Help! HEN LOSING WEIGHT-DARK GREEN FECES-MOANING AND GROANING!

[CallyB57]

Well, Jetta is close to 2 years old and her poo has a lot of yellow in it which looks almost like boiled egg yellow turned liquid and sometimes it is more solid. That's why I thought it was internal laying.
She is still hanging in - I am feeding her between 25 and 40 droppers of feed with yogurt and vitamins mixed in. She was trying to fly from her basket last night - I thought maybe she was going to die then and was dreaming of flying to heaven, but she did not die. She has been keeping her eyes open longer and is attempting to stand on her feet instead of sitting on her haunches. I would guess that she still is not going to make it, but I won't let her starve to death. I can only feed her twice a day - early a.m. and around 7:00 p.m. She has water right beside her and she growls at another chicken that I bring into the bathroom due to a foot problem. I can tell she feels pretty badly, but she is not hungry and a lot of her poo has turned brown with much less green. It will be a miracle if she makes it. I wasn't going to dropper-feed her, but I broke down.

 

[CallyB57]

Jetta is still with me. Still not standing on her feet - basically on her elbows, but she is pecking dry feed on her own because my other hen with the injured foot went over and started pecking at her feed. Jetta started growling and began to peck at her feed fast and furiously, not wanting TwoToe to eat her food. This morning she did the same thing, so I left TwoToe inside to stimulate her into action. It will keep me from having to dropper feed her so much. She even lunged forward and pecked TwoToe on the head when she started stealing her pile of feed. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Her poop has hardly any green in it now and no yellow - it is brown and smells pretty horrible - much worse than TwoToes. But she has enough presence of mind to back up and go so that it doesn't get into her nesting material. I am still hoping and praying that she will have a complete recovery. I don't know when to stop trying to keep her alive. If she is not able to stand and mix with the rest of her flock, it is not much of a life for a chicken. I took her outside and stayed with her and she laid down and stretched out her wings to catch the warmth of the sun. She pecked in the garden dirt and ate a purple beetle, a couple of centipedes, a couple of small caterpillar type worms all on her own. She loved the sun warming her wings and body - I stayed out with her for over an hour while I worked in the garden raking pinestraw, cleaning out the bird baths, etc. I think it helped her. Ohhhh- she loves roaches and ate some of those that I flushed out from beneath pine bark on the trees.

 

[chkn]

Make sure you follow up with a good wormer. Also, check her over for maggot infestations. I'd look at thorough worming and getting rid of external parasites of any kind, and then Sulmet for other possible bacterial infections.

 

[CallyB57]

Quote:
She has been well-wormed and had a potent round of antibiotics...she has actually improved, somewhat. There is red coloring in the top part of her comb where, before, it was a very washed-out palest pink, and her earlobes have gone from almost white to red again. She is eating when another chicken tries to steal food from her bowl, but I dropper feed her at night to be sure she is getting enough because her crop always feels so empty. She might have gained a very small amount of weight, but what really bothers me is that she has not been able to stand up on her feet. She rests on her elbows at all times and uses her wings to balance in an upright position. She leans a lot on the side of her box to maintain her position, also. She is communicating with growls and pecks to another chicken in my bathroom, and she is keeping her eyes open longer and appears to be more alert, with her head held high. Before, she just hung her head and would not even move, hardly. I read that leg paralysis is a symptom of Marek's, but I did not see that in reading symptoms of internal laying. Her poo has graduated from all green with yellow blobs, and runny, to semi-firm and dark brown with the whipped cream on top. Since there is no cure for either Marek's or internal laying, I don't know how much more improvement she can make, and I can't dropper-feed her for the rest of her life..not only that, I ask myself - what kind of life is this for a bird and when I watch my other chicken pecking and running around-there is such a contrast of behavior in my well chicken and my ill chicken. I will give her until December 1 to see if she is going to make a full recovery and if she does not, I will have her euthanized. After 2 years, it still hurts to lose one of my girls, but I realize the necessity of it when there is nothing more you can do.
She has no mites or anything of that nature - I have carefully checked her skin at night with a flashlight and her vent, which I check a couple of times/wk. I don't think she has any parasites at all.
Thanks for your recommendations.

 

[CallyB57]

Recently I started mixing powdered Spirulina in with Jetta's mash. She is now shakily standing on her feet again for about 10 or 12 seconds at a time. Her poo looks normal, and she is preening herself quite a lot. She is no longer sitting with her head hanging down with her eyes shut. It's a miracle. Other things I add to her mash are milled flax, untoasted wheat germ, and yogurt, but I think the Spirulina is what is making such a big difference. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Miss Lydia]

That is great news, Spirulina is suppose to be a super food. Sounds like your proving it to be true. I am going to buy some for my flock especially during the winter when they can't find the normal greens they eat. Hope she continues to improve.

 

[jerseygirl1]

OK

What's Spirulina?? Honestly,it sounds like a pasta

And, I am very happy your hen is doing better!!!!!!

 

[chicknerd]

My father in law is never going to believe this. He tries to get us to eat Spirulina all the time. It is algae. And full of lots of stuff that is suppose to be good for you.

I have a weak pullet from a stasis crop, as well. I am going to try it with her. She has similar symptoms now, but her crop is fine. She was vaccinated from Mareks though.

I am going to have to eat crow if it works.

My FIL puts the stuff on his oatmeal in the morning. It is green blue and tastes aweful. Yuck! When the kids ask him what it is good for he relpies - What ever you need it for! (In jest - but he is 78 and healthy as a horse eating it every day!).

 

[jerseygirl1]

Alright, Now I have to try it - where in thr grocerystore is it?

 

[CallyB57]

I buy powdered Spirulina at the health food store. It also comes in pill form, but I make a warm mash with boiled water and regular chicken feed pellets and get it to about the consistency of thick pudding. Then I add a teaspoon of Spirulina, along with the milled flax and untoasted wheat germ. I also add a dollop of plain lowfat yogurt, when I have some in the frig. I took a 1 ml plastic dropper and took a sharp pair of scissors and cut the tip end of it off so it wouldn't be so hard to suck up the mash. Jetta does not like to be force-fed - no chicken does, but I kept at her until I got her crop to fill up a good bit. Did this every morning and every night, and since there was a lot of moisture in the mixture, she didn't really seem to want too much extra water. After doing this for several days, she started to eat on her own, so now I put pellets with some small pieces of calcium, a few sunflower seeds, and a small amount of grit in a small bowl for her to eat on her own (in the morning). At night, I continue to make fresh mash and dropper feed her at least 15 dropperfuls of the mixture so she continues to get the Spirulina. If she keeps on making good improvement, I will just add some of the powdered Spirulina to her dry feed mix every day. ;o)