9 year old hen with pale comb, almost no tail feathers, now moving slow and less interested in food/treats

[Wyorp Rock]

Dear BYC Friends, thank you so much for walking beside me on this journey. Your advice and support were a lifeline for me.

I went to check again, try some watermelon. She had put herself in the coop, laying on the floor breathing open mouthed. She had been this way a few days ago when she hid in the nest box, and she'd recovered-- but I felt like this was not something to ignore so I brought her into a hospital cage in the house to make it easier to check her more often. Towel on the bathroom counter, then the cage, then another towel folded in thirds for a soft bed, then layers of paper towel to make frequent cleanups easy. Bowl of electrolyte water, and was ready to get a second bowl for watermelon and egg... but paused, and stayed with her. Told her she was a good girl and how much I enjoyed raising her and taking care of her. She acted like she was listening. She lifted her beak upwards a couple times then laid over on her side, then she flapped violently several times and was gone. The flapping was horrible but then she was still. Thank goodness I had not wormed her yet, I would be sure I had killed her. I think maybe old age, and heat stress made her vulnerable enough that she wasn't managing her worm load. And that drug her down, then the crop acted up. But I think 9.5 years was all she had to give me.

I know I probably need to worm the others. I had already gathered samples for fecal flotation from several places. I laid Goldie in a box, and sprinkled her with calendula and rose petals and chamomile.

She wasn't "just a chicken". She was a good girl with a huge personality. I will miss her.

Thank you all, but especially @Wyorp Rock for being so generous with your time and advice.

I'm so sorry to hear about Goldie.

I'm glad you were able to be with her, I know she meant a lot to you. You did all you could for her and she lived a long well-loved life.


In case you need to see the math for Albendazole, it's in this link. I understand what's read on various sites can be confusing. I think I read the same article you did, and I was like, well that's going to be confusing to a lot of folks.
The dosing is 20mg/kg, but remember a kg is 2.2lb and 11.36% albendazole is 113.6 mg/ml.

So, you convert to lbs.
1(lb) ÷ 2.2(kg) x 20(dose) ÷ 113.6(mg/ml) = 0.0800025 or 0.08mg per pound of weight.

Hope this helps.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-for-poultry-waterfowl-and-game-birds.75490/

 

[My1stChickens]

In case you need to see the math for Albendazole, it's in this link. I understand what's read on various sites can be confusing. I think I read the same article you did, and I was like, well that's going to be confusing to a lot of folks.
The dosing is 20mg/kg, but remember a kg is 2.2lb and 11.36% albendazole is 113.6 mg/ml.

So, you convert to lbs.
1(lb) ÷ 2.2(kg) x 20(dose) ÷ 113.6(mg/ml) = 0.0800025 or 0.08mg per pound of weight.

Hope this helps.

This is super helpful. Thank you. I already had absolute confidence in the dosing you provided- really just because it came from you. But it's nice to see and wrap my head around the math.

I will worm the others. Not today. By the weekend/early next week, highs will be less than 90 degrees. Less stress for the remaining birds, and more chance they will eat well. I still hope to put each birds dose in a cube of Hawaiian sweet bread (or other food) for them to ingest. I'll do a trial run to see how much bread it takes to absorb the dose, and separately have a practice run to see if each bird will gobble up that amount of bread injected with water.