Diary of a Crossbeak: Support for Special Needs Chickens and their Keepers

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THANK YOU! All I need to do now is get a feeding tube from the vet. I am hoping that by tube feeding my girls they will be full for a while and will be able to pull their heads out of the feed bucket and go be chickens for a few hours a day.

My next question is about preening. My cross-beakers are terrible at it. Should I bathe them regularly? When I got them a few weeks ago, they were completely (and I do mean completely) infested with chicken lice. The other 4 hens they came in with also had lice, but nothing like Britney & Lindsay did. Everyone got dusted with Sevin, and two weeks later, they got salt/vinegar baths, plus a good scrubbing with Dawn dish soap. That was 2 weeks ago and I have not found any lice on anyone since. Britney & Lindsay are however, absolutely covered in lice eggs. The bath seems to have killed the eggs, but they are unable to preen away the gross feathers. I have actually been plucking the worst of them, but I'm pretty sure that's probably not the right answer.

I also wanted to share my supreme excitement, Lindsay laid an egg today! A beautiful, perfectly formed, cream colored egg. It looks like a giant pearl! It is the first egg she has laid here in her new home. I was convinced these girls would probably never lay, because of their difficulty eating and getting proper nutrients.

Bird is beautiful by the way, I can tell just from the pictures that she has personality plus.
 
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I am so glad to see this thread. I had a chick with a deformed leg last summer. I kept her and fed her and she thrived, until one of the other chicks poked a hole her side. I didn't see the wound as it was up under her wing. When I did see it it was past being able to be helped. Sweat Pea died in my arms the following day. When I went to check on her she was burning up and having seizures from a fever. I just sat in the rocker on the porch with her wrapped in her favorite towel and me singing to her like I did all the time. She gave a shudder and was gone, way to soon to suit me but just when she was supposed to. Sorry, I still cry thinking about the 3 months I had with her. She was special and I haven't called any of my pets by her name since. Everyone wanted me to put her out of her misery but I just kept saying no, she will tell me when she has had enough. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from my little girl and I would do it all again if given the chance. So many people just say cull them if they aren't perfect. It is nice to see someone who wants to give support to the ones of us who can't cull our babies. Thank you!
 
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Great tube feeding tutorial Nimby! For those who are considering this, the tube is also known as a red rubber tube and come in sized called French (Fr.). Most standard sized chickens are probably going to be about a 10 or 14 Fr. Also, the larger the diameter of the tube you can get, the less likely you are going to have to deal with clogs.

As for syringe size, if you can get a 35cc syringe most women with average sized hands find these easiest to work with. Most vets would be able to get you a 60cc syringe, but unless you have large hands these are a real pain when they are full and you're pushing the food through. If possible, I personally find catheter tip syringes easier to use with a red rubber tube. The 20cc syringe shown in the tutorial appears to be a leur-lock syringe, leur-lock syringes have threading at the tip that helps hold needles in place but doesn't do much for a red rubber tube.

The only other thing I would add to the tutorial is don't force the tube! It should slide down the esophagus into the crop smoothly and without resistance, especially if you are using olive oil to lubricate. If you have to force it, you're in the wrong place and you need to pull out and try again. If you stay to the right side of the mouth/throat (your left if you are facing the chicken while doing this) then it should slide in easy and you'll be fine. Red rubber tubes are a very safe way to tube feed. Some people also use metal gavage tubes, but these can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing because they can cause tears to the crop if force is used, the red rubber tube doesn't have enough substance to it to cause the crop to rupture unless you are using what will obviously be too much force.

Another tip, make sure the chicken's neck is extended. Chickens and other birds have a sort of S shaped neck when they are holding it naturally, and this can make it more difficult to pass the tube. If you look at the pictures in Nimby's tutorial, you can see that her fiancee has Bird's neck extended so that it is more or less straight for the feeding.
 
robinwiththechickens said:
THANK YOU! All I need to do now is get a feeding tube from the vet. I am hoping that by tube feeding my girls they will be full for a while and will be able to pull their heads out of the feed bucket and go be chickens for a few hours a day.

My next question is about preening. My cross-beakers are terrible at it. Should I bathe them regularly? When I got them a few weeks ago, they were completely (and I do mean completely) infested with chicken lice. The other 4 hens they came in with also had lice, but nothing like Britney & Lindsay did. Everyone got dusted with Sevin, and two weeks later, they got salt/vinegar baths, plus a good scrubbing with Dawn dish soap. That was 2 weeks ago and I have not found any lice on anyone since. Britney & Lindsay are however, absolutely covered in lice eggs. The bath seems to have killed the eggs, but they are unable to preen away the gross feathers. I have actually been plucking the worst of them, but I'm pretty sure that's probably not the right answer.

I also wanted to share my supreme excitement, Lindsay laid an egg today! A beautiful, perfectly formed, cream colored egg. It looks like a giant pearl! It is the first egg she has laid here in her new home. I was convinced these girls would probably never lay, because of their difficulty eating and getting proper nutrients.

Bird is beautiful by the way, I can tell just from the pictures that she has personality plus.
Click to expand...

As far as preening goes, yes, Bird is awful at it as well. She does try to preen and will also dust bathe outside in the sun but only if she feels full enough. Mostly she just ignores hygiene and follows me around, tries to get in the house, and I shoo her out saying "Bird! GO BE A BIRD!!!". Normally this leads to a pathetic honking sound she makes from just outside the porch, because she has somehow maintained a partially chick-sounding voice, completing her awkward teenager persona.

I take care to dust Bird with Sevin dust every ten days. I have an alert on my Iphone calendar that lets me know when it's time. She's skinny even with the tube feeding she gets so I don't want to risk her losing any nutrition to mites or lice. When she gets gunky, I bathe her in soap-free dog shampoo because that helps her maintain her natural oils better. ( It's cheap and comes in a big bottle, I also use it on my dogs. Article here: http://frugalfurbabies.com/?tag=soap-free-dog-shampoo)

I have never had to deal with lice eggs like that, but I have heard that oil will break it up and make it come off easily. Extra virgin coconut oil, slightly warmed up to liquefy it (solid at room temp) then put it on the egg clusters and work it loose. I have heard of people using a toothbrush with the oil to help scrub the eggs off the feathers. Some people use Skin-so-soft, some just clip off the feathers as well (but it being winter, I wouldn't clip much).

CONGRATS ON YOUR FIRST EGG!!! :)

Bird is a hoot and a half for sure. Everyone just loves her, even the people who think I am a loon!

One more thing I would like to make note of - Bird's beak is trimmed by my vet periodically. He is a really nice man and does it for me for $15. It makes me feel so much better to have him do it since I don't own a dremel and he knows just when to stop.
 
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Thank you for making this thread... I wish I had found it sooner but it still would have been too late, we lost our Blue Ameracauna Grisabella on Sunday. She was 8 mos old and had been laying beautiful eggs. I think I just didn't know enough and she wasn't getting enough nutrition.
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Love it!!!
reminds me of when the kids were little. We used to call it spackling the kids instead of dinner!!! ;0D
I love this site!
justachick
 

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