12 week old with under-developed tongue

[The Tiny Homestead]

Thanks. I picked up some all flock today

The first 2 pictures are of Shenendoah, and the 3rd is Annalee.

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

The first 2 pictures are of Shenendoah, and the 3rd is Annalee.

Mistake, in my rush I clicked on pictures of AMELIA Airheart, my older easter egger in the first 2 shots

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

UPDATE on SHENENDOAH
I have been so happy to have the summer off to spend with the birds. Shenendoah has been getting lots of tender loving care. Ia am really pleased with her progress. She and Annalee are stlil coming in to sleep, but spending the whole day out with the other birds. I have been giving her some meat and fish, and checking her crop late in the day, to see how full it is. Yesterday, when I weighed her, she was at 2 lbs 14 ounces. Annalee is at 3 lbs 7 ounces, so Shenny has done a lot of catching up. They are both such happy birds, but at the bottom of the pecking order. The other day, when the birds were all squawking their warning sound, I heard an unfamiliar voice. When I looked in the run, it was Shenendoah doing her best to join in. I'll post a picture of the two of them in the comments, since I'm on the laptop, and all of my pictures are on my tablet.
Next I need to get them into the coop at night with the others. I'll ask about that in a separate post

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

The first 2 pictures are of Shenendoah, and the 3rd is Annalee.

actually, I rushed to pull up some pictures and noticed the first two are Amelia, the 2 yr old

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

actually, I rushed to pull up some pictures and noticed the first two are Amelia, the 2 yr old

I have a 12 week old Easter egger, Shenendoah, whose tongue never fully developed. Much of the front half of her lower beak is just empty space. She seemed fine until about 5 weeks when, one night she suddenly starting coughing and had mucus in her mouth. It got worse as the night progressed. At one point, she went into spasms, fell over, and stopped breathing. We revived her, and I spent the night swabbing the mucus, which had gotten thick, out of her mouth, and slept on the floor holding her on my chest. The next day, she wasn't eating or drinking. We thought we were going to lose her. I fed her with a syringe for a few days, mucus lessened and became clear, and eventually she started eating and drinking. She started gaining some weight, and I monitored it daily. On May 22nd, she weighed 12 ounces, compared to her "sister" Annalee, who weighed 1 lb 8 ounces. When I finally got her into the vet, specifically because she still had clear mucus, I found out she didn't have a fully developed tongue. The options were pretty bleak. Have her put down, or tube feed her for the rest of her life, with no outdoor time with the other chickens, to prevent foraging and choking. We took her home to think about the situation. There were a lot of tears. She was a happy, loving chicken, and She and Annalee stuck together like two magnets.
I bought every kind of food I could find to see if one was easier for her to swallow, and I still brought her outside to forage. If she started coughing, I would check her beak and swab it out for her. I noticed that she could handle things like worms and wood bugs, and centipede-like critters. Bigger things were actually easier for her. Small seeds kind of collected in the front of her beak. She has learned to adapt in several ways. I noticed early on that she seemed to move her beak back and forth sideways, and thought that was strange, but it's her way of moving the food in her mouth. She will go to water, and take a lot into her beak and let it run out to clear out small stuff and dirt.MY REAL QUEStiON is: How do I make sure she gets the right amount and balance of nutrients she needs. She has trouble with crumble, and wet food just clogs up her beak. She can handle layer pellets, but I can't find starter/grower in pellet form, and worry that layer has too much calcium. She can handle sunflower seeds, and larger bits of scratch grain. Every few days I have been giving her some meat, that I slice, then cut into strips, around small fishing worm size, and cook in a dry pan. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? Any good advice would be much appreciated. Oh, and today she hit the 2 lb mark. Annalee is at 3 lbs.

The first picture is Shenendoah in the front, and Annalee in the back, sitting on the new $2 chair from the thrift store, mkddle is not such a good selfie, but I'm holding Mazie with Annalee, and Shenendoah sitting on Mazie's back. Mazie likes to tuck her head under my arm, otherwise, she wouldn't bave tolerated them being so close. The third is in the geodome with Braveheart on the left and Sweet Sue in the background.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

UPDATE on SHENENDOAH
I have been so happy to have the summer off to spend with the birds. Shenendoah has been getting lots of tender loving care. Ia am really pleased with her progress. She and Annalee are stlil coming in to sleep, but spending the whole day out with the other birds. I have been giving her some meat and fish, and checking her crop late in the day, to see how full it is. Yesterday, when I weighed her, she was at 2 lbs 14 ounces. Annalee is at 3 lbs 7 ounces, so Shenny has done a lot of catching up. They are both such happy birds, but at the bottom of the pecking order. The other day, when the birds were all squawking their warning sound, I heard an unfamiliar voice. When I looked in the run, it was Shenendoah doing her best to join in. I'll post a picture of the two of them in the comments, since I'm on the laptop, and all of my pictures are on my tablet.
Next I need to get them into the coop at night with the others. I'll ask about that in a separate post

Glad to hear she's doing better. They all look very good, thank you for the update.

 

[Themellowyellows]

Hi! Curious as how you revived her! Hope she is doing well and you found the right feed!

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

Hi! Curious as how you revived her! Hope she is doing well and you found the right feed!

Thank you for asking about her.
I knew there was a risk of salmonella, but I cleared out the mucus and put my mouth over her beak and gave her breaths, and compressed her abdomen, not knowing if that was the right thing to do. I was desperate. she has learned to maneuver food with her beak, so that she can swallow. I have also been cooking chicken, beef, and omelets, and she has now just about caught up with her "sister" and weighs a little over 3-1/2 lbs. They have been spending days out with the flock, and sleeping in at night, but they just transitioned to sleeping in the coop two nights ago. See my other post Losing My Girls.