Hi folks! Random...I know. Why a pigeon? Well, I found him. ..yesterday. completely disoriented with random and erratic neck movements. He could hardly balance himself. ..let alone walk or fly. My husband and I were out on a bike ride with our small children and hubs and I were riding a tandem bike for the first time. Hardly an ideal situation for carrying a sick pigeon. So naturally, Roman (as my kids named him) went in my shirt 
I placed him in a small finch cage when we got home to restrict movement and gave him fresh water with GSE and ACV in it. I also gave him fermented chicken feed (that was easy enough haha) along with some bird seed and chopped strawberries. He showed interest in the food but could only manage to move his head toward the dish and peck randomly. He was unable to control his motion or open his beak. I was nervous about Marek's and our chickens but then he defecated some neon green, watery, poop...and that confirmed the PMV a bit more for me. I left him to himself last night. ..didn't force feed him much...just some yogurt with kids' iron-free vitamins. I wanted to guage how bad he really was. I slept on the couch by the open window where his cage sits on the porch so I could keep an ear on him. In the wee hours, I could hear the tp, tp, tp sound of his beak on the dish but when I checked on him, he was only making a big mess. ..beak still wasn't opening. And when i tried to move him, he just flopped around. This morning, I threw some fermented chicken feed, fruit, raw honey, etc. in a blender with oregano EO. Smelled awful. ..Probably tastes awful. Fed him 2 small syringes followed by another round of the yogurt/vitamins an hour later. We had cured our flock of a suspected coccidiosis outbreak earlier this Spring utilizing oregano oil, garlic, ACV, and GSE so I figured it was worth a shot. We came home from church around 1:00 pm. He was perched on his feeder. When I fed him, he definitely struggled more...as though he's actually seeing me now and alarmed. When I finished feeding him, I placed him back in his cage with cut up defrosted corn, peas, and bird seed just to see what he'd do. And he started eating...on his own! He had to grab the food, twist his head around to swallow but his eye/beak coordination is discernably better and I dare say some of his movements are intentional. I'm posting this because many diseases aren't limited to one species...including avian ones. And many of us are interested in natural remedies but fear experimenting on our birds. We didn't have a choice when the coccidiosis hit....1 bird dead and 3 within 24 hours 6 days later 
The Corid I ordered would arrive in 2 days. ..I needed something stat. As it turns out, we never needed the Corid. But still, if something dangerous hit, to just experiment holistically without any solid accounts of success with birds specifically...not many of us are ready to go there. Though we'd love to if it works, isn't toxic, and eliminates the customary egg-withholding period. Will Roman survive? I don't know. ...I hope so! But figured I'd post so that, just in case he makes a full recovery...the bird world has at least one anecdote of someone utilizing a holistic method with success. Praying and crossing my fingers!
I placed him in a small finch cage when we got home to restrict movement and gave him fresh water with GSE and ACV in it. I also gave him fermented chicken feed (that was easy enough haha) along with some bird seed and chopped strawberries. He showed interest in the food but could only manage to move his head toward the dish and peck randomly. He was unable to control his motion or open his beak. I was nervous about Marek's and our chickens but then he defecated some neon green, watery, poop...and that confirmed the PMV a bit more for me. I left him to himself last night. ..didn't force feed him much...just some yogurt with kids' iron-free vitamins. I wanted to guage how bad he really was. I slept on the couch by the open window where his cage sits on the porch so I could keep an ear on him. In the wee hours, I could hear the tp, tp, tp sound of his beak on the dish but when I checked on him, he was only making a big mess. ..beak still wasn't opening. And when i tried to move him, he just flopped around. This morning, I threw some fermented chicken feed, fruit, raw honey, etc. in a blender with oregano EO. Smelled awful. ..Probably tastes awful. Fed him 2 small syringes followed by another round of the yogurt/vitamins an hour later. We had cured our flock of a suspected coccidiosis outbreak earlier this Spring utilizing oregano oil, garlic, ACV, and GSE so I figured it was worth a shot. We came home from church around 1:00 pm. He was perched on his feeder. When I fed him, he definitely struggled more...as though he's actually seeing me now and alarmed. When I finished feeding him, I placed him back in his cage with cut up defrosted corn, peas, and bird seed just to see what he'd do. And he started eating...on his own! He had to grab the food, twist his head around to swallow but his eye/beak coordination is discernably better and I dare say some of his movements are intentional. I'm posting this because many diseases aren't limited to one species...including avian ones. And many of us are interested in natural remedies but fear experimenting on our birds. We didn't have a choice when the coccidiosis hit....1 bird dead and 3 within 24 hours 6 days later The Corid I ordered would arrive in 2 days. ..I needed something stat. As it turns out, we never needed the Corid. But still, if something dangerous hit, to just experiment holistically without any solid accounts of success with birds specifically...not many of us are ready to go there. Though we'd love to if it works, isn't toxic, and eliminates the customary egg-withholding period. Will Roman survive? I don't know. ...I hope so! But figured I'd post so that, just in case he makes a full recovery...the bird world has at least one anecdote of someone utilizing a holistic method with success. Praying and crossing my fingers!
