Sick pigeon flock.

[Pyxis]

Sorry for all your troubles! What you describe may be tropical fowl mites. The dose for Ivermectin injectable is 0.2 mg/kg, which is 0.009 ml per pound. So that is how you want to dose the birds. Weigh them all first to give an accurate dose. Some sources also say 0.4 mg/kg, so you could safely give up to that amount, too.

Then, you will want to clean out your loft VERY well, and dust it all down. Use the stuff you have for dogs to dust it with now.

 

[jak2002003]

Sorry for all your troubles! What you describe may be tropical fowl mites. The dose for Ivermectin injectable is 0.2 mg/kg, which is 0.009 ml per pound. So that is how you want to dose the birds. Weigh them all first to give an accurate dose. Some sources also say 0.4 mg/kg, so you could safely give up to that amount, too.

Then, you will want to clean out your loft VERY well, and dust it all down. Use the stuff you have for dogs to dust it with now.

Cleaned out the loft. Dusted it 2 X today.. looks like a snowstorm lol.
The mites look like this, but are more grey with cream stripes. Bigger then the other photos.. about 3 or 4 times the size of the little mites.

Went to check on pigeons this evening. Despite the mite powder.. which is also covering the perches, the birds were frantically stamping feed and shaking heads. Could not leave then like that... so went in with a torch.. caught each bird individually and dusted down with the dog tick powder. Surprised it was easy to do at night.. like chickens.

Went out one house later... no stamping and birds seem to be having the first peaceful nights sleep for a long time.

I covered the birds head with a towel as I powered their bodies.. so not to get any in the eyes or let them breath it in. Means the head is not treated though.. but hope they will get some on their heads from preening the body feathers.

Will do the ivermectin tomorrow morning.

Got a good chance to check the birds over closely. I was pleased most were a good weight... and a couple very fat! Only 2 were skinny.. one being the very sick one which is also got a dirty bottom and droopy wings.

Thanks everyone for all you help. Will keep you posted.

We get a lot of sparrows here... flocks of about 20 or more. They can't get into the coop, but hop about around it and on the roof. Maybe the mites came from them. Now the chickens have all gone there will be no chicken feed for them to scavenge so they might move on.

 

[sourland]

Good update. Hope that the problem is resolving.

 

[jak2002003]

Stomping the feet, pecking at legs and feet... that has now all stopped since the insecticide powder dusting and ivermecting drops.

Head shaking is still going on. They all do it almost constantly.. worse at night. The shake their heads from side to side and occasionally scratch at their heads. Can't see any mites or bugs on them. Eyes and nostrils are all clear... no mucus. No sneezing or couching. Just constant shaking of the heads.

Any ideas?

 

[sourland]

Have you checked their ears ?

 

[jak2002003]

How do I do that? I can't see any ears! If they have stuff in the ears... how do I get it out.. and what would it be, lice, wax?

At the moment I have 2 very sick birds.. that are showing the same disease symptoms my chickens had which are:

lethargy
stopping eating and drinking
clear watery poop with small water green center.
drooping wings and not able to fly or move much.

They have been de wormed, treated for coccidiosis, dusted for mites and lice.. but no improvement at all.

All other birds seem OK, but for the constant head shaking... but I can see more birds getting ill one by one like my chickens did.

I have isolated the 2 sick ones.... gave them real good inspection. They are a good weight, clear eyes, no signs or canker or anything in the beak or down the throat, clean bottoms, no signs of any mites or lice at all.. perfect feathers.. good muscles. They are not even fluffed up.. they look and feel perfect! Just seem they kind of seize up! Even the sick ones are still very alert.. looking around, breathing normally. Just they do nothing except stand or sit down in a corner and then slowly waste away and die.

This is really upsetting.

 

[biophiliac]

Have you checked their ears ?

I would very much like to know how to check the ears, but first I would like to know how to find their ears.

That was my reaction yesterday ... but I googled and discovered pigeon ears.
They have only inner ears, covered discretely with feathers. So I guess if you displace the feathers you should see a little hole.

So sorry for your problems.

 

[jak2002003]

WORRYING UPDATE.

I have learnt some disturbing news today.

Our area has an outbreak of some kind of virus, (I think spread by wild birds), which has been killing off the local chickens.

We had a village announcement today warning everybody about the situation, and asking that we report any large losses of chickens to the local government office.

I met a friend tonight, who lives a few miles from my house. He told me this week he has lost 50 chickens from his farm flock and now only has 3 surviving. The lady that cleans our house also told me her neighbour (in the next village) has lost all his chickens too.

When I went out on my bike in the afternoon I saw a few dead chickens in the village, on the road side or even on the road. There are rotting dead chickens around too.

Today 2 of my pigeons died. One is very ill, with the same disease symptoms. I guess its from the same virus that killed my chickens.

I have an aviary with parakeets in the garden.. and one of them was dead this morning. It had been healthy the day before. I keep several kinds of song birds as pets too. I have moved them into an outbuilding which has mosquito screens.

In a way I am relieved to know I did not do something wrong in the care of my birds.. and have at least a kind of answer as to why they died.

I guess it's a bird flu kind of thing. Its tragic and sad I can not do anything to help my flock of pigeons, as all are ill now.. with shaking their heads and hardly eating any feed.

I just hope my cage birds don't get the same disease.

 

[sourland]

jak, I am so very sorry for what you are dealing with.

 

[jak2002003]

jak, I am so very sorry for what you are dealing with.

Thank you. Seems there is some epidemic of avian flu.. Some farms have lost hundreds of chickens. Spoke to the pet shops that sell chickens today and the owners know all about it.. it's happening in 4 areas (my home area included).

Seems birds that are penned up are usually OK, but any free range ones come down with it, or if wild birds can get into the pens then they will also catch the disease.

The chickens and quail farms are the hardest hit (the small scale ones as they have not got good bio security). Friend lost over 200 guinea fowl on his farm!

Here the fighting game fowl are worth a lot of money if they are good.. I mean thousands of Dollars and more! Some people have lost them too.

Disease usually kills the birds in less than 24 hours. One of mine fought it off for 4 days... she was a strong one. I only have a single rooster left now. He is unrelated to my birds.. maybe he has some immunity to it. If I decided to start up again in the future (and he is still alive) I will use him for breeding.

Thank you every one for your help!

Some of the pigeons have almost stopped the head shaking.. where others have got worse. 2 are isolated and being force fed and given antibiotics orally to see if that helps. I have seen that seeds are passing through them totally undigested though.. so not hopeful. The main flock is also on a poultry broad spectrum anti biotic powder in the drinking water. Nothing more I can do.. time will tell.