At the Vet

From the

Diary as of  11/27  – 11/30/09

11/27 Pina has seizures but not as bad as before.

11/28 Today is Saturday and we were at the vet with Willy again. I also wanted to know the results of Pina’s tests. According to these tests  there were no salmonella but an E.coli infection instead. I don’t know what is worse.

The vet gave me some Bird Bene Bac which I was supposed to give Pina for the next 3 days. Willy  received another antibiotics injection and a medication against fungus which I was supposed to give him the next day.

Additionally to all the worries and the stress the vet had been behaving really obnoxious on Wednesday. Apparently she was in a bad mood and was in a hurry as usual. She more or less told me that I was doing everything wrong, contradicted herself all the time so that I did not dare to ask her more questions because I feared not being able to shut my mouth any longer. She accused me practically of not giving Willy enough warmth because he had cold feet (in the praxis). But this was only from the drive to the vet.  Unfortunately it did not come into my mind to put some hotpacks into Willy’s little cardbox. The vet told me that I needed to buy this and that for the birds as if I had unlimited financial resources. She was very insensitive and I felt really lost and discouraged.

So you can probably imagine my feelings when we had to drive to the vet again today. But this time everything went well – apparently she was in a better mood – and told me that I would do everything right!????

Although Willy had become a bit stronger he was still very thin. I could feel the keel of the breastbone too much due to the lack of muscle flesh on his chest. But this of course would take time to build up again.
I was still not sure whether he also had PMV. The vet said he had, due to his systemical disorder and the tremors of his head. Although he did not show any torticollis symptoms, no stargazing and no circling around like Pina, he still showed fine tremors of his head especially when he was in stress. His movements were still quite un-coordinated and when he tried to eat he could not pick up the  seeds but rather tossed them around.

What I was feeding right now to Pina was:
de-frosted peas and homemade pellets 3 times a day and chamomille tea with vitamins alternately to ricepudding (long cooked rice in water) mixed with joghurt and vitamins, thinned with warm water so that it could be sucked up with the syringe.

The pellets were made from grinded peanuts, oat flakes, joghurt and vitamins.
I thought this food was good for her as she had not vomited once or made really bad poop as it was at the beginning. She did not urinate as much as before. The poop was not smelly either – although you could smell a bit the joghurt feeding. Is this a good or a bad sign??

I was feeding Willy the same – only that he got a bit more than Pina. His poop had improved as well a bit although it was far from being healthy. Although Willy could not eat by himself he seemed to  be able to drink alone but I was not really sure. I was giving him fluid with a syringe anyway.

11/29 As Willy had been really feeling bad on Thursday after the medication at the vet, he was absolutely listless and I already feared the worst – I could say that today was a better day for him. On Thursday I  had the feeling that his crop was somehow inflated. My suspicion was that it did not empty properly as it should. So I decided to put him on fluid nutrition:
I tube-fed him every 2-3 hours with a mixture from soft rice, oatflakes, joghurt, vitamins, a few drops of honey and apple vinegar, hot water to warm this up. Apparently this did him good because the today he felt better again, started to preen himself a bit and was relaxing on his belly again. He seemed to have been in pain the day before.

I am still not sure whether Willy has PMV as well. We will see. I took him out of his cardbox and put him into the new transparent plastic box which I had bought and where he had more space and could see what happened around him. I planned to make some photos soon.

11/30 This morning Willy began to sing again – as my dear partner expressed it – unfortunately I did not hear it because I was probably in a kind of deep coma sleep at 5°clock in the morning. But I think this was a good sign that he had his voice back.

Next week I will buy the same kind of box for Pina. I find these more practical than a cage because they are warmer for the birds because the closed walls protect them from drafts and the birds cannot hurt themselves so easily when they have their seizures. A box can be cleaned easier etc.

Today was also the first day where Pina did not have a single real seizure. Of course she was still holding her little head to the bottom most of the time but she also was able to hold it quite upright today.

So what has changed? Well, after I was sure now that Willy has PMV as well I put both boxes side by side in the big window in our livingroom so that both could get some sunlight and look outside. Although Pina could not really see much because she was still in the cardboard box she had more light now.

