Help, I have a sick young hen.

[mirsy09]

Yesterday, I noticed one of my Russian Orloffs was lethargic and stayed in the coop when I opened the doors. I brought her into the barn and put her with a few other hens that had been bullied. She just stood around and didn't eat or move too much. This morning, I brought her into the house to keep her warm and I could watch her. Before I put her in a dog crate I fed her a teaspoon of honey, milk yogurt and bread. She seems to want to hold her head back and move it around. I don't know if something is stuck? or what? I don't feel any large lump or anything ? What do I do now? She hasn't started laying eggs so that I doubt would be the problem.
I think I will try to feed her some of the food I mixed up for her every 2 hours so that she will get some nourishment and be dehydrated. I've had her 5 months and she has always be really healthy and active.

 

[CMV]

What kind of feed is she eating? Any difficulties breathing? Any other birds ailing? Any access to non-food items/moldy feed that she could have ingested? As much info as you can give us may be helpful. There's a sticky at the top of this section. I copied and pasted it here:

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use

If you can answer these questions someone might be able to help you out.

 

[mirsy09]

Thanx for the reply. The feed is all the same.... laying pellets, alfalfa, cracked corn, grit, oyster shell. She has NO injuries and nobody else is afflicted. She is lethargic, keeps her head up and every once in a while.... she twists her head and neck around. Then just sits there. I have her in my kitchen in a screened in dog crate. I am feeding her warm yogurt, honey, whole grain bread, milk and a few blueberries. I feed her by hand and she sucks it up. I am now feeding her every hour about 1/2-1 tsp of this wet gruel. I see no poops.... but she hasn't eaten for one day so that is no surprise. I am feeding her every hour to keep her hydrated and nourished.

 

[dawg53]

I recommend that you visually inspect her for lice/mites. Especially check around her vent. Check her poop for worms or anything else out of the ordinary.

 

[CMV]

The head twisting makes me wonder about 2 things- the possibility of a vitamin deficiency or gape worms.

I would try to give her some straight Poly-Vi-Sol (without iron) by mouth. The dose for a standard sized bird is 3 drops per day for 3 days tapering off for the next 7 days until completion, but do not worry much about overdosing as the vitamins in Poly-Vi-Sol are water soluble so any excess is shed in the waste. A couple doses of Vitamin E may not be bad either (just snip the end of a gel cap and mix the contents of the cap with her feed), although you need to be more cautious with Vitamin E as is it a fat soluble vitamin and you can overdose a bird with this if used in too high quantities.

Checking for gape worms is easy- just swirl a q-tip down her throat and see if it comes out with y-shaped red threads on it. If so, then she has worms and will need to be treated.

I would also abstain from giving her milk. Birds are lactose intolerant. They can eat yogurt and cheese in limited quantities because of the live cultures in them, but overall they can't digest milk properly. She may start to have digestive issues with too much dairy.

That's all I can think of. I hope it helps.

 

[mirsy09]

hi- no others are affected.... so I would rule out mites, etc. It seems like she has something stuck in her crop. How do I detect this? I don't feel a major mass.... just kind of a boney thing and I think that is her neck bones. I am a RN. I will continue her feeds as I need to get fluids and protein into her. She seems to be slowing down on the neck/head twisting. My girls are all young, healthy.... maybe she ate too much alfalfa or ate some shavings and they are stuck in her crop? That's my assess. As the other 16 girls are 100%

 

[mirsy09]

I gave the yogurt as I read on the forum it was good for them. I just used the milk to soften the bread and add some fluids. I am just going to feed her again. She does suck up the stuff and then sleeps in between feeds.

 

[Judy]

I have read that sometimes a little oil soaked bread helps move stuff out of the crop. You might check out the impacted crop threads on the FAQ page for some other idea that might help if something is stuck in there. And good luck.

 

[mirsy09]

yes, I read that and I will try it next feed. She seems more settled and just sleeping with no neck twisting. I will leave her to rest for a couple of hours and then do the oil feed. What type of oil would be best... any idea? I have many types here... olive, canola, grapeseed???

 

[CMV]

Olive oil is what is usually recommended.