the Wild pigeons of Salisbury beach part 35

On a wing and a prayer.

Last friday, I felt I did all I could do to help the baby pigeon.

He has a hard time eating because of his deformed beak.

I had just discovered he was also covered with feather lice.

Needless to say I was in major panic mode.

I had to stop, breath and then, take action.

I bought some scalex which is a .03%pyrethrin solution effective in killing lice & mites on pet birds. I soaked him in the stuff and then I washed the floors, the walls, the tables, curtains, the corners, the window sills, the french doors, bird covers, the trash barrel, the laundry baskets, the vents on the floor, and vacumed the rugs. It took me from 5:00am to noon nonstop on monday. It turns out feather lice on pigeons are just "species target specific" so it would not bother my other birds. However, it didn't matter. It just gross and disgusting.

For the untrained eye you wouldn't give it a second thought because the lice looks like little splinters or fibers. An hour after I sprayed the pigeon, the little buggers fell off of him and covered the white paper towels I had him rest on. Yuck. Mission accomplished.

I went diving on sunday, resigned to fact that this little bird has no chance of survival. My dear husband said he would stay home and try to get him to eat seed rather than the hand feeding baby formula we've been giving him.

He had success. The bird still needed the bottle but he was eating seed. This showed a glimmer of hope. I bought some small cups which I filled to the top with seed. If he could get his poor little deformed beak in the seed and plunge in to eat this would be another big step. He did, but with difficulty. He did take one or two seeds at a time.

My husband and I talked that night on what we should do in regards to the future of this bird.

I struggled with a heavy heart resigning to fact this bird will not make it. I felt he had other issues as well. I couldn't get my vet to even give him a proper check up. Nobody cares about pigeons and nobody wants to treat pigeons.

To hear this little bird squeaking for food and comfort was unbearable.

My husband said he did not want to put the bird down.

He said, "we have one more chance. Let's find the top avian vet and ask for a second opinion".

I knew this would cost a fortune but if my husband was onboard willing to take the risk, so was I.

So I had an appointment yesterday with the top avian surgeon from Angel Memorial hospital.

I asked her straight out if this pigeon was worth saving.

She said "yes".

However, this bird can not be released in the wild due to his deformed beak. The bird did not have pigeon pox but the beak problem was due to some sort of trauma.The bird was going to be handicapped.

The vet ran a bunch of test which I approved of. One test came up positive was that he had an intestinal giardia parasite. It is treatable with flagyl. It is tricky getting the meds in him but I dropped the drop of meds in his mouth while I was feeding him his morning seeds.Even the vet said it is tricky getting meds in a pigeons mouth.

I will get the results from the other tests in about a week. If anything else comes up, which is very possible, I am hoping those issues will be treatable as well.

For now, as I await the other test results I am still working with him to get him to eat seeds from a deep cup since he can not pick seeds up from the ground. Yesterday, he drank water from the cup all by himself.

There is that glimmer of hope.

I know not all stories have a happy Disney ending.

And perhap this story will not have a happy ending either.

Dive buddy Chris gave me very solid advice saying "you take the good and the bad when you make a committment in caring for someone".

She absolutely right.

And I have to face that reality if it comes down to that.

As of right now, I have this tiny tiny glimmer of hope.