URGENT PLEASE HELP

[jak2002003]

HELP chick with Air in crop

I rescued 2 pigeon chicks that are about 12 - 14 days old. One is much bigger than the other one. Had them for 4 days.

I have no experience with hand raising birds, but got good advise from this site.

The bigger chick is doing really well BUT the smaller one is having problems with its crop!

They are both very underweight (think they had been without food for quite some time). I got them rehydrated first and warm. I was feeding too often at first and maybe this caused the problem Now I feed only 3 times a day.

The small chicks crop feels like its full of air. Its still very energetic and eager to feed. I left it overnight to see if the crop had gone down in the morning......it felt like there was no food or liquid in it, but still swollen with air. Now even giving a small amount of food causes its crop to balloon. What can it do?

I started hand feeding, and tried the tube way, but found the one that the chicks like the best in the plastic bag method.

How can I get the air out. I don't want to use a needle!!!!!!! What is causing this? Its mouth is clean and its not got canker. No bad smells, but its not pooping as often as the bigger chick. I am worried its not getting enough to eat now I have cut back on feeding it.

Will the bird 'burp' up the air by itself or can I squeeze it out?

 

[sourland]

I personally have never done this, but I have heard that you can push a needle from a syringe firmly but gently into the crop to allow the air to escape on it's own - then remove the needle. Again, as a disclaimer, I have never done this. I'm not sure why this happens. I have also seen it in young squabs, and it is generally the smaller of the pair that it happens to. Perhaps in competition for feeding the younger, weaker bird gulps air?

 

[jak2002003]

thank you for your help.

I am too afraid to do that thing with the needle. I did some more research on the internet.

As a result I waited till it was due its meal.....when there was no food left in the crop. It was still full of air. I was able to 'burp' the chick by gently squeezing the air out while I held the chicks neck out. I could hear the air coming out!

I was not able to get all the air out, but it looks and feels a lot better. After that I fed the chick - which ate well, and now its sleeping. In the morning I will try to get the rest of the air out before feeding it. If its got more air in I will know the bird has an illness and its not from swallowing air.

Thanks again.

 

[sourland]

Much like you, I was leery of doing the needle bit. In my experience (squabs raised by parents) the condition eventually disappeared. One thing that worked for me was multiple feedings of the adults so that they 'pumped' the squabs more frequently.

 

[jak2002003]

That is a good idea to feed more little and often. I will try that today.

In the morning everything looked better. There was still some air in there, but not as much as before.

Did the morning feed, Still looked good. Both birds pooping normally and they both have lots of energy. They are looking fatter now. When I got them they were just skin and bones.

But sadly, this afternoon the younger chicks crop has got big again!!!

I will try to squeeze it out like last time. I am feeling braver about using the needle now, so maybe tonight I'll give it a go if I can't get all the air out. Poor thing.

 

[Faith SL]

Jak200, thank you for taking these baby pigeons under your wing and for giving them such loving care.

The smaller pigeon squeaker most likely has one of two problems:

One simply being that he/she is unintentionally swallowing air while gulping down food and causing the air to fill up the crop. If baby pigeons do swallow air down, normally they will fix the problem on their own by lifting their head up, stretching their neck out and flexing their throat, enabling the air to escape. If this is the case it would be good to gently lift the little pigeon's head up with one hand so the neck is straighter and try to 'guide' the air bubbles up and out of the crop with the other hand. Sometimes air can easily be expelled by gently placing gradual pressure on the air in the crop, which hopefully causes the baby pigeon to notice it is uncomfortably full of air and burp on it's own. This is not a serious problem and if the more natural methods of burping do not work, then I would recommend to only use a needle and syringe if the crop looks uncomfortably full of air. If there is just a little air left don't worry about it and it should work it's way out on it's own.

