Sparks & Doll are doing great; Willow is recovering & my Charlie girl has died

Sparks
Sparks, the dog-bit pij, is doing really, really well. He's finishing out his course of antibiotics and I'm still putting cream on his sutured wounds (much to his disliking) but for all intents and purposes, he's fine. He's out of the hospital cage and in with the pigeon gang and doing fine. I'm amazed. He's one I didn't think would make it.

Doll

And beautiful Doll is also out of the hated hospital tank and doing great. Her beak is healing and she's doing her funny, flying tricks once again. I drove the quail and Brother Chukar to a Mickaboo volunteer in San Jose who drove them to a volunteer in Livermore who drove them to their new homes outside Sacramento and it's nice to be back to just pigeons in the pigeon room.

Willow
Willow, the next to most recent foster arrival after Sparks, was originally treated for symptoms of infection and a closed left eye. Her eye got better and she seemed to improve but, after about a week of being out of the hospital cage and in the general population, it became clear that something was still wrong. She stayed off by herself, napped a lot and, when on Saturday morning at 9 am I found her in the exact same place as she was at 7 pm the previous evening, I took her back to the vet to get lab work done.

There were tiny but visible traces of blood in her urates and lab tests showed her kidneys to be under functioning. Normal uric acid level is 10 and hers was 17. Her phosphorous levels were still normal though so it meant that she wasn't yet in kidney failure and, as such, had a shot. My WONDERFUL avian vet, Dr. Fern Van Sant, prescribed heat (good for ill or injured birds), aspirin for inflammation, Cipro for infection, flax seed oil for the beta carotene, syringe feeding and lots and lots of fluids to help support and flush out the kidneys. Based on what little we know, it would be impossible to guess the cause as so many things can lead to kidney problems including infection and even dehydration (which a king pigeon on the streets would be very vulnerable to- they don't know how to find food and water like wild pigeons).

I syringe fed/watered her every couple of hours over the weekend and I brought her to work with me on Monday to keep it up. Despite all the care, Willow was not looking good until Tuesday afternoon when she finally began to show improvement. Last night she began eating and, while she is still on her meds and getting supportive care (especially fluids), I think she has turned a positive corner and I'm hopeful that she will recover.

Charlie

My beloved pet parrot, Charlie, died unexpectedly Monday night. She was a five year old, blue headed pionus hen. She was a survivor of aspergillosis (4 years recurring & recovering) and was very prone to respiratory infections. We were never able to identify an environmental cause for the infections and my other parrot, Tookie, lives right beside her and never has any problems.

Charlie had had a great winter with mostly good health. A month ago, she got another respiratory infection and, our vet, Dr. Fern Van Sant, prescribed Clavamox. It began working immediately and she was great in a couple of days. She was really feeling good, full of energy and enthusiasm. About a week after finishing the Clavamox, she got sick again. It started up slowly on a Tuesday. We tried the Clavamox again and I started her medicine last Friday. Saturday was a little worse, Sunday a little more so and Monday morning I called For the Birds and, even though Dr. Van Sant was scheduled to be off that day, she said to bring her in. I did and we put her in an incubator with oxygen and she was doing better. She got Baytril and sub cu fluids. When I called to check on her at 4:30, she was eating and making a hell of a mess dunking her pellets in her water dish. Before 8 am the next morning, Dr. Van Sant called to tell me that she had died in the night.

I miss her terribly and will write more about my Charlie girl sometime soon. She was a really good friend of mine.

Sparks is home and Doll is better

Sparks, the latest addition to my foster pigeon flock, was very sick when I brought him home from the shelter a week ago Wednesday night. He was fluffed, depressed, barely eating and had two wounds. I've learned from experience that feathers hide a lot so, when I check over a new pigeon, I look them over carefully. I found the torn skin around his leg and the angry looking scab on his back but when the vet checked him over, she pulled that scab right off to reveal a puncture wound I could have almost fit my finger in. That's the dif between a civilian and a pro. From the looks of the wounds, I think a dog got a hold of Sparks. It's pretty amazing that he got away. Also amazing, is that, after a week of antibiotics, debriding, wound care and surgery to close the wounds up, he's now doing great. He went into the vet weighing 458g (skinny) and came home yesterday weighing 529g (up 15%) and is eating voraciously. He's full of piss & vinegar now, much more spirit and personality. He's still in a hospital cage (not tank) and on antibiotics but I'm not worried about him anymore. I think Sparks is going to be a strong pij.

In the hospital cage next door, Doll is doing well. I hate the chunk that was taken out of her beak but it looks, to my eyes, to be healing and she is eating lots and showing no signs of infection. She definitely does NOT like to be caged up. That's probably a sign of her good health more than personality, though. The birds I cage are usually very ill or recovering from being ill and being so compromised, they just tolerate it. I got Doll when she was young (probably only a month old, still such a "squeaker" that I had to segregate her from the grown-up birds) and she's had a relatively safe, healthy, happy life and has been a picture of good health. She'd often fly in place and do a little kick-up-her-heels-flying-leapfrogging kind of thing, showing off her vitality. I hope I can get her out of the cage and back to her antics soon.

Unusual (and unwelcome) drama

Usually everything in the pij room is very peaceful and harmonious and sweet. King pigeons are calm, easy going and good natured, which is one of the reasons I love them so much. They're often described as 'gentle giants'. And I have fostered quail and chukars uneventfully before but all hell's breaking out this time.

