Pixiejan
Chirping
You guys were so helpful the last time I had issues, I thought I'd post here in case I'm missing something or not seeing something.
Chippy (the favourite and problem child lol - True Whiting Blue, 7 months old), was attacked by our dog Oct 13th and has been in the house recovering since. She made a great recovery from her wounds (I did a lot of searching on the forum and found lots of helpful posts) and her feathers are coming in. She would already be outside if it was summer, but because there's snow on the ground here now, I'm waiting for her feathers (and on Saturday our extra roosters go to freezer camp so I'm waiting until then to reintroduce). The week she was injured was the week she could have started laying, so I figured she would start laying when she was inside and it would be delayed due to her injuries.
About eight days ago she started to really make a mess of her kennel, she started pulling the bedding a lot and dumping her water almost immediately and trying to drink off the puppy pads (which made me nervous), I went in the last time and the water was dumped a little and she was drooling slime like water like she'd spit up water. So I pulled food and water and have been offering by hand 5-7 times per day and I spend a decent amount of time with her when I do that. I also started wetting down her food as the food we have is really dusty and I noticed she ate more when I wet it down. That was going well and no changes in poop. In between times when I'm not feeding/waterering her I keep them right beside the kennel as she can put her head through be bars, though prefers not to. I've put meal worms in her food and her water multiple times and she will reach through and eat them.
Nov 12th she tore up the puppy pads and actually ate some of the pad, maybe a 4" square area and also layed her first egg and it finally clicked for me that she was trying to make a nest with the puppy pads, so I put a cardboard box with shavings in it. She pecked a lot at the shaving made herself a nice little nest and I assume ate some of the shavings as well.
Nov 13 her appetite went down and I believe there was some mild impacted crop issues and her poops became mushy and watery. I believe some mild sour crop issues developed soon after. Since the 13th her crop has been emptying but not completely. Yesterday is was mostly empty but a little squishy. On the 13th I made sure she had grit due to the shavings she ate and I started giving her some kefir. Poops at some point after her appetite went down started turning more green, I figured this was because she was eating less and I think if I remember correctly Nov 14 I started pushing the food (spending more time trying to feed her, fluffing it up for her, mixing in meal worms etc), more for her and thought maybe she just wasn't eating enough.
Nov 15th we had some normal poops in the morning and thought things were improving, but things went back to mushy, green and watery in the afternoon. She also split up slime like water once when she was drinking that day.
Yesterday I increased the frequency of how often I went in there in case she was drinking too much at once and it was just going through her (since yesterday I'm going in basically hourly during daylight hours). Still giving kefir regularly and started poultry cell yesterday. Appetite improved yesterday and she ate quite a lot. I saw something about slippery elm a couple days ago and found what I had in the house and gave before bed yesterday. Her tail was a little down when roosting last night which made me a little nervous but I decided to see how she was this morning.
Through all this she has been laying every other day with an egg yesterday and then one this morning (so four eggs total now).
This morning she was very perky and active had more normal poops, but still a little mushy (but an improvement from yesterday) but there was no absorption in the puppy pads. Her crop was completely empty, I couldn't feel it at all. I gave slippery elm first thing on an empty crop/stomach. Then wet down food with poultry cell and kefir. Over the multiple visits with her this morning she drank a little more water than usual, and even drank a couple times through the bars of the kennel (I haven't seen her do that unless I put meal worms in). Her poops this morning had been looking much better. But then around 1:30pm, she had a squirty watery poop. She has been less thirsty this afternoon, I've offered water twice and she hasn't wanted it, the third time I offered she had a little. I had doubled the dose of the slippery elm this morning from what I gave her last night, and I'm wondering if that made her really thirsty? I found the top of my chick feeder which was missing before and she had been dumping the food a lot which was part of the reason I removed the food from the kennel. I've added it back with dry food now with the top on and I'm hoping she can't dump it now. We also added a roosting bar since then, and I think that will help keep it from dumping as well (so far, so good). She's had a couple more poops since the watery one, they have been mushy.
My son has been taking her outside about every other day on a makeshift harness & leash since about 8 days ago because we originally thought it was all because she was bored and we have noticed she's less antsy when he does that. I noticed because I was picking her more that when her appetite when down, she did lose weight. He just took her out now and she's gained weight in the last couple days and is feeling more solid.
