My Crop Tube Feeding Journey With My Bird (Pics For Visuals- VERY detailed Post)

Thank you so much for all the information here and elsewhere on BYC.
Getting desperate with my poorly chicken; I am fairly sure it will be the cancer that has carried off my previous ex-farm layer hybrids so it might not help, but you never know. What little she was eating was coming thru pretty much undigested with a lot of water; I gave her a course of antibiotics but that seemed to knock her back even more (probably she was getting a bit of nutrition from caecal bacteria?) and she has finally given up on perching and gone to sleep in the nestbox. She is very thin and moulting as well. The only thing she would eat was cucumber. I was mixing it with oil or yoghurt so she had no choice but to take in a few more calories, but just not enough.
Today I have tried tube-feeding for the first time. Not ideal kit (have ordered proper catheter) but found a nice, soft, silicon tube about 4mm i.d. and had a 50ml syringe anyway. Had to blend up pellets with milk and apple juice then put it thru a tea strainer so it would go thru the tube. I gave her one syringe's worth of that, then thought she might need vits and mins as well, so blended up nettle leaves and rocket with apple juice, strained that and gave her half and half. Will find baby bird food later today. Tried to weigh her but she wouldn't sit still long enough - it was about 1.5 kg.
Strangely, having her crop filled up seemed to stimulate her to eat some rice pudding and the mush that wouldn't go thru the tea strainer. Will fill her up again before bedtime.
Is it possible her gizzard might get wasted and tired the same as other muscles and stop working, making things worse as the food doesn't get fully digested??
Thanks again, you are all marvellous,
Kate

Weighed the Limpy chicken yesterday: 1600g with a full crop. Her contemporary chicken (who is a stonking, greedy bird with full, fresh feathers) weighs 2200g. Cannot find baby bird food locally. Local vet sold me a lamb feeding syringe/tube for £1.75 (about $2.50) but the tube is not any bigger than what I have and very stiff. With the silicon tube I'm happy that it cannot do any damage to her crop. I tubed in a beaten egg this morning; when I withdrew the tube, she immediately went to the egg dish and cleaned up the rest of it. I beat up another egg for her and she ate/drank all that as well! And then had some oily spaghetti. I know feeding her eggs kind of defeats the object, esp when she doesn't even lay, but it has to be good for her. So she has 2 eggs and some spaghetti inside her at the moment and is sitting still sleepily digesting... Her crop has not emptied now after 3 hours; does that seem a long time?
Thanks for all your help and info.
Kate

When they aren't feeling well it can take several hours for their crops to clear, so don't worry too much right now. You might want to try some infant applesauce, that's what's the suggestion for slow crop in the bag of baby birds food that I have. Other infant foods you could tube, too, I think.

This is on the Kaytee site:
IMPORTANT NOTES

• DIET CHANGE: For babies previously fed another hand feeding preparation, including any other exact Hand Feeding Formula, a minimum of 24 to 48 hours is recommended for the dietary changes. During this period, both products should be prepared separately (as directed) and mixed together, with the exact Hand Feeding Formula slowly being increased in proportion until the previous diet has been eliminated. An immediate conversion to exact Hand Feeding Formula may cause crop slow-down due to the dietary change. Use a more dilute formula the first couple of feedings in an attempt prevent this.
• CROP SLOW-DOWN: If crop slow-down should occur, first check for proper environmental temperature as this is a frequent cause of crop problems. Then mix equal parts of exact Hand Feeding Formula and infant applesauce or provide additional water by preparing exact at the ratio of one part exact to two or three parts water. Provide this mixture for approximately 24 hours and then slowly return to the normal concentration of exact over an additional 24 hour period. During this time, massage the chick’s crop gently to break up any food aggregates that may develop. Never massage the crop when it is more than half full. Allow the crop to empty before feeding again. This method will quickly allow the gastrointestinal tract to stabilize and become fully functional again. The appearance of dark green droppings in a hand fed baby may indicate a temporary shut-down of crop emptying (or the lack of food in the digestive system). If this occurs and the crop contains food, the rate of crop emptying should be immediately evaluated. If no improvement is noted within 36 hours, professional assistance is advised.
• Volume of up to 15% body weight per meal may be provided, but may induce regurgitation in some birds. If regurgitation occurs due to overfeeding, stop feeding, clean food off baby and do not handle. Reduce meal volume at next feeding.

