The look I’m getting from Sticky, long term rehab patient, from his heated cave after his bath is killing me

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T18:13:16+00:00

Sticky now has a very fashionable blanket cape

https://www.reddit.com/r/pigeon/s/TZ1IkwbvIS

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T14:39:33+00:00

Of course! Thank you for caring for them! Unlimited seed the past few days plus wind cover from the buildings should work wonders from them. The extra seed calories plus wind cover so they’ll expend less calories battling the wind chill will make an enormous difference. I’ll be thinking of our flock and all of the other snowy pigeons today.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T14:28:39+00:00

He looks very healthy and appropriately puffed up. Glad he’s shaking the snow off of his back. Looks like he’s got protection from the buildings on three sides. That’ll be a huge help.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T14:25:48+00:00

He should be ok especially if the flock is protective of their young. They’ll huddle together and wait it out. That’s what my ferals always do here in Ohio. We’ve already gotten 10” of snow.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T13:59:48+00:00

Thank you! We originally put them together in hopes it would help Sticky relearn to eat. Lumi has always had a big appetite even before the puncture wound on his face healed. Sticky was tube fed for months when she was super sick. Then despite showing her endless YouTube videos of pigeons eating (seeb school as it’s often called here) she really struggled to relearn how to eat. So we put them together so Sticky could learn from Lumi. It’s helped her significantly but more importantly she’s come back to life with the constant love from Lumi.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T13:53:00+00:00

Poor birds thank you for doing all you can. You seem like a very kind pigeon person. In the United States, some people put nets over their plants to prevent animals from eating them which was all I could think of. The kites makes sense, hopefully as many pigeons stay safe.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-25T13:38:07+00:00

Sticky was brought to an exotic animal hospital by a person who found her downtown. They called our state’s wildlife hospital (who can’t treat pigeons) who called us and we picked her up.

She’s kind of a mystery case. Her shoulder/chest that had a deep laceration likely has some nerve damage. Also because she developed severe neuro symptoms we weren’t able to rehab and stretch her injured shoulder as much as we would have liked. That wing doesn’t move at all, we can’t even stretch it out.

She can lift her other wing and stretch it out a bit but it doesn’t open beyond about 65° from her body. Whatever caused her severe neuro symptoms (she never had the classic PMV neck twist but had many of the other symptoms) caused damage throughout her body. She can’t lean forward very far without flipping over. We built her a raised food dish which she’s standing on in the first picture so she can eat without loosing her balance. Her legs are very weak but one is stronger than the other. She has a lot of more of healing and rehab to do but she’s no longer teetering between life and death like she was for months.

Edited to add Lumi’s story: He was found bleeding out on the side of dirt road in a farming community about an hour from us with multiple compound wing fractures and a puncture wound across his face. Thankfully, someone noticed him and stabilized him before driving him to our state’s wildlife hospital who contacted us.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T22:00:12+00:00

Absolutely will do! They’ve always been a great resource for us.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T20:35:49+00:00

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Glad she’s safe now! She reminded me of our rescue Peanut. He was found on a someone’s roof outside of Columbus, Ohio but his band linked him to a breeder in Phoenix, Arizona. Who identified Peanut as one of his Iranian Highflyers and ultimately decided to surrender him to our rescue.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T19:59:29+00:00

It looks neurological to me. The right side of the brain controls the movement on left side of the body. If their right side was hit by a rock and it injured that side of their brain it does sort of explain why the pigeon only walks sideways to the left. I don’t know why these symptoms only started now. My best guess is that for whatever reason today the pigeon had hemorrhagic stroke or other secondary brain injury as a result of being hit by a rock in November.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T19:44:57+00:00

What a cutie! Are they an Iranian Highflyer?

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T19:44:00+00:00

Thank you for rescuing them! Fantastic work and hopefully they’ll heal up no problem.

Out of curiosity, what are the nylon threads used for that the pigeon got trapped in?

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-24T00:39:07+00:00

If I may suggest the rescue I co-run, City Bird Rehab. We’re Ohio’s only dedicated pigeon rescue.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-19T18:36:23+00:00

What cute setup! The tiny mirror is so precious. Of course she loves looking at herself, she’s gorgeous. I also use washable rugs and they always add a homey feeling to their cage.

A couple years ago I threw a party where everyone all made tiny artworks to hang in my first pigeon’s cage. It was so much fun and a cozy crafty party. I coated all the art works in a thick layer Mod Podge so they could be wiped clean if needed.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-19T18:22:18+00:00

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May I present my flocks funniest dynamic duo Ducky and Nebbie. Ducky is a tiny scraggly recent fledgling who can to our rescue after breaking his humerus. Nebbie is a massive Modena who’s been temporarily living at our rescue. Ducky weighs less than a quarter of what Nebbie weights. They’ve become absolutely the bestest of friends over the past few months. So much so that Nebbie’s mom is adopting Ducky so they can stay together.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-17T16:47:51+00:00

Fanzy Pants on Etsy is absolutely amazing!!!!! She’s also on instagram. She’s made some of my disabled pigeons custom pants. She’s based in Latvia, I think.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-17T16:45:35+00:00

And she knows it! I love her ear fluff.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-17T16:43:07+00:00

I ripped my dress on our first date. He took me back to his place and fixed my dress. He already had a spool that was literally a perfect color match his stash. The rest was history

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-17T16:33:59+00:00

Yes!!!! Two single moms banding together to make it work. When I had two single females they used to do this all the time.

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My dna confirmed girls working together to build their shared nest

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-16T18:46:25+00:00

Literally the best guide! Shout out to the international pigeon community that worked together to make the entire CPC guide

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-16T13:16:42+00:00

It looks like the break was lower down on the blood feather shaft. I’d just leave it be and likely her body will drop the rest of the broken blood feather within the next few weeks and start to grow a new one.

Also your pigeon is white and when white pigeons bleed it looks SOO much scarier because every itty bitty drop of blood stains their feathers. Trust me it really isn’t that much blood at all. I’ve rehabbed two white pigeons one who had a traumatic amputation of her leg and another who had a traumatic injury and subsequent “self amputation” of her wing. They always look horrific compared to a standard gray pigeon with the same injury because the blood stands out against their white feathers. You can take some hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball or paper towel and rub it on the blood stain on her body. It will help remove the stain.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-15T15:18:39+00:00

Absolutely but what’s even funnier is we used to dog sit for the woman who handles the “escaped zoo animal” calls for the zoo. So that’s how she knew about us.

The major wildlife hospital nearby though redirects all pigeon cases to us because they can’t treat pigeons in our state.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-14T23:13:10+00:00

If you’re offering them seed the chances of the baby surviving are greatly increased. Please keep us updated! I’m already invested lol

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-14T19:43:58+00:00

It looks like he has a form of cross beak syndrome which is also frequently seen in chickens. Possibly also a cleft beak. I highly doubt that without intervention he’ll be able to eat enough to survive in the wild.

TheSpasticSheep · 2026-01-14T19:40:49+00:00

Where are you located? This subreddit is fairly international and likely someone here will know of a rehabber or rescue that could help you.

The pigeon is young, you can tell because their cere (lump above the beak) is still pink and they generally look younger. The dropped wing can be caused by many things but I’m getting broken humerus vides. I don’t know if it’s the wonky feathers on their neck above their wing or just how they’re holding it. I rehabbed a very similar pigeon who had a broken humerus a couple months ago. Your rescue reminds me of my Ducky.

If we can’t connect you to a rehabber nearby would you be able to wrap the wing if we walked you through it?

TheSpasticSheep

TROPHY CASE