[ʀᴇꜱᴏʟᴠᴇᴅ] Hen suddenly falling asleep while standing, droopy tail! | 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵: 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

I'm @Tiffany Wikk's sister. Here is a photo of the worm we found on the second day of deworming. It wasn't from Maisie's dropping as she was on the other side of the coop. I believe it was from one of my lavender orpingtons. But this is a super obvious worm so I know the lavender orpington at least had some I know nothing about worms so I'm not sure what. I should have been keeping my eye out for.

Thank you everyone for all the help you are! What an incredible blessing. I was absolutely exhausted and just woke up. My sister said, "Did you see how Eggcessive, Azygous, Lafleche, and TLCMurphy are allll helping us?" and I just about burst into tears it meant so much.

 

[Tiffany Wikk]

Update:
We gave another 3ml of the molasses solution (15-ish minutes ago). We added 1/4 tsp sugar to the original solution, 1/4 tsp brewers yeast (for the B vitamin) and a pinch of salt, baking soda, and electrolytes (with E and some B). She hasn't perked up much, so I'm waiting and will give some again later. We are looking into getting a feeding tube from a nearby vet if possible.

 

[Traffie Chickens]

I don’t know if this will help much but, my hen Sage had the same exact problem as yours, other than she didn’t have any worms . She was hunched over, closing her eyes, and she wouldn’t move, eat or drink. She looked the same as your picture you posted of her. I still don’t know what ever caused her these issues, but she is now happy and healthy again! I will share with you what I did for her.


The first thing I did was bring her inside from in the coop and set up a warm epsom salt bath. people told me that she might be too weak to do it, but I have heard of many other people who said that It helped a ton. So I went for the risk, she seemed to really enjoy the warm bath.

after she was in the bath for about 30 mins I took her out and dried her with my hair dryer. I tried to feel for an egg, but I couldn’t. She was doing little poos just like your hen. But she never laid an egg after the bath that night. I set up a pen for her for the night, with a nesting box, watered down pellet mush, crushed egg shells, and some water. In the morning I found a very weird (poop) it looked like a plain egg white with no yolk or shell. So she could have been egg bound with an egg with no shell in her, But I was so glad that it came out! After she started walking a bit, and eating and drinking, I put her back in the coop with the others. Every day I gave her half of a (tums calcium carbonate tablet) crushed up and turned into liquid. And after five days of putting that into her beak, morning and afternoon, she laid an egg again!!!! And she has been laying every day ever since! I hope this helps! And I really hope for your sweet hen to get better soon!

 

[The Welch Chickens]

Hope your hen feels better soon, @Tiffany Wikk and @Elspeth Dinsmore

Praying for you guys!

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

@LaFleche mentioned her poop. I seem to have missed the photo if it's posted. If you see any dead worms in her poop, she is probably suffering shock from heavy worm load.

What the worming med does is to sedate the worms in the intestines, then they die and are usually absorbed into the intestines, but they may be clogging her now. You did the right thing by giving her sugar water and electrolytes in the beginning. Keep that up. It's keeping her from dying of shock.

Her crop not emptying points to possible obstruction of dead worms in the intestinal tract rather than a stuck egg. I would give her a molasses flush. This is gentle and should help.

Mix one teaspoon molasses in one-fourth cup warm water. Give it as her sole water until she drinks it all or better, tube it into her crop. Are you prepared to tube a chicken? The solution could also be syringed into her isf she can't drink on her own. This is how to do it without aspirating her. View attachment 3858877

We are about to start tubing her. We ordered the kit you had recommended in another thread -- unfortunately, it won't come until tomorrow. My momma has a nebulizer with oxygen tubing (this was a new tube and unused).

We cut that to the length you advised.

We are about to give her all of the solution you mentioned. Would it be a concern that her crop might not be able to take it all since it is still full? Do I need to be concerned about air bubbles in the tubing? Thank you for all of your help!

 

[azygous]

@Traffie Chickens has a good point about the Epsom soak. The minerals can penetrate up the digestive tract and actually help the lower digestive tract and possible obstruction. However, this hen is showing signs of shock, so I would hold off on the soak until she shows signs of perking up.

 

[azygous]

You guys are an awesome team! As you tube, you will need to gauge her crop capacity and not overfill it. Use your judgement.

 

[Tiffany Wikk]

Hope your hen feels better soon, @Tiffany Wikk and @Elspeth Dinsmore

Praying for you guys!

Thank you so much! I am too

 

[Tiffany Wikk]

You guys are an awesome team! As you tube, you will need to gauge her crop capacity and not overfill it. Use your judgement.

Thank you so so much for the quick reply. I don't know what I'd do without your help! I'm crying so much I hope I can do this right!

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

You guys are an awesome team! As you tube, you will need to gauge her crop capacity and not overfill it. Use your judgement.

Thank you sooo much! We all love you, Azygous! You're amazing.