Gasping, sick hen

[Hen Pen Jem]

Upper respiratory infections can take many weeks to heal from. I once had three pullets, take 8 weeks to fully recover from upper respiratory illness!

• Try giving her some honey (Manuka honey is best) twice daily with a pinch of cinnamon mixed in. Use an oral syringe. This will help her soothe her swallowing.

• If you are giving her Tylan orally, it would be better to give it every 12 hours. Adjust the dosage if needed.

• Since she is not eating much also, administer some poultry vitamins.

• Steep a bag of echinacea tea in a cup of water, add it to a quart of water. Then use this for her water to boost her immune system.

Hang in there just be consistent, and patient.

God Bless

 

[christwodog]

How is she doing? Tube feeding isn't that hard, if it comes down to that.

 

[mountaingirl196]

Getting a tube in town tomorrow. Am trying to feed her little food pellets as suggested upthread, although she wants to fight it. Cooking her another egg.

 

[Morrigan]

Glad that your hen is hanging in there, although sorry to hear the improvement is not as great as you would like. Hopefully your freshly cooked egg appealed to her. Have you tried offering her a little corn or scratch. It's not the greatest nutrition in the world, but it is calories.

 

[mountaingirl196]

So... chicken update. She is still hanging in there, not healthy yet or pooping appropriately or anything else. BUT we have been letting her go outside for a few minutes supervised on nice days, and two days ago she caught a couple of earthworms and gobbled them up. Most enthusiasm we’ve seen from her since this started. I stopped by a fishing store and got her some baby night crawlers and she’s pretty happy with those too.

She is outside right now doing some light foraging. So I threw some of what I’ve been feeding her out like it’s scratch and she is eating it! Slowly and with difficulty swallowing, but she is eating.

It’s almost like she has an obstruction of some kind. Every once in a while there is a big blob of mucus on the end of her beak, which she shakes off. And it takes her about five minutes to eat a worm, which is usually a .0000005 Second affair. Still gaping pretty regularly although I don’t usually hear wheezing or rales any more.

At this point, though, I think she’s going to make it. Knock wood.

Thanks everybody for the help and suggestions. You saved a life.

 

[christwodog]

Slow progress is still progress...hang in there! Funny how a wiggly squirmy thing can perk them up!

 

[Morrigan]

I'm glad things are looking up for your little hen!