URGENT PLEASE HELP

[Laurie's Silkies]

Can this Crop issue also affect Diamond and Ringneck doves?

 

[Faith SL]

Jak200, thank you very much for the information on the ingredients you used to make the feeding formula. You did an excellent job in selecting the right food for the baby pigeons and mixing it, and the method you used is a great method of hand-feeding!

Just a caution with feeding medicated chick feed - the baby pigeons you have seem to have been fine with it, but certain baby pigeons are unable to handle the medications added to the chick feed. If you happen to stumble across any other baby pigeons in need of assistance, if possible getting non-medicated chick feed would probably be much better to mix up in the hand-feeding formula if it is available in your area.

Glad they have received such wonderful care and are growing up to be healthy, happy pigeons.

If you have any other questions about them or other pigeons, feel free to ask away.

Good luck with them!

Faith

 

[Faith SL]

Laurie, I am not sure exactly which crop issue you are asking about - slow crop, air swallowing, air sac ruptures and PMV (all problems can affect the crop) were all discussed in this thread. Although I am not a dove expert, I do know that young Diamond and Ringneck doves can be affected by any of these problems, out of the four problems slow crop being the most common and air swallowing being the least common based on what I have heard.

I have also heard that PMV is much less treatable and much more deadly in baby doves. Affected young usually stop eating anything and do not make it through another day due to their smaller size and weaker immune systems. Again, this is just from what I have heard from others who have raised doves - I have no personal experience with witnessing or treating these problems for doves. Maybe another dove expert on the forums could give you a more detailed answer?

 

[jak2002003]

Something has gone wrong! Hope you can help me Faith or anyone else.

Yesterday I noticed one chick has a raised yellow pimple on the corner of its eye. Its quite big and hard. Today its has more of these pimples / spots. I looked closely at it and its got lots of them on its lower body.

When I looked at the other chick it has one on its wing and LOTS clustered around its bottom!!!!

They are both still eating and doing well otherwise, and the bigger one is nearly ready to start flying. They both are exorcising the wings a lot and are very active.

I can not get them off, they are bright custard yellow colour, same size as when we get a pimple on our face. I tried to gently pull and squeeze one, but nothing happened.

 

[jak2002003]

Oh, no. I have been scanning the internet and I am sure they have pigeon pox.

I am devastated. It says that young bird usually die from it. Its just happened over 2 days. It seems to be the external form.

Anything I can do? I feel like crying now after I have got attacked to them and been though so much already.

If they are going to die will they die quickly? I can't stand it if they are lingering on.

 

[Faith SL]

I am so sorry to hear this. You are right, it can be dangerous to younger pigeons more than adults, but if the youngsters you have are strong and have the willpower to survive they have a good chance of making it through okay. Let's see what we can do.

Since pox is a viral infection with no known antibiotic treatment, the best thing to do is to use natural alternatives to try and dry up the pox and help the pigeon quickly heal on it's own. First, try and acquire either Colloidal Silver (liquid) or more preferably some Thuja Occidentalis tablets (http://www.amazon.com/Thuja-Occidentalis-30X-100-tab/dp/B000F4XPZI). These are for internal use and will help to prevent/flush out any pox affecting the internal organs and system as well as help slow down the formation of external pox nodules. If you can get Colloidal Silver, use 3 drops down the throat of each young pigeon twice a day plus a drop in each eye twice a day. The dosage amount for Thuja Occidentalis is 2 tablets twice per day (2 in the morning, 2 in the evening) for the first two days and one tablet twice per day (1 in the morning, 1 in the evening) after that for 1 1/2 weeks.

Next, you will need something to swab onto the pox lesions to lessen irritation and dry the lesions up. For this, straight Tea Tree oil diluted 50/50 with water or straight Thuja Oil (http://www.essentialoils.co.za/essential-oils/thuja.htm) is the best thing to use. You could also use diluted Betadine (1 part Betadine, 3 parts water) or straight Neem oil, but they are not quite as effective. With any of these remedies, use a cotton swab or q-tip and apply to any external lesions you can see twice a day, except lesions near the eyes, face or beak. Besides Neem oil, especially do not get the stuff near the eyes or in the mouth! Keep swabbing the stuff on until you see absolutely no more pox lesions - it could take a couple of weeks for this.

Also, if any pox is growing in/near their eyes or beak, it is dangerous but there is not much more that you can do except swab/drop some colloidal silver on the lesions. If the lesions begin to get really bad in these sensitive areas, you can also safely swab on a little bit of Neem oil to see if that will help any further.

And finally,. pox is contagious not to humans, but very contagious to other pigeons and some other species of birds. Please keep the baby pigeons away from any other birds you have and make sure to wash/disinfect your hands and any other instruments used when handling or treating them to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Try not to mess with squeezing or pulling the pox bubbles at this time - it is probably painful to the pigeon and the pox nodules can bleed. Once the pox begins to dry up for a little over a week, some of the nodules will be at the stage where they can be pulled off and removed. Just be very careful with nodules in/near the beak or eyes.

