Broken leg won't eat

[hansolo]

Thank you. We have a kitchen scale but will purchase a baby scale.
I also worry about her not drinking and eating enough. We mixed small doses of aspirin into her food. What else can vets do to help her eat and drink?

oh good, glad you can do that!

Do you have a kitchen scale you can weigh her on? Friday is only a couple of days away, but I worry about them not drinking and eating enough, so I would weigh her daily.

They can eat and drink sitting or standing.

Her usual self.

 

[Eggcessive]

I use a small cereal size bowl to feed a picky eater. I put a little chicken feed in there with some water. As they eat, I put in more water from a container I take to the coop. If they eat well I give a cooked chooped egg or sometimes wet Friskies pate cat food. But I try to get them to eat more of the chicken feed first.

The part about seeing a vet is to know if the leg is fractured or dislocated. If it is just a sprain, you should be able to take her home and treat with rest and anti-inflammatories, such as meloxicam. Here is a splinting manual for birds to get an idea about what to expect:
https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

 

[casportpony]

worse case... If she's not drinking and eating enough the vet can give her subcutaneous fluids in the office and teach you how to tube feed. If you have experience giving fluids to cats or dogs they could teach you that too.

 

[hansolo]

Thank you! Will try the wet feed later. We tried all the goodies, bread or cooked rice soaked in yogurt, smashed hard boiled eggs, chopped up tomatoes and kale, cat food, etc. She prefers freeze dried meal worm than anything else. She will eat a little bit of this and that, just not enough.

Will look into Meloxicam. Is that by prescription only? She is on aspirin now.

Thank you for all your kind replies.

I use a small cereal size bowl to feed a picky eater. I put a little chicken feed in there with some water. As they eat, I put in more water from a container I take to the coop. If they eat well I give a cooked chooped egg or sometimes wet Friskies pate cat food. But I try to get them to eat more of the chicken feed first.

The part about seeing a vet is to know if the leg is fractured or dislocated. If it is just a sprain, you should be able to take her home and treat with rest and anti-inflammatories, such as meloxicam. Here is a splinting manual for birds to get an idea about what to expect:
https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf

 

[casportpony]

The vet will have meloxicam.

 

[hansolo]

worse case... If she's not drinking and eating enough the vet can give her subcutaneous fluids in the office and teach you how to tube feed. If you have experience giving fluids to cats or dogs they could teach you that too.

Thank you! I just took a 2.5 hr lunch break.... The chick is lonely i think, wants us here to feed her.

 

[hansolo]

Could this be a sudden onset of Marek's? She is eating too little. Her poos are dark green and on the loose side. Her combs are still red and there is no labored breathing, but the toes of "injured" leg are curled. The "injured" leg is dragging behind, not spreading forward.

 

[casportpony]

Marek's is a possibility.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here a good article to read about Mareks disease, but I hope that it something else that is going on with her:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

 

[hansolo]

Took a two hour lunch break again today to see her. She ate very little, only meal worms and soaked split peas, nothing else not even eggs or cooked rice with yogurt. She was particularly chatty however, which was not the case for the past few days confined in the box. We found her egg in the evening when we got home, so hopefully not Marek's. I still feel that she has a big caloric deficit. Tomorrow's her appointment hopefully the long car trips and the office setting won't stress her out too much.