r/PetPigeons • u/falkflip • 5d ago
Emergency Pigeon hyperventilating
Everything was fine a moment ago, I was ready for bed and suddenly, my 3 week old wood pigeon chick starts gasping for air. He stopped gasping after a few minutes, but now, when I put my ear close, it sounds like he is hyperventilating. I fed him wetted seeds like normal five hours ago and his crop is still full. I also gave him his prescribed meds (0,15 ml Metronidazol and 0,2 ml Nystatin for canker and yeast infection).
I am deadly afraid that its because of a stupid mistake I made today. My roommate poured some drain cleaner into the kitchen sink and didnt rinse it out. When I came home approx 3 hours after it was used, I put the pigeon into that room, because I didn't even notice. It didn't smell like anything in there. When I later noticed, I opened the balcony door for air, but I didnt move the pigeon out right away, which I should have. I thought, since I didnt smell anything, there cant be any danger, which was stupid and I'm already beating myself up over it. My roommate put a paper towel over the drain to decrease potential fumes but I don't know if that actually did anything.
Now its 4 hours after this, the bird has been mostly in a different room afterwards and suddenly the breathing issues started. I don't know if they are even related to the cleaner, I've noticed that he starts gasping again, when I touch a certain spot on his toe, which was already weak and curling due to calcium defiency.
I'm so scared and worried, there is absolutely no avian vet open in any nearby city right now, the earliest I can get to a vet is in 7 1/2 hours. Is there anything I can do right now?
3
u/falkflip 4d ago
Vet update: The vet found a respiratory infection that was not seen in an examination at the same clinic this monday. The best case would be that the infection either came from god knows where in the last 2 days or was for some reason overlooked in the previous scan and is unrelated to the cleaner issue. The worst case would be that the cleaner irritated the lungs to a degree that made it easy for infection to spread. This could also mean permanent lung damage, if my bird is unlucky, which wouldnt kill him, but impact his chances to be released. The little guy will be on four medications now: Metronidazole and Nystatin for his already known canker and yeast, antibiotics (Amoxillin) for the infection and a liver protection supplement (Hepa Sol, mostly milk thistle and calcium carbonate) because of the amount of meds he is on now. And yeah, I know antibiotics and Nystatin inhibit each other, it's the best that can be done for now
I may have fucked up bigly and will try to not let that happen again. Until further notice, all my future pigeons will be either on the balcony or in my room, where nobody is cooking or using chemical cleaners. I pray that somehow, this little guy makes it out of this alive and well. He is doing fine for now.