I have a bird that when I got her as a day old chick was sickly. She wasn't eating and was much smaller than the other girls. I mixed kefir into her chick crumbles and coaxed her in to eating and she began to grow and thrive. I had been advised by someone who is a breeder (chick was NOT from him) that a sickly baby bird would likely grow into a sickly hen and I'd be battling illness with her. Well, I'm new and soft hearted and couldn't just cull her, especially since she'd been eating and seemed to be doing okay other than being small. (I have a soft spot for the underdog.)
Fast forward; she is now about 19 weeks old and has a very sticky mucous that had been coming out of her nostrils and was in her mouth. A couple of my other hens had similar issues so I treated with Sulmet because the bottle says it's good for some of those respiratory things. Well the other hens seem to have all recovered but Peanut is still struggling with the mucous. She's finished her round of Sulmet and while she no longer has mucous coming out her nose, she is still very sticky in the mouth. So much so that I don't think she's able to get much food to pass into her crop.
I picked her up today and was very distressed by how light she is. She's lost a lot of weight and her crop was completely empty. When I throw treats in she runs around like a crazy bird and grabs her fair share but she has a hard time getting it to go down. Out of concern over her slowly starving to death I crop fed her some baby bird formula mixed in water today. My hope is that with some nutrition getting into her, her body will gain the strength to fight this crud off.
I guess what I want to know is, do you think I'm fighting a losing battle? I hate losing birds but I sure don't want her dying a slow death of starvation! I will crop feed her for awhile if this is necessary to save her but if she's going to spend the rest of her days slowly degrading I just don't know that I want to put her or my kids (or me!) through that.
I don't want to kill a bird needlessly but I also don't want to allow one to suffer so I guess I'm just looking for some input. Do you think she can recover?
Fast forward; she is now about 19 weeks old and has a very sticky mucous that had been coming out of her nostrils and was in her mouth. A couple of my other hens had similar issues so I treated with Sulmet because the bottle says it's good for some of those respiratory things. Well the other hens seem to have all recovered but Peanut is still struggling with the mucous. She's finished her round of Sulmet and while she no longer has mucous coming out her nose, she is still very sticky in the mouth. So much so that I don't think she's able to get much food to pass into her crop.
I picked her up today and was very distressed by how light she is. She's lost a lot of weight and her crop was completely empty. When I throw treats in she runs around like a crazy bird and grabs her fair share but she has a hard time getting it to go down. Out of concern over her slowly starving to death I crop fed her some baby bird formula mixed in water today. My hope is that with some nutrition getting into her, her body will gain the strength to fight this crud off.
I guess what I want to know is, do you think I'm fighting a losing battle? I hate losing birds but I sure don't want her dying a slow death of starvation! I will crop feed her for awhile if this is necessary to save her but if she's going to spend the rest of her days slowly degrading I just don't know that I want to put her or my kids (or me!) through that.
I don't want to kill a bird needlessly but I also don't want to allow one to suffer so I guess I'm just looking for some input. Do you think she can recover?