Since Doll's injury, I've caged the chukar because my pij experts haven't seen such a serious wound inflicted pij-to-pij under these circumstances (a baby or hurt pigeon will get seriously picked on if unprotected). So I've got pissed-off-chukar vibes poring through the room. Then, I did my volunteer shift at ACC last night and brought home the single quail that was there. A quail alone is a pitiful sight and I was very happy to bring it home to join the three I'm already fostering until they hitch a ride to their new home outside Sacramento this weekend.

This morning when I come downstairs, I see three quail nattering about but no fourth. I find the fourth (undoubtedly last night's newcomer) hiding in a corner all by itself, facing into the wall. This doesn't make any sense to me... I check him over and then release him back with the other three. They immediately turn on him, chasing him around, etc. It's terrible. I grab him back up and now he's set up nice and safe in his own cage. Quail wars? Yuck.

Doll is eating and pooping but her usually sunny, playful personality is gone at least for now. She's hyper vigilant and stressed. The injury is more extensive than just to her cere and there's actually a small chunk gone from her beak.

First in-house injury

When I went downstairs to take care of the pigeons this morning, I found drops of blood here and there on the floor. My first thought was that one of the silly little quail that are living there till they can catch a ride to Sacramento must have gotten injured. They are small and frolic about heedless of the much bigger birds around them. It wasn't them, though.

My next guess was the chukar (also a temporary guest waiting to get to Sacramento) because he's fairly bold and had a stand-off over a seed dish with greedy Tank on Sunday.

I caught Brother Chukar and looked him over (which he hates- it's AMAZING how strong such a small, lightly built animal can be) but he's fine.

It turns out that Doll got hurt. Somebody tore off a chunk of the soft nostril tissue (called the cere) on top of her beak.

Yesterday I saw Country come off her nest like a shot to drive Doll, who had landed nearby, away so it might have been her or her mate Tank who, at 780 grams, is the biggest pij I've met and could do damage if he tried. But my friend and pij expert has never seen this kind of wound inflicted pij-to-pij so it might be that Doll tangled with the chukar. Based on the interactions I've watched, I'd guess not, but he does have a scimitar for a beak. I've confined Doll to a crate (to minimize activity & protect from further complications) and applied topical antibiotic. Poor little squeaker.

Doll

I brought Doll home (along with the string-injured Luna) to foster from SF ACC on 2/20/08 and she was the youngest squeaker in the flock. She was exquisitely beautiful and, since she was so young, I spent extra time with her in an effort to increase her pet skills and adoptability but she would have none of it. Most squeakers enjoy snuggling and one-on-one attention but she was a bird's bird and preferred to stay wild.




She was the first bird to suffer an injury while in my care when she was bit on the beak by a chukar that was staying over on the way to be transported to its new home. She lost a tip of her right nostril but healed well and is still incredibly gorgeous.





Early on she dated Baby (who grew to be called Tony Baby when he showed himself to be such a player) but he was stolen by an older, more sophisticated hen called Luna. Then, somehow, little Rocky who had been passed by for so long, stole Tony Baby from Luna and was mated with him. Then, when first Tony Baby and then Rocky got sick, Doll stole Tony Baby back and she is his wife to this day. Rocky is his girlfriend on the side and Doll hates Rocky. Doll and Tony Baby do make a great couple as they are both brash and ballsy.




Doll is available for adoption with her mate Tony Baby and would do best in as a loft or aviary bird.

March 11 Update:

Doll and her mate, Tony, have been adopted via the King Care-A-Van and arrived in their new, forever home in Indiana on March 11th. Here are pictures from their new life and below them is what their Adopter says They have been renamed KariJo and Anthony.

Allen and I live on an acre and a half with a small assortment of critters, which include three little dogs (Renee, LeeAnn, Bear), three pet rats (Stella, Bea, Luna), a leopard gecko (Butter), and a greek tortoise (Kramer) who is a really cool dude. Our little menagerie now includes four pigeons Snow, Flurry, and the two BIG and BEAUTIFUL Kings 'Anthony and KariJo'. Now....I am a big animal lover and grew up around chickens and pigeons which my grandpa had (he lived right next door) and I have fond memories of every summer, my four sisters and I, running barefoot and forever stepping in chicken and/or pigeon poo...so I knew I wanted a couple chickens and a couple of pigeons as soon as we had the room. Well last fall we were given a cute little old run down playhouse, a little fixer upper. I'm thinkin "Oh boy, first some chickies then some pijies!" Ya know, FATE is a funny thing. On January 17th after a heavy snow storm and bitter cold, a little white pigeon took shelter on our front porch. Hungry and cold, I put him in a pen in our garage and gave him food and water. I jumped on the computer to research pigeon care and found PIGEON TALK. From there I came across Elizabeth and MickaCoo and the plight of the California King pigeons. I was hooked. When the rescue volunteers started up KING-CARE-A-VAN 2009 I knew I had to try and adopt at least two Kings and give them a forever home. And so it began. After sending an application, a donation, and shipping boxes, waiting two loonngg months, meeting some wonderful people and making new friends, the long wait was over. On March 11th, my two BIG and BEAUTIFUL Kings arrived....ANTHONY & KARIJO! They are amazing white birds with such silly personalities. Every day they will make you smile as they wiggle deaper into your heart. Just like people, some are huggable, some are not....doesn't matter.....they become a part of your family. And it is sooooo worth it! Now with warm weather here, we are working to finish Anthony and KariJo's playhouse and outdoor aviary where they will have more room. Chickens?.........hmmmmmmm. C'MON...OPEN YOUR HEART...YOU CAN DO IT...ADOPT A KING!

Deb n Al Long