The other could be that this baby has a ruptured air sac, causing the air to leak out of the torn or damaged air sac into other areas of the body just beneath the skin and making the pigeon 'inflate'. This is usually treatable, but a little more serious. Pigeon squeakers between the age of 8 days and 20 days are the most common age group to be affected by a torn air sac. In older pigeons it is commonly caused by some form of damage/injury, malnutrition, or even weak genes. Baby pigeons can have this problem most commonly from weaker genes, but also from damage by a larger sibling or a parent stepping on and damaging the baby or in rare cases from severely overfeeding. The crop region is the least harmful region for the air to leak into on a subject with this type of small internal injury. Burping will not work with this type of issue unless the internal barrier between the outer skin and the crop has been broken, in this case antibiotics would help as internal bleeding could be occurring... but this is very rare and almost always caused by severe injury. The normal solution to a ruptured air sac is to empty the inflated skin area of air. This needs to be done every time the area inflates with air (usually 2-3 times a day, but sometimes every 2 hours) and is is best done with a needle and syringe or a ceramic needle. Just be very careful to avoid the main neck area and any blood veins you can see. I believe there was a video on how to easily empty air from a young pigeon with a ceramic needle... here it is:

A ruptured air sac with air filling up in the crop region on a baby pigeon can usually heal within about a week or two. The air has to be emptied frequently with this type of problem though, or the tear remains open and will not be able to heal properly.

There is one last possibility which is very, very rare but also very lethal. If the baby pigeon within the next 10 days begins exhibiting signs of head-twisting or 'star-gazing', severely stunted feather and body growth, imbalance or falling over on his/her side and the legs and feet appear to be skinnier and weaker than normal, this could be signs of PMV... I have had experience trying to treat this affecting a 2-week old squeaker but despite my best efforts the young pigeon passed. This is VERY, VERY rare though, but there is still that 1% chance possibility that the air-filled crop could be linked.

Best of luck with caring for these precious pigeon squeakers! I hope that the air issue on the younger guy can be resolved simply and easily so he/she does not continue to have a balloon for a crop! If you have any questions on caring for these little guys, feel free to ask - I am not a veterinarian but I have quite a bit of knowledge.

Have a great one

Faith

 

[jak2002003]

Thank you so much Faith for taking the time to give me all that advise. It was very helpful.

The bigger chick is thriving, but still the same problem with the smaller one, which is now half the size of the bigger.

I think that the small chick in not destined to survive. It seems to have other problems too in its development. It has lost the yellow down from its head, but no feathers are growing.....it has a completely bald head now. Its skin looks strange colours on its head too, big pink patches (but may be its its colouring).

Its not loosing weight, but its not gaining any.

I think it must be swallowing the air as it eats. It now has that 'slow crop' thing. I tried getting more air out of its crop, but this time food came out from the feeding before - although that time I only fed a very little amount. Its not got sour crop as the food was still fresh and no smell.

I will just have to see how it goes. I will start it on some apple sauce next feed so see if that helps.

 

[Faith SL]

Applesauce (plain - un-spiced and un-flavored) is great to add to a baby pigeon's food. Small amounts of plain Greek yoghurt and a drop or two of ACV (apple cider vinegar) are also great in giving the chick extra protein, nutrition and for making the crop just a little more acid to help deter crop fungal issues or other digestive problems. I have had good results with mixing plain Greek Zoi yoghurt in with baby pigeon food (10% - 15% yoghurt in the food).

Does the smaller chick by any chance feel warmer than the larger chick or warmer than usual, like he/she is overheated? Place your fingers on the pinkish odd-colored areas of the skin and compare the temperature to the normal-colored skin or the skin of the other baby pigeon. Also, what is the size difference between the two nestlings - is there any way that you could post a picture of the two on here?