Also in the past she seems to get slight sour crop that has resolved fairly easily with kefir added to food for a few days (I wonder if she has a bit of a sluggish crop and so things develop faster when things change). It's happened twice in the past (once was right before she had coccidiosis).
Sometimes when she's eating she has a little bit of a wheezing sound and she sneezes fairly regularly. She does gobble it down.
Sorry for the novel!
I'm planning to continue with the slippery elm. I got dosages from here. Last night I used the smaller amount, this morning I used the higher amount. I will go back to the smaller amount tonight. My hypothesis is her gut got out of whack and if that's it, in theory, the slippery elm should help. Since adding the slippery elm, I 'think' her crop is emptying faster. I'll have a better idea this evening as it seems to empty slower in the later afternoon and evening.
I'm wondering if I should add canesten (clotramizole) for the sour crop? I have some canesten cream on hand, though it is maybe a 2-3 years old. But her sour crop symptoms seem to have improved with the completely empty crop this morning. It was a little squishy this morning when she had eaten and drank, but she drank way more than usual. This afternoon the crop is not squishy at all. There is no smell from her beak and her vent is clean. At this point I'm thinking I should wait on the canesten.
I'm going to try and introduce water back into her kennel now and see if she won't dump it, I'm thinking maybe the roosting bar might keep that from happening. I am going in and offering water super regularly, but if I can reintroduce it without her making a huge mess, that would obviously be better. I think her trying to make a nest was what set off the behaviour because she had been fine for weeks before that (she was pulling at the puppy pad end behind the water which was tilting it forward). And I only pulled the water from the kennel when she started doing it as soon as I put fresh water in.
The only other thing I can think of is the puppy pads I'm using are supposed to be unscented. The first 2-3 bags we used were not scented, but this last bag there is a scent for sure even though the packaging says unscented and the company doesn't make scented puppy pads (its most noticeable when unfolding the puppy pads). I opened this bag 4-5 days ago.
Again sorry for the novel. I do have pictures of some of the poops and how she's looking and can post if needed. Thanks!
Chippy (the favourite and problem child lol - True Whiting Blue, 7 months old), was attacked by our dog Oct 13th and has been in the house recovering since. She made a great recovery from her wounds (I did a lot of searching on the forum and found lots of helpful posts) and her feathers are coming in. She would already be outside if it was summer, but because there's snow on the ground here now, I'm waiting for her feathers (and on Saturday our extra roosters go to freezer camp so I'm waiting until then to reintroduce). The week she was injured was the week she could have started laying, so I figured she would start laying when she was inside and it would be delayed due to her injuries.
About eight days ago she started to really make a mess of her kennel, she started pulling the bedding a lot and dumping her water almost immediately and trying to drink off the puppy pads (which made me nervous), I went in the last time and the water was dumped a little and she was drooling slime like water like she'd spit up water. So I pulled food and water and have been offering by hand 5-7 times per day and I spend a decent amount of time with her when I do that. I also started wetting down her food as the food we have is really dusty and I noticed she ate more when I wet it down. That was going well and no changes in poop. In between times when I'm not feeding/waterering her I keep them right beside the kennel as she can put her head through be bars, though prefers not to. I've put meal worms in her food and her water multiple times and she will reach through and eat them.
Nov 12th she tore up the puppy pads and actually ate some of the pad, maybe a 4" square area and also layed her first egg and it finally clicked for me that she was trying to make a nest with the puppy pads, so I put a cardboard box with shavings in it. She pecked a lot at the shaving made herself a nice little nest and I assume ate some of the shavings as well.
Nov 13 her appetite went down and I believe there was some mild impacted crop issues and her poops became mushy and watery. I believe some mild sour crop issues developed soon after. Since the 13th her crop has been emptying but not completely. Yesterday is was mostly empty but a little squishy. On the 13th I made sure she had grit due to the shavings she ate and I started giving her some kefir. Poops at some point after her appetite went down started turning more green, I figured this was because she was eating less and I think if I remember correctly Nov 14 I started pushing the food (spending more time trying to feed her, fluffing it up for her, mixing in meal worms etc), more for her and thought maybe she just wasn't eating enough.
