5 year old hen, thin, eating active, but slowing down.. diarhrea with yellow white slime

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She definitely looks sick... That stance is quite common in in sick birds. That thing in the middle of the one picture does look like a worm, so probably good that you did worm her.

It's definitely time to start tubing her. Like I said before, fluids first, them fluids and baby bird food. I can help you by phone if you need help.

-Kathy
 
enola said:
Since she is drinking on her own, do you have any way to measure how much she is actually consuming?
Click to expand...
Probably not since she sometimes spills her water. This morning there was no water left in her dish and I did not feel any wetness on the towel beneath her, so I have the feeling that she drank quite a bit this morning. I see her drinking more than eating, lets put it that way. Its another reason why I suspect she is dehydrated.

I don't have a tube to tube feed her with. I was just going to go the syringe into the mouth route. I"m concerned if I put that much water into her she will throw it up.. her crop is just not enlarging as normal. It was small and 'tight' a few days ago when I checked it. Its still small (her crop) but has grains in it. I have since pulled the grains away and because I don't have a tube I gave her some yogurt. I know I'm not following directions like you said here, I'm just trying to get some sort of feed substance into her. I really thing she'd throw up the water. ?? I'm not sure if she really is dehydrated. How did she look to you from the photos I posted?

Thanks as always in advance for any replies.
 
casportpony said:
She definitely looks sick... That stance is quite common in in sick birds. That thing in the middle of the one picture does look like a worm, so probably good that you did worm her.

It's definitely time to start tubing her. Like I said before, fluids first, them fluids and baby bird food. I can help you by phone if you need help.

-Kathy
Click to expand...
Oh thank you so much for the offer... I might have to take you up on that because I've read about it and found conflicting information about what hole in the back of the throat to force the tube down into. I feel that it is down the side you go, but one write up said down the middle. !?

I was going to tube feed my last sick hen, but luckily she ate whatever I piped into her mouth using a needle-less syringe. I was going to do that in this case too as I don't have a tube or a crop feeder. I tried to find one online but failed to find one- I"m not even sure what size to get. Anyway, its a bit too late for that.

Giving Maple food via syringe I think would work, its just that its time consuming and she is not as cooperative as my last hen who was sick. She was bucking me off of her when I tried to give her that water earlier. I don't want to tire her out. She just took a few bites of yogurt just now. If I had to assume how much she was eating I would say about a 1/2 cup of food daily, although yesterday she hardly ate at all except in the evening- it was like she was starving and started to scarf down food. As far as water goes, i would say she is drinking anywhere from 1/8th cup to a full cup of water. It just depends because some days she is 'on' and some days she is 'off'.

If I mixed the baby bird food with a lot of water, would this be better than nothing? Also, can I put nutri-drench in the mix or maybe even Pro-vita powder if I'm giong to feed or just water her via syringe?

I have fish tank tubing but I am really afraid to use that. To me, I can't see how it wouldn't end up cutting insides. ? Just seems too rough. I also have no assistance available to me right now.
 
The fish tank tubing can be used if you melt the end of it with a lighter. It should be smooth enough that you could rub it on your gums or the inside of your cheeks. Make sense?

Trust me on the hydration, I cannot stress enough how important it is to give the fluids first. People gets antsy and feel the need to give food, but it can wait 1/2 a day, especially if you add some dextrose or corn syrup to their water.

-Kathy
 
Read this thread, all the threads in it, look at all the pictures and watch all of the videos. I don't remember what amounts the different posts say to feed, so ignore those for now, just concentrate on the anatomy pics and videos.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

If you're still confuse about tube placement, let me know and I'll try to explan it.

-Kathy
 
Kathy,

Thank you for the links and the write ups. They are really helpful. I watched all of those videos probably about five times now (I have watched them before with other sick chickens I have) but I don't feel confident I can do this. I don't really have the equipment to do it. I'm thinking about calling my vet in the morning, though I don't know when she will have a chance to get back to me. Probably evening tomorrow- their clinic is very busy. I don't think she'd have a crop needle (she's not an avian vet) but she might have some things that would work better.

I'm kind of confused because the Aussie bird dr. in the video (sorry I can't remember his name, he did a great job with the videos) said not to use a curved crop needle, but in the third one posted the people used a curved on on a chicken. I'm just not that familiar with the whole system down there- PLUS, I'm not even clear on the calculations... When I figure out (on my own) how much water you said to give her- I'm afraid it would be about 2 cups of water? I think she'd throw that up and choke. I don't have a very big syringe either- biggest I have is a 12 cc. So if she needs 15 mL per pound, and she is five pounds that would be 72 mL, which I'm not sure if that is 72 cc's or ? I don't know a thing about what I'm doing. I'm daring when it comes to trying to save my creatures, yes, but when I know I'm in the dark about something, I just stop. I want to do this for my hen's sake, but I really think I'd end up choking her. She chokes ever single time I give her the nutri drench. !

Well, even though I said all that, I'm going to go see if I have some fish tank air hose.


Thank you again. This is really helpful. I'm just really nervous to do this. I don't want to hurt my hen.
 

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