Pullet's TONGUE stuck down her throat - please help!

[Pullet Surprise]

Crochet hook? maybe???

 

[Lotusbud]

Her tongue is still stuck somewhere down her throat but she is gaining weight! Her energy is back and she is now 3lbs 7oz at 20 weeks old. Almost as big as the other pullets! Three times a day we feed her a bowl of mash with a lot of water. (Think cereal bowl filled with milk to the rim.) She has also adapted and is foraging again. She manages to swallow about half of the grass, etc. that she grazes for. I have tried a few times to look down her throat again but with her strength & energy back, she is very hard to hold still. Thanks again for your suggestions, all!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

thin plating tongs or extra long tweezers? Something like this?

http://www.jbprince.com/utensils/tweezer-tong.asp

 

[Lotusbud]

If I could hold her still long enough. Those tongs look long enough to reach but I'd be afraid of puncturing something in her throat. She has adapted to this new lifestyle and we continue to feed her the mash in a bowl with water. We're committed to feeding her like this for the rest of her life. She's also getting better at foraging and letting stuff 'fall' down her throat. Thanks for the tip and link!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I'm glad she has been able to adjust. Good luck!

 

[Lotusbud]

Just a final post about Fuzzy Butt. She lived a happy life and adjusted well without a tongue. She learned to eat mash & pellets, drink and forage. She simply adapted to doing it differently than the other chickens. We got plenty of beautiful eggs from her too.

During the spring of 2014 the other chickens started rejecting her. Soon she stopped eating/drinking and went downhill fast from an unknown illness. We kept her apart from the flock and gave her lots of love & care. As I held her in my lap, with her eyes closed and legs extended, she made running motions with her legs and then lifted her wings as if to fly - then she died. <3

Fuzzy Butt a few weeks before she died

 

[chrs1986]

I had the same thing happen to my 9 month old chicken. DO NOT TRY TO PULL THE TONGUE OUT!!! That is only going to injure the bird. I took my bird to a specialist vet. They put her under and looked down her throat. There was no foreign object causing the tongue to be stuck--no grass or string holding it down. There was also no injury or infection. Instead, her blood test showed that she had very low calcium levels. She was still laying eggs through her first winter, which was depleting her calcium. The vet gave me hand feed emergency food and calcium- both injection form and oral form. We gave her that and she is getting better. It appears that the muscles in her throat had a spasm due to the low calcium levels--weird. The muscles in her throat were stretched so it is taking a while for her to get better and we are still hand feeding her. Her tongue is also slowly ascending back into her mouth ^_^. She can eat some things on her own now but we still hand feed her to make sure she gets what she needs everyday, including water. I am posting this in order to help those who have this very strange issue come up and don't know what to do. If this happens to you, I recommend a few things: make sure the hen can drink water, or feed her water yourself. Take the crumble chicken food, put it in sufficient water (1 cup water for 3 tablespoons crumble food) and place it in microwave for 1 minute. It takes quite a bit of water, so you may need to add some. Wait for this food to cool and feed it to chicken in oral syringes or spoon if chicken allows it. Also, take egg shells and crumble them up and feed them to the chicken to help increase calcium levels. It will take a few weeks, maybe 2-3 months for the chicken to get better, especially if she is still laying eggs. Hope this helps someone else out there with this crazy problem.

 

[chrs1986]

Poor fuzzy butt

 

[Lotusbud]

Wow - that is really helpful, thanks! I'm glad that doc was able to save your chicken.

We do feed our chickens ground oyster shells with their food as well as the occasional cheese or yogurt treat. ACV is put in their drinking water. Any sick chicken (esp. poopy butts) get fed yogurt and that always seems to clear them up. Fuzzy Butt was notorious for swallowing large blades of grass whole until her tongue disappeared, so we'll never know if it was that or if she actually had a calcium deficiency. Now I wonder! Her eggs were always thick shelled (as EE's tend to be) until she simply stopped laying. Good to know this calcium info - I really hope this helps someone out there.

 

[Mariyam Abbas]

I will try to get a pic of the inside of her throat and post it here. Right now my profile pic is of Fuzzy Butt, taken a few days before she started having problems.

Riki: Believe me, I'd love to get her to a vet that treats chickens (if we could afford it too) but we are on our own here.
I like the idea of the 'man-catcher' - will try to build such a device after a little more thought as to the 'catcher' - I certainly don't want to hurt or damage her tongue in the process.
She is eating well with the oatmeal mush that we give her, and she loves the new grower mash. Thank you so much for the great idea!

My Chicken is facing the same problem. She got her tongue stuck in her throat and I don't inow how to help it. Please reach out.