What you mentioned about the chick not gaining weight and having odd-colored areas of skin concerns me a little. About 5 months ago I encountered a problem with a baby pigeon which somehow contracted PMV and did not make it through. The loft, nest etc. were clean and the parents were perfectly healthy, but the younger sibling still became terminally ill. Here is everything that happened if it might help as reference to you:

At one week after the parents hatched out both of their eggs, the smaller chick was only 1/3 the size of the larger chick, despite being fed adequately and being carefully cared for by both of the doting parents. Both male and female then became very hesitant to sit on the chicks in early morning between 4:00 and 7:00. I would wake and check on the birds to find that the babies were trying to huddle next to each other, and the parents were standing two feet away from the nest or in the sunning cage. This was too early for the parents to stop sitting on the chicks, but trying to place the parents in the nest and over the chicks did nothing because they would get off again 10 minutes later. Thinking that this might be because the larger chick was growing so fast and it was uncomfortable for the adults to sit on both, I placed the larger chick with the only available foster parents at that time hoping the smaller one would then get the care it needed. It worked for about three days and everything seemed to be normal again except for the chick's stunted growth, but upon the fourth morning the mother had again left the nest and the baby almost died from getting too cold. I would have switched the young pigeon to fosters, but there were no available pigeon parents at that time. Every morning at four I woke up and brought the baby inside to a heated nest until about 8:00, then returned it to the parents.

The parents began to feed it less and less, so I began hand-feeding to ensure the baby pigeon got enough food. At a week and a half old and still hardly any body growth or feather quill growth and with oddly skinny-looking legs, the young baby began swallowing air along with the hand-fed food I was giving it and I had to place gentle pressure on the crop to cause the pigeon to burp it out. Two days later, the skin began to heat up and show discolored pinkish-reddish blotches. I double and triple-checked the pigeon daily for any signs of canker, crop yeast infection, cocciddiosis, anything I could think of, but found nothing relating to any sickness I knew the symptoms of. At two weeks at this time I removed the baby from the parents altogether, as there was something going on and I did not want the parents to somehow contract it if they didn't already. The parents were quarantined, medicated and then boosted with probiotics and vitamins for two weeks, but thankfully no signs of sickness ever showed up on them, the older nest mate to the sick baby or any other youngsters from that pair so far.

Two and a half weeks, the droppings became unnaturally watery and the pigeon began twisting it's head and neck sideways, looking like it was gazing at the ceiling any time it was not being fed. I scoured the internet looking for any help as to what this might be and found that the pigeon had somehow contracted PMV (Paramyxovirus). I had never heard of baby pigeons in clean environments contracting this and it is very rare, but I did what was recommended and administered small amounts of Baytril and liquid vitamins containing Vitamin C and D - supposedly vitamins which were depleted by the presence of the virus and the chick would die without them. I had heard the complete recovery time for PMV (if there was a recovery) would be 6 to 8 months total, and the bird would have to be quarantined and cared for during that time. Needless to say, despite keeping the chick warm and giving it the best care I knew how, it still did not survive past 3 1/2 weeks.

The parents, although seemingly changing from doting, caring parents to uncaring snobs within a week, actually knew what was going on more than I did and stopped caring for the young bird because of it's affliction.

I hope that the baby pigeon you are caring for does not have this

Please keep an eye on him/her in the next couple of days and watch for any signs of torticollis (star-gazing, neck twisting). If you suspect the chick might have a sickness or virus, please please use separate feeding utensils for each of the baby birds - placing each in seperate heated areas or nests would greatly help too but I don't know if you would be able to do this.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Faith

 

[jak2002003]

That disease sound nasty. If I think the chick is suffering I will humanely dispatch it. I will try to get a photo soon.

This big chick is 100 percent healthy now. The smaller one looks stronger too and not so much air in the crop. I do not empty it now and make sure it does not eat too much.

That small chick is very strange. Maybe its not got a disease, but some genetic problems! Its skin is very healthy, but blotched pink and grey like cow. Its now go no feathers on its head or neck, but still have them on its body. It is about 50 per cent smaller than the bigger one.

Seems lively enough though and always eager to eat. Pooping normally. See how it goes. I will put a photo and and an update on here in a couple of days to let you know what has happened. You have really good knowledge of pigeons and I am very grateful for all your help.

 

[Faith SL]

Glad to hear they are doing well so far under your loving care - it is my pleasure to share any pigeon knowledge I have which will help.

I will stay tuned for pictures or other updates