Help for pigeon with broken/injured wing?

[cutechick2010]

I have a pigeon here who is actually a tornado survivor, but has a wing that is injured. I am not for sure if the bone is actually broken or not, I can't FEEL a break, but there is just enough swelling that I can't be for sure. The wing isn't dragging, the bird is holding it against it's side. But it can't fly at all. It also isn't eating/drinking much, my son saw it pecking at it's feed yesterday but it has eaten only a very small amount. This injury happened on Tuesday night. I don't know how much of it's lack of appetite is pain related, and how much is fear, because this bird didn't grow up around people. If anyone has heard of Ashmore Estates, the top floor of that building was taken off by the tornado on Tuesday night. It was pretty awful, there were a lot of pigeons living up there, and dead birds were scattered all over the yard with the debris the next day.

But this is my first time having a pigeon, I can only compare it to chickens are far as care and I don't know how similar they are. If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I had a pigeon that was chased by a hawk. My neighbour a few doors up told me she had the bird in her garage and it could not fly.

I brought the pigeon back to the loft and it was about 2 weeks before she was back to normal. The bird was off her food with no visible injuries.

I had no idea what was wrong with the bird. Except that it could not fly either.
Possibly just shock or over exertion from her near escape???

 

[cutechick2010]

I had a pigeon that was chased by a hawk. My neighbour a few doors up told me she had the bird in her garage and it could not fly.

I brought the pigeon back to the loft and it was about 2 weeks before she was back to normal. The bird was off her food with no visible injuries.

I had no idea what was wrong with the bird. Possibly just shock from her near escape???

Wow, it was not eating for two weeks and it recovered? This bird seems fairly bright and alert right now, it has been preening this morning which is a good sign. I haven't seen it drink any water though, so I worry about dehydration. With a chicken, I would probably dribble a little water into it's beak with a syringe, I haven't yet with this bird because I worry about stressing it out more. Although it seems remarkably calm about being handled for never having been touched by a human being before.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I should have maybe re-phrased my statement about the pigeon being off it's food for 2 weeks. What I should have said was it was not eating normally for about 2 weeks and it was lethargic and could not fly around in the coop from floor to nest box. It was spending the majority of it's time on the floor and on the lower perches of the loft. Does the bird make a squeaking sort of sound when you approach it could be it is a young fledgeling and not fully developed and unable to fly at this juncture. At the same stage of development as the pigeons in this photo with no nostril cere on the beak as of yet and maybe even yellow down in some cases.

 

[cutechick2010]

I am pretty sure it is an adult, it can flap/spread out the other wing but the injured one only moves slightly. I haven't heard it make any kind of sounds at all yet. When I caught it, it attempted to get off the ground and fly but could only go in circles. I will see about posting a picture of it so you can see if you think it is a juvenile, though.

 

[cutechick2010]

Here it is:

 

[Hokum Coco]

No it is definitely not a juvenile. It looks like it may be a male but I am never a 100% sure when I make a call on sexing a bird. He does not look too badly injured from the photo. Looks can be deserving I have to admit. Where he is a blue bar and has white flights I am thinking he may have some homer blood in his lineage. Good luck with him I hope he makes a full recovery.

 

[cutechick2010]

No it is definitely not a juvenile. It looks like it may be a male but I am never a 100% sure when I make a call on sexing a bird. He does not look too badly injured from the photo. Looks can be deserving I have to admit. Where he is a blue bar and has white flights I am thinking he may have some homer blood in his lineage. Good luck with him I hope he makes a full recovery.

Thanks. My kids would certainly love to know if it's male or female, LOL. They are already in love with it, they are going to be very sad if it doesn't make it. BTW, is there anything else that I can do for it, other than just food, water, shelter?

 

[Hokum Coco]

Where you raise chickens you are not a novice when it comes to pigeons. I would not suggest raising pigeons and chickens in the same loft if at all possible. You can but you must be prepared for the worst. (Going out to the coop and a flock of chickens cannibalizing one of your squabs or pigeons.)

I have raised them in the same company do not get me wrong but it has always been with adult pigeons and young peeps or chicks. The chicks or peeps seem to regard the pigeons then as sort of parental units (this was done with meat kings and ring neck pheasants in my cases).

Pigeons can get by just lovely on the same feed you provide for your chickens. However if you are into racing pigeons I suggest you research the diets for this type of pigeon. You will find as many diets and programs in this area as there are pigeon racers is my experience.

To get your pigeon more tame treat him to shelled unsalted peanuts or sunflower hearts. It takes patience at first but soon he will be eating from your hand and coming to a call or whistle what every you decide to get his attention.




This is about the minimum space required for a nesting pair of pigeons (5 gal pail). You can also free fly them with a bob or PVC trap system from a loft or enclosure they are very adaptable creatures.
There is plenty of information on training homing pigeons if you are so inclined to do so on the Internet. All pigeons have some homing ability the question is how much. Any term or subject you are not familiar with you can search on Goggle and have images and explanations to acquaint them to you.

Good luck cutechick2010.

 

[cutechick2010]

Thank you. I know I would never let the pigeon mix with my flock of chickens, even just the size difference would make them incompatable in its self I would think. I don't know that I will actually get into raising them, but since I have this one I do want to provide good care for it of course.