Chicken can't stand or walk, paralyzed??

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

The beauty of tubing is you can throw everything into the mix, fluids, meds, food. Lactated ringers is an excellent electrolyte solution. By all means use some.

You have the general idea. It helps to wrap the chicken in a towel to confine the wings. I hold the chicken on a table under my weak arm while prying open the beak and inserting the tube along her right side of her mouth, going slightly under the side of the tongue. That conveniently guides the tube right into the esophagus. It should go in smoothly. If the chicken gags, you need to pull it out and start over. She won't gag or choke if the tube is properly in the esophagus. Look at the photo below.

Measure the bottom of the tube from bottom of her crop to her beak. You may want to make a mark on the tube so it rides just outside of her beak so you don't end up pushing too much tubing into her crop. Then do it slowly so you don't overwhelm her. Also, it's more comfortable for her if the food is warmed.

Thank you so much for all that information. We are headed to Petco in tractor supply to pick up the poultry nutrients and the Katy baby diet and I'm trying to get a feeding tube kit from a local vet. If not, I will look at Petco or tractor supply I guess and see if I can find something there. If not, do you have any thoughts on what other type of tubing I can use or where I can find it? I assume it has to be fairly small.

 

[Painted Calls]

Make sure the hen is HYDRATED before tubing food.

 

[azygous]

Oxygen tubing or aquarium tubing will work nicely, but you will have to find a suitable syringe that will hole enough food and will also fit into the diameter of the tube.

 

[Painted Calls]

Lamb tubes can usually be bought at most farm stores. They typically come with a syringe.

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

Make sure the hen is HYDRATED before tubing food.

So when you say hydrated can that only be done by sub q fluids or can I give her water in the tube

 

[azygous]

Tube the water into her crop. But if you do that, wait until the crop empties so there's room to put the food mix into her.

I would just make a very wet mix of the food to simplify things.

 

[Painted Calls]

@casportpony has a great tube feeding article here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-guide-pictures-under-construction.1064392/

 

[Jenni Hen]

Sorry to sound like an idiot, but when I was sat with a chicken under one arm and a syringe in the other hand, I realised that I'd no idea of how to prise open her beak! And I couldn't see her beak, except from above, and realised I wouldn't get a view of her mouth to know where the syringe was going, even if I got the beak open.
I've been used to dogs and cats and popping things in from the gap in the rear teeth.

(This was for an impacted crop and I ended up giving my partner's expensive olive oil spread, which did the trick as well as giving her a treat!)

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

Tube the water into her crop. But if you do that, wait until the crop empties so there's room to put the food mix into her.

I would just make a very wet mix of the food to simplify things.

So it is okay just to put what maybe 20 cc's of water in the tube into her crop as opposed to giving her lactated ringers sub q? I think I definitely would rather try the tube than sub q on a chicken but I'll do what I have to do or what is best for her. I have watched videos on how to find and feel the contents of the crop so hopefully I get that right. But I just want to confirm the amount of water I put into it at one time and how many times a day. And also how many times a day should I tube feed her? Four times a day at 20 cc's each time?

 

[Painted Calls]

So it is okay just to put what maybe 20 cc's of water in the tube into her crop as opposed to giving her lactated ringers sub q? I think I definitely would rather try the tube than sub q on a chicken but I'll do what I have to do or what is best for her. I have watched videos on how to find and feel the contents of the crop so hopefully I get that right. But I just want to confirm the amount of water I put into it at one time and how many times a day. And also how many times a day should I tube feed her? Four times a day at 20 cc's each time?

Fluids and nutrition go by weight or target weight. Please take a look at the thread I linked.

Here is a quick cheat sheet for volumes:

Here is a thread where a few of BYC's experienced tube feeders taught someone how to do it for the first time.
Thread 'Need to Tube Severely Molting Hen' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/