- Apr 24, 2017
- 6
- 5
- 62
One of my 2 year old hens was drooling excessively & acting listless. Checked on the internet & figured she had something in her croup. Followed a video & got her to vomit. Gave her water & vomited again. Went for 2 days & she remained listless & not eating. I ruled out impacted or sour croup & egg bound, but it could be egg Peritonitis. Figured she was now starving so decided it was time to take action. Read it was dangerous to force feed a chicken but decided to take the chance or she’d probably die. Immediately started her on Duramycin-10 along with 1/2 cup of “smoothie”. Here’s what I concocted:
2 eggs scrambled 1/4c Poultry Pellet Feed 1/3c Plain Yogurt 1/3c applesauce 1/2c Greens (finely chopped broccoli, kale, spinach, swiss chard, etc) 1/3 jar 4oz Baby Food (peas or green beans) 1/2c blueberries, blackberries, banana or strawberries 1t Milled Flax Seed 3/4t finely ground egg shell (used a coffee grinder) 1/2t Spirulina 1/2 Vitamin Tablet (really high quality). All in blender with 1/2c Apple juice – left it kind of thick. Hope the photo helps. Apple juice & sauce are homemade with no sugar & everything else was organic or from my garden. Added Spirulina as it’s used in rehabilitating injured wild birds. Kept leftover in fridge & slightly warmed it for each feeding. Might have added more protein but there was no way I was putting worms through my blender!
In separate jar mixed 1/4t Duramycin in 2T water. Divided this into 2 or 3 feedings, just made sure she got the 1/4t of Duramycin every day. Start each feeding with 3-4 squirts of Duramycin followed by 1/2c smoothie.
Syringe was large enough to get the thick smoothie through but small enough to get it into her beak. Syringe has a 1/4 teaspoon marking & found that to be the perfect amount to give her. Takes about 30 squirts to give her 1/2c of smoothie, but goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it. She never appeared to choke but sometimes shook her head so be prepared for green splatters! See picture.
Started feeding 3 times a day but within in a couple days dropped to 2 times as she was running around with the other hens, appearing to eat. Her crop was still empty every night, not full like the other hens, so continued feeding for 10 days. Kept her in at night in a large dog crate & then out with the others during the day. Day 11 her crop was full in the evening so stopped the Duramycin & the feeding. She now appears normal & well.
During last couple years I've lost 3 hens, I think to Egg Peritonitis. After a $200 vet visit with xray, vet had no idea what was wrong or how to fix her. So when hen #4 looked ill, I got the Duramycin & started her on it 3 times a day for 7 days. That was a year ago & she's alive & well. Figure I’ve squirted food down this hen about 700 times & she’s still breathing, so no longer worried about suffocating her with food or water. I'm sure Duramycin-10 doesn't "fix" everything that can be wrong with a chicken, but for the future I wouldn't hesitate to immediately begin the Duramycin and then add food if she wasn't eating. My hen wasn't laying but you're supposed to toss her eggs for 21 days after stopping medication. I used any suspect eggs in her smoothie.
After reading many blogs, I know there are a lot of you out there who felt helpless when your hen would fall ill, so just keep this in your bag of things to try next time.
2 eggs scrambled 1/4c Poultry Pellet Feed 1/3c Plain Yogurt 1/3c applesauce 1/2c Greens (finely chopped broccoli, kale, spinach, swiss chard, etc) 1/3 jar 4oz Baby Food (peas or green beans) 1/2c blueberries, blackberries, banana or strawberries 1t Milled Flax Seed 3/4t finely ground egg shell (used a coffee grinder) 1/2t Spirulina 1/2 Vitamin Tablet (really high quality). All in blender with 1/2c Apple juice – left it kind of thick. Hope the photo helps. Apple juice & sauce are homemade with no sugar & everything else was organic or from my garden. Added Spirulina as it’s used in rehabilitating injured wild birds. Kept leftover in fridge & slightly warmed it for each feeding. Might have added more protein but there was no way I was putting worms through my blender!
In separate jar mixed 1/4t Duramycin in 2T water. Divided this into 2 or 3 feedings, just made sure she got the 1/4t of Duramycin every day. Start each feeding with 3-4 squirts of Duramycin followed by 1/2c smoothie.
Syringe was large enough to get the thick smoothie through but small enough to get it into her beak. Syringe has a 1/4 teaspoon marking & found that to be the perfect amount to give her. Takes about 30 squirts to give her 1/2c of smoothie, but goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it. She never appeared to choke but sometimes shook her head so be prepared for green splatters! See picture.
Started feeding 3 times a day but within in a couple days dropped to 2 times as she was running around with the other hens, appearing to eat. Her crop was still empty every night, not full like the other hens, so continued feeding for 10 days. Kept her in at night in a large dog crate & then out with the others during the day. Day 11 her crop was full in the evening so stopped the Duramycin & the feeding. She now appears normal & well.
During last couple years I've lost 3 hens, I think to Egg Peritonitis. After a $200 vet visit with xray, vet had no idea what was wrong or how to fix her. So when hen #4 looked ill, I got the Duramycin & started her on it 3 times a day for 7 days. That was a year ago & she's alive & well. Figure I’ve squirted food down this hen about 700 times & she’s still breathing, so no longer worried about suffocating her with food or water. I'm sure Duramycin-10 doesn't "fix" everything that can be wrong with a chicken, but for the future I wouldn't hesitate to immediately begin the Duramycin and then add food if she wasn't eating. My hen wasn't laying but you're supposed to toss her eggs for 21 days after stopping medication. I used any suspect eggs in her smoothie.
After reading many blogs, I know there are a lot of you out there who felt helpless when your hen would fall ill, so just keep this in your bag of things to try next time.
