My Crop Tube Feeding Journey With My Bird (Pics For Visuals- VERY detailed Post)

[casportpony]

Do I still give her the safeguard as well? Do I give each separately or can I mix them together? I'd like to start the general cure tonight even thoug I gave her safeguard today. I was planning on doing safeguard for 3 days, is this okay?

I have used both metronidazole and Safeguard together many times when treating peafowl or blackhead, but not with Praziquantil, so that would be up to you. Capillary worms can be hard to treat and would require 3-5 days of Safeguard. I don't remember seeing any drug interactions between the three, but I'm not a vet.

-Kathy

 

[kuntrygirl]

kuntrygirl, you have NO idea of how much this post helped me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

I have a young peahen, 1 1/2 years old that just looked off.  She let me pick her up without a struggle and I was horrified at how very thin she is!  She doesn't really like the other peas she was in with, so I thought maybe they were keeping her from eating enough.  With winter temps that kept dropping to at least -20 F, that wouldn't be good for her.  I brought her in the house and set up a small pen for her.  I noticed she wouldn't stand up, so of course I contacted Kathy (casportpony).  We discussed a few possibilities, then I had to head out to work.  I spoke to her the next morning, and she told me that she thought about it the night before and 'thought outside the box'.  She asked me if I checked her feet for infections or anything.  I went up right away to do that and when I looked at her feet I was sick.  She has severe frost bite on one foot and is going to lose all of those toes.  I called around to some vet offices, the one I use for pets apparently 'has an employee who is severely allergic to birds, but they *might* be able to work her in next Monday...'   Call the next vet, pet side who told me the only thing they did to birds was beak and claw trimming, and to call their livestock side and speak to a certain person.  I spoke to her and she said there was nothing they could do, just watch for pus and the toes will fall off on their own.  (Remember I said before that none of these vets really want to treat poultry?).  I called a vets office that is about an hour away.  The vet there was our state vet until about a year ago when he quit and went into private practice.  He doesn't really know a lot about poultry but told my friend who lives closer that he is willing to make some calls for answers.  They could see her the following Tuesday so I made an appointment.  Once there, he looked at her foot, told me that there was some damage to the other foot as well, and gave me DMSO gel to rub on her feet twice a day.  I was a bit surprised that he didn't weigh her or check her body condition, I mentioned at least twice that she is severely underweight.  We discussed the option of putting her down, but as I watched her calmly look around, I didn't get the feeling that she wants to give up.  So I stopped at the pet shop on my way home and picked up KayDee and came home to look for info on tube feeding.  You post is what I found.

After reading your post, I realized that I needed to find a tube.  She is eating some, mostly scrambled egg, some meal worms, and a bit of fruit (watermelon, strawberries, pineapple).  But she is just eating enough to maintain her weight, not gain.  At this point she has been in the house for a week. 

My story on finding a tube... I got off work this morning, went out to my truck and called my pet vet.  I see them often enough that I have their phone number memorized.  The front desk answered and it went like this:

Me: Here is your odd question for the day... do you guys have anything that can be used as a feeding tube to force feed a peacock? (didn't think she would understand if I said peahen).
Her:  Oh boy, that is a different one!  Hmmm... Hold on a minute (puts me on hold).
Another person comes to the phone:  This is Dr T, how can I help you?  (Perfect!  The vet I saw for 7 years with my kidney failure cat!)
Me:  Hi Dr T, this is Shirley L.  I need a feeding tube for a peacock.
Dr T:  Uh, oh.  Whats going on?
Me:  I have a peahen with frost bite on her feet and she is about half the weight she should be.  I took her to Dr V since someone in your office has allergies, he thinks she isn't eating due to pain. 
Dr T:  Well... you just need something like a catheter tube, is it an adult?
Me:  Yes.
Dr T:  I'll leave one set aside for you, do you need a syringe with it?
Me:  I could use 3 syringes.
Dr T:  Ok, they'll be ready when you stop by. 

