Chicken locked w/o food or water for long time! Help!

[jayde88]

Hello,
I came into my shed and found an Isa Brown hen inside. I don't know how long she was in there. She is very thin, lost lots of feathers, her comb is purple, and she has little energy.
I brought her out and gave her water and food.
She is an Isa Brown, about 2 years old, I think. I'm giving her food and water. She doesn't seem to want to stop drinking or eating.
How can I get her strength back?
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Jayde88

 

[mamaKate]

As long as she's eating and drinking, she'll probably be ok. You could give her a boost with polyvisol(no iron) baby vitamin drops and possibly some live culture yogurt. My dad accidentally locked a kitten in his shed and my son found her much later. That was 11 years ago and she's sound asleep on her favorite pillow right now. Animals can be pretty resilient.

 

[tulie13]

Wow - sorry to hear about that.

I'd be worried about her gorging too much and stretching her crop out. Since she has obviously attacked the food, maybe take it away for a little while, until her crop has time to go down?

If she's really weak, you could give her some sort of vitamin supplement - do you have anything on hand? You could give her some straight vitamins or olive oil in addition to her food. If she's eating/drinking on her own, she'll probably be OK - if she was too weak to be interested in eating/drinking, THEN you'd need to do something drastic like force-feeding her some nutrition.

 

[Camelot Farms]

We had the same thing and a very happy ending.

We knew that one of our hens had gone missing but since they are free rangers...we sort of expect that from time to time.

Anyways, she had been gone about 3 weeks when DS came in and said...found your chicken...but shes dead and I cant get her out. Out? Yep. She had been in the hay loft sneaking a nest and somehow a couple of haybales tipped on top of her trapping her underneath but in an air pocket about 12 inches square. So, I go to the barn expecting to have to yank a nasty dead hen out of the loft.

DS lifts the bale, I reach in and ZOOM up and out she comes. She couldnt have weighed 1 pound (she was a banty anyways) but she had been without food or water for 3 full weeks and she was fine.

And apparently she kept on laying because underneath her were more that 20 eggs. Poor mama!

We figured that she must have eaten some of the seed heads out of the hay in the bales to at least give her some nutrition.

So...I bet your hen will be just fine with a little extra TLC

 

[evonne]

aawww poor thing... she probly lost some feathers just freaking out...
*in my head i see a cartoon chicken doing the crazy dance with her wing/hands on her head going "what do i do what do i do" and feathers flying of her as she walks in circles.. lol*

seriously though.. good luck with her.. and i think they are right.. if she has enough energy to eat and drink on her own she'll probly be fine

 

[Kittymomma]

I agree with the other posts, if she's interested in food and water she should do fine with just a little extra TLC.

I would take the food and water away and give it back every hour or two for a short period of time. You could still lose her if she takes in too much too quickly. It can send her body into shock after such a long time without anything to eat or drink. Just go slow and steady.

 

[jayde88]

Thanks everyone!
She was having a hard time walking when she first came out, but after food and water, she is walking fine. She seems to know where the food and water is. Hopefully she will be better soon with some extra nuitrition and TLC.

Camelot Farms, wow! That's amazing!

Thanks again,
Jayde88