Pigeon Disease – The Eight Most Common Health Problems in Pigeons

The eight most common health problems with our pigeons are:

Paratyphoid, Paramyxovirus, Canker, Cocci, Worms, Adeno-Coli Syndrome, Ornithosis and Candida.

1. PARATHYPHOID (Salmonella)
Pigeon Disease - Paratyphoid DroppingsParatyphoid can be caused by un-sanitary conditions and the contamination of feed by rodents. It also can occur when introducing new pigeons into the loft, without checking first if they are healthy. Before putting new pigeons into the loft, isolate and observe them for 5 days and put them on a preventive medication.

Symptoms of Paratyphoid:
Loss of condition and weight.
Green slimy droppings.
Swelling of the leg and wing joints.
Limping
Infertile Eggs.
Twisted neck (seldom)
One eye blindness (seldom)

Products for Prevention and Cure:
Furaltadone & Colistine 5% (DAC)
Trimethoprim ? Sulfa (DAC)
Parastop (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Parastop (Pantex)
Pantrim (Pantex)
Para-Mix 1 (Travipharma)
Sal-Bac Vaccine (Bio-Mune)

2. PARAMYXOVIRUS (PMV)
Pigeon Disease - PMV Pigeon ParamyxovirusTo prevent Paramyxovirus from coming into your loft, it is recommended that all birds are vaccinated at least once a year. Young birds should be vaccinated at 4 to 8 weeks of age, but no later then 4 weeks before the young bird race season. Re-vaccinate all birds 4 weeks before the breeding season. Once a pigeon has Paramyxovirus, there is very little you can do, vaccinating at this point will not do any good. We recommend that those pigeons that have the disease are treated with La-Sota, that has shown some success. This can be done individually by putting a drop in each eye for three days, or putting it in the drinking water for flock treatment.

Symptoms of Paramyxovirus:
Loss of weight
Watery green slimy droppings.
Parastop (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Twisting of neck and head

Products for prevention or cure:
PMV1 Vaccine (Lohmann Animal Health)
LaSota (Lohmann Animal Health)
*NOTE: If a visible Paramyxovirus problem occurs, you may try the following remedy. This was recommended by several of the leading pigeon veterinarians in Holland and Belgium. Vaccinate the effected pigeon 3 x in one week, with PMV-1 killed virus vaccine, 0.5 cc per shot in the neck, on Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday. After treatment, keep pigeon isolated for an additional week, to make sure all symptoms are gone. Remember, that the bird will always remain a carrier.

3. CANKER (Trichomoniasis)
Pigeon Diseases - CankerA yellow cheesy substance, generally seen in the mouth, however 10% of Canker is external, while 90% is internal. Breaks out at any age, also in youngsters still in the nest. It is caused by a flagellate, living on the mucous membranes of the throat and the crop.

Symptoms of Canker:
Loss of appetite
Problem digesting

Products for Cure:
Ronidazole (Ridzol)(DAC)
Metronidazole (Flagyl) (DAC)
B.S. (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Ronidazole 10% (Pantex)
Ronidazole 40 (Pantex)
5% Cure (Travipharma)

4. COCCI (Coccidiosis)
Pigeon Diseases - CoccidiosisThis problem can be caused by unsanitary conditions in the loft and letting your pigeons go picking around on the ground.

Symptoms of Cocci:
Loss of weight.
Slimy dark green droppings
Lethargic
Poor flying
Thirsty

Products for Cure:
Multi-Mix (Global)
Dacoxine 4 in 1 (DAC)
Trimethoprim/Sulfa (DAC)
Coccimix (Pantex)
Cocci-Geel (Pantex)
Cocci-Mix 1 (Travipharma)

5. WORMS (Hair, Round & Tape Worms)
Pigeon Diseases - WormsCause generally are un-sanitary loft conditions or letting the pigeons, pick around on the ground. They will maintain appetite, as the worms consume most nutrition in the pigeons system.

Symptoms of Worms
Loss of Condition
Loss of Weight
Bad dropping

Products for Cure:
Combi-Worm (All worms) (Global)
Belga-Wormac (Hair & Roundworm)
Wormmix (Hair & Roundworms) (DAC)
Worm-Ex (Hair & Roundworms) (Pantex)

6. ORNITHOSIS
Pigeon OrnithosisOver 50% of young birds have problems with the Ornithosis complex. Loss of desire to fly, loss of pigeons in the races and poor results, both with old and young birds.

