I've got a small flock of pigeons, maybe 30-35 individuals. They've been rather healthy in the past two years that I've had them. However in the past month they've been dropping off one by one, and I am at a complete loss as for what could be wrong.
They're mutts, gotten from two different sources giving them away, as thus they've never been vaccinated nor wormed. I've never seen evidence of intestinal parasites, nor evidence of any disease in them till now.
They're housed in a chain-link dog pen with a tin roof and a concrete floor. They're fed either scratch grain or chicken layer pellets. But the ones I find dead are emaciated, like they're not getting enough nutrition. Informal necropsies I've done here show no signs of worms in the gut. They've been fed either food for the past two years, and pigeons of my youth were fed the same and they thrived.
The only change has been to the scratch grain. It's the same brand I've been getting, but they've been putting what appears to be un-hulled wheat or oats. Where before it was clean wheat berries in addition to the usual milo and cracked corn. This new wheat/oat is the last to go from the food bowl and I'd thought maybe it's gotten stuck somewhere in their crop or gut and not letting food pass. But again, nothing on necropsies.
Another thought was this all started around the same time that the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit us and it soaked their pen for 36 hrs, it kept blowing rain in under the roof. I was wondering if perhaps the moisture caused the food to spoil via mold and they ingested some of it. Although I have thoroughly cleaned out their bowl and enclosure with bleach water when I first noticed the first ones dying, and they've had nothing but fresh food and water since.
The vets here are useless with birds, and wanted to run some things by you.
Would it be okay to dose their water with liquid antibiotic to see if that'd help? I hate the thought of using antibiotics in such a scattergun fashion, but I need to do something.
Or would worming be the way to go? Even though I've seen no external evidence of worms and the likelihood of them having worms in their enclosure are slim. Even the people I got them from kept them up off the ground. There are far too many hawks here to let them fly, so I've kept them hooked up, which is not something I enjoy. But its either that or pigeon smorgasbord.
They're mutts, gotten from two different sources giving them away, as thus they've never been vaccinated nor wormed. I've never seen evidence of intestinal parasites, nor evidence of any disease in them till now.
They're housed in a chain-link dog pen with a tin roof and a concrete floor. They're fed either scratch grain or chicken layer pellets. But the ones I find dead are emaciated, like they're not getting enough nutrition. Informal necropsies I've done here show no signs of worms in the gut. They've been fed either food for the past two years, and pigeons of my youth were fed the same and they thrived.
The only change has been to the scratch grain. It's the same brand I've been getting, but they've been putting what appears to be un-hulled wheat or oats. Where before it was clean wheat berries in addition to the usual milo and cracked corn. This new wheat/oat is the last to go from the food bowl and I'd thought maybe it's gotten stuck somewhere in their crop or gut and not letting food pass. But again, nothing on necropsies.
Another thought was this all started around the same time that the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit us and it soaked their pen for 36 hrs, it kept blowing rain in under the roof. I was wondering if perhaps the moisture caused the food to spoil via mold and they ingested some of it. Although I have thoroughly cleaned out their bowl and enclosure with bleach water when I first noticed the first ones dying, and they've had nothing but fresh food and water since.
The vets here are useless with birds, and wanted to run some things by you.
Would it be okay to dose their water with liquid antibiotic to see if that'd help? I hate the thought of using antibiotics in such a scattergun fashion, but I need to do something.
Or would worming be the way to go? Even though I've seen no external evidence of worms and the likelihood of them having worms in their enclosure are slim. Even the people I got them from kept them up off the ground. There are far too many hawks here to let them fly, so I've kept them hooked up, which is not something I enjoy. But its either that or pigeon smorgasbord.
