I need Some Help Please - Another One Dead

[serenityNH]

 

[Alabama ee]

Sounds like she is getting better! Hang in there.

 

[kelar]

Hope she continues to improve The diarrhea is probably from the poly-vi-sol - I don't think it will hurt them but a lot of it can upset their digestive system.

 

[onthespot]

How's she doing today? still hanging in there? Keep feeding her if she needs it. Sounds like she will be out of the woods in another day or two!

 

[ParadiseChickens]

She is exactly the same today. I am getting discouraged again. I put her down on the concrete floor after feeding her and she walks about 3 steps and sits down. She does walk better today, doesnt nearly fall over like yesterday. But when I put her back in her stock tank, she sits in the same place until the next time I go out. No attempt to eat or drink on her own. I am getting discouraged again as to whether she will ever improve enough to do that on her own again.

Overall, I am giving her drops of polyvisol and electrolytes in her water along with chick grower wet into cereal form (hand feeding) and no more meds. On a brighter note, the remaining 4 that I have are still live wires.

 

[spiritdance]

I just found this thread and wanted to share a bit of success I had with baby cereal. I went through a bout of cocci with a batch of adolescents recently. I lost 3 and had three very sick silkies that I brought inside while I treated the rest of the grow out pen. Two of them bounced back pretty quickly and went back out to the pen to complete their treatment, but the third little girl, who is quite a bit smaller than the others, was still really struggling. I had been feeding pureed egg yolk and grower feed and mixing her water with the corid and powdered electrolytes and protein. Her poo was firming up and was no longer bloody, but she really just didn't seem to be gaining strength on the feed mix, which she really protested to every time I fed her. I finally decided I had to try something else for feed, and while I was rummaging through the pantry I found an unopened box of mixed baby cereal that my DD had left on her last visit. Well, I mixed it thin enough to feed by syringe and settled down to feed a recalcitrant chick. Lo and behold, after one taste of that cereal, said chick started pecking at the syringe impatiently. I pushed the plunger and she gobbled it up. Ultimately, we worked out a method in which I would squirt a "worm" of cereal out on my finger and greedy girl would attack it like it really was the juiciest worm ever. Over the next several days, I fed her as much of the cereal as she would eat 5 or 6 times a day, then dropped back to three and put some dry grower crumbles in the cage with her. By this point, she was up and around good, and would peep impatiently every time she saw me, wanting her cereal "worms." After another few days, I dropped back to one feeding a day (more just to shut her up than anything) and she was eating and drinking on her own the rest of the time. She is now back in the grow out pen and doing well. My only problem now is that she runs up and jumps on my foot every time I go in there and peeps up at me for worms (a nice "problem" to have, really)! Anyway, my point is that even though egg yolks are a great choice in most instances, chickies have their preferences, too. My little Stinky (because she is now stinking rotten) owes her life to Gerber, so you might want to get a box and try it.

 

[seminolewind]

Maybe you could read up on Botulism and Aspergillosis. It sounded like cocci, but if she can't walk, there's got to be something else going on.

 

[ParadiseChickens]

Oh gosh, I had not heard of those Seminolewind, I'll go check them out. Initially I had thought her reason for not walking was that I stepped on her foot. That was 2 weeks ago tomorrow.

This evening, I took her out on the grass to see if maybe I could get her to walk around. She did end up taking about 10-15 steps and just doesnt seem right. It's almost like watching a retarded person (I have no experience with that tho). I was sitting on a concrete porch, with a railroad tie for a step down to the ground. She walked into the railroad tie as if she didnt see it, then looked confused as if she didnt know where to turn to, and ended up climbing up the r r tie, this from a chick that couldnt walk 2 days ago. She then proceeded to walk down and into the bushes like she could see them either. This gets me to wondering about Mareks Disease again.

Hubby and I have talked and I think we will give her just a few more days to improve and then we will have to end it.

 

[seminolewind]

Paradise, I had 3 . A hen couldn't walk and I splinted her leg and put her in a sling. After 2 weeks of her not eating, I ended it. Then an 8 week old chick couldn't walk, and I thought I had another broken leg. But then another chick did it, and I don't think any of them had broken their legs. The hen and the chicks lived 50 feet from eachother. The hen was 3 years old.

I had a roo that died 18 months ago. He started with not being able to walk. The paralysis crept upward to his wings then his neck. I took him to the vet and he was euthanized and had a necropsy done. The vet's best guess was Eastern Equine Encephalitis. It's spread by mosquitoes and chickens are vulnerable, since they use them as sentinels here. It's very hard to distinguish Marek's from EEE.

 

[ParadiseChickens]

Gosh Seminolewind, thanks for letting me know. There is just way too much these chickens can come down with. I have horses that have had colic surgery so I have to worry about them maybe colicking again. I watch them like a hawk. I also have a precious little shih tzu that was sick a few weeks ago to the tune of $400. I thought you just got chickens and enjoyed them and had a few eggs to eat now and again. I just dont need this stress.

I am doing what I can for her but I am giving her until Wednesday. There is a 1/2 of 1% improvement this morning. I put her feed into a 1" cake pan and put her in it. She actually dipped her head into and ate a few times but then got out of it to go sit again with her eyes closed. I dont believe she will come back to it by herself. And I dipped her beak into the water and no go on that. I may hand feed her today, I dont know.