Our two year old black BLRW stopped eating and was laying with her head in the corner of her coop, so I took her to the vet. The blood work came back as borderline liver problems and coupled with bruising throughout her body, the vet is guessing fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome.
She is the perfect candidate for it. Her and her sister came to us as victims of neglect and lost most of their feet to frostbite. After nursing them back to health, we built them their own coop (about 4' by 8'). So she doesn't move around much and has become a very large hen, I'd say obese. She is a horrible layer and has always had a pale comb and waddles. They have unlimited access to layer pellets and limited access to scratch (I admit, they are the worst beggars and, based on their activity level, I could probably cut back a bit).
Vet has put her on vitamin K1, which I crush up with some Purina Flock Raiser and hand feeding formula for baby birds. Once a day I force feed her. This has been going on for a week. After a couple of days, I started to see improvement. She has Flock Raiser in her cage and, while I haven't seen her eating, the food is disappearing and poop is appearing. The poop is green tinged, but normal looking. The bruising throughout her body is diminishing, but her feet still look a bit swollen. In addition, she is moving around the cage more and is her crabby self again. The vet wants her to stay on vitamin K1 for a month (at least).
I did some research here on BYC and found some great threads like - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=435767 , but I still have some questions that I was hoping someone could help me with.
1- If she loses weight, will her liver issues clear up?
2- I'm assuming I'm going to have to ration her food. Right now she is by herself and normally she is in a coop with just her and her sister. Any ideas on how much to feed them? Should I cut their food with something like oat hulls? It seems that they will pick through their feed to find what they want (usually a layer pellet with bit of unground corn in it), so I'm not sure this will work.
3- I'm assuming I should comparison shop for a food with the least amount of carbohydrates in it and the highest amount of protein? Is that right? Any suggestions?
4- Is there anything else I can supplement her with (other than the vitamin K1)?
5- I was also wondering what her long term prognosis would be and if anybody else out there has had good luck with getting this syndrome under control.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
She is the perfect candidate for it. Her and her sister came to us as victims of neglect and lost most of their feet to frostbite. After nursing them back to health, we built them their own coop (about 4' by 8'). So she doesn't move around much and has become a very large hen, I'd say obese. She is a horrible layer and has always had a pale comb and waddles. They have unlimited access to layer pellets and limited access to scratch (I admit, they are the worst beggars and, based on their activity level, I could probably cut back a bit).
Vet has put her on vitamin K1, which I crush up with some Purina Flock Raiser and hand feeding formula for baby birds. Once a day I force feed her. This has been going on for a week. After a couple of days, I started to see improvement. She has Flock Raiser in her cage and, while I haven't seen her eating, the food is disappearing and poop is appearing. The poop is green tinged, but normal looking. The bruising throughout her body is diminishing, but her feet still look a bit swollen. In addition, she is moving around the cage more and is her crabby self again. The vet wants her to stay on vitamin K1 for a month (at least).
I did some research here on BYC and found some great threads like - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=435767 , but I still have some questions that I was hoping someone could help me with.
1- If she loses weight, will her liver issues clear up?
2- I'm assuming I'm going to have to ration her food. Right now she is by herself and normally she is in a coop with just her and her sister. Any ideas on how much to feed them? Should I cut their food with something like oat hulls? It seems that they will pick through their feed to find what they want (usually a layer pellet with bit of unground corn in it), so I'm not sure this will work.
3- I'm assuming I should comparison shop for a food with the least amount of carbohydrates in it and the highest amount of protein? Is that right? Any suggestions?
4- Is there anything else I can supplement her with (other than the vitamin K1)?
5- I was also wondering what her long term prognosis would be and if anybody else out there has had good luck with getting this syndrome under control.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
