Well in a nutshell I found a pigeon today in the road, he hadn't been hit or anything but he wasn't walking or moving, and a car came up and stopped as he was right in the road. I walked up to him and he just stood there all fluffed up, so I picked him up and took him home (luckily it was right outside my house).
Our neighbour but one keeps pigeons and I thought it may be one of his, but it wasn't. They told me the area where they think he is from (they could tell by the ring but he isn't stamped). They said he may have just gotten lost and be hungry so I decided to see if I could sort him out myself and let him go if he perked up enough.
So I put him in a puppy crate and covered it with blankets so it was dark. I gave him some seed which we have for the garden birds, and he seemed happy tucking into it (or rather flinging it all over the place
). I'm not sure what kind of seed is best for pigeons so I decided it best to pop over to my neighbour and ask if I could have some of theirs.
While I was gone however something very bad happened.
My brother had been in and left the living room door open and one of the cats got into the same room as the bird, and even through the cage has done a fair bit of damage to him.
Luckily it is just to the wing and not to his body, but I know next to nothing about birds so I don't actually know how bad it is. I think it may be broken as it was hanging low and trailing on the ground, so I have strapped it to his body with a bandage as I felt this was best to prevent any more damage being done to it hangling like it was. He is very clearly in shock and is now upstairs in a dark cardboard box. I have no idea if he will make it or not.
My neighbour said to think twice about ringing the vets as they will take it away and contact it's owners who will probably kill it as it is a racing bird and that's just what happens.
I thought about removing its rings and saying it was my bird and see if I can get it treated myself, but I have no idea how illegal that is.
I'm at a loss as of what to do, I feel so guilty now that I brought him here trying to help him and he's just ended up worse than he was to start with. My family have been of no help at all. My own mother is saying i'm pathetic trying to help every waif and stray I see, and my father is going on about how it would have been better left in the road as i've just made things worse for him.
So i'm not in the best of spirits at all.
I just wondered if anyone had any advice at all as I know very little about birds so any help would be appreciated. If he makes it through the night he might have a chance so i'd have to know what i'm doing with him and where to go from here.
Sorry it's so long. Any help would be great, thanx.
I think it was more from the shock than it's actual injuries.