Help!

[4thebirds86]

My hen hatched 4 poults so far, three of which died of ants or being crushed.. the one survivor had ants all over him but we cleaned him up and tried giving him back to his mama. She was not tending to him so we brought him in and put him under the lamp. We are having a hard time getting him to eat or drink. any suggestions? Also, his eyes seem to be crusting shut and we are cleaning them with a q-tip. And suggestions on this? Thanks so much for your time and advice!!!

 

[ivan3]

I'm going to assume this is an ~1wk. old poult. Use medicine dropper(s) for food and water. Most important is the water, you'll have to get it to drink. Place the dropper along a side of the beak and only go with a drop at a time (watch for swallowing - don't want to get the water into respiratory tract). Have one person hold the poult (angled slightly forward so any water not swallowed will simply empty from beak) while the other carefully opens beak (just barely open), and give it a drop. This process might have to be repeated every 15min., or so, until the poult swallows. Then keep up the schedule and start to substitute a thin slurry of Starter feed and water (can add a drop of Polyvisol Enfamil (without iron) infant vitamins in mix (one drop three times a day). If these were stinging ants that had hold of the poult, you might try 1 to 2 mg of children's liquid Benadryl every 12 hrs (wouldn't bother unless the poor guy has swelling about head).

If the little guy can see, try live meal worms and small moths with a wing removed (attracted by movement of `prey'). Just deliver the squirming meal from between your fingertips.

Best of luck. If you can get the poult over the `hump', they can recover fully - fast. But, often times they simply fade away just as rapidly, regardless of intervention.

Keep a close watch on the hatching and immediately remove poults; if not possible - remove hen/eggs from current nest - remove current nesting material - put down Sevin dust or spray ground with a pyrethrin - build `new' nest from clean straw/wood chips - return remaining eggs and hen to refurbed nest and check for hatchlings as soon as possible.

/Welcome to BYC

 

[4thebirds86]

Thank you so much for your advice. We ran out and got the dropper as soon as we read your response. We also moved the eggs and cleaned the coop up. I don't think they were stinging ants because there was no swelling. My husband put a bit of coconut oil around his eyes and that stopped them from shutting. He then started having them open all on his own. He was doing a lot better but today seemed weak and stopped swallowing when my husband was feeding him this evening. He just passed as I am writting. So sad. She still has about 4 eggs that have not hatched, so hopefully they will do better if they hatch. I have been wondering about that, if they are going to hatch because I thought the eggs all hatched within 48 hours of each other?

 

[Hounds51]

Sorry for your loss. We all been there. Enjoy life for you never know when it ends.