Listless, cachectic hen

[shady chickens]

Betty seems to be doing much better now, however she is still having diarrhea, and now it's very watery and green. She's eating cottage cheese with cultures, steel cut oats, ground corn meal, and sometimes tomatoes and garlic. i still can't get her to eat yogurt! what can i do to make it more enticing? i'm sure the cultures would be great for her. she has two more nights on the antibiotic. she's strong enough to absolutely hate the medicine now- i have to give it to her orally with a syringe. the vet wants to treat the whole flock with antibiotics and dewormer. i'm going to ask the vet tomorrow about the very green poop.

thanks to everyone who supported betty. i'm still not sure she will make it, but we're doing everything we can at the moment!

 

[dlhunicorn]

The green is probably just bile...
Your bird needs the balanced nutrition in her feed and if the only thing she is eating is what you have stated here in your posts (which did not include a commercial feed mix) then this is probably what is causing the bile ...
I would suggest you make up some human oats (cook it up in water>not milk) and mix this through her feed ... (btw the yogurt is not going to help while she is on the antibiotics as they will kill the good as well as the bad bacteria >when she is off then offer her yogurt or cottage cheese with the probiotic cultures>look for the seal that guarantees live cultures or give her one of the many dry probiotic products sold at petstores for birds)
I have suggested the cooked humangrade oatmeal as this will not interfere with the balance of nutrition in her feed and will not have the possible mycotoxins and antinutitional factors (cooking it takes care of this) associated with feed grade oats.

 

[shady chickens]

The steel cut oats are human grade. everything i'm giving her is stuff i'm getting from my own pantry, and organic, too. she will not eat her commercial feed - it's in there free choice. yogurt is usually recommended to humans while on antibiotics to prevent the diarrhea that most people get, especially with the broad-spectrum antibiotics. it helps replace the natural flora that the antibiotic kills in it's mass murder of everything living. i work in an ER - we tell everyone who goes home with a script for antibiotics to eat yogurt.

i just bought some bene-bac from the pet store at the vet's recommendation. basically a liquid probiotic formula. now the vet thinks that she may be suffering from a flagellate, such as giardia. i have to bring a new sample to her tomorrow. this would require a different med regime. aghh!! turns out the overgrowth of bacteria in her stool is normal flora for a chicken. the vet had to consult an expert after making the lab do a different analysis to identify the specifics of the stool.

i gave her a bath tonight! i felt bad that she has so much poop stuck to her tail end. she's acting so much better, but her abdomen is still so distended and red. due to her fluid loss with the runs, i'm still giving her subcutaneous fluids. she's lucky her mom's an RN!!

i'm wondering if the recent increase in free-range time has exposed her to some contaminated water somewhere on the property. i'm curious to find out what else they find. i'm concerned that if it's giardia, then my dogs may aquire it from snacking on the droppings. (can't seem to stop them from doing this...kinda gross) of course betty is in the garage, but who knows if the others have it, too.

 

[dlhunicorn]

great to hear on the oats...
It is so very common for ill birds to not eat ....makes it so frustrating... the improper nutrition complicates everything and inhibts recovery >have you thought about a (parrot) handfeeding formula? Perhaps half that and half feed (this will concentrate the nutrition)