It was the first day where Pina really preened herself several times the day and very thoroughly. In between she slept again. Feeding went very well. She got 40 peas in the morning, the peanut pellets for lunch and oatflake pellets for supper.

And Emma has laid egg #35.

I am afraid that pictures like these of Pina will be memories only for a long time. If she only recovers completely again…

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Pina has terrible Seizures but makes better Poop and Willy is slightly improving

From the

Diary as of  11/24 – 11/26/09

11/24 Pina had 60 peas for breakfast,  pellets and peas for lunch, chamomille tea. I fed Willy only 2 x with pellets and peas.

I ave realized that Jimi is also sick – he stayed on the balcony today all day. But as long as he is still too strong here is no way in capturing him. Joey still disappeared – where is he?

After Pina had a real terrible day yesterday with one seizure after another there was a better day today, less seizures and not as heavy as yesterday. Also her poop improved dramatically – for the first time she made some quite  healthy looking poop!!!
Btw – checking her weight this morning again I realized that she did not lose a single gram. Even not after yesterday after those terrible seizures. So I take this as a good sign?

Today Pina was fed with 60 peas! in the morning, 20 homemade pellets and 20 peas for lunch and 15 homemade pellets and 20 peas in the evening which I find is quite a lot.
The pellets were made from peanuts grinded in the mortar, fine oat flakes and a bit of buttermilk. They are much easier to feed than tube feeding which I hate and which Pina hates.
This evening she nearly opened her little beak by herself in anticipation.
I gave her 2 x 5 ml and 1 x 10 ml chamomille tea with vitamins (the 10 ml was too much because she spit part of it – poor baby – I did not want to terrorize her) to drink. But she still does not really drink on her own or eats on her own. So I have to “force” her which is terrible for me but otherwise she would become dehydrated too much.

Willy is slowly improving too. I got a nice wingslap today and he suddenly managed to put his little white head out of the box – so I have to be careful now. Yesterday he was terribly listless. While he is still not really feeding himself – he drinks a bit though – I had to feed him today too. He got 20 of those pellets in the late morning and 20 peas. I also tube fed him 5 ml water with vitamins.

Now in the late afternoon I gave him 15 pellets and 15 peas. I cooked rice (for rice pudding) so long until it was a real pulp , mixed it with joghurt and vitamins and water and tube fed him 10 ml of this stuff afterwards. I think this evening his crop was nicely filled. He has lost a lot of weight I think and I need to coddle him up before he can fly free again. But I also don’t want to give him too much so that his enteritis gets worse again. I will see how his poop looks like tomorrow…
Tomorrow we will be at the vet again.

I am sure if he had not been so well fed before he would have been dead by now while not eating really for more than a week. My poor little Willy – he was “our” first child on the balcony last year! It is so dreadful for me to see him like this now.

So – after a very long day – at least I managed to do the laundry between the feeding cycles – I hopefully can relax a little bit tonight…I am really worn out…

11/25 It’s Wednesday and we are at the vet again with Willy. I hate her. She more or less said to me that I was doing everything wrong. That does help really 

Description of the details will follow in the next post. As a short note:  according to the fecal tests there are no salmonella but an E.coli infection instead in Pina’s test. I don’t know what is worse.

Willy has also an E.coli infection and has lost a lot of weight. My nice vet told me that he was totally emaciated in a way as if it was my fault – well….

Pina was eating today 60 peas for breakfast, 30 pellets for lunch – 5 ml joghurt rice with vitamins, 20 pellets 20 peas – 5 ml joghurt rice with vitamins in the evening.

Willy got 40 pellets, 5 ml joghurt rice with vitamins, for supper 40 pellets 10 peas, 5 ml joghurt rice with vitamins.

11/26 Pina had those terrible seizures again and she hardly could hold her head upright. Most of the time she was bent downwards with her head on the bottom of her box as if she tried to hold herself this way. When will this end approximately? She was completely unable to eat or drink for herself. I feel so sorry for my little baby. Hasn’t she suffered alread enough in her short life?

Her poops are sometimes better sometimes worse again. It is an up and down at the moment. My poor little baby is still terrible to look at, especially when she has those cramps where even her claws are clenched – sometimes they are clenched around my fingers when I just try to hold her. It is now 10 days since these symptoms started.

