How to t feed a sick chicken and give subcutaneous fluid

[casportpony]

Post #3 updated

 

[mg15]

Ok,

I am not a chicken medical expert, however I am a (human) ICU nurse with a sick chicken (not eating, runny stools, listless). After trying a few days of home care, I took my chicken to my local vet. He's a board certified avian veterinarian who owns eight chickens of his own (I'm lucky to have an expert in my town).

Anyway, he put my chicknen on antibiotics and gave subcutaneous (SC) fluids. He showed me how to do it. My chicken inproved for a bit, but then relapsed. We put her on flagyl and started tubefeeding her with a crop tube. My vet showed me how to do that as well (it's not hard). Hopefully my chicken will slowly get better. But I figured I'd share what I've learned from my vet in the hopes that it helps someone else.

How to administer tubefeeds:

1) Purchase a crop tube, 60 ml syringe, and tubefeed powder for birds. IT"S BEST TO ORDER THESE THINGS AHEAD OF TIME, BEFORE YOU HAVE A SICK CHICKEN. A crop tube is simple a thin, plastic tube that's about 10 inches long. The tubefeeds my vet gave me are designed especially for seriously sick birds/parrots. Your local vet or a veterinary supply store should have these items. In any case, you could always puree some soft food/baby food, dilute it and administer that if you had nothing else. Mark on your crop tube with a sharpie so you know how deep you should insert the crop tube into the chicken. My vet took the crop tube and held it up to the chicken to measure the length. He put the tip of the tube at about crop (just above the breastbone) level and put the mark at the point on the tube where it would exit the beak if it were inserted (this is the same way we measure tube length when giving tubefeeds to people).

2) My vet told me to mix 2-3 tsp of powdered feed with very warm water, enough to make a thin gruel (think thin pancake batter). Fill the big syringe with about 25 ml of the food mixture. Then use the syringe's plunger to push air out of the crop tube.

3) Now, either have someone hold your chicken or wrap a towel around her (not so tight she can't breathe, though) and tuck her under your left arm.

4) The trick is to stretch her neck out straight as you administer the tubefeed. If her neck is straight your tube will go right down her esophagus (food pipe) and not her trachea (wind pipe). With her tucked under your left arm, use the fingers of your left hand to gently but firmly stretch her neck (be careful not to press on the front of her throat). In your right hand hold the tip of the crop tube (let the syringe dangle). With the first two fingers of your right hand, gently open her beak and slide the tube down, keeping her neck stretched. She won't like it, but it should slide down easily and your shouldn't have to use force. Quickly advance the crop tube until the mark you made on the tube is at her beak.

5) Now, push the plunger on the syringe to administer the tubefeeds. If at any time she starts coughing or all of a sudden seriously struggling, STOP pull out, and try again (you might be in the windpipe). Once the tube is in, your chicken shouldn't be uncomfortable, and you should be able to administer the feeding without any difficulty.

6) VERY IMPORTANT: Before you pull the tube out, fold the crop tube over on itself. Crimping/pinching the tube before you withdraw prevents residual feed from tricking into the chicken's lungs.

7) My vet told me to give tubefeeds twice a day for as long as my little Rhode Island Red wasn't eating/drinking. He said that the water in the feeds should be enough to hydrate her, as well. Once she was eating a little I should cut back to once a day until she was eating normally and active again. He told me to feel her crop before feeding her it make sure that it wasn't distended and full (meaning the last feeding hadn't passed through into her GI tract). If her crop felt full/hard or she vomited DON"T give more tubefeeds. Get the bird to a vet for medical help.

So far, I've fed my bird four times with no problems at all. It's not hard to do at all. I really recommend that folks out there buy a crop tube and syringe now, before you need it, so you have it on hand. VERY useful.

Now, on the Subcutaneous (SC) fluids. I won't be as in depth here because most people who are likely to try this are probably healthcare people already (nurses and EMS folks are the ones likely to have random IV stuff hanging around the house). My vet told me (this was before we started doing tubefeeds) that if the chicken looked listless and wasn't eating I could give 60 ml of sterile saline into the loose skin under her wing using a syringe and a 22 FR butterfly needle.

Have someone restrain the chicken (or tuck her under your left arm. Have the saline-filled syringe attached to the needle and let it dangle. Seperate the feathers under the wing and look for a spot of loose skin. Insert the needle just enough that it pierces the skin (no deeper). Then depress the syringe to allow the saline to fill the space under the skin. The chicken will absorb the saline into her body. Of course, be careful with this. If you give too much you could over-dilute her blood and (potentially) kill her. So stick to once a day administration.

I hope that the information provided helps chicken lovers out there get their fluffy friends well again. And I hope that my little chicken perks up and recovers.

Great article, thank you.