The Flying Vet’s Pigeon Health & Management
I will start this site with a review of one of my favorite books, Dr. Colin Walker’s “The Flying Vet’s Pigeon Health & Management”. Its subtitle is “A veterinary guide to health control, medication use and the development of race fitness for the competitive fanciers”.
My copy is a hardcover book with a very colorful and beautifully designed dustjacket. The board’s design is the same with that of the jacket which means that even without the jacket you’ll have a very beautiful book on your shelf. The book has a total of 322 pages, with many colored photos throughout, divided into 9 sections with 48 chapters. The book is about 2 ½ cms. thick, 29 cms. high and 22 cms. wide.
Dr. Walker is one of the world’s leading avian veterinarians and it is just fitting that he writes one of the most complete book on the subject of pigeon health. Aside from his profession, he is also a very successful pigeon racer and has many top caliber birds.
The book starts with an introduction in Section 1 where the author briefly gives a description of pigeon racing. He then explains the importance of pigeon health on the success of any loft and how modern pigeon medicine can assist the fancier.
Section 2 covers the more common diseases like canker, respiratory infection, e. coli, paratyphoid, viral infections and parasites.
Each disease is carefully explained and analyze for the lay person and medications are recommended. Colored photos are provided which helps the reader to visualize what is being explained.
Young birds are then covered in Section 3. This includes weaning, development medical problems and racing. Though not very long, the author looks into all aspects of young birds and there are many tips included which will help the fancier understand more about young birds.
Covering Racing, Section 4 is the longest with 13 chapters that includes, health & its effect on race form, disease control in the race season, developing race fitness, selection of birds for the race team, basketing & race day and race recovery protocol, stress, winning, cortisone use, visible indicators of health in the head and throat, management of pigeon health during the race season, exercise, diet & electrolytes and pigeon racing in Australia. I will not go deeply into the different topics as they are self explanatory.
What I can say is that this section is a book in itself and many tips and knowledge can be gained by the perceptive fancier.
Section 5 then covers Breeding. There is only one chapter in this section which covers problems of the breeding season.
We now come to my favorite part, Section 6 covering Health programs. There are two chapters in this section, one covering program development in the race loft and the second covering health management programs for all stages of the pigeon year.
Illustrations are use in this section to help the reader visualize what the author is explaining. These programs may be followed as is but I recommend to the reader to try and understand the underlying reason for the program and try to adapt it based on his situation or area.
Section 7 covers Management keys to aid performance and improve clocking time. Chapters include loft design, loft humidity and temperature and their effect on health, moulting and race performance, food for thought, fungi, feed & form, testing of “bad food”, the use of probiotics in racing pigeons and natural supplements.
Most of the chapters’ titles are self explanatory so I’ll just go into the chapter “Testing of bad food”. I’ve read about this topic on the internet before but cannot find my reference files. Basically the chapter covers testing for fungal toxins on grains. It seems that these toxins could be present on the grains fed to the birds which may not kill them but will certainly lower their health and affect their racing form. One more very good tip from this book.
In Section 8, the author covers Diagnosis and Medications. Topics include diagnosis at a distance, submission of samples, dropping interpretation, the use of the microscope by the fancier, practical microscope use, a pictorial guide to microscope use for the fancier, pigeon queries a-z, medication guide and Dr. Walker’s Australian Pigeon Company.
The most important part of this section are the tips and guides on how to use the microscope for self analysis by the reader. I have only read one other time where microscope use was discuss in a pigeon book, from Dr. Whitney’s Keep Em Flying, and here it is very well explained. Color photos of worms eggs, coccidian, trichomonads, etc. are included which really helps the reader identify what to look for under a microscope. This section alone is very good reason to get your copy.
The book ends with Section 9 titled Management Diary covering the pigeon year – a management diary for the southern hemisphere. The year is broken down into each month and explained. Keep in mind that the author is talking from his experience in Australia.
There you have it, a short review of Dr. Colin Walker’s book, “The Flying Vet’s Pigeon Health & Management”.
Final thoughts:
The book covers many topics not just pigeon health. It is one of the mostly complete book I’ve ever read. The author is authoritative on the topics he covered because not only is he a veterinarian, he is also a very successful pigeon racer as well.
We’ll finish this review with a blurb from the book’s dustjacket.
Pigeon health and Management covers such a wide range of topics that
there is sure to be something here for every fancier. Yet at the same time
it no doubt will be referred to by veterinarians world-wide. This book is
long overdue and lifts the veterinary knowledge available to fanciers into
the 21st century. It is sure to prove very popular and within several years
is likely to be found on the bookshelves of most fanciers world-wide.
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Bob Kinney Dr Colin Walker eyesign Joe Rotondo Novel Racing Pigeon Formula Widowhood
plz send me some tips or medicacinal guide i hv many pigeon but when their baby young they will died cause of digestive diseases
Hello Kashif,
I am not an expert but the first thing I would suggest to you would be to make sure of the parents health.
You can never get any good and healthy children from sick parents. By this I mean to have a good “cleansing” program before pairing up the parents.
Pigeons are very hardy animals but even if you do manage to raise youngsters from your pairs, if the parents are not 100% healthy the resulting young would be no good especially if you plan to use them in competetive flying.
A second tip to consider would be to make sure that the loft is clean. If you already have birds dying in the nest, it may be that some virus or bacteria is already present in the loft. Clean out their accomodations thoroughly. Use disinfectants and if possible use blow torches to kill any lingering bacteria/virus. By using blow torches, I do not mean burning your loft. Just enough to torch the surface to clean them.
There are many helpful tips in the web. Take some time to surf the net. Also join Yahoo or Google groups where you can get many valuable information.
Hope this helps.
that was really nice to read that.. that was really great post…
hello kashif
here is one tip for u.(imopest 3/ml) injection is very good for ur pigeon,only 1 point use under the arm for small and big pigeon.u will use one now and second after six month,u will watch very good result of this inj,thanx
Very shorts, simple and easy to understand, bet some more comments from your side would be great
I am the first time on this site and am really enthusiastic about and so many good articles. I think it’s just very good.
Always yours Mr. Cialis
Very shorts, simple and easy to understand, bet some more comments from your side would be great
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it