It was that easy.  He did offer me some kind of feed they carry, but I already had baby bird food.

Anyhow, long story short, I was on my own to feed her (my family disappears when I have anything like that to do) so I wrapped her in a towel and knelt on the floor with her between my knees.  It was actually surprisingly easy!  I only gave her 65 ml for this first feeding, and I'll increase from there.  Then I fixed her a bowl of scrambled egg. 

Now I've been looking online at making prosthetics for birds.  Surprisingly enough, there is quite a bit out there!  Someone even suggested making feet out of spatulas so they bend when the bird walks.  If she makes it, she'll be spending winters in the house from now on.

But thank you again for the EXCELLENT post that helped me and I am sure will help many more for years to come.  If it isn't already, this one should be a sticky!         

Hey Frosty! I have not seen you online in a while.

I am just seeing your post. Sorry that I am so late replying.

First off, I am so so so very sorry to hear about your pea. I was almost in tears when I was reading your story. I am so happy that you were able to get help for your girl. Very glad that Kathy was also able to be there for you. Kathy is literally a LIFE SAVER. I know that this post was in March, so I am curious as to how your pea is doing. I am glad that my post was able to help you with your pea. I'm glad that we are all able to work together and learn from one another to care for and help our birds. We have a great group of experienced and knowledgeable people on the pea thread that are so helpful. Without them, I don't know where I would be.

I like your idea of making prosthetics for birds. That is a great idea. That could help out so many birds. I hope that you are able to invent something.

Please let me know how your pea is doing. I hope that she is doing well.

And thanks again for your post. I appreciate the kind words.

 

[kuntrygirl]

She only weighs 2 1/2 lbs, she has lost weight, and I gave her .5 cc of safeguard. What do you think of her poop? Do you need a better picture? It looks similar to pics I've seen of mareks but then it also looks like it could be a bad case of worms. Would an injury bring on a bad bout of worms?

How is your bird doing?

 

[Farm4Suncee]

Aww, thanks for asking. I gave her the pedialyte 30 ml, safeguard, and the general cure this am and she is now pecking at her food. Her poops are looking firmer . I'll tube her again in another hour to feed her. I'm liking that the pedialyte/ fluids in her are getting her to actually peck at food. She's a fighter as we've been dealing with this for 2 was and she hasn't given up and I want to give her the best fighting chance.

 

[casportpony]

Is the color of her poop changing yet?

-Kathy

 

[Farm4Suncee]

It was a dark, runny brown last night and today it is not as yellow as before the pedialyte and it is thicker with a little green still.

 

[casportpony]

Definitely sounds a little better. Do you have any other antibiotics, human or other pet ones included?

-Kathy

 

[Farm4Suncee]

I've given her two 65 ml feedings today and two pedialyte at35 Ml, 6 hours apart. She has been eating her crumbles in between and she has been preening. Her poops are a lighter yellow with lots of chunky green bits. Could the green bits be worms? Kathy, should I also have on an antibiotic? I had treated her with penicillin for 4 days then treated with Sulfadimethoxine prior to treating with safeguard. So far it's what I'm doing now that has shown the most positive progress. I've gone ahead and given her th general cure and the safeguard together and there have been no adverse reactions. She is alert and seems quite content.

 

[Farm4Suncee]

Can I treat the whole flock with the general cure? I haven't seen symptoms of worms in the others but I want to go ahead and give them safeguard
Just to be safe, and I wanted to check first to see if they should also get the general cure. If so can I give it to them in there waterer, and how much
I have 8 average size birds around 5 lbs,or should I administer Individually, I know I give safe guard individually. Edited to add that I read in another thread that the eggs shouldn't be eaten after using metronidazole, would this be forever? I'm just going to go with safeguard for the other girls.

 

[casportpony]

No need to treat birds with healthy looking poop, IMO, but definetly worm them. Metronidazole foul tasting, so you would need to give it orally. Fish-Zole comes in pill form and is cheaper, so you might want to look into getting some of that.

-Kathy