Emergency: Hen weak and apparently starving?

[casportpony]

How's your hen?

 

[casportpony]

Source: http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/avmed/cam/07_emergency_and_critical_care.pdf

FLUID THERAPY
Oral Administration
Oral administration is the ideal method of giving fluids.
This method is more commonly used in mildly dehydrated
birds or in conjunction with subcutaneous (SC)
or intravenous (IV) therapy. Oral rehydration (30 ml/kg
PO q 6-8 h) also may be used in larger birds (eg, waterfowl)
that are difficult to restrain for parenteral fluid
therapy.
​

 

[casportpony]

Another link:
http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/avmed/ampa/15.pdf

 

[PoultryPedia]

If you give fluids subcutaneously on the back of her neck, be careful not to give an excessive amount. The lungs are close by & the fluid will pass through the membranes into the lungs if the pressure against them becomes really high from trying to fit too much fluid into that area of the body. I had that happen once when I got really zealous trying to get a lot of fluid into a weak hen. She started gurgling in her lungs. But the fluid was absorbed back out of her lungs pretty quickly--somewhere between 30 mins & 2 hours. But it SCARED me, and I felt bad, too. So be careful.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I gave them sub-q. I am not sure on her weight, I will have to take the scale over there and check.

There's a page on average weights of poultry on my website you can use to estimate, too.

 

[casportpony]

That's one of the reasons I do it orally.

 

[rbaker0345]

How is she doing? I have been thinking about her. I work at a wildlife rescue and today I learned how to tube feed, it is really easy to tell the difference between airways and esophagus, much easier than dogs and cats. It seems promising that she perked up when you administered fluids.

 

[casportpony]

How is she doing? I have been thinking about her. I work at a wildlife rescue and today I learned how to tube feed, it is really easy to tell the difference between airways and esophagus, much easier than dogs and cats. It seems promising that she perked up when you administered fluids.

If you use a large enough tube, it would be almost impossible to get it down the trachea. I use a size 30 french on on the larger birds, 18 on young, feathered pigeons and 8 or 10 on newly hatched chicks or pigeons. I have found that the risk is in giving too much, too fast.

French
Gauge Diameter
(mm) Diameter
(inches)​

3 1 0.039
4 1.33 0.053
5 1.67 0.066
6 2 0.079
7 2.3 0.092
8 2.7 0.105
9 3 0.118
10 3.3 0.131
11 3.7 0.144
12 4 0.158
13 4.3 0.170
14 4.7 0.184
15 5 0.197
16 5.3 0.210
17 5.7 0.223
18 6 0.236
19 6.3 0.249
20 6.7 0.263
22 7.3 0.288
24 8 0.315
26 8.7 0.341
28 9.3 0.367
30 10 0.393
32 10.7 0.419
34 11.3 0.445​

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_catheter_scale​

 

[Chicken_lover1]

I know this was posted a while ago but my hen is having the same problems and I'm wondering if you ever figured out what was wrong