mystery illness not responding to treatments

[Waterfaery]

I'm afraid I'm going to lose the sickest one. He suddenly deteriorated after we started tube feeding. I started with smaller amounts yesterday and then more today. The most I gave him was 60ml in this morning's feed which is only 2% of his bodyweight but it's almost like his body can't handle the food. It seems to have made him so much weaker and unable to stand. The food came straight through him in a short time as undigested liquid.

Have you ever experienced this sort of reaction before? Is it shock of being handled so much? Or organ failure or something causing his body to not actually be able to take the food? I've tube fed so many chickens and it's always very successful. It feels very scary to have it go so wrong like this.

I'll be surprised if he makes the night. I feel like I've done everything wrong.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

Aww I'm sorry. It's always hard to lose birds.

 

[KsKingBee]

I know that depressing feeling when you try so hard only for them to show a little improvement and then turn for the worse.

You did everything you could but the organ damage is just too far gone to absorb nutrients.

I have turned a bit callous to losing birds only because I have hundreds and it happens way too often. Not from disease so much as from predators and mostly self-inflicted wounds. It still takes a toll on my soul.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

You all are so lucky to have so many peafowl you are so lucky! I don't have an awful lot of space but sometime in the future I will have gorgeous birds like all of ye, hopefully. I really hope your birds get better.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

I'm sorry for your peacock

 

[Waterfaery]

You all are so lucky to have so many peafowl you are so lucky! I don't have an awful lot of space but sometime in the future I will have gorgeous birds like all of ye, hopefully. I really hope your birds get better.

Thanks. Yeah, hopefully the rest will be ok.

It's good you found this site while you're starting with peafowl. There's so much to learn here.

 

[KsKingBee]

I like to cut from vent to throat and splay out the bird without disturbing the organs so I can assure myself that I did not accidentally tear the esophagus when tube feeding letting feed into the chest cavity. From there I inspect each organ from top down. The heart and liver may have yellow lesions, and the lungs should be pink and clear. Remove the intestines including the gizzard, gut, and cecal pouches laying them out on a towel. Slice the gizzard in half to inspect the contents. I would expect the gut and cecal pouches to be severely tumorous with gross cancerous lesions.

 

[KsKingBee]

With the exception of the liver the organs look remarkably good. Nothing like I expected to see. That liver is extremely dark and probably holds the clue. Let's flag @casportpony she loves this stuff.

 

[casportpony]

His ceca were full of solid, dark material but he hasn't produced a cecal dropping at all since we started treating him.

So sorry for your loss. That would explain why the intestines look so unhealthy. I suspect that the ceca started leaking and he died from sepsis.

 

[casportpony]

What would cause the fecal matter to sit there? He hardly ate so I was surprised to see so much food in his system. If anything, the ceca seemed really dried out and the contents were very solid. My husband said he thought he was really dehydrated.

Dehydration can cause this.

Are you thinking it's a bacterial infection? I do have a tiny amount of Baytril but not enough to finish a course of treatment and definitely not enough if I'm going to need to dose more than one bird.

I think that the fecal material sitting in the ceca caused the ceca to be compromised and leak into the abdominal cavity, resulting in a massive infection.

When I have one that's sick I start by weighing them in grams. That is my baseline weight, and everything I do is based on that number.

Almost all sick birds are hypothermic & dehydrated. After being weighed they are put in a hospital cage in a warm room. Once warm, I tube fluids to correct hydration and this should not be done until the bird is warmed up. Tube warmed (102 degrees) Pedialyte or Gatorade at 14 ml per pound of body weight, wait 60-90 minutes, and repeat. If no poop is produced by 3 hours after first tubing, repeat once more.

Is the other one producing cecal poop?