Español
World's largest meeting place for pigeon fanciers
Because we could no longer cope with the increase in the number of questions and fanciers had to wait (too) long for an answer, we have decided to close off our question section. Furthermore, the great majority of new questions submitted has already been answered in the past.
As we want to keep offering interesting medical information to our readers, we will now concentrate more on those general Ask The Vet articles which have already been published on our homepage in the past. In addition, our Ask The Vet archive, which contains numerous questions and answers, is a mine of information which will still remain at your disposal.
I notice that the last 4 days in all of the team of my racing pigeons the skin around the eyes became grey?
answer by: Dr Wim Boddaert
Dear Sir,
I think there are possible 2 problems in your loft
1/ Maybe there is an infection with tricho , so I advice to give them a tablet against tricho per pigeon
2/ The symptoms that you are describing are typically for ornithosis ( respiratory ) problems. The skin around the eyes become dark, brown and the pigeons are after flying sitting with open beak. Also they scratchs on their head and ears. It would be better to give them a treatment of 8 days of a combination of the antibiotics doxycycline + lincospectine together and also put some consecutive days after eachother an antibiotic eye-drops in the eyes ( f.e. Neobacitracine droppings ). Important also if you give a treatment with doxycycline is that you use calcium free water ( bottle-water ) and also give them no grit during the treatment ( only some redstone ).
Afterwards give them 3 days some multi-vitamins + amino-acids and then they aere ready again to perform.
Best Regards
I have treated for canker and respiratory, yet some birds are still sneezing and scratching their heads, what should i do to correct this?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
There are several causes for respiratory problems meaning that not every respiratory treatment works for every respiratory problem. It is also possible some bacteria got resistant for the antibiotics. So it could be wise to change product.
Kind regards
What can i give my racing pigeons for wet noses and breathing problems?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
In this case your veterinarian will prescribe your birds antibiotics for respiratory diseases. Depending on the exact symptoms and the diagnostic examination frequently used products are doxycycline, spiramycine, lincomycine and spectinomycine, amoxicilline, erythromycine, enrofloxacine and others. If there is an underlying viral problem like herpes or a yeast infection (candida) or there is an antibiotic resistance it is possible the antibiotics will not be sufficient, but mostly the problem can be solved by such a treatment.
A good loft climate is essential in preventing this disease.
Kind regards
Have a dove that has been treated for chlamydia?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
There is a great possibility that the symptoms are caused by the candidiasis. This yeast can also cause upper respiratory problems.
A good cure for this is nystatin for 5 days.
Kind regards
When I'm dropping the forma drops in the eye it can't run away and take several seconds to pass?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
When you drop drops in the eyes and it doesn't go away immediately, this is very indicative for upper respiratory problems, which is negative for navigation in racing pigeons. If the drops are coloured like forma drops, the drops should go away rapidly and the colour should be visible in the throat after dropping it in the eyes. This means the connection ducts between eyes, nose, throat is open as it should be. Depending on other symptoms, signs during the clinical examination and/or results from swab tests, different medication (mostly antibiotics) could help coping with these problems f.e. doxycycline, spiramycine, amoxicilline, etc... But there could be also a viral component with this like herpes. In that case antibiotics do not help completely. If you see this frequently with your birds it could be interesting to change your loft climate (better ventilation).
Kind regards
This young bird season our club changed from north to south road flying, most of my birds went over and came back out of the north?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
Although respiratory diseases indeed are the most important cause for navigational problems I would not consider this as only factor.
Respiratory infections cause inflammatory effects in the eye and beak area. These parts happen to be the regions where some of the senses for oriëntation are located. Although the question of oriëntation with animal species is not completely answered, there is some research clearly indicating that these regions are extremely important for effective navigation f.e. it seems the birds have magnetite cristals in their beaks to be able to "sense" the earth's elektromagnetic field. Also recent studies have shown instant non-local chemical effects occur in the retina of the eyes as soon as the birds look in the correct direction of their home, indicating to be a biological quantum effect. So it seems to be very logical respiratory problems give problems for navigation, and this is also what we are seeing in practice.
Nevertheless, it has also been shown that pigeons tend to develop rigid navigation routes, especially the last part of the race. As soon as the birds start to recognise parts of the landscape/region they tend to fly home following the same route. This could also be a reason for the phenomenon you are seeing, the birds are just flying their normal traject at the end of the race losing precious time. It could well be this could be trained, but it also could be hard to change. Perhaps a trick could be to train your birds one by one (releasing a pigeon only when the previous one has disappeared from sight) from different wind directions.
Kind regards
I have found a pigeon who had puss kind of formation around both eyes and beak?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
From the symptoms you describe and the advice of the vet, this is probably a case of ornithosis. Doxycycline for a longer period of time ( ten days or longer) in the drinking water or in tablet form, could be a good treatment. For the eyes you could use terramycine gel.
