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Thank you Justine for your very generous offer. I actually have had one other offer to pay for a vet visit as well, however at the time I didn't think it would be necessary since she was doing so much better. It also seemed that there wouldn't be much more a vet could do than what I was already doing. I actually got confirmation of that Saturday when a fellow BYCer had a vet friend read this whole thread.
That being said, I am beginning to think that a vet trip may be a good idea. But first, I want to see what happens with the new antibiotic that has been recommended to me. If I don't see improvement after a few days on that, then I may just take you or the other person up on your amazing offer. Thank you again!
Also, I like your plaster of paris idea, unfortunately though, I have a cat and there are also many neighborhood cats who would gladly eat a plateful of sardines. Would the peanut butter idea work for opossums? I'm not sure if a cat would eat peanut butter, although I know a dog would. Dogs are really a concern where the coop is though.
So....on to the update for the day.
I wasn't feeling well today, so was only able to take care of her once. Unfortunately, no one else if my family is really able/willing to do it. They're all too grossed out. I think I really need to thank my mom for giving me the ability to do what it takes to help an animal. When I was a kid, we didn't really have a farm, but we did have just about every farm animal there is at one time or another. My mom would not take no for an answer when there was a problem with an animal. She even made PVC splints for two kids that had had to be forcibly birthed by the vet and he had said they needed to be put down because they'd never walk right. Well, I think it was less than a week before they were able to walk just fine without the splints. Anyhow, I digress.
Both eyes were glued shut again, the side that's worse right now, would get glued shut in just a matter of minutes while I was working on her. I kept going back to it and reopening it and getting the goo out. Did get a couple of good sized chunks out, but I'm still not to optimistic about the eye itself.
I never did find the wound on the bad side again. I think I found where it might have been, but nothing I did would reopen it and I couldn't really see any evidence of it.
The wound I've been keeping open was nearly closed tonight. It took a lot to get it open again. Nathalie, the opening is only about as big as the thicker part of a toothpick and that's after I stretched it a bit. I don't know if I'll be able to do it again tomorrow or not.
As for flushing the wound, I've been using both saline and the betadine flush. I figured the more I could flush it, the better it would be and they both have different helpful properties.
I definitely think you and California Ducken are right that I should try the Baytril. She does seem to have plateaued and I agree that a change might help get her back on track. Do you know if I can get this locally? Is it something a feed store might carry? I'd like to get it as soon as possible, so I'd prefer to leave online ordering as a last resort.
Oh, I did try and do the sinus flush. It didn't seem to help a whole lot, was kind of hard to do by myself. I couldn't hold her beak in place and keep it low and still see what I was doing. I'll have to have someone help me try again tomorrow.
Ironically, I had more luck with the sinus flush through the open wound. When I was flushing the wound, it started coming out the nose. Too bad though, it only came out the one side, not the side that's worse right now.
Her balance is not seeming to get any better. In fact, after I finished cleaning her tonight and put her back on her roost, she seemed to gain her balance and I went to clean all the stuff I use on her. When I came back she had kind of slid off and was slowly leaning over until she was laying on her side. She just went to sleep like that. Tomorrow I'll bring in a piece of scrap 2 x 4. I hadn't done it because she had seemed to be better with the 2 x 2 I have in there.
She also seemed to be trying to get her balance a lot today. She was using her wings the same we would use our hands to steady ourselves. She also seemed to be having a hard time standing. Not sure if that's just the balance or if it's something else. I hope it's just the balance.
I shouldn't have any trouble getting the wheat germ. I'll try to do that tomorrow and get her started on it.
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It probably would last forever if my little guy hadn't got a hold of it, trying to be helpful, of course, and managed to squirt over half the tube out. One of my older kids was supposed to be watching him to keep him out of the way. This is why I now try to do all her care session when he's asleep. He's just too little and doesn't understand why he can't help too.
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Wow, that must have been so scary to have your horse paralyzed. It's great that you've got such a good vet!
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Chickatopia! I love it, what a wonderful place that would be. Everyone would understand why someone would go to all this work for just a dumb chicken.
And as always, I so appreciate the rooting us on. This site has really helped me when I'm feeling discouraged about her progress. And, I know that even if after all this, she doesn't make it, I can count on you all to sympathize and understand.
Okay, so I went way beyond a novel tonight, I think I wrote an epic instead.
I'll talk to you all tomorrow!