Nov 15th we had some normal poops in the morning and thought things were improving, but things went back to mushy, green and watery in the afternoon. She also split up slime like water once when she was drinking that day.
Yesterday I increased the frequency of how often I went in there in case she was drinking too much at once and it was just going through her (since yesterday I'm going in basically hourly during daylight hours). Still giving kefir regularly and started poultry cell yesterday. Appetite improved yesterday and she ate quite a lot. I saw something about slippery elm a couple days ago and found what I had in the house and gave before bed yesterday. Her tail was a little down when roosting last night which made me a little nervous but I decided to see how she was this morning.
Through all this she has been laying every other day with an egg yesterday and then one this morning (so four eggs total now).
This morning she was very perky and active had more normal poops, but still a little mushy (but an improvement from yesterday) but there was no absorption in the puppy pads. Her crop was completely empty, I couldn't feel it at all. I gave slippery elm first thing on an empty crop/stomach. Then wet down food with poultry cell and kefir. Over the multiple visits with her this morning she drank a little more water than usual, and even drank a couple times through the bars of the kennel (I haven't seen her do that unless I put meal worms in). Her poops this morning had been looking much better. But then around 1:30pm, she had a squirty watery poop. She has been less thirsty this afternoon, I've offered water twice and she hasn't wanted it, the third time I offered she had a little. I had doubled the dose of the slippery elm this morning from what I gave her last night, and I'm wondering if that made her really thirsty? I found the top of my chick feeder which was missing before and she had been dumping the food a lot which was part of the reason I removed the food from the kennel. I've added it back with dry food now with the top on and I'm hoping she can't dump it now. We also added a roosting bar since then, and I think that will help keep it from dumping as well (so far, so good). She's had a couple more poops since the watery one, they have been mushy.
My son has been taking her outside about every other day on a makeshift harness & leash since about 8 days ago because we originally thought it was all because she was bored and we have noticed she's less antsy when he does that. I noticed because I was picking her more that when her appetite when down, she did lose weight. He just took her out now and she's gained weight in the last couple days and is feeling more solid.
Also in the past she seems to get slight sour crop that has resolved fairly easily with kefir added to food for a few days (I wonder if she has a bit of a sluggish crop and so things develop faster when things change). It's happened twice in the past (once was right before she had coccidiosis).
Sometimes when she's eating she has a little bit of a wheezing sound and she sneezes fairly regularly. She does gobble it down.
Sorry for the novel!
I'm planning to continue with the slippery elm. I got dosages from here. Last night I used the smaller amount, this morning I used the higher amount. I will go back to the smaller amount tonight. My hypothesis is her gut got out of whack and if that's it, in theory, the slippery elm should help. Since adding the slippery elm, I 'think' her crop is emptying faster. I'll have a better idea this evening as it seems to empty slower in the later afternoon and evening.
I'm wondering if I should add canesten (clotramizole) for the sour crop? I have some canesten cream on hand, though it is maybe a 2-3 years old. But her sour crop symptoms seem to have improved with the completely empty crop this morning. It was a little squishy this morning when she had eaten and drank, but she drank way more than usual. This afternoon the crop is not squishy at all. There is no smell from her beak and her vent is clean. At this point I'm thinking I should wait on the canesten.
I'm going to try and introduce water back into her kennel now and see if she won't dump it, I'm thinking maybe the roosting bar might keep that from happening. I am going in and offering water super regularly, but if I can reintroduce it without her making a huge mess, that would obviously be better. I think her trying to make a nest was what set off the behaviour because she had been fine for weeks before that (she was pulling at the puppy pad end behind the water which was tilting it forward). And I only pulled the water from the kennel when she started doing it as soon as I put fresh water in.
The only other thing I can think of is the puppy pads I'm using are supposed to be unscented. The first 2-3 bags we used were not scented, but this last bag there is a scent for sure even though the packaging says unscented and the company doesn't make scented puppy pads (its most noticeable when unfolding the puppy pads). I opened this bag 4-5 days ago.
Again sorry for the novel. I do have pictures of some of the poops and how she's looking and can post if needed. Thanks!
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