My Polish is dying

[waibel zoo]

She is in house in a crate. She has food (chick grower/finisher) and water at all times. I have forced yogurt and water. She is getting better and can hold her head up now. She stands when I come in the room and then nestles back down. I syringe fed her some chicken and sweet potato baby food, mixed together with water. She took it more willingly. I am going to make mashed hard boiled eggs in the morning. Pedialyte is a good idea. If she is not feeling even better tomarrow then I will go get the parrot formula.

There are no mites or anything. I have soaked her many times. and held and preened through her feathers. She is clean. I can not imagine mites making her so ill she can not hold up her head. It was not didn't want to, it was couldn't. But I have checked her over very thouroghly and could not find anything out of the ordinary.

 

[NotTheMomma]

What does her droppings look like? Has it been really hot there? Could she have overheated? Whenever one goes down that quick, I tend to think coccidiosis. Do you have an Sulmet or Corid that you try treating her with? You don't have to see blood for it to be cocci. If you have a vet willing to do it, you could take a fresh dropping sample in and see if they'll look at it for you for cocci and worms.

Have they been treated for worms? Again, a fecal would tell if she has them, and test isn't expensive.

 

[waibel zoo]

Her dropping are dark green now. But she has not eaten much in a few days. Before that it was the lighter greenish brown, like everyone else. She was feeling bad for about 4 days before I brought her in. I have not wormed them becuase they have only been outside for 3 months. How often do people worm? I am in total suburbia, no wild animals roaming about. If I go to the avian vet I know it is $60 in the door. A fecal is $30 ish if I remember right. I am going to nurse her the best I can. It has not been very hot. Like 90-99. THey are in the shade with cool water always available. They don't even pant. They dig holes in my grass and take dirt baths.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Search 'botulism' and author 'threehorses', see if your hen stands the way the hen in that picture does. Wait, I think there's a sticky for it!

 

[Eggs4Sale]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=219553

is the botulism link.

 

[waibel zoo]

She wa hanging her neck at the worst of it. What would cause botulism? I too have a grapevine, but the grapes are not ripe yet. I do have Rhubarb, but they tend to leave it alone.

 

[waibel zoo]

I do remember about a week ago the inside of the coop got wet by the sprinklers. I did not notice it untill the following day. Perhaps she ingested some. I will get some polyvisol, keep up on the yogurt and start electrolytes.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I have grapevines, too, but they never rot. They are eaten by bugs and dry up, or the chickens eat them when they're yummy.

I don't know if she has botulism, or something else.

If you could go through the topics in:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=112920

it will give you a much better idea what you're dealing with. It's really hard for some of us to help you because we either don't know enough, don't ask the right questions, or don't get the right clues.

Read through and let us know which sounds like what you're seeing, okay?

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
I'd agree with all this - and yes - she should be on a grower feed, or "starter/grower". Soon (when her comb starts to grow and redden, or by 20 weeks) she will need laying feed to start to be integrated into this diet.

Also Rhubarb can be a toxin to birds; you will want to fence it off. I don't know that I'd treat as botulism as the flushes are so very rough on them. And there's not really any talk yet of what she could have gotten into.

Honestly, it would be good to know too if she's very thin? Has she gone light? Any access to compost? Kitchen scraps? Any excess rain there lately?

If she doesn't eat, you can mix some boiled (not scrambled) egg yolk into some water and give that to her. Birds tend to like crumbles better than pellets, and damp crumbles better than dry ones, and damp crumbles with boiled egg yolk best of all. Use that to give her some form of probiotics daily - yogurt or whatever. I would also highly recommend Purple's recommendation of polyvisol vitamins 3 drops in the beak daily for 5 days.

Because she's showing other neurological signs, I'd also give vitamin E oil capsules by beak. YOu get 400-700 UI vitamin e, slit the end of the capsule, and give in the beak. The ones with selenium (for humans only pls) are even better - just be sure that they're LESS THAN 50 MICROgrams. (Micrograms are listed as ug, not mg). You could also give her a vitamin B complex on top of that, but I think polyvisol, E/sel, yogurt, eggs, and grower crumbles should work. Let her have grower crumbles (dry) free choice of course.

Also, just to make sure, she has nothing in her crop, right?

Incidentally, when the inside of the coop got wet, did feed? If so, you WILL want to give her a light molasses flush for four hours.
The rate from MSUcares is One quart molasses in 20 gallons of water or 1 ounce to a 1/2 gallon of water. Only do for 4 hours, and the water that you give after should have electrolytes in it as the molasses will flush out toxins.

I would NOT do this unless you think she got any feed that got wet, or a toxin, or fungus. Otherwise just go with the other feeding.

If it's not toxins you do not want to cleanse her digestive tract this quickly at all because she needs the nutrients to sit in her gut so she can eat.

And you're going to have to trick her into eating by offering her stuff; she's going to likely be too weak to eat on her own. The weird green droppings, usually forest green, indicate a lot of bile and not much else in her digestive tract. so try to get her to eat more. If you even have to use a little cooked oatmeal, do it. Eggs usually are the best though.

DO PLEASE at least give her the nutrition and the vitamins as she needs them.

Sorry this post is a bit unorganized.

 

[waibel zoo]

I am making her eat. She has food at all times. I gave her more baby food and yogurt this AM. She is no thinner then anyone else. As soon as I noticed the wet litter, I changed it. She has been improving. Don't worry, I am taking care of her, forcing her to eat and drink, keeping her clean and dry.

The rhubarb does not have chunks out of it. The leaves are great. I will get some vitamin E today. I am not sure about doing a flush. She seems to be doing better and I would rather not send her down hill again.

Thank you everyone for your help.