Nearly Starved to Death Chicken

[VirginiaEdie]

Hello Everyone,

I am a new chicken owner with a small flock of six chickens: three light brahmas, two buff orpingtons, and one speckled sussex. They are all about five months old. The poor speckled sussex is at the bottom of the pecking order and she was getting slower and more unstable over the past several weeks. We finally thought to separate her from the flock, but she could no longer stand up and we took her to the vet. It turns out she was nearly starved to death and had no meat on her bones.

It's been a week and a half and she is slowly recovering. We have been feeding her game bird food (as recommended from people on this site), and any fruit and veggies she will put her beak on. I can tell she is slowly getting stronger but she still cannot stand on her own. This is where the trouble comes in: she gets poop stuck all over herself. I have bathed her a few times but the poor girl gets chilled. Does anyone have any advice on how I can keep her poop free? Is it possible to hang her in a little chicken sling so the poop just drops to the floor?

The other problem I'm running into is that she has lice from not being able to give herself dust baths. I have been using diatomaceous earth to dust bath her every few days, but she is definitely still infested. Does anyone have any other ideas? I was told at our local feed store that sevin dust is no longer approved by the FDA for use on poultry.

Finally, has anyone here ever had a chicken this weak from starvation? Did your chicken recover or are we just fooling ourselves and prolonging her misery?

Any thoughts on these matters are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Edith

 

[hiddenflock]

This might sound weird, but maybe you could take a bristled horse brush and brush the dry poop off of her, as an alternative to getting her wet? And maybe a dry rag for the not so dry poop.

 

[hennible]

If the birds young, give her a chance to recover ( not that I have any experience with malnutrition ). That said I saw a mini chicken hammock on here that would solve the poo problem... Like a little cat hammock.

Like that and set the bird in so her bottom hangs over the side. It should also prevent pressure sores

 

[welasharon]

Go ahead and use seven dust. I use it and so do many on here. The damage from the infestation will do more damage to her than the seven dust. Just take pinches of it and put it between her feathers and kind of whish it around. I would not over dust her but you need to kill them asap. Then dust lightly again in 10 days.

 

[VirginiaEdie]

I would like to thank those who responded to my post. Unfortunately, she died sometime during the night last night.

Edith

 

[hennible]

So sorry.