Symptoms of Ornithosis:
Lack of condition
Nasal secretions
Decreased desire to fly
Scratching the head and beak
Swollen eye lids & wet eyes.
Sneezing, rattling and coughing
Discolored wattles
Slime in the throat

Products for Cure:
Respiratory Plus (Global)
1 + 1 Cure (DAC)
Spiradac (DAC)
Tylosine (DAC)
Orni-Special (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Ornithosis 3 (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Ornimix W.S.P. (Pantex)
Ornimix DS (Pantex)

7. ADENO-COLI SYNDROM
Pigeon Diseases - Adeno VirusIn the last 10 years, this has been the biggest problem in young birds from 6-9 months in age. Up to 70% can be infected and show the symptoms. The disease is a combination of an Adeno-Virus, which opens the way for the suddenly aggressive E-Coli bacteria, often a Circo Virus is also involved. The same symptoms can be seen in Paramyxovirus, however in that case the pigeons drink more and may have some central nervous problem, like twisting of the head. Although there is no known cure for Adeno and Circo Virus. Several of the products shown below, have proven somewhat effective.

Symptoms of Adeno-Coli Syndrom:
Decreased appetite
Clear watery droppings with small fecal
matter in cent
Vomiting
Rapid loss of weight.
Dying in matter of days.
Although the below listed problem is not common, it can occur when certain condition are right and should not be overlooked, as it is generally done

Products for Cure:
Belg-Amco (Belgica-DeWeerd)
4 in 1 Mix (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Dacoxine 4 in 1 (DAC)
To prevent dehydration that the 4 in 1
is mixed with the following product.
Belgasol (Belgica-DeWeerd)

8. CANDIDA
Pigeon Candida (Sour Crop)When problems occur in the loft, the first thing a fancier looks for is signs of the more common problems like Canker, Cocci, Worms, Paratyphoid, Respiratory, Ornithosis Complex, Adeno Virus or E-Coli. Many will quickly grab for a medication and do what I call ?blind? medicating for these diseases in a very short time. This can destroy the healthy intestinal good gut bacteria increasing the chance for bad germs to take hold. This can cause a condition named Candida, which is a mould and yeast infection of the crop and the intestines.

Symptons of Candida:
No desire to fly
Poor performance in the races.
Losses in Training and Races.

Products for Cure:
Glostatin (Global)

Pigeon Disease – The Eight Most Common Health Problems in Pigeons

pigeon racing diseases

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93 thoughts on “Pigeon Disease – The Eight Most Common Health Problems in Pigeons

  1. My female piegion laid egg and now it became so weak and its standing in one leg with dull fees..can any one kindly help me please.

  2. Sir, one of my pigeon is suffering a dieseas it has Swollen eye lids & wet eyes and he more weak plz help me i can’t spare that pigeons life

  3. My pigeon is refused to eat or drink..droppings are very loose and greenish in color..and it even cant stand properly on its legs..plss help my pigeon…it seems like danger in position…

    1. M too facing a same problem. Its a new born probably 6weeks….not eating 4 last 3 days, but drinking lot of water. Did u find any remedy for dat. I found it in my balcony 3 days back, green watery droping is there.

  4. I am looking remedy for the following given below diseases for my high fly pigeons, appreciate you help if you could advise me with some medicines to purchase where is vaccination store in Noida or delhi or one issue that my pigeon female give very small
    eggs baby pigeon not born in this egg 4-time please reply me your advise save my pigeon life
    thanks
    Pigeon pox. —- more than
    Loss of weight.
    Watery green slimy droppings.
    Twisting of neck and head. —-more than
    Loss of condition and weight.
    Green slimy droppings.
    Swelling of the leg and wing joints.
    One eye blindness (seldom).

    Regards
    keshav singh chauhan

  5. I have been raising pigeons for about 2 years. They have been very healthy until about 6 months ago. I am losing 3-4 pigeons a week. They just die. Right now there are no new eggs in their nests.
    There were 5 babies born a few weeks ago, they lived about 5 days and then died.
    Please help me.
    I know that Rodents do get into the pens. But there is nothing we can do. We have done everything we can. Rodents are everywhere. We do poison them but the birds cannot get into the poison. Thanks for any help you can give.

    1. Rodent droppings digested can kill a pigeon, apparently your battling that one, my last loft rats were bad I bought a tan barrel that was used to ship pumpkin seeds it had a screw lid with seal if they even smell the grain they will not leave
      Fed birds and removed after 15 min….also I had high loss of young, was using nest bowls with marking of berkly square on bottom, known as sanitary nest bowls, a large seller stopped selling them upon reports of high mortality, I switched to plain cardboard and haven’t had a loss yet, can’t say for sure it was nest bowls cause my die off was during winter so could have been bad parenting

  6. Hi my pigeon is not a month old yet and since it was little it has these yellow red pimple on his body and beak and we don’t have medicine for them where I live pls reply I don’t know what to do

  7. I am looking for help with one of my birds. It is very lethargic and all puffed up as if it was cold but our temps have been in the 80’s and 90+. Also does not appear to be eating as it should. I have already lost one that had the same symptoms. This is a brand new loft and I have only had the birds for a month or two. These birds had not ever been out to fly from my loft and originally came from two different lofts.

    Any help would be greatly alppreciated.

    Larry

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