Puff Berry Rising

December 19, 2023 by Elizabeth

Puff Berry’s story begins on August 11th as Madame Puff Ball and you can see part one of her journey here. On November 10th, I took over her foster care and she told me her name was actually Puff Berry so that is what I call her.

Puff & I meet

When Puff first came to Palomacy, she couldn’t stand or sit up at all. (She’s a “dove release” type Homer pigeon who survived a hawk strike.) Over time, thanks to Jill, with lots of rest, meloxicam, encouragment and gentle on-her-back bicycle pedaling, Puff has improved a lot but not completely. I brought her home with me because physical and emotional space had opened up for me and I could provide her with a lot of room and attention.

She can sit up but does so on her hocks and uses her bottom and tail like a kick stand. She can stand and walk with the thrust and lift she gets if she is flapping her wings but her steering isn’t great and she often spins out of control. Originally I thought it was just her legs’ signals that were scrambled but now I believe her wing control is involved too. She can’t fly and her wing flapping, which sometimes is extreme, gets wild and disregulated.

Kick-stand hock sitting

She beats her feathers up badly whenever she comes up against an obstacle, even soft-sided pens are a hazard for her so her long feathers are all clipped short and her space is as unobstructed and soft as possible.

Flap-walking wide open spaces

Snuggling & comfy on the heating pad

Such cuteness

Little Puff spends a lot of time sitting in my hand

Supervised hock-sitting outside in a pod

Chillaxing in the food dish because of course

Puff in her traction harness basket

Puff in her traction basket at her first outreach

Puff practicing weight-bearing standing in a borrowed wheelchair by Neatfeet

Bathed (the sores on her wings are from them hitting during extreme flapping)

Drying in the sunshine

Mobility-challenged Rashad & Puff Berry hanging out

Puff hanging out with fellow special pigeon Jeannie

Puff standing for a moment

Puff flaps like this hard & perpetuates those wing bone sores

Camera play

Best mobility day 12/10/23: Stood & walked several steps!

Self-hiding her head under her stuffy friend

Hiding her head inside my shirt

Love therapy

For the past few days, Puff Berry has been wanting to bury and hide her head, not in a courtship way (we’re not there yet) but in a way that makes me feel like she’s in pain. We have an appointment at the Medical Center for Birds and for now, I’m creating lots of head-hiding options including pouching her in a scarf and creating a soft tent for her in her hangout.