I only joined today to post a question of my own but we have experienced this several times, with Japanese Bantams, and all but one have recovered successfully.
When they go 'drunk' do you find that they keep wanting to preen their chest, more than you'd think neccesary for a sick bird? Ours all do that. Then when they put their heads forward to preen they flip over and then flap about on their backs. It's quite distressing.
Our remedy is to isolate them (in the cat travel basket) and force feed them with egg, rice, cat food, bread, honey and water and give them a hefty dose of antibiotics.
The antibiotic is Cephalexin 125mg/5ml and we usually give them 3ml (though they spit a fair bit of it out). We've used Metronidazole as well with good results but you need to mush up the tablets and have little idea how much the chicken is actually getting (kill or cure).
Beat up an egg and microwave it into a sort of badly made souffle (then let it cool of course) and then half fill the chickens crop with it.
Give them 3ml of water from a syringe
Fill the rest of the crop with cat food (Tuna Whiskas works for us).
Don't be afraid to jam the food in there, consider that if you leave them alone they'll definitely die.
To keep them from falling over everywhere we wrap them lightly in a small hand towel and put them in the cat basket with another towel under their beaks to keep their head about level with their backs and another towel under their tail to stop it drooping and sending them off balance.
Once the crop has subsided to about half way, fill it up again with another 3ml of water then more egg and cat food. Try to get them to drink water from a bottle top by putting their beak in the bottle top but don't let them lift their heads too high up.
Keep on with the forced feeding and watering swapping egg for bread soaked in honey and water, or mix some cracked/mushed rice with the cat food.
Improvements should be seen within 24 hours, a reduction in the frequency of the drunken fits and ours are usually eating by themselves and staying balanced after three days. One or two have taken a little longer. It's hard work but very rewarding.
It seems the quickest recovery comes (in a couple of days) if you can keep the crop half full. It also seems to make a difference to the recovery speed if you keep 'bothering' the chicken by lifting them up (gently - too quickly seems to make them dizzy again) and stroking them. A chicken left on it's own to recover seems to take much longer and the one who didn't recover was unfortunate to be ill at a time when we couldn't give him 24 hour care. After four days it was decided that as he was a boy (i.e. was destined for the chop anyways) it was easier to chop him while he was ill than to help him get better and then have to give him the chop later.
Odd as it might seem I think chickens respond to a bit of TLC more than we might imagine, almost like having someone willing them to stay alive, because the other chickens certainly don't have the same compassion for a sickly coop buddy.
I hope this helps a little.
best regards
When they go 'drunk' do you find that they keep wanting to preen their chest, more than you'd think neccesary for a sick bird? Ours all do that. Then when they put their heads forward to preen they flip over and then flap about on their backs. It's quite distressing.
Our remedy is to isolate them (in the cat travel basket) and force feed them with egg, rice, cat food, bread, honey and water and give them a hefty dose of antibiotics.
The antibiotic is Cephalexin 125mg/5ml and we usually give them 3ml (though they spit a fair bit of it out). We've used Metronidazole as well with good results but you need to mush up the tablets and have little idea how much the chicken is actually getting (kill or cure).
Beat up an egg and microwave it into a sort of badly made souffle (then let it cool of course) and then half fill the chickens crop with it.
Give them 3ml of water from a syringe
Fill the rest of the crop with cat food (Tuna Whiskas works for us).
Don't be afraid to jam the food in there, consider that if you leave them alone they'll definitely die.
To keep them from falling over everywhere we wrap them lightly in a small hand towel and put them in the cat basket with another towel under their beaks to keep their head about level with their backs and another towel under their tail to stop it drooping and sending them off balance.
Once the crop has subsided to about half way, fill it up again with another 3ml of water then more egg and cat food. Try to get them to drink water from a bottle top by putting their beak in the bottle top but don't let them lift their heads too high up.
Keep on with the forced feeding and watering swapping egg for bread soaked in honey and water, or mix some cracked/mushed rice with the cat food.
Improvements should be seen within 24 hours, a reduction in the frequency of the drunken fits and ours are usually eating by themselves and staying balanced after three days. One or two have taken a little longer. It's hard work but very rewarding.
It seems the quickest recovery comes (in a couple of days) if you can keep the crop half full. It also seems to make a difference to the recovery speed if you keep 'bothering' the chicken by lifting them up (gently - too quickly seems to make them dizzy again) and stroking them. A chicken left on it's own to recover seems to take much longer and the one who didn't recover was unfortunate to be ill at a time when we couldn't give him 24 hour care. After four days it was decided that as he was a boy (i.e. was destined for the chop anyways) it was easier to chop him while he was ill than to help him get better and then have to give him the chop later.
Odd as it might seem I think chickens respond to a bit of TLC more than we might imagine, almost like having someone willing them to stay alive, because the other chickens certainly don't have the same compassion for a sickly coop buddy.
I hope this helps a little.
best regards
