MY CHICKEN IS ON DEATH'S DOOR! ONLY RESPONSE IS BREATHING. IS THERE ANY HOPE?

[binklet77]

Hi, I have a 2 year old australorp hen that is unresponsive. We found her around 1:00 pm today laying in the coop with blood spots in the shavings and blood on her vent area (although not profusely bleeding) and a slightly prolapsed vent.

We brought her inside and laid her on the bathroom floor with the heater on high. She won't eat, drink or open her eyes unless you move her. She was just fine yesterday. In fact she was picking on other chickens yesterday, this is a very sudden change. We cleaned a few feathers out of her beak, apparently she was trying to pick at her vent to get the pain to go away.

We cleaned off her vent area and ran the bath water warm, but never let the water rise above a 1/2 inch. was trying to get some warm circulation going in her underbelly area. I even put on a glove and stuck my finger down her vent gently as far as I could and couldn't feel an egg stuck in there, but I could only reach about 2 inches "down there". The sides around her vent are extremely hard and puffy. Her skin is red and taunt.

Is there anything I can do? Should I try to dropper feed her something? And if so what should I give her? Is there any hope??

 

[hennible]

Your thinking she's egg bound? If so give her some tums to get calcium in her or other calcium supplement. You could lube up the vent too with Vaseline or olive oil and try to massage it down

 

[hennible]

HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTE SOLUTION courtesy of The Chicken Chick
1/2 teaspoon salt substitute*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 gallon water
*Salt substitute is readily available in most stores in the spice aisle near the salt, but if you do not have it, don't worry, the solution will still have most of the benefits intended to combat heat stress.
From: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/coccidiosis.pdf

This may help perk her up...

Replete the bath too, add some epsom salts if you have it.

 

[binklet77]

Is it ok to force her mouth open and pour a substance down it? Will I drown her accidently? She looks dead except for breathing, that's how terrible of shape she seems to be in. Not sure if she is egg-bound. Not sure what else it could be????

 

[hennible]

Very slowly try to get some in her... If you have a needle less syringe that's what I use

Can you get in her vent and maybe break the egg??

 

[StephensonC]

Is it ok to force her mouth open and pour a substance down it? Will I drown her accidently? She looks dead except for breathing, that's how terrible of shape she seems to be in. Not sure if she is egg-bound. Not sure what else it could be????

Here is a link about being egg bound. And if you do give her the water via a dropper, you will need to put it in the back SIDE of her mouth. There is a hole in the middle back area of the tongue that leads to her lungs. Be careful not to get any water in there.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/07/chicken-egg-binding-causes-symptoms.html

 

[hennible]

Hope you can save her

 

[binklet77]

She died last night around 11:30pm. She started breathing heavily around 10:00pm and I heard a noise in the bathroom. Went to check and she had flopped over in one last burst of energy before she died. It was my son's pet chicken so this is especially hard on him. We buried her this morning despite having to pick ax through the frozen dirt layer. Thanks for trying to help. It was really appreciated.

 

[StephensonC]

She died last night around 11:30pm. She started breathing heavily around 10:00pm and I heard a noise in the bathroom. Went to check and she had flopped over in one last burst of energy before she died. It was my son's pet chicken so this is especially hard on him. We buried her this morning despite having to pick ax through the frozen dirt layer. Thanks for trying to help. It was really appreciated.

I'm so sorry!

 

[hennible]