On a positive side – she did not lose any weight what really amazes me regarding the energy she loses when she starts circling in her cardbox like crazy. Today she even went from 310 gr to 325 gr and she seemingly has a bit more power when I take her up to feed her. If I only knew that these symptoms will decrease in a short time I would feel much better and could relax a little…

Here are a few photos of Pina from happier days:

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Willy is very sick – I caught him easily

From the

Diary as of  11/23/09

What is worse is that Willy is very sick again. After he did seemingly so well in the last few days, yesterday it started again that he was just sitting on the balcony floor, puffed up, not doing much, not eating. So it was easy to catch him yesterday and I checked his mouth again – no canker visible, but I gave him another Spartrix and let him go because he fought so much. At least he stayed on the balcony tonight – so I had the chance to check on him. This morning I saw that he still was very miserable so I made a quick decision, caught him again, put him inside in another box and we drove to the vet again.

The vet said that he probably had an acute enteritis and that he had emaciated quite a lot. I described the symptoms in chronological order:
poop started to become very soft, turning from light olive green to some yellowish puddles without nearly any poop, then after he had begun to eat again turning into really pea-green colour but urinates were there again so his kidney seemed to work.

The vet gave him an antibiotics injection – with amoxycillin, some vitamin injection and something to eat in the crop – I think it was some baby nourishment. Don’t ask me further, I just could not ask any further details right now because my brain was spinning.

The vet told me to come again on Wednesday. She said something about de-worming him – maybe I have then my brain together again and can ask details.
At the moment I am totally overwhelmed and can hardly think for myself.

At least Willy is easy to handle at the moment. He has a warm waterbottle in his cardbox so that he does not need to waste energy on staying warm, something to eat if he wants to and something to drink. Most of the time he is very quiet and seems to be quite content to have his peace. I really hope that he feels better tomorrow. I have put him in our bedroom to completely separate him from Pina due to the danger of additional PMV infection through Pina. My hope is still that Willy does not have PMV. Pina is in the livingroom. It is becoming quite a challenge now where to put the birds and do the utmost to maintain some quarantine as we don’t have much space in the small appartment. But we will manage somehow.

Pina eating today:  50 peas, 20 pellets, 10 pellets and 40 peas, 4 x 5 ml camomille tea, bachflower remedies

The seizures of Pina have stopped for now (evening). I have fed her this evening with those homemade pellets again and warm peas. She got camomille tea in her crop with vitamins and each time with Bach flower remedies. So far she has kept her weight.

I am not sure whether she is getting enough fluid though. Altogether I gave her 4 x 5 ml tea.
I don’t dare to give more because I had the feeling that her crop became too full. That was  a dilemma. I really have to watch this closely.

I have to do something about the cardboard boxes because I cannot clean them properly but I don’t want to buy cages…

Willy is very quiet. I don’t recognize my sweet little pigeon boy again – always so busy, so funny and agile. I feel very bad and I can only hope that this situation will clear again. I am very unhappy….

(no photos today – sorry)

Handfeeding Pina with Peas and homemade Pellets

From the

Diary as of  11/22/09

Today seems to be a better day for Pina. I gave her de-frosted peas in the morning – slowly I get a little practise in doing that. Open her beak – plop – open her beak – plop – open her beak – plop… After 10 pieces she got a little pause where I stroked her softly and then open her beak again – plop and in went 40 pieces after a while.

Pina eating today: morning 40 peas, 10 ml camomille tea, lunch 20 crushed pieces of peanuts, 10 ml tea, supper 20 pellets of seed-powder, 5 ml tea.
At the beginning I was not sure at all whether I really had to force her to open her mouth and I was so desperate about the possibility of giving her additional pain. Thanks to the link to the youtube video in one of the threads of the Pij’n Angels forum I learned that I did the right thing! And now it works perfectly – better than tube feeding which not only Pina really hates. She swallowed all the peas nicely.

Lunchtime I did the same with peanut pieces – opened her mouth and popped in little pieces of nuts which I had put in warm water before. After that I gave her 10 ml of camomille tea with vitamins. And tonight I am going to feed her de-frosted peas again. In between she tries to pick seeds on her own but she does not get enough food herself so I have to do it.