Kind regards
I am experiencing very heavy losses with my yearlings this season. They exercise very well twice each day for one hour?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
I doubt a streptococcus problem as the birds are flying so much every day. Although the birds seem clinically OK, I would still suggest to let the birds be checked especially for trichomonas and respiratory problems. A bird that has respiratory problems always has much more difficulties in oriëntation. A treatment for these diseases could solve your problem.
Kind regards
I have problems with my birds sneezing and scrathing. I had them tested at the vet and it came back positive for E. coli in the throat?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
Was there an antibiogram with the test result? Perhaps you could have results with spiramycine or enrofloxacine, individual treatment. In your case, when a lot of antibiotics have been given, you could do an intensive individual eye and nose treatment with a high quality colloidal silver solution.
Kind regards
I have almost the whole flock who suffers from a dark red throat and the larynx is all the time pumping in and out I mean it's never stable?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
The symptoms you describe are indicative for a throat inflammation. This can be caused by trichomoniasis, herpes, candida and/or other bacteria like E. coli, staphylococcus, pelistega. A simple diagnostic examination by a vet could show if the birds are infected with trichomoniasis or candidiasis. It is always first important to rule out canker (trichomoniasis) before you can take other steps. When the pigeons are free from canker or candida and the symptoms remain, you can give antibiotics for bacterial problems. Lincomycine-spectinomycine and amoxicillin are mostly good antibiotics for these indications, but an antibiogram (after isolation of pathogenic bacteria in throat swabs) could give more information on what antibiotic is best. But even then we should not underestimate the influence herpes virus could have on the symptoms, even an underlying problem like paratyphus could be of great importance. Try to rule out all of these causes and give the pigeons enough space and fresh air.
Kind regards
I have sick birds in my loft whereby they lose weight and there seems to be a sound of slime in the back of the throat?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
The symptoms you describe, indicate a problem of trachea infection and throat (perhaps also lungs and airsacks). This is normally not ornitosis for which doxycycline is effective (more upper respiratory and eye infections, sometimes general sickness). There can be a number of causes for this kind of infection f.e. staphylococcus intermedius, pelistega europea, E. coli, herpes, (trachea mite), and if the lungs are also infected and the birds are losing weight you should certainly also consider paratyphus. An antibiotic treatment like amoxicillin, perhaps followed with enrofloxacine, and after this paratyphus vaccination, can be of great help.
Kind regards
I have a hen that is gasping for breath, I thought that the bird had a respiratory infection and gave a full antibiotic treatment?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
There is a possibility the hen has a fungus infection in her airsacks. This is called aspergillosis and is a frequent problem of open beak breathing.
There is also a possibility she has had an internal trauma of some kind.
And it is possible an egg has 'fallen' in the abdomen instead of getting into the oviduct. This causes a serious abdominal inflammation which cannot be treated effectively. Mostly it causes death of the bird.
Most bacterial causes for the symptoms should have been dealt with with the antibiotics you gave. There is still a possibility there is an infection of the trachea with staphylococcus or internally (lungs) with streptococcus. Than the treatment you gave will not have helped much.
It's advisable to present your problem to an avian vet if possible.
Kind regards
When treating with baytril for respiratory infections, every other week, does this affect the birds in racing or breeding?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
I'm against preventive antibiotic treatment on a weekly base and certainly with a broadspectrum antibiotic as enrofloxacine, that should be kept for life-saving treatment. Although this kind of strategy will often give very good results in the short term, I guarantee you that it will leed to a lot of problems in the long term, both for racing as for breeding. The first year with this method is in a lot of cases an excellent racing year (if there are good pigeons present), the second year has ups and downs, the third year results are very bad, the pigeons get sick very easily and not much medication is still effective (depending on the kind of antibiotics and resistance). It also seems general immunity of the birds has declined and often wrong choices have been made in breeding strategy, which means the pigeon strain is not much worth. New pigeons have to be brought in to stay succesful.
For long distance racing it is certainly not a good strategy, as it seems that too much antibiotics for too long, is very negative for racing results. Sometimes for a short period of time or for one long distance race results can be good after an antibiotic treatment. In a lot of cases not a lot of antibiotics have been given beforehand! Actually this always means there was a (slight) infection present (mostly respiratory) and the birds were able to come in super condition.
Long term usage of enrofloxacine also seems to have an important negative effect on breeding results, both for males as females. Especially the sperm quality seems to diminish.
In my opinion enrofloxacine with pigeons should be mainly used for salmonella problems in pigeon colonies and for other difficult to treat infections (respiratory or other - mostly after an antibiogram).