http://www.kaytee.com/products/exact-hand-feeding-baby-bird.php
-Kathy

Thank you very much, Kathy. I fear it is hopeless, she just looks awful now. Abdomen very hard, blackening comb and lost 100g down to 1500g today. Although poop is not too bad; wet and slimy but with some substance.
I made applesauce with lovely fresh apples, went to find her in the garden and she was pecking at... an apple! Have tubed some food but she's not eating spontaneously today despite smorgasbord of spaghetti, yoghurt, raw egg, smoked fish etc available. Will go try some cucumber.
Thanks again! At least I know how to tubefeed now so will be better equipped to look after others.
All the best,
Kate

OK - cucumber worked its magic. I got a full syringe of food into her for the second time; with some applesauce in it. She ate a lot of pomegranate seeds (I know! They like pomegranate!) and is now pecking at some wet bread with considerable enthusiasm. I already have egg yolk, greek yoghurt and applesauce sieved up in the fridge for tomorrow's beakfast tube.
One more thing - about a week ago she laid several lash eggs over a few days, one each day as far as I can tell. They were ovoid, about an inch long and consistently beige throughout. Clean so I guess she was laying them not pooping them. She hadn't laid anything for months so I was a bit surprised; don't know whether these might be connected with her general lassitude and weight loss?
Thank you specifically for the story about trying to get the tube into the trachea on a dead bird and failing - that was very reassuring!
Best regards to the tube-feeding crew,
KT

'lash eggs' definitely connected... I asked a friend to dispatch Limpy yesterday and autopsy revealed internal laying (I have pics if anyone wants). A third of her body weight was the eggy mass building up inside. A few bits had managed to escape but there was no apparent infection. She really needed to go; so relieved she is not suffering any more. She had a last meal of pomegranate and porridge oats. She enjoyed herself while she was here and was a very quietly-spoken, disciplined chicken who always used to lay first thing. Sadly missed by me but other chickens do not seem bothered.
Thanks again for help and support,
NL1

Casportpony, Icould I you advise me where I can obtain feeding tubes and the sizes I should have on hand for my chickens? Also, there's no chicken vet in my area. Where could I possibly obtain Baytril?? I have an extremely sick hen. Not sure if she'll even make it thru the night. I've tried everything over the past few months with what started out as vent fleet but has progressed to clostridium, I'm presuming after all the research I've done. Please help!!

Bird2break said:

Casportpony, Icould I you advise me where I can obtain feeding tubes and the sizes I should have on hand for my chickens? Also, there's no chicken vet in my area. Where could I possibly obtain Baytril?? I have an extremely sick hen. Not sure if she'll even make it thru the night. I've tried everything over the past few months with what started out as vent fleet but has progressed to clostridium, I'm presuming after all the research I've done. Please help!!

Click to expand...

Tube feeding tubes and syringes:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/915751/tube-feeding-supplies-and-where-to-get-them

Or from a vet, or aquarium air line can be used with modifications.

If it's clostridium, I would suggest metronidazole, which you can buy as Fish-Zole at Valley Vet or someplace else. You can also get it as powder at Petsmart, just look for API General Cure in the tropical fish section, but double check the ingredients for metronidazole and praziquantel. You don't need the wormer, but it won't hurt.

Baytril

• http://www.allbirdproducts.com/newproductpages/baytril.html
• http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/product_baytril.php
• http://www.mexi-cali.net/eng/index/item/24/29/enfloxil-25-ml-same-as-baytril

Baytril is best for bacteria like E. coli, not clostridium, but the two can be given together.

-Kathy

Remember that vent gleet is not always a fungal infection... Not sure why people still think that.

-Kathy