Lillith37
Specially interested in chickens
Yesterday evening a magpie was swooping like crazy in the backyard (it’s nesting season) and all the chickens were going nuts. I poked my head over the fence to make sure my neighbour’s chickens were okay to find his older hen Brown Chicken was hunched over and fluffed up. Apparently she’s been like this for five or six days. I requested to take her. She is emaciated, with the worst sour crop I’ve ever encountered. I regurgitated her as much as I could. It was foul black liquid. She is also blackening at the corners of her mouth and at the front edge of her comb.
She has scaly leg mite but no sign of other mites and I saw one louse but she is by no means infested. I don’t think my neighbour has ever wormed her. Not sure what he feeds. She hasn’t laid in a year. No swelling around her abdomen or vent.
So last night I regurgitated her, gave her worming tablets, some antifungal cream and a dose of cisapride which is a gastric mobility drug (left over from my other hen Constance who has had some trouble recently). I also coated her legs in castor oil.
This morning she had done some liquid poops overnight — not very much, just a bit of white urate and liquid. Her crop was still balloon-like so I tried regurgitating her again. I got more liquid and a lot of black sediment out of her. Then I gave her 20ml of epsom salt in warm water via tube, and another dose of cisapride. She is inside in the crate and has acess to plain water with vitamins and shell grit.
I’ve been called up for jury service today so I will be out all day and potentially every day for the length of the trial if I get selected. I left my partner with instruction to give Brown Chicken a few ml of sugar water over the course of the day because I know the epsom salts are dehydrating.
I didn’t get any pictures because this was all a bit unexpected and a bit of a scramble last night and this morning. She is in such a condition I am considering euthanasia but want to give her a chance first. My neighbour would have just left her to suffer and die.
Any advice please @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous you’ve helped me so much in the past xxx
She has scaly leg mite but no sign of other mites and I saw one louse but she is by no means infested. I don’t think my neighbour has ever wormed her. Not sure what he feeds. She hasn’t laid in a year. No swelling around her abdomen or vent.
So last night I regurgitated her, gave her worming tablets, some antifungal cream and a dose of cisapride which is a gastric mobility drug (left over from my other hen Constance who has had some trouble recently). I also coated her legs in castor oil.
This morning she had done some liquid poops overnight — not very much, just a bit of white urate and liquid. Her crop was still balloon-like so I tried regurgitating her again. I got more liquid and a lot of black sediment out of her. Then I gave her 20ml of epsom salt in warm water via tube, and another dose of cisapride. She is inside in the crate and has acess to plain water with vitamins and shell grit.
I’ve been called up for jury service today so I will be out all day and potentially every day for the length of the trial if I get selected. I left my partner with instruction to give Brown Chicken a few ml of sugar water over the course of the day because I know the epsom salts are dehydrating.
I didn’t get any pictures because this was all a bit unexpected and a bit of a scramble last night and this morning. She is in such a condition I am considering euthanasia but want to give her a chance first. My neighbour would have just left her to suffer and die.
Any advice please @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous you’ve helped me so much in the past xxx