- Apr 6, 2013
- 51
- 66
- 131
First of all, the impression I get from folks here is that they actually care about their chickens. My heart goes out to you all. I relate to the sentiment. There is nothing worse than watching someone suffer [human or animal] and not necessarily being able to help.
But we try....
This is where Gracie`s story fits in.
Last spring at two years of age she got "sick", I could never figure out what exactly ailed her.
One morning she wasn`t her usual self, active and full of music.
She merely stood around. The following two or three days she ate and drank less.
At this point I took her inside and set her in a soft nest in my year round hospital cage [the just in case contraption].
I rummaged through my bird book collection which includes chicken info.
There are huge lists of illnesses with symptoms and treatments etc. but nothing matched, nothing made sense. Plus my best guesses changed from day to day.
None of the other chickens got sick. But in case it was something contagious I treated Gracie with Colloidal Silver drops and closely watched the others.
The drops had no positive results, she kept getting sicker and weaker and was stopping all food and water intake.
Something drastic had to be done but I hesitated to resort to gavage - so invasive!
Dropper feeding worked but only because of Gracie`s cooperation. Tame and trusting as she is, she understood I was trying to help, and she never resisted or fought back in any way. First I wrapped her in a towel, later just laid her on top since she made no escape attempts, even opened her beak for me when I started dropper feeding her.
What eventually made me think of a head injury of some type [probably the reason the others stayed healthy] was her worsening balance problem. She would attempt to stand up but fall over on her side, then struggling to right herself.
Phoenix, the little rooster, approved of me taking Gracie inside, but he checked on her daily from the coop roof next to my living room window.
Gracie was seriously ill for five weeks, three of which she hovered between life and death, not sure which way to go.
Then one morning she picked a bit at her food ans took a careful sip of water. Yes!
The following days her self-feeding slowly increased while my dropper feeding decreased.
The last few days of her five deadly sick weeks got good enough to let her sit outside in a protected bottomless cage inside one of the chicken run parts.
Phoenix sat next to her or foraged nearby, the others were curious but went farther off. While I watched she became slowly totally self-feeding again, got stronger and walked around inside the cage, although still content to just watch the others.
Next she wanted out. The re-introduction [?] went without a hitch.
She still fell over sometimes and that`s when Phoenix screamed - it scared him.
She was able to get back up herself and her balance improved with every passing day.
At nights she continued to stay with me inside, she let me know that was her wish.
Then one beautiful sunset evening she chose to rejoin the others, walking inside the coop with them.
Next morning I found her SINGING! [She had been eerily quiet during her illness]
Then she flew up onto the coop roof with Phoenix.
That was about week six.
Forward to January 2020 : Gracie is a living miracle!
I had fully expected her to be a disabled bird, and I was happy and ready to assist her in her new normal life. I still have no clue what almost killed her nor what made her well without a trace of the illness left to affect her!
This is a happy story. Many do not end that way.
Makes me think of all the others "out there".
Creator`s blessings to you all and all the suffering ones....
Oh, almost forgot the tube feeding formula - this does use gavage but I used a dropper instead which is very tedious and takes much time.
I also use a mineral powder dissolved in drinking water.
Tube feeding mix for chickens
chicken crumbles [organic preferred] soaked in very hot water to make a soft mush
add some plain yogurt with the micro organisms for digestion
or some heavy whipping cream [I use the yogurt]
little mayonnaise
can add little cider vinegar
vitamins and minerals
I thoroughly mixed the above to a semi-liquid soft slurp I could suck up into my dropper [yes, that gives a bird messy poops]
It usually takes two people, one to hold a chicken, for gavage.
The above ingredients are put in a blender and run for about 5 minutes
until very smooth and liquefied to pass through a feeding tube
There is online info on correct gavage/tube feeding, else a bird can "drown".
Or if anyone is interested I can post more detailed information on how to do this
[my own experience is with smaller passerine birds, NOT with chickens]
But we try....
This is where Gracie`s story fits in.
Last spring at two years of age she got "sick", I could never figure out what exactly ailed her.
One morning she wasn`t her usual self, active and full of music.
She merely stood around. The following two or three days she ate and drank less.
At this point I took her inside and set her in a soft nest in my year round hospital cage [the just in case contraption].
I rummaged through my bird book collection which includes chicken info.
There are huge lists of illnesses with symptoms and treatments etc. but nothing matched, nothing made sense. Plus my best guesses changed from day to day.
None of the other chickens got sick. But in case it was something contagious I treated Gracie with Colloidal Silver drops and closely watched the others.
The drops had no positive results, she kept getting sicker and weaker and was stopping all food and water intake.
Something drastic had to be done but I hesitated to resort to gavage - so invasive!
Dropper feeding worked but only because of Gracie`s cooperation. Tame and trusting as she is, she understood I was trying to help, and she never resisted or fought back in any way. First I wrapped her in a towel, later just laid her on top since she made no escape attempts, even opened her beak for me when I started dropper feeding her.
What eventually made me think of a head injury of some type [probably the reason the others stayed healthy] was her worsening balance problem. She would attempt to stand up but fall over on her side, then struggling to right herself.
Phoenix, the little rooster, approved of me taking Gracie inside, but he checked on her daily from the coop roof next to my living room window.
Gracie was seriously ill for five weeks, three of which she hovered between life and death, not sure which way to go.
Then one morning she picked a bit at her food ans took a careful sip of water. Yes!
The following days her self-feeding slowly increased while my dropper feeding decreased.
The last few days of her five deadly sick weeks got good enough to let her sit outside in a protected bottomless cage inside one of the chicken run parts.
Phoenix sat next to her or foraged nearby, the others were curious but went farther off. While I watched she became slowly totally self-feeding again, got stronger and walked around inside the cage, although still content to just watch the others.
Next she wanted out. The re-introduction [?] went without a hitch.
She still fell over sometimes and that`s when Phoenix screamed - it scared him.
She was able to get back up herself and her balance improved with every passing day.
At nights she continued to stay with me inside, she let me know that was her wish.
Then one beautiful sunset evening she chose to rejoin the others, walking inside the coop with them.
Next morning I found her SINGING! [She had been eerily quiet during her illness]
Then she flew up onto the coop roof with Phoenix.
That was about week six.
Forward to January 2020 : Gracie is a living miracle!
I had fully expected her to be a disabled bird, and I was happy and ready to assist her in her new normal life. I still have no clue what almost killed her nor what made her well without a trace of the illness left to affect her!
This is a happy story. Many do not end that way.
Makes me think of all the others "out there".
Creator`s blessings to you all and all the suffering ones....
Oh, almost forgot the tube feeding formula - this does use gavage but I used a dropper instead which is very tedious and takes much time.
I also use a mineral powder dissolved in drinking water.
Tube feeding mix for chickens
chicken crumbles [organic preferred] soaked in very hot water to make a soft mush
add some plain yogurt with the micro organisms for digestion
or some heavy whipping cream [I use the yogurt]
little mayonnaise
can add little cider vinegar
vitamins and minerals
I thoroughly mixed the above to a semi-liquid soft slurp I could suck up into my dropper [yes, that gives a bird messy poops]
It usually takes two people, one to hold a chicken, for gavage.
The above ingredients are put in a blender and run for about 5 minutes
until very smooth and liquefied to pass through a feeding tube
There is online info on correct gavage/tube feeding, else a bird can "drown".
Or if anyone is interested I can post more detailed information on how to do this
[my own experience is with smaller passerine birds, NOT with chickens]
