Chicken Trauma

[cinemedic]

Something got in our coop last week and we found what we thought was a dead hen inside. Knowing that chickens tend to just 'wait to die', but still alive, I told my husband to grab her and see. Sure enough, bloodied and swollen eyes, she was alive.

She was pretty bloody on her head and both eyes were swollen shut... maybe she got pecked by the others at the sight of blood? I poured Blood Stop powder on her large wounds and brought her inside. She's been getting Duramycin IM .25cc every day for 4 days, (I have found injectable antibiotics will RALLY your birds in less than 24 hours. Yeah,. I know....antibiotics. We don't eat our chickens and at this point, saving her life is more of a priority than eggs with antibiotics), diluted Aspirin in water for pain/swelling, Rooster Booster'd water given via an IV catheter attached to a syringe and forcing fluids. I have Baytril OTIC for my horse eye, so I've been putting that on her shut eyes. I also read up on Red Cell for chickens so I've added this to her water. Oh, and just for giggles I gave her a very tiny dose of IM B12 last night....it's been 6 days now and she won't eat...couldn't hurt. I'm a retired fire/medic so I jump into full 911 mode on all my animals.

So, it will be 7 days tomorrow. The swelling in her eyes is gone, but they are still 'closed' and I don't want to 'pick at them'. ewwww. I try holding a variety of feed up to her beak, since at this point she's blind (hopefully temporary)... regular feed, ground feed crumbles and a mush of the crumbles. Wants nothing to do with eating. Tried to force her beak open and put some mush in there. She doesn't seem interested. She HAS thrust her head forward into the bowls, but doesn't actually eat. She has done this with the 'water' and drank a wee bit, and is no longer 'thrilled' about me giving her her water via the IV catheter tube on the syringe and I have to pry her beak open to get it in there.

I know her crop is empty and she has lost weight. This is very frustrating. She's starving to death and I don't know of any way to force feed a bird.... lambs, kids, horses, goats I got down pat. But chickens??? Anyone have any suggestions? Is there a small tube I could drop and push something down there? She's standing and turning around in her crate much better, but she's going to really go down the proverbial tubes here shortly. I thought the Red Cell, B12 MAY give her some ooooomph to try to eat. Oh, and I've NEVER, EVER culled/killed a chicken and know that I just couldn't.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC and sorry about your chicken. She can be tube fed until the swelling in her eyes goes down so you can tell if she can see to eat. She also may have internal head injuries making her not want to eat. The trachea in chickens is in the front of the throat, and the esophagus (tube to crop) is toward the left rear. A feeding tube can be obtained at the vet's, and you can also use aquarium tubing from Walmart or larger clear tubing from a hardware store, then get KayTee baby bird feed and syringes. I would also put Neosporin ointment in the eyes twice daily. Here is a link with more links and videos about tube feeding: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding

 

[cinemedic]

Thanks to all for the AMAZING links to tube feeding. It couldn't have gone better, well.. as far as getting it done. I had to keep diluting the mixture, even tho it seemed to be 'watery' enough, I would get the tube down, start to push the syringe and it would block.

Totally ****** me off and more than a few choice words were screamed at the catheter! I took my revenge by getting out the hand mixer to purify it even more, tho that just made ME feel better - I don't think it made it any less thin. (I took chick starter and ground it to powder in my coffee grinder so I don't think it could get any finer). I added a few drops of Red Cell, some Rooster Booster then water.

Since she hasn't eaten since last Sunday, I only give 2 ounces at a time...anyone know if I could give more? Or how often to give the 2oz? I know with humans, once they are able to eat after not being able to for some time, they start slow, so this is what I'm doing.

I'm also curious about her eyes - every time I have a hen that's really gotten beaten up by the others, the eyes are swollen shut. Does this ever get better? Eyeballs are my achilles heal of medicine......ewww. I tried to clean the outside as best as possible. I put the Baytril OTIC ointment on them but afraid to use neosporin since it's not opthalmic.

 

[Eggcessive]

By increasing the size of the feeding tube you may have better luck with getting feed down. The aquarium tubing may be a bit small. Casportpony may be able to guide you there. Vets should have feeding tubes available. It is fine to use Neosporin in chicken's eyes. Terramycin eye ointment from the feedstore is good, too, if you can locate it.

 

[cinemedic]

I'm using a red, urine catheter, maybe #14fr?, with a round tip on the end and a hole in each side at the end... I use these for tube feeding goat kids. I thought about cutting off the end but theres a reason the end is round so I decided against that.

Any thoughts on how much to feed? She was a quite large, plump bird...definitely has lost weight.