A Journey Through a Different Way - Funny Story Pg. 69

[tink]

Hey...Hope Big Boy is still fighting the fight.....Idea for the other roos....I too had to stitch up two of my hens. My rooster talons are too big to clip down or off. We bought a piece of soft rubber tubing and stretched it out a little and then slipped a piece on each claw. So far it is working and the girls are not being hurt.....

Tink

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Hey Tink - that's a great idea. Think I'll try that. I'm tired of sewing up hens.

Big Boy is still with us this morning. It was doubtful last night. This time I've really added to my all time top ten list.

TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD DO:

#1 - Clean mucos out of a rooster's throat.

Last night he was really having a hard time breathing and swallowing and all day long had not eaten much of anything. Under the "I had nothing to lose" category. I wrapped him in a towel and laid him down on his side/back and started looking down his throat. I had looked in his mouth many times and did not see anything but this time I did a thorough search by holding out/down his tongue.

I saw something deep down his throat, behind the base of the tongue, where the windpipe is supposed to be. Looked kind of yellow and white. Using a long dental pick I went in and tried to remove it. Took a little work but I pulled out........





a huge hunk of scrambled egg.


O.K. I already know what most of you are saying but......I'm very careful when I force feed one of them. I have it down to a science. With my left thumbnail, I gently insert it between the beak and pull down while at same time I use my right thumbnail to slide a tiny piece of food in the open gap of beak, toward the front. Then I let go and make sure they chew/swallow the piece before I do another. I never force food/water down their throats.

But with that legal disclaimer said....I'm not sure if the piece of egg was one he didn't swallow properly while being fed or if it was there all along and the reason he got sick. I feed them all extra eggs that I scramble or boil and mash up and they gobble like fiends in an effort to eat it all before anyone else can.

O.K. so after I get the egg out I give him a few sips of water but he's still having trouble swallowing. So back in the towel and back on the exam table he goes. This time there's all this slime and mucos in his throat, coming from the windpipe hole that had been previously blocked with egg. So then I spent close to an hour using Q-Tips and swabbing out huge slimy strings and gunks of mucos. I was also able to use a suction medicine dropper as well. Got out all that I could see, gave him another Benadryl, and put him back in box for the night. The good thing was that almost right away his blackened comb turned red.

As of right now, he's still alive but I don't know how. His comb is dark again so I'm guessing there's more mucos buildup. He hasn't eaten much at all in last two days because he had started spitting out the food I was putting in beak and I didn't want to force him. I'm about to go try another feeding now.

Wow - what a journey. To top it all off our power went out last night, same time as freezing cold and rain storm hit. DH rigged up generator to the Sportsman incubator which is in stables and to the heater and lights that are in coop. Everyone did fine through the night.

Well let me go tend to my Big Boy.

Thanks all for the prayers and concern. I think I'm going to call the vet today and see if she has anything for treating a fungus infection since I've tried everything else and nothing is working.

 

[bayouchica]

Hey Monique,
Lady, you've got your hands full,lol. You're doing a wonderful job with Big Boy.

Can you get your hands on some Tylan? It comes in either a water soluble ($$) or by injection (that's cheaper). If Big Boy has respitory problems Tylan works. I've used it before with good results.
Sending good thoughts & pray he pulls though.
Don't ya love the weather we've been having here lately? LOL
Take care, Miriam

 

[ruth]

Hi Miriam - good to hear from you. Yeah, gotta love this weather, cold every day then a sudden rash of heat, then drop to freezing and rain and we lose power. We were the only ones. Thought it was the storm and that everyone must be out of power till DH went into town in middle of night to get more gas to keep generator going and saw that everyone else had lights. Called power company and they said we were their only call - go figure.

As luck would have it, I just hung up with vet. I described his symptoms and everything I've tried so far....worming (Wazine); Sulmet (for the Cocci outbreak); Penicillin injections; Terramycin. She recommended Baytril over Tylan so DH has gone to pick some up. She also said there were some other wormers that she would look into and possibly order because he still has the runny white/yellow diarreah with green blobs. Don't you just love it that we can "talk" chicken poop?????

The vet doesn't see chickens and admits that she doesn't know a lot about them so I'm not sure if she's recommending the Baytril over the Tylan based on experiences non-chicken related or not but she said she has both and I'll try everything I can. The feed stores here have nothing and know even less. In fact, the feed store owners and even the vet say I know more about chickens than they do - I tell everyone - it's the great folk at BYC - when asked how I learned so much.

 

[ruth]

Well it's an hour by hour thing with Big Boy. Vet sent home Ivermectin and Baytril with instructions to inject Ivermectin IM and Baytril Sub-Q. I thought that was reversed but I went with her instructions. The Ivermectin srayed all over me and when I looked to see why, the needle had come off and was still in his thigh but the syringe was in my hand so I don't know if he got any in him or not - I know I got sprayed in the face so I guess that's my dose of wormer.

