Hi. Do you think you could give some specific links about vitamin dosages or brands? I’ve tried looking but I can’t really find anything useful.
For the past two days I have been giving her some pieces of boiled chicken meat in a tiny bowl of egg yolk. I take an egg and crack it in a bowl and then I mix it a bit and add some small bits of the meat. The meat is from our own flock of chickens so it’s natural. I gave her the mixture in the morning and she gobbled it up. Probably the only thing she gobbles up so far. Then I feed her some grains throughout the day and she eats some fresh grass as well. Today, more towards the late afternoon,I gave her half a pill of an organic supplement that has both vitamin E and D and calcium. I had to open her beak and put it in her mouth as she wasn’t eating it herself.
Yesterday she was going great, as she was eating and drinking more. She also walked around a lot more than usual, about 6 feet of distance. But today she has gotten to a low point. She hardly ate or drank anything but a bit of the egg yolk mixture. As mentioned earlier, I had to open her beak to put the pill in but I also had to do this for water and some grains. She refused to eat or drink basically. She also didn’t want to move at all today and was generally looking weaker and couldn’t really stand. The weather was slightly colder/clouder today so maybe that’s why?
Her poop today was also more liquidy and green. If you want I can tell you more about how her poop looked like for the past week.
As for the injury, It’s starting to become yellower because the skin is growing back. She’s going very good in that department. She also doesn’t smell bad/putrid like an infection and it generally looks okay.
My family is thinking to cull her because of today but it is still early in her treatment I suppose; so she could have both highs and lows, right?
There's no way I'd be culling that chicken. If her injury is looking better like you say, any number of things could have caused her to be seeming weaker. And honestly, one off day or one off afternoon could just be normal variation, and not indicate something is actually wrong. Mine seem like that when the weather is overcast or a little colder. It doesn't sound like the things that are wrong with her have anything to do with her wound.
Post some pictures on here of her poop. This sounds like the most urgent thing to follow up on. Green poop often means she's not getting enough to eat, and poop pics can help us diagnose a lot of what is wrong.
I would give her as much egg yolk and chicken, cooked or not, as she will eat, not just a small amount in the morning. Give her a variety of meat. People sometimes feed chickens canned cat food or canned sardines, canned tuna or salmon to help increase protein in their diet. I like to feed fresh or frozen to avoid the sodium, but a bit won't hurt them. Cook (unseasoned) scrambled eggs for her, and leave them with her for 4 hrs. You can crumble up the shell into the eggs and then cook them as an added calcium source if she's still laying. Get that crop full of protein. She gets enough grains on other days, get her full of protein for the next few days and see how she does.
Offer her molasses water for the trace nutrients and minerals (they make this commercially, it's a product called Nutridrench) it is sweet. Maybe a bit of sugar water if the molasses water isn't appealing to stimulate her appetite.
Does she have a good source of grit?
She may be eating and drinking when you can't see her do it, don't discount that possibility. Feeling her crop to tell when it is full throughout the day is very helpful for accurately assessing how much she's eating. She should fill it in the morning, and then eat more throughout the day, and go to bed with it full. It should be empty when she wakes up before breakfast.
Have you wormed her recently? If so, how did you do it, what product and dosage did you use?
Have you treated for coccidiosis, if so what product, how much did you use, and how did you administer it?
I wouldn't worry about the human vitamins so much right now, as they don't sound like the appropriate treatment for what is currently wrong.
For your information:
600 mg Calcium citrate with vitamin D included is generally good for chickens laying soft shell eggs or being egg bound.
Vit E can treat neurological symptoms, if you think the chicken has Merek's disease, feeding vitamin E and B12 for a month or so can help you figure out if it's not Mereks but a deficiency - if symptoms go away it's a deficiency. I don't remember the dosage of vit E.
B complex (having all the B vitamins, B12, B4, B6 etc) 50mg or 100mg, can feed this daily - you will pop it in their beak - they won't eat it on their own, but they will swallow if you pop it in their beak. Excess gets excreted. Since they don't have a formulated chicken food, you may need to supplement micronutrients in their diet, or at least make sure their natural sources have them.
Here's an example of a good commercial formulated chicken feed so you can get an idea of what's needed. Check out the Purina Flock raiser farthest right column - their formulation was updated in 2023. I've also included a link below that to one of Kiki's posts - look in her signature, she has a link to this document (Poultry Feed Comparison Google Sheet - click on this) which she keeps updated. Lots of good info on commercial feeds there.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/28450060/bookmark
