Tuesday 24 February 2015

Rock Dove Rescue


For the past 10 days I have noticed a Rock dove in the garden with what appeared to be a huge growth on it's neck or crop. I mentioned this to trust member and pigeon man Paul Thomson, and he said it may have been in collision with something and this could have ruptured the air bags within the neck causing the inflated crop.  
Today while feeding the garden birds I got the surprise of my life when the injured rock dove ventured into my front doorway. I slowly closed the door and trapped it on the window ledge.

Mindful of my recent bout of pneumonia caught from close contact with pigeons, I quickly put on a special mask I bought before wrapping the bird in a towel. I could feel no tumour growth so came to the conclusion that this was indeed trapped air from an accident.

Having had a collapsed lung myself about 13 years ago, I remembered how the doctors in Raigmore hospital re-inflated the lung by inserting  a needle into the chest cavity and drawing the air from the chest with a syringe.
Using a syringe from my wildlife medical kit I basically did the same to the rock dove - except I was deflating the crop area. After drawing 3 syringes full of air, the crop size was reduced by more than half.

The rock dove was content and seemed to realise I was helping it, now feeding and acting normally where previously it could not, 

because the air filled area was pushing it's head to the right and blocking it's sight on the left with protruding feathers.   







On release it walked out the door and immediately started eating normally...job done, it made my day !!



3 comments:

Elaine said...

Had to giggle at the mask Joe! Better safe than sorry though, well done !

jayteescot1 said...

Yeah it looks over the top, but paper ones are no good for fine micron particles....especially if you have a beard !!

greenleaf said...

You are a saint indeed Joseph we need a few more like you in this world--well done.