Today I have started to tell the story of Emma's sickness. It is on my diary of the Pigeon Tales

I can tell you that is was truly scary and I was in panic because at that point of time I knew very few about the diseases, their symptoms and their treatment. For over a year (since March 2008) everything went totally okay. "Our" pijjies all survived a very long and hard winter without any problems at all, although only Emma and Pete were actually sleeping on our balcony at that time. Emma and Pete's 4 babies, who hatched last spring and summer, are still around, 2 of them even breeding with one another on our balcony as well now since this spring, never had any problems at all.

We also helped the flock, that is around here and counts approx. 15 - 20 pijjies, to survive by providing food and water through the whole winter, which was really cold. Sometimes the water was frozen after 2 hours so I had to re-new. Sometimes we had about 18 pijjies on our balcony. They all knew where to get something to eat and we still see them around here - thank heaven not all at once because otherwise my neighbours would have probably protested already. I cannot identify all of them of course but the greater part. And I can tell you, that we see the same birds since much more than a year now.

So the incident with our little Randy, who died in a very cold night ,when Emma had to make the decision whom to warm properly, was really bad luck and at that point of time I did not have the idea to get them inside. Stupid me!!! . And 1 1/2 weeks later we lost our Wally as well, because he fell from the platform in front of his nest. Again stupid me and I will never forgive me for this, because I could have avoided this. Wally was lonely, a very sad little baby because he was alone. So he probably was overcurious and stepped from the platform and fell. I was so sad and so furious about myself.

Now I am over-anxious of course and very nervous when something doesn't seem to be right and when Emma started to "caugh" my panic began. But I can tell you before, there is a happy ending to Emma's story...

Many for sharing Emma's story with us, Petra.
She and Pete are a beautiful couple.

It's funny, I have a picture of Frank and Jesse in nearly the same pose as Emma and Pete.

What a story and I'm very interested in how the visit to the vet went....the particulars of catching her and all.
I wish we had know you then. I think we would have been helpful.

Regarding the frozen water, I have a bird bath warmer that keeps the water from freezing. It's small...about the size of a salad plate and it plugs into an electrical outlet. Farmers have larger versions to keep water from freezing too. Anyway, they aren't very expensive and they are such a good thing to have. The water never gets warm, it just keeps it above the freezing level. I'll bet you will be able to find one there.