Hen Won't Eat - Wasting Away

[raindrop]

How old is she? Is her crop completely empty?

 

[FrankBlissett]

Yes, she does seem to swallow if we syringe food into her mouth, but there was nothing in her crop the other day and she hasn't willingly eaten since we brought her in.

As for her demo- er, chickographics, she's part of a group of started Isa-Brown pullets we got last May, so a bit over a year old. The flock has been very healthy - an occasional case of sniffles here and there, but otherwise very strong.

Regarding vets, we know the vets in the area well and will likely call one Monday morning.

-Frank

 

[chicknmania]

Our vet told us once that the most important thing in dealing with a sick chicken is that they continue eating. We don't do this often, but we took a favorite sick rooster to him once, and that is what we ended up doing; force feeding him as much as he could stand...and he was eating, too. The oatmeal/vitamin mixture would be a good idea; the vet gave us some sort of green baby-food texture stuff that was a powder and you mix it with water. The vet told us, absolutelyl, to go out of our way to give him whatever he would be tempted to eat. Actually, if oatmeal doesn't work, you might try force feeding babyfood and vitamins with a syringe. And, by the way, our rooster recovered, although, of course, he had meds too in addition to his extra food.

 

[d.k]

* I think I'd start adding some plain yogurt to her water & 'lytes and keep using the dropper to get it in her as long as she'll keep on swallowing. It's *terribly* labor intensive, though (been there, done that!!)!! GOTTA keep her hydrated though or she doesn't stand a chance. Mine also took to a kinda thin hot mash real well when she was sick. I had to put it in a tiny bowl and keep shoving her beak in it to get her started though-- and the wet mash gives extra fluid, too. Then once she was eating that sufficiently, I just kept adding stuff-- a little ground dry cat food, fine corn meal, 12-grain hot cereal mix, etc. til it was thick & she started bulking up again. Eventually added cage-bird grit and she was good to go!!! SO spoiled though, that she DIDN'T wanna go back to dry food & we had a fight over that!!!

 

[FrankBlissett]

Update:

The hen died yesterday - think we got to her too late. If it keeps, we'll look into getting some anti-cocci meds to have aroud the house though.

Thanks for all your advice and help.

-Frank

 

[d.k]

* Shoot. Sorry, Frank--- I was really hoping she'd surprise us.

Are you gonna go through with the cocci check?

 

[eggchel]

Im sorry that your hen didnt make it. Here is a link to some other possible causes of emaciation:



From : http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm





Chel