Hen off her Food

[Lizzy733]

Hello All,

My last surviving shaver is sick, poor girl. I've caught whatever it is quite early.

Sunday morning, I found her in the laying box but there was no egg when I went to collect, so I went to investigate. It's very unusual for her to be unsocial and I found her doing the typical sick chicken in the corner of the pen. Gave her a once-over and checked her crop, which was empty aside from some grit.

Initially suspecting egg-binding, I brought her in for a warm bath and get a good feel of her abdomen - no egg. Warmed her up and dried her off and she was playing 'really' sick chicken. She was shaking slightly and I don't think it was from being cold out of the bath, so was worried she might be in pain. - No injuries. Had very watery poos - thought this might have been from the bath since I made her sit down.

Let her roost that evening.

Next morning, went to check on her - moping again, hadn't eaten. Brought her in for isolation after seeing a bit of red\orange in her watery green poos. Gave her a direct dose of aviverm and have started her on a round of baycox. got her to eat half a boiled egg, a few pumpkin seeds, oats and some blueberries, but little interest in water or pellets.

Subsequent days, she's gone off everything except sunflower seeds and blueberries, though she didn't eat many of those. Her condition is stable - tail mostly not tucked, but moving about and alert. Still not eating - haven't seen any signs of blood since that first day. Still watery green poos with urates.

I've just given her a good 60ml of ground pellet with polyaid along with her daily baycox to see how she takes it and will give her another if she processes that well...

Can't vet at the moment due to lockdown here in Auckland - any suggestions or ideas as to what might be going on?

 

[casportpony]

How's your hen doing?

 

[Lizzy733]

How's your hen doing?

Not well... Her crop slowed and I'm pretty sure sour crop has set in, so I've been direct dosing acv to try and clear it out and have reduced amount I'm tube feeding her, making it very watery with acv mixed in and still a scoop of polyaid per 'smoothy' - gave her a fast day when it first started with only acv and water a few times that day. Crop was empty but 'puffy' with air. No signs of yeast in her mouth or near her vent.

The tube feeding was helping with her poop volumes and wateriness, tho it was still green. She's finished her 7 days on baycox, so not medicating her anymore.

Her urates have been yellow (like tumeric yellow) for the past few days - not sure if that's from the yeast infection or if it's a sign there's something wrong with her kidneys or liver.

Still not eating or drinking on her own, (now offering only pellet 'porridge') mopey, but moving around from time to time and occasionally preening. Her condition is still ok - not too much muscle loss on the keel, but I'm not sure what to make of her as far as a prognosis. We've not had to 'personally' cull yet and I'd typically lean on my vet friends at bird rescue for a cull, but can't do that at lvl 4 - still not sure if she's that far gone, so hard to make that call this soon.

We lost one if her sisters early fall - she wasted away and just stopped eating too, but didn't start behaving differently until she was much too far gone. - seized while I was taking her out of the 'chicken hospital' for a tube feed 2 days into treatment. Her other sister had acites and the vet was convinced she had 'lumps' so it was probably tumor-related. This is the last of our 3 original shavers (At 3 years old).

 

[casportpony]

Can you get some Baytril?

 

[Lizzy733]

Can you get some Baytril?

Can't get anything at the moment - in Auckland, NZ and we're in lvl 4 lockdown.

I may have some 'old' medicine lying around from old vet visits, but I don't think an antibiotics would still be good.

At this stage, she hasn't eaten or attempted to drink on her own for a week and she's been in the chicken hospital this whole time - indoors with a heat pad available, but plenty of space if she doesn't fancy it. Her crop is less 'airy', but still super slow to empty.

Her watered down slurry is blended pellet with polyaid and acv - 60ml and only once a day as it takes her so long to process it. Sometimes 60ml is a tough fit, so it seems her crop's capacity has also reduced.

She's starting to lose condition and we are trying to decide/get up the courage to cull her - something we haven't had to resort to doing ourselves yet.

It's a hard call to make and I'm still a bit on the fence about it.

 

[Lizzy733]

Unfortunately, she was just getting weaker and showing signs of being in pain, so we made the call.

Just finished dispatching her, which went quick with no complications. At least we were able to give her that.

 

[NatJ]

Unfortunately, she was just getting weaker and showing signs of being in pain, so we made the call.

Just finished dispatching her, which went quick with no complications. At least we were able to give her that.

Sometimes a quick end is the only thing left that you can give, so I'm glad you were able to do that for her.

 

[WIchickMama]

Sorry for your loss

 

[Lizzy733]

Sometimes a quick end is the only thing left that you can give, so I'm glad you were able to do that for her.

Won't lie, it was a bit rough on me, but I think I'm okay. She didn't call out or struggle leading up to it and it was over in seconds.

We gave her a bit if graze time before and watching her struggle and fail to hop into the garden box was heartbreaking, but I knew we'd made the right call. She was favouring one leg, so we know she was in pain even if she was still trying to put on a brave face.

We won't autopsy her since she's a pet, but her sister died with lumps and I've scratched off all the curable causes with her... Don't think I'll ever get shavers again; they live fast and die way too young.