Also gave him the one dose of Baytril Sub-Q that she sent home.

Questions - is that the proper way to administer those two drugs or did she get them mixed up? Also, she only sent home the one dose of Baytril and didn't mention giving him any more. Is that all it takes?

As I mentioned, I haven't been able to get him to eat for past two days so he's really weak. He makes small attempts at drinking but can't seem to open his beak to drink and swallow properly.

I put him back on exam table and sucked out huge globs of mucus - much more than last night - enough to choke a horse. DH said he couldn't believe the huge rooster was letting me go down his throat like that. He said he must be too sick to do anything about it. Still, DH was too afraid of him to help hold him so as usual, I was on my own.

Then I made him a soup - wet cat food and raw egg yolk mixed with water that he could drink. At first it was doubtful he would make it long enough to drink. He was laying on his side and trying to drink but barely getting anything in his beak but he kept at it. Thankfully after awhile he sat up, then eventually stood up, then eventually started going face down in soup trying to get some of the cat foot pieces that were floating around and taking nice big drinks. He just walked back to his corner of the kitchen and actually tried to preen himself - that's a first for the week. He wasn't actually able to quite do it but you could see he was trying - he's just so weak but that's the best signs of progress thus far.

Hang in there Big Boy, my Gentle Giant.

 

[RedStickLA]

Hey Monique...
That's great that he is making some progress. He is such a beautiful big boy! I hope he makes it.
Mitzi

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Wow glad to hear he is still with us and that all that junk is a coming out. Can't help ya with the meds but I can tell ya that the benadryl will help with that wet gunk that is coming out of him. I would of loved to been there to help ya with that big boy, he sure is a nice looking brute. Won't be long and he will be up and chasing the ladies again.

Hang in there prayers are on going here for you.

 

[speckledhen]

Cant help with the dosages on those meds, but I'm so glad you found what was blocking his airway!

 

[Beckie_in_Zambia]

Hello Ruth,

I am new here; in fact this is my first post. Do you have an update on the big guy?

My name is Beckie and I live in Zambia with my family. We are one year into a 3-yr commitment serving as missionaries. I've enjoyed reading your "journey through a different way."

We have five beautiful, sweet pullets. Learning about them brought me to BYC.

Blessings to you and your feathered babies.

 

[ruth]

Hi Beckie - welcome to BYC. It's a great place to learn about chickens. I'm honored your first post was on my thread. May God bless you and your family and your missionary work. What a blessed thing to be able to do.

Updates on the Journey:

Sadly, the big, gentle giant, passed away this morning. I had tried everything. I didn't think he would make it through the night based on how he was struggling to breath last night, and he stopped eating/drinking, but he was still alive this morning. So we went through our usual morning routine where I cleaned all the mucus out of his throat. He was still unable to breathe or swallow and I could tell he was choking/dying. So without anything else left to try, I tried picking him up and holding him head down in an effort to get out whatever was down in his throat that was chocking him. It was really gross and sad what all came out. So much thick fluid, mucuus, and hunks of thick white substance, full of holes - I guess growths or something that were in the airsack. He died while all that gunk was coming out. After seeing all the "stuff" that came out of his lungs and throat, it's a mircale he hung on as long as he did.

And just so the journey doesn't get too boring, I found a sick chick this morning. One half of its face completely swollen and when I opened it's mouth to see why it couldn't close it's beak, the whole inside top of its mouth is one swollen/infected hunk of flesh. I don't even know what to do with it. It's about a month and a half old and one of the Cocci survivors.

I'm not sure where or how the wheels started falling off things here. I've never had a sick chick/chicken in all this time. I'm wondering if allowing the people who want to buy chicks to come and look around and come in the coop has anything to do with the fact that suddenly my chicks get Cocci and my older birds start getting respiratory infections? I know I've read that you shouldn't allow others to come/go from your coop/pen area. I guess I need to set up the brooder with chicks for sale somewhere else - maybe the stables? That way other farmers and chicken owners don't come into my coop anymore. If this newest little chick has something serious, as it appears it does, I don't even want to think about how far it might spread to others.

Or I wonder if we are picking up something by visiting the feed stores daily where all the farmers shop? Or, is it just the normal course of things once you get over a 100 chicks/chickens/ducks/ducklings/peafowl all running around.

In any event, I'm feeling very overwhelmed and wondering why I'm doing this. I still have a bator full of eggs (chick and duck) and a brooder of two day olds in my bathroom and I put the sick chick in DH's shower till I can figure out what to do with it. DH is out of town right now so I have it all to do on my own - normally do anyway - and sometimes I just question my sanity.