Wry Neck Closed Eye Vet Visit Update INPUT PLEASE

[Susanjoans]

Found a chicken vet here in town and took my Pila in today.

Brief history:
3 weeks ago began tilting head to the right, became so severe her head tilted upside down.
Did Vitamin B, selenium, Vitamin E treatment and in 5 days she did wonderfully.
In 7 days she was herself again, and we let her go back to the flock (monitored). (A mistake, too soon, I regret We did keep up the vitamin treatment)
5 days ago, she began holding her right eye closed, and the head tilt began again. We brought her back in,
By last night she was back to the stage she was 3 weeks ago, but weak, and not as willing to try to eat or drink.

Vet today said the following:

- wry neck is a symptom of a serious disease, not an illness on its own
- the disease can't be discovered without necropsy
- the rest of my birds likely have the disease
- she is severely anemic and has lost weight
- love on her over the weekend and bring her in for euthanasia monday
- drive her body, on ice (after washing her with soap to remove feather oil), to the university test site 1 hour away


I looked at the price list for the necropsy services and depending on the services, it could be very high.

the vet worked with me today, but euthanasia will be 45, and working with me after the necropsy results will be a flat rate of 80.

I am not in a place where I have extra income.

I don't know if I would be able to euthanize her myself.

Where I am right now:
she had a rough day today. see how she is tomorrow - if she is still not willing to eat, and has little fight left in her (like tonight), I think it's better for her to end now. If she has any willingness, wait another day.

I have 4 more chickens, and 2 ducks. I'm not a farmer - this is a backyard flock, I enjoy the birds and the eggs.

Is it always this hard? I don't guess I'd be the caretaker of any living thing without having my heart involved. And there's a closeness I've gotten with nursing her so constantly these past 3 weeks.

I'm dejected - I certainly don't want to watch each of my birds succomb. The doc said maybe they won't - but that her disease is likely theirs as well, since they've been together 6 months. He thinks she has likely had the underlying disease since before I got her.

She has always been my most lively, and scoffed at too much human interaction. And a great flier

I welcome any input.

Thanks

 

[chicknmania]

That is high for euthanasia, I think. Necropsy prices vary, but $80.00 is not bad. Not necessarily true that all your birds will get what this one has. It could be many things, even a genetic defect. Necropsy though is useful so you will know what to expect and how to treat. I would look around some though. Some necropsies can take way too long. We pay 15.00 - 35.00 for euthanasia here, depending on what vet we use. Tell the vet it's a chicken for crying out loud! I can't stand to cull our own, either. I'd call the state ag department where you are, but many places that do necropsies would rather euthanize the bird themselves, anyway. The more recently the bird has died the easier it is.

 

[Susanjoans]

thank you. from their website, university of kentucky does not euthanize, but I'll call around.
my boyfriend still wants to believe she's going to pull through. he's usually the tough guy.
but she's a very sweet little banty, so I'm right there with him.

 

[Susanjoans]

Pls? Comments?
She's not any better today.
I am thinking I'm going to have to do it myself. Vet is closed and I can't watch this anymore.

 

[chicknmania]

Is there a farmer that would do it for you? I'm so sorry. You can try to force feed her if you want to see if she will pull through, although usually at this stage it's difficult to turn them around.
If you want to though it's not hard, especially if your friend will help you. Mix up some yogurt, banana, maybe oatmeal, applesauce, whatever you have around to make a smoothie, even veggies.
Put it in a blender or food processor if you have one. Otherwise just make sure it's pretty smooth. Get some aquarium hose at the pet store, and a syringe. These are not expensive. If you can't find these things, tell the pet store clerk what you're trying to do they should have something. They also sell baby bird formula which is bird smoothie already made up, just add water!

Wrap your little sweetie in a towel. One of you hold her in the towel while you grasp the beak top and bottom and gently pry open. You'll see a big hole and a tiny one. You want to measure the amount of tube you'll need to go from her mouth to crop, and then the other person will thread that amount of tube gently down the BIG hole right behind her tongue. The tube will stop when it hits bottom. The syringe containing smoothie will be attached to the other end, and you gently depress the plunger so that the smoothie flows into her crop. Her crop will fill, but if you are worried about overfilling, just go slow and you should have a pretty good idea when enough is enough, even if you can't tell if the crop is filling. You should do this two or three times a day anyway. You don't want to OVERfill the crop obviously since you don't want her to choke, but you'll get the hang of it. WE were horrified first time we had to do this, and the second time, but by the third time we got pretty good at it. Fortunately we've only had to do it three times in the past nine years or so. I know it's hard, everybody goes through this sooner or later, but if she doesn't make it, at least you did everything possible to save her. It's a good learning experience, and you'll know better what to do next time. Don't worry about the other birds, just feed them as good quality food as you can, feed and healthy table scraps, and hope for the best. They'll probably be ok. Don't hesitate to ask for more help if you need it. Good luck.

 

[chicknmania]

The most important thing for a sick chicken's survival is that they continue to eat and drink. Feed whatever she likes, as often as she will eat. If she quits eating, you really do have to tube feed. Trying to just force into the beak with a dropper or whatever doesn't work very well.

Oatmeal, chopped strawberries or grapes, yogurt, cottage cheese, cream of wheat, banana, tomato, scrambled eggs, chopped hard boiled egg, applesauce are all things that we have used successfully to tempt our sick birds. Or just use your imagination, just make sure it's healthy.

 

[Susanjoans]

Pila is at rest
My wonderful vet came in and we put her down together. He hugged me, said I am a good woman, and said no charge.
Pila brought us many gifts, even in her death.
Thanks everyone.

 

[chicknmania]

OH, what a great guy! You are so lucky! I'm glad you didn't have to put her down yourself. Just keep a casual eye on the others, they will hide symptoms so don't stare at them...but don't worry too much. Sorry for your loss. I sure wish I could find a vet like yours though!

 

[Susanjoans]

It was truly an amazing experience. The sadness became gratitude, and he was inspiring.

 

[Susanjoans]

When I got home, my guy and I went outside and gave our girls BOSS, warm oatmeal, and mealworms, and celebrated our Pila. We've decided it will be an annual feast day - a day to look at all our blessings and think of all of the good beings in the world.