The reason pox is more dangerous to young pigeons than for adults is because young birds are commonly troubled by pox near/in their eyes and in their beak and throat. If it gets too severe, it can be very painful for them and cause them to stop eating and possibly block their breathing or make them go blind. In a case like this where pox is greatly swelling up both eyes on the pigeon, pox is growing in the mouth/throat and preventing proper breathing, and/or making the pigeon not eat for over two days, the pigeon should be humanely put to sleep as it is going through too much and has little chance of survival.

I hope this information will help, and again, I am so sorry. I have been through a lot of heartbreak with having loved birds pass on even though I tried to do everything I could to help them. Even then, it warms my heart to see the ones who have made it through live happy and fulfilling lives.

Best of luck, and I hope they will make it through okay!

Faith

 

[jak2002003]

Thanks for the advise again. I could not be doing all this without your good advise.

I will go to the pharmacy in the morning and see about the colloidal silver.

They seem to have most of the nodules around their lower body and bottom area. Only a couple near the eyes and only one on the top of the beak.

At the moment it does not seem to be bothering them at all. They are still eating eagerly and are very energetic and bright.

At the moment the nodules are hard and yellow, with no puss of weeping. There are not lesions in the mouth.

Do you think it will get worse now? Is this the early stage of the disease?

Now I am very worried that the disease will spread to my other dove species and chickens.

Maybe I would have been better leaving these birds to die. Helping seems to have brought more trouble.

 

[Faith SL]

As far as I know the virus does not have multiple stages of progression like some other diseases and will not get worse than it is right now, except for the fact that new lesions might show up in a couple day's time. The only way the virus could be worse on the baby pigeons is if large lesions affect the inside of the mouth or the eyes, or if the virus simply wears them down internally and they are not able to handle it any longer. I have worked with two cases of pox on baby pigeons before - one was completely better in 5 weeks and is currently living a great life last I heard from it's owner, the other didn't survive.

I am sorry that you have to deal with this issue after all the time you have spent and all the care you have given to these little pigeons. I am sure that if they could, they would tell you thank you - they are probably very grateful for you showing them such love and kindness.

Most sick birds which I deal with and treat here I place in a separate room or outside building (depending on their condition and how the outside weather is) away from my other birds, and I wash/disinfect my hands after handling them. If they are more contagious, I simply wear disposable medical gloves when handling the patient or any equipment which has come in contact with the patient and wash my hands, arms or anything else which might be more likely to carry pathogens. Besides an annoying eye cold which spread from bird to bird for a while but was harmless and easily treatable, I have never had a sickness spread from an affected bird kept in 'sick bay'. The danger of a sickness spreading from an affected bird is always present, but greatly lessened if quarantine and cleanliness procedures are followed.

To answer your question from PigeonTalk, pigeon pox is primarily spread through skin contact from one pigeon to another, one pigeon ingesting mucous or droppings from an infected bird (if the infected bird drinks water or it's poo gets in the food others can get pox from the contaminated water and feed), and finally from thick pigeon dust in a dirty loft which can infect the bird through breathing in the heavy dust, which can contain dried fecal sediments from contaminated birds. As far as I know pox is not airborne, so it is not very contagious compared to many other sicknesses and diseases which affect pigeons. Just keep the young squeakers separate and away from your other birds with their own food and water dishes and thoroughly wash your hands after handling them.

If you were located much closer to where I am, I would be willing to take the young pigeons off your hands and do my best to treat them. Being quite a ways away from you, all I can do is try and offer what assistance I can online. A good note is that once they get through this, they will be immune to pox and never get it again!

Thank you for being so kind to these precious birds

Faith

 

[jak2002003]

thank you again Faith.

They don't seem to have any more pox on them today and are acting normally like nothing is wrong with them. The smaller chick has a nodule on the corner of each eye and one on the back of its head. Then a few on its legs.

The bigger chick has only one nodule on its upper beak. The rest are around its bottom area and none only a couple on its legs.

I am keeping them away from all the other birds and washing their stuff in a different sink.

They are flapping and jumping about today and seem very strong, so I am keeping my fingers crossed they make it. I am giving them one extra small feed a day to keep their strength up and also adding cod liver oil to the morning feed for vitamin A which I am told is good to help heal the skin.

 

[Faith SL]

Good to hear they are still doing well. Keep up the great care!

I completely forgot to mention vitamins, I am so sorry!

Vitamins A and B can be very helpful during this time, and the cod liver oil you are adding to their feed should do the job. Wheat germ oil is another great oil which supplies plenty of vitamins among other good ingredients.

Swabbing the pox nodules twice daily with Tea Tree Oil, Thuja Oil, Colloidal Silver, Betadine or Neem Oil will greatly help in drying the pox lesions and controlling how contagious the virus is. Keep an eye on them to make sure they are eating and drinking enough.

Good luck in caring for them, and I hope everything goes smoothly and they pull through alright

Faith