Help with Lethargic Pullet

[viragovirgo]

She has pasty butt this morning. I'm going to clean her up but wanted to see if I'm overdoing something in her diet or should I be adding something that I'm not?

 

[threehorses]

OK because some things have changed, let's go over this again.

What are you currently offering her free choice now for feed? And what's comprising the mash, and how often are you giving it?

Is she getting anything like a med right now? Any other supportives like VetRx or electrolytes?

And what symptoms, in a summary, is she showing right now?

 

[viragovirgo]

Right now, I have moved her into the house in a box so that the heat doesn't drag her down while she tries to recoup. She is presently drinking water with vitamins and electrolytes. She isn't eating too much of the feed right now. This morning because she was so lifeless (barely able to lift her head) I put some B complex and vitamin E and A directly into her beak.

The mash I've been fixing for her is boiled egg yolk, yogurt, little bit of honey, rolled oats, and sometimes I add in a little chick starter. I also mix in a little of the water with the vitamins and electrolytes in it. I've been pricking a vitamin E capsule (200mg) and adding that in, a drop or two of B complex liquid, and the liquid from a vitamin A capsule (I added that last night because of the vision thing). That all gets mixed into her mash. That is pretty much all I can get her to eat right now and she doesn't eat all of it that I make but she will fill her crop up during the day.

Since moving her into the house, she seems to be a little more alert and her poo is starting to thicken up (right now it is kind of like cecal poo with a little green with it) Since I cleaned the vent this morning, the pasty butt has not returned.

I think we are slowly making progress with her. I'm going to keep her in where she is cooler for at least a few days, if not more. It seems that the heat just really knocks her for a loop. I want to hold off on worming her in particular until she is a little stronger. The others I will start as soon as the weather breaks a little and we aren't in 100+ temp.

Oh, and we don't have any grit out. We were told that since they have dirt avail (its kind of sandy) that they didn't necessarily need the grit. Is that not true?
And the bedding has been changed to pine shavings.

Any other things I should be doing? Thank you again for your time on this. I truly do appreciate your helpfulness.

 

[threehorses]

On the grit, they still need it. It's been shown that birds who have grit available use all their food more efficiently. They need grit-sized grit, and it needs to be a certain hardness so it stays there in the gizzard til it's all ground down to nothing. Lime rocks won't do this, oyster shells won't do it. So buying a small bag of granite grit (or the very nice mineralized or pigeon grit) will really help them.

I like it as an insurance policy against slow crops. A little money spent on grit (it's very inexpensive to buy the little pretty bags from CalfManna) will be repaid to you back in weight gain and feed use.

If you get chick grit, it smells lovely - of anise (licorice) and is mineralized (red) and attractive. If you get the adult grit, it's grey. Mine like the red better - like mineralized (iodinized) or pigeon grit.

On the mash, see if you can use her pellets crushed in the blender as at least part of the base for the nutrients. If she won't eat it, try whichever she will eat.

The solidification of the droppings is a nice sign. And yes- do give by beak (carefully) any nutrients you can to keep her up. You can make a thich 'broth' out of crumbles, yogurt, the vitamin water and a tiny bit of honey to get her to 'drink' more nutrition if you have to. Do give the vitamins at least in the beak so you know she gets it.

On A, it's safer to give polyvisol than straight A. If you do straight A, betacarotene oil capsules are a little more safe than straight A as the body will make A from betacarotene in the amounts it needs.

I also agree that keeping her from the continued heat strain is very good. Hopefully if you just keep going, she'll improve. Looks to be slowly but at least improve.

And yes - don't worm. She's too weak kfor it.

 

[viragovirgo]

My little Cassi died this morning. She seemed better last night and my husband said he heard her flapping her wings in the night but when I got up she was all splayed out and barely hanging on. Thank you everyone for your help. I really appreciate it. Now to deal with my 10 year old son that is really hurting over this......

 

[threehorses]

I'm very sorry to hear that you lost her.

Are you able to get a necropsy on her? Refrigerate her and take her to the vet tomorrow so you can get answers possibly?

/hugs to your family and to you.

 

[viragovirgo]

Thank you. We don't have anyone here that can do a necropsy, I don't think. And right now, we don't have the money for it. I wish we did because I'd really like to know what happened and what went wrong, because I was very hopeful that she was turning around yesterday. But I really appreciate the help I received from everyone. It was comforting to have some reassurance. Thanks again.