31/10/2025
Stringfoot - We often get asked what Stringfoot is, and what we do at Stringfoot Superheroes - Nottingham
Stringfoot is what pigeons get when they slowly gather string, hair, thread, and so on around their feet.
It eventually cuts off circulation, and the pigeon eventually loses their toes, or even entire feet.
Everytime you discard abit of thread or string from packaging, or brush your hand through your hair, leaving the bits of hair you shed, the pigeons pick it up on their feet.
We try and get out as often as we can to destring pigeons in Nottingham town centre. Some we manage to catch and remove before there's any permanent damage, but sometimes we don't see them until it's already too late.
Here's the worst case we've had yet.
This little guy was brought to me in Trinity square whilst we were out Stringfooting. The lovely Jay who used to volunteer for stringfoot groups in Yorkshire, is now down here working with us.
He got a train and walked all the way to us to see if we could help this sweetheart.
Upon seeing his feet for the first time, I said it would likely be an amputation of the foot, as it was in such a bad way with a bad infection already set in.
We got him home, gave him painkillers, and waited a while before working on his feet. We started with a nice warm soak of his feet, took pictures, and then set to work.
It took a total of two hours, but we were able to remove all of the hair, string, dead skin, and mud.
Sadly, our sweet boy lost two toes during this, one from each foot, which were only being held on by the string.
He's on pain medication and antibiotics daily, and he's already a different pigeon.
We've saved as much of his feet as we can, and will monitor him closely throughout the next few weeks.
If he does require surgery in the future, we shall make that happen, but for now, he's thriving since coming in. ☺️💕
