Not sure what I've gotten myself into- New Question P2!

[NurseELB]

I've finished my coop to the point that the little ones (born 4/20) are able to be outside full time. One of our older girls (of which we have 2) has been terrorizing them since. This has gone on for about the last month and a half. I tried isolating for a time, but she came out of that even nastier. I decided we had to rehome her so I started to look on Craig's list for ideas of how to post an ad.

I found an ad that was offering a hen for sale due to her being attacked and rejected by their flock. I suggested a swap, my 'meanie' for her 'sweetie'. An agreement was made, and I picked up their chicken this morning, with mine going to her after she gets off work this afternoon. (They live out of town, this 'extended swap' kept anyone from being stuck in a kennel all day)

This bird is in ROUGH shape. She apparently showed up on the neighbor's property a while back, the neighbors gave her to this person because they didn't have a flock or coop. This gal that listed her said they put her in with their youngsters so she could fatten up, but when they tried to integrate her she was jumped. I think I know why.

She's WAY too fragile to go back in a flock right now. I'm looking for suggestions of how to treat her to get her weight back on and improve her immune system before I integrate her.

1) What type of bird , age and weight.- Barred rock, unknown age
2) What is the behavior, exactly.- Just standing, not moving around, not sitting
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?- No idea
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.-Appears to have an old break to her left middle toe, MULTIPLE broken feather shafts, All flight feathers either cut or broken. New feathers EVERYWHERE growing in.
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.- No Idea. Possibly she escaped a predator at one point.
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.-Today she has had flock raiser crumbles, water (I just added electrolytes to the water), and a scrambled egg
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.- Poop is mostly normal. After her bath (she was filthy and I wanted to get a better look at her injuries) she had a large (HUGE) loose, watery, dark green stool.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?-electrolytes, protein, isolation, and a bath.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?-No vet, I'll try just about any home treatment as long as I think she shows signs of wanting to live.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.- See pics below, (1)wings shortened, (2)skinny body, (3)body full of pin feathers, (4)broken toe
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use- I'll be keeping her in a large wire crate with a box of shavings for a nest. The flooring of the crate will be newspaper.

What am I missing here? Anything else I should be doing? I'm scared to worm her until she gets a little stronger.

 

[NurseELB]

I just went to clean up one of her poops and EEEWWWW, WORMS!!! I knew she probably had them, I didn't need to see them!!! GROSS!!!

I just changed out her water to add Wazine. How long does she stay on it?

Once again, GROSS! I see and do fine with many nasty things at work, but worms are ick! Major barf reaction!!

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

Follow your wazine exactly like on the bottle. It gives you the directions. Make sure you mix fresh everyday. Continue to give her the electrolytes. A little pro-biotic like plain yogurt would be great for her right now. Other than that you might dust her with DE (food grade only!!) that would help take care of external parasites until you could delouse her with something like ivomec (wait til she's stronger). You may want to consider pumpkin seeds as a natural worm help but make sure if your giving her any treats to make sure she has grit available. Poor little thing. She's lucky to have found you.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I've only done this once... but I'll try to help since you haven't gotten a lot of responses.
I got all my supplies at Tractor Supply... just not in the chicken aisle

Wazine for worms:
Wazine only gets rid of full grown worms. You'll need to follow up in 10-14 days with a different wormer. However Wazine is recommended first because it's (for lack of a better term) gentler and it's better to get rid of some of the worm burden first than to try to kill everything at once. My Wazine bottle says to mix 30 ml (equivalent to 2 tablespoonfuls) per gallon of water. You only put it in for 24 hrs then switch back to regular water.

Mites/etc:
You might want to also get some poultry dust - I got something called dairy and poultry dust which contains the active ingredient permethrin. I put the bird into a cardboard box, then shook the powder on them and rubbed it in. Make sure you get everywhere including under the wings and around the vent. The box kept excess contained.

In 10 days I repeated the permethrin dust. I also purchased a horse wormer called EquiMax (generic: ivermectin/praziquantel). It's a paste. I took a mealworm and shoved it up into the wormer paste then fed it to my chickens. Approximately a BB sized amount. I gave them each 2 worms (except the pig got 3) - and they're bantams and there was no adverse side effects that I'm aware of except they didn't like the way it tasted. The paste that I got has the added benefit that it could also kill external parasites, but I dusted again just to be sure since the dose was guesswork.


Give her some extra protein too... scrambled eggs is good. You may also want to pick up some 22% or higher protein crumbles or pellets for her. If she's not really enticed to eat you can try mushing them in warm (or cool depending on your location/temperature) water.

You'll also want to keep her apart from the other girls so she doesn't spread her diseases to the rest of your flock. That'll be lonely for her. Maybe put a stuffed animal in the cage if it's not too crowded. Make sure she gets plenty of attention from you.

Good luck.

 

[NurseELB]

Thank You!

I wondered how long the Wazine goes down for! So tomorrow afternoon I'll pick it up.

Apparently she was roosting in a tree outside a little old lady's house in the woods. That women gave her to the ladies I got her from.

I just talked to the woman that posted the ad and let her know she needed to worm her flock now since she was in with them for a bit.

I don't like the way her wings are clipped, but they told me they live in the woods and it was the only way to keep them in the pen-- I worry for my Teri going to live with them, but I WAS going to eat her if she didn't go somewhere...
I'm sure she'll be fine.

 

[True Grit]

I put a little mirror in with mine and that helped. Re-integration as soon as it was safe helped her recover too. I still feed vitamins in their water as the local farm manager advised me to do.. The previous poster was so helpful, I'm just adding to her body of work.

Good Luck to both of you!

 

[NurseELB]

She'll be in my living room in a crate with the window to see the outside girls, and a cockatiel in the same room with her. Plus we watch tv there. Right now she is in my lap! She smells like baby shampoo, mmmmm...

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Sounds like you're doing everything you can to get her healthy and happy. Keep us updated.

 

[chickenlady08]

Oh she is so luucky to have come to live at your house. I just love Barred Rocks so much. they have such a sweet disposition and that is prob how she got beat up on. Bless her heart. Definiltey give her some treats like scrambled egg, crickets, mealworms and I even read on here that people are raising these cockroaches and they have more protein than a mealworm does. I not so sure I can raise them. Def need the yogurt for extra calcuim and probiotics. Maybe the Activia brand would be good in teh vanilla flavor.

Good Luck and

to you and your little BR. I love her and she is going to so love you!

 

[DAFox]

I can't add a thing -- except that you may want her in the garage instead. She probably does have mites and lice, which I'm sure you don't want in the house. Look carefully at her legs, too. If the scales are raised, then she has scaly leg mites. Coat her legs with veg oil to smother them. There are plenty of threads to help you.
She looks more like a Barred Holland to me... Could you post a profile closeup of the head? If she is a Holland, she would be smaller than a Barred Rock.
Dale-Ann