If you have a lot of problems with respiratory infections, the loft construction has to be adapted and, when necessary, a shorter treatment with different kinds of antibiotics have to be given, in which it is important to change products (always an other antibiotic than previously used). Try to keep it to a minimum and use in cooperation with your veterinarian.
Kind regards
Hello dr, my pigeons have problems with swallowing and have open mouth breathing when returning after flying?
answer by: Dr Wim Boddaert
Dear Sir,
In the symptoms that you are giving there are 2 types of symptoms :
1/ After flying they are sitting with open mouth :
This is typically a respiratory problem , normally ornithosis . This has to be treaten with a treatment of 4 to 6 weeks with doxycycline.
2/ The second kind of symptoms with eating could be also a problem of digestion , or an infected throat or stomach. So here fore I would treat with f.e. lincospectine for 10 days.
So , if I have to advice I would give them 10 days doxycycline + lincospectine together , and then further on for 4 weeks doxycycline alone.
But to be honest , the best way to do is firstly let make an autopsy and analysis to know 100 % what the problem is.
Best regards
I have some sick birds and don't know what is wrong with them. when they fly to the perch , they breath hard, some have bad droppings.
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
There is a possibility that your birds are coping with the pigeon specific salmonella or paratyphus. It could explain the symptoms you describe. Nevertheless there are also some other diseases or combination of diseases that can give the symptoms you describe. In such cases it could be interesting to let a sick bird be necropsied and/or to let do a full examination and blood tests to find out what could be wrong.
If you have no possibility to let your birds be examined by an avian (pigeon) vet, you can try by giving antibiotics for paratyphus and vaccinate the birds immediately after that.
Kind regards
My pigeons fly 20 minutes and some of them are landing at the loft with open mouth?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
The open mouth breathing could have some reasons. First of all it could be the birds just have to get rid of body warmth in case of high temperatures and/or having too much body fat. This has no infectious cause and can be dealt with a less energy rich diet and enough training.
There is also a possibility of fungus inside the airsacks of the pigeons. This sometimes is caused by a bad quality straw on the loft and/or humid loft environment. The fungus is called aspergillosis and can cause some serious internal respiratory problems. Treatment is difficult and loft changes helps the most!
For other causes or confirmation of the above causes it could be advisable to let a bird with the symptoms be necropsied.
Kind regards
Can doxycycline be also effective for an E. coli infection as I thought it is a cure for respiratory only?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
Doxycycline can certainly be effective for E. coli. Don't think of antibiotics of being effective for some disease or some problem, but think of them being effective for a certain range of bacteria (if they are sensitive). If that range of bacteria happens to give a lot of problems for f.e. respiratory problems, than that antibiotic can be effective for respiratory problems. There is no 'rule' for this, bacteria can for example get resistant and then the antibiotic is not effective.
Kind regards
Is het normaal dat gezonde duiven bij een druk op de neus moeten niezen of wat vochtafscheiding hebben?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Beste,
Een duif mag bij een lichte druk op de neus niet (blijven) niezen en zeker geen vochtuitscheiding hebben. Sommige duiven zijn wel iets gevoeliger voor deze prikkel dan andere, maar het blijven niezen en zeker vochtuitscheiding is indicatief voor bovenste luchtwegproblemen. Dit zorgt voor verminderde prestaties op wedstrijd. Indien de vochtuitscheiding dan ook nog niet helder, slijmig, gekleurd, taai is, dan is er duidelijk sprake van het coryza-syndroom. Soms komt het voor dat duiven blijven niezen en geen vochtuitscheiding vertonen. Men noemt dit dikwijls droog snot en heeft meestal met een mycoplasma-infectie te maken. Soms kan een duif éénmaal niezen en vervolgens niet meer, dit kan er op duiden dat er bijv. enkel wat stof in de neus zat en is niet indicatief voor luchtwegproblemen.
Raadpleeg uw dierenarts voor informatie omtrent diagnose en behandeling.
Sportieve groeten
My pigeons started to sneeze and scratching there head and beak and puff up. I treated them with doxyxcycline, without result?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
It is very possible a swab test is negative although there still is a pathogenic bacteria (f.e. mycoplasma) present. This is certainly the case when the birds already have received antibiotics. Off course it is also possible you are having a viral (or even yeast - exceptional with these symptoms) problem in your birds. From what you give me as symptoms I would try a treatment for mycoplasma problems f.e. spiramycine and / or try again to find something with a swab test.
Kind regards
Recently in my racing team i have been noticing some pigeons with a white mould like spot in their epiglottis?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
The spots on the epiglottis are probably sialolites. These are harmless cristallisations of beak saliva. Sometimes it is associated with herpes virus. Mostly this is no problem for racing and it can stay there a long time.
A virus like herpes can not be treated effectively, but it can be sometimes advisable to treat the birds for secundary bacterial infections. In that case you can use antibiotics that are effective for upper respiratory problems f.e. linco-spectin, doxycycline, tylan, spiramycine, erythromycine, amoxicilline, sometimes enrofloxacine,... If the birds are healthy and show no repiratory signs I would not treat. As preventive measure colloidal silver can have excellent results.
Kind regards
Could you please tell me if linco spectin injectable is a banned substance as I've been told it contains cortisone?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
Linco-spectin is a combination of two antibiotics that work synergetic. It reaches a high tissue concentration in upper airways so it is mostly used for respiratory problems. It is effective for a lot of the bacteria that are usually (partially) responsible for upper respiratory inflammation. There is no cortisone in this product, so it is no doping. It must be used after veterinary diagnosis and prescription.
Kind regards
beste Dr, onze duiven hebben sinds de tweede overnachtvlucht last van knorren?
answer by: Dr Pascal Lanneau
Beste,
Het “knorren” en het “niet strak zitten” lijkt me een probleem te zijn ter hoogte van de ademhalingswegen.
In de mest en keeluitstrijkjes voor tricho zal er daarom niet noodzakelijk iets te vinden zijn, maar het niet strak zitten, mogelijks met “openstaande” oortjes, nattere ogen, misschien zelfs regelmatig niezen, hoesten, het meer blauw zitten in de spieren, vuile neuzen, zijn allemaal symptomen die kunnen maar niet moeten aanwezig zijn bij ademhalingsproblemen.
Bij de ene zijn er duidelijke symptomen dan bij de andere die soms heel discreet kunnen zijn, maar toch heel wat problemen met zich kunnen meebrengen.
Een behandeling tegen de “kop” zoals vaak wordt gezegd, lijkt hier aangeraden, maar weet wat je geeft!!!
Het toedienen van antibiotica kan hier mogelijks een oplossing bieden, maar uw dierenarts kan u helpen bij het kiezen van het beste soort antibioticum eventueel door enkele uitstrijkjes te nemen voor bacteriologisch onderzoek. Hij/zij zal je ook verder kunnen helpen ivm de dosering, de duur van de behandeling, de toedieningswijze etc!!
Het is heel belangrijk dat je je houdt aan de voorgeschreven regels om een goed resultaat te bekomen.
Na iedere behandeling is een vitaminen kuur zeker aangeraden.
Aarzel niet me te contacteren voor verdere info,
Vriendelijke groeten
I am having trouble with my young birds flying. The whattles and eyes look clear but the feathers on the head are puffed up?
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir, The puffed up feathers don't always have to be an upper respiratory problem as many fanciers tend to think. In a lot of cases it is just because of a lack of real racing condition. When a bird is in condition the feathers of the whole body, also on the head, tend to 'stick' closer to the body. The bird seems smaller and is shining. The bird is full of life and trains hard on its own. Some birds always seem to have puffed up feathers on the head and still race very well. I suspect not many upper respiratory problems with the ten day treatment you gave. It is possible that the antibiotic treatment has undermined a good racing condition. A clinical examination could make clear if there are other infections. If not, a good liver treatment (because of the antibiotics) like sedochol, electrolytes, vitamins, herbal tea, good nutrition and training, could be the best way to get the birds in condition. Kind regards
My birds have stopped exercising around the loft and are way behind at the weekend.
answer by: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
When there is a problem of exercising and there can't be anything found of parasites, I'm always alert for a streptococcus problem. It is a common infection with pigeons and it can be cause of abnormal losses. In a lot of cases I have seen that a amoxycilline treatment was very helpful in these cases.
The mucus problem could be multifactoral, both bacteria or herpes virus. Doxycycline will not always help for a lot of bacteria that can cause throat and upper respiratory inflammation. Linco-spectin, tylosine, amoxycilline, spiramycine, enrofloxacine are possibilities for these infections. Better would be to let throat samples be tested by your vet(s) and do an antibiogram. If there is herpes complexing the problem, letting the birds rest and heal on their own could be the best solution.
Kind regards
My birds are scratching around there beak and head and also sneezing?
answer by: Dr Johan Van der Cruyssen
Hello,
First of all what have you used for treating the respiratory problem and the trichomonas and how long have you treated for this problem?How is the ventilation in your loft?How many pigeons do you keep in the loft?
I should advise you to go to a pigeon veterinarian for a correct diagnosis.When your birds are really suffering from respiratory problems there are several treatment options.You can use a medication like doxycyclin or linco-spectin.
Scratching beak and head iand sneezing is indeed one of the symptoms of respiratory disease or canker.
Kind regards 