feed off the ground and get into all kinds of dirty water supplies and such. She said they also have a falcon that someone else brought in who had it( definitely from eating an infected bird that had it). I looked up some research on Canker and it says that most pigeons are born with it and during times of stress it can come out and multiply and make them sick. I am confused. Can someone please clarify???
 
Sadly she misinformed you, as many pigeon people test for canker in racing pigeon s etc, n they come up free and can be vaccinated against strains.
I'd posted in one of answers before about how canker had been easily treated, though now possibly a carrier still. I popped the canker, applied vet rx, gave poultry drench vitamins, put acv in water, and mixed probios probiotics in laying chicken feed.
This was applied to an at least six year old bird that was older when got her, and she has been kept off ground on wire her whole life n only outside contact was small songbirds getting in that cage outside eating drinking n pooping in that cage around when she got suddenly temp real sick. Since she was sick she has mothered healthy young n now up with rest of hens kept small group of and decided to put those now of various families together for genetic diversity experiment. Around when she got sick many tiny types of song birds where dropping dead, some with knotted up/blocked nostrils eye pits mouths and throats.. So them blaming pigeons is ridiculous, as I've decropsied dozens of culls of my birds and found song birds dead (vet student), and I've seen hookbills, mostly cockatiels amazons conures and parakeets (not Australian budgies USA call parakeet). I live out in country only small towns half hour drive away, and no other pigeons around, or mourning doves even. I honestly don't know too much about pigeons still, like some on here do though. The song birds however around here had before and until recent cutting down n rehoming of chickens and pigeons that where in coops pens n cages that song birds got into and constantly made all those birds sick with various things, illnesses that vanished when rehomed them a lot. Songbird proof cages stay disease free. And my birds never got sick like this in city where neighbors cats and whatever else kept song birds away, so probably chance that song migrating song birds made area birds sick. Only possible thing you could have done to stop prob was have water deicer too warm and not clean waterer good enough, but you couldn't clean water after each group of birds so not your fault for sick pigeons at all.
Note if want to just feed n keep no water out that's not heated that wouldn't spread disease, if stay away from sharp edged feed like cracked corn that scratches throats and makes cankers form there.. Or pops/scratches existing cankers making bird drop seed n then other birds eat seeds scratching throats causing canker spread. Canker can be healed from and usually yeah only bothers when birds are stressed or other probs/diseases combine. Only reason doves and parrot type birds are anyway more prone to canker is they feed each other crop food probably, and pigeons show sickness as succumb to much more and faster than any other bird as far as I've heard.
If I've got wrong info from somewhere, I'd be glad to know to go look up again. If you want more pigeon info look up pigeon talk web sight, and rescue sights specific for pigeons.
 
laughingdog said:
Sadly she misinformed you, as many pigeon people test for canker in racing pigeon s etc, n they come up free and can be vaccinated against strains.
I'd posted in one of answers before about how canker had been easily treated, though now possibly a carrier still. I popped the canker, applied vet rx, gave poultry drench vitamins, put acv in water, and mixed probios probiotics in laying chicken feed.
This was applied to an at least six year old bird that was older when got her, and she has been kept off ground on wire her whole life n only outside contact was small songbirds getting in that cage outside eating drinking n pooping in that cage around when she got suddenly temp real sick. Since she was sick she has mothered healthy young n now up with rest of hens kept small group of and decided to put those now of various families together for genetic diversity experiment. Around when she got sick many tiny types of song birds where dropping dead, some with knotted up/blocked nostrils eye pits mouths and throats.. So them blaming pigeons is ridiculous, as I've decropsied dozens of culls of my birds and found song birds dead (vet student), and I've seen hookbills, mostly cockatiels amazons conures and parakeets (not Australian budgies USA call parakeet). I live out in country only small towns half hour drive away, and no other pigeons around, or mourning doves even. I honestly don't know too much about pigeons still, like some on here do though. The song birds however around here had before and until recent cutting down n rehoming of chickens and pigeons that where in coops pens n cages that song birds got into and constantly made all those birds sick with various things, illnesses that vanished when rehomed them a lot. Songbird proof cages stay disease free. And my birds never got sick like this in city where neighbors cats and whatever else kept song birds away, so probably chance that song migrating song birds made area birds sick. Only possible thing you could have done to stop prob was have water deicer too warm and not clean waterer good enough, but you couldn't clean water after each group of birds so not your fault for sick pigeons at all.
Note if want to just feed n keep no water out that's not heated that wouldn't spread disease, if stay away from sharp edged feed like cracked corn that scratches throats and makes cankers form there.. Or pops/scratches existing cankers making bird drop seed n then other birds eat seeds scratching throats causing canker spread. Canker can be healed from and usually yeah only bothers when birds are stressed or other probs/diseases combine. Only reason doves and parrot type birds are anyway more prone to canker is they feed each other crop food probably, and pigeons show sickness as succumb to much more and faster than any other bird as far as I've heard.
If I've got wrong info from somewhere, I'd be glad to know to go look up again. If you want more pigeon info look up pigeon talk web sight, and rescue sights specific for pigeons.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all that information, I appreciate it. I have been researching a lot on this and I wonder if maybe the sparrows or Starlings maybe brought the Canker here. I guess I will never know. We did feed cracked corn as well as Sunflower seeds( no shell) and peanuts( roasted and no shell) mixture. I wish I knew some of this beforehand especially about the corn not being so good for them. The Vet said that Canker does not only effect the throat. She said it also effects the liver and other organs in some birds. The one that died she said it had very labored breathing when we got it there. That is the one that passed away within a couple hours of getting it there. I feel so bad for these poor birds, they have such a rough life.
 

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