Also her poops are becoming a bit better now. It is not that terrible dark green colour and mushy consistence any more but a lighter olive green and the poop is a bit more formed. So it seems that this at least is improving. Also she does not urinate so much as before.

Yesterday – when she was in that bad condition – I put her in a very flat soft basket with kitchenpaper and carried her around with me and even put her on the bed while we were watching TV. This apparently seemed to help her to stop the seizures.This was quite the contrary to all the advice, having read that pigeons suffering from PMV need more quiet.

Regarding some different food I honestly have not managed to get frozen corn. It’s ridiculous but here in Germany you can get the corncobs in total or the tinned. People apparently don’t buy frozen corn. I could take the cobs though if I find some. (I did not)

I have also made something different today: I took the regular pigeon food, grinded it in the coffee grinder (thoroughly removed the coffee bits of course), added some sunflower hearts and peanuts and then mixed it with a little water, kneaded little pellets as big as peanuts and fed them to Pina as a different dish. This worked very well and replaced tube feeding which she hated.

I am going to start a Bach flower remedy treatment tomorrow. Birds should be very susceptible to these.

The homemade pellets:

These are the tools I am using for tube-feeding:

normal syringes in differnt sizes, without the needle of course and a “Batman cape” for intractable pigeons (pigeons who are fidgeting all the time and are difficult to handle ). I will show this in detail in a much later post…

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Failed to catch Willy – I am very worried

From the

Diary as of  11/20 – 11/21/09

11/20 After a very bad day and an awful night (for me also) here is an update on Willy:

Yesterday I failed to catch Willy entirely. I tried it twice when he was sitting on his roosting place. He was simply too fast and escaped. The only thing I could do was watching him on the opposite building where he sat all alone and apparently wanted to have his peace. He did not change egg sitting with Winnie so my chance was lost to get him there. It is the time where the eggs would have been overdue to hatch but Winnie is still sitting on them although both should know in the meanwhile that there will be no babies (plaster eggs) – so no real need to take care.
Willy ate a few seeds yesterday and he drank a bit but then he was gone again. I felt terrible. So I hoped I could catch him in the night. I had already prepared some tubefeeding stuff and pill and vitamins etc. I also had prepared a big cardbox with a nice warm layer of soft towels to put him in. I waited until it was completely dark and Willy slept on his roosting place. Well – I missed him again and off he was, flew to the opposite building again and did not come back at all that night. Later on I could not detect him any more so I did not know where he was. I wondered where he took that energy from.

I felt so guilty. Not only that I put him under additional stress although my instinct told me to leave him alone simply – I also deprived him of his home and safe sleeping place. I wondered whether he would come home at all.

11/21 This morning Willy appeared on the balcony and seemed to feel a bit better. His movements were a bit more vivid when he ate some seeds. Most of the day he was sitting on the opposite building again. Quite obviously he wanted to be left alone again. But I watched him preening himself with more liveliness. Yesterday he hardly could bow backwards probably because of the pain in his crop. Today this worked much better. He also ate more seeds today, especially dried corn and sunflower hearts. After drinking he was still making the penguin stance – so this was the sign for me that his crop was probably still hurting.

Un the evening he was back sleeping in pigeon city and I left him alone. I did not want to risk another failure and putting him even more stress.

What is the conclusion for this? I should have listened to my gutfeeling and to Willy himself. Willy is a strong bird and he wanted to heal himself. He showed me what he wanted and I did not understand. I am sure now that if he would have needed me to do something he somehow would have shown me. I have to learn to exactly read the signals.

It is not good when we humans always think that we have the solutions for everything. While these birds are getting sick from time to time most of them also know quite well what to do. We humans tend to overreact so many times instead of listening to our instincts.  Therefore we need the pharmacies, the doctors and all that stuff that sometimes does more bad than good.

I hope so very much that Willy is getting healthy again. I love him so much and I could not forgive myself if I have done him harm through my actions because I was so anxious to help him. If the bird needs me I am here. As for any other that needs my help.

I forgot to add that today – in the early afternoon – Pina flew over to her Dad and was sitting near to him for a while. Isn’t that sweet? I am sure that there is a communication between them and that the birds know quite well what is happening.

Look at this proud bird – here is Willy with his son Angelo whom he wanted to introduce to us:

here is Willy with his mate Winnie – happier times

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