On the mend, but still questions: UPDATE, 20 week old banty wormy as heck,

[lalaland]

The gapeworm video is hard to watch, but each day people write in on the emergency thread thinking their bird has gapeworm. Some chickens are normal, and some clearly have a respiratory disease. Gapeworm is very rare, and this video is a good tool to use I think. Yes it is hard to watch, but hopefully the person has got it under control now. A small packet of Corid (amprollium) is a nice thing to keep around to treat coccidiosis if it happens. I like to be as natural as possible, but I would probably get some and treat one of my pets. It's only 1 1/2 tsp of powder (or 2 tsp of the liquid) per gallon of water--smaller portions would be good since it needs new solution every day. It is a thiamine inhibitor, not an antibiotic, and will do her no harm, despite the opinions of a few. People use it everyday on this forum with good results.

thanks for the info. I am feeling pretty doubltful about the cocci, but will go ahead and treat. couldn't hurt!

 

[Eggcessive]

thanks for the info. I am feeling pretty doubltful about the cocci, but will go ahead and treat. couldn't hurt!

Sometimes it is hard to save one, no matter what you do if they starve themselves. A doctor friend called me over to his farm about a 3 year old hen who weighed about a pound, when she should have weighed 6 lb. Neither of us had ever wormed anyone before, so I suggested it, because I could not find one thing wrong with that hen--no diarrhea, no crop problem, no egg bound, no mites or lice, no ascites, nothing. Well she died a few days later, and it was the third one he had lost over a couple of months with the same symptoms. I think you do what you can do with the time you have, but I have a couple of pets that would do about anything reasonable to help.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Any more news?

 

[lalaland]

well, I didn't get much more liver into her, she really eats the groats, and everything else is hard to get her to eat. got some into her by letting it kind of dangle - if it moves it catches her eye and she might, repeat might, bite.

I don't know!

 

[lalaland]

after waking me up before dawn yesterday eating, she ate little yesterday and very little this morning. I'm going to dose her with corid (yeah I know, some of you told me to do that days ago, but did i listen? No!)
.

If I can't gether eating on her own in the next few days, she will either die or be culled.

She is alert, when I come to the kennel to open the door she is eager to be out, but she could care less about food, except for going for a few groats sprinkled on the floor. Poor baby.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Still watching and hoping.

 

[lalaland]

thanks, Sue.
DAY 10:
I keep posting on Mrs Murphy because I want to document the whole danged journey regardless of how it ends. Its a shock to realize that I have been nursing her for 10 days!

I decided I was going to do an epsom soak as I've read it can be beneficial to an ailing hen, it you do a good high concentration of the salts in a warm bath,
"the magnesium improves circulatory health, flushes toxins, improves muscle and nerve function, maintains the proper level of calcium in the blood and increases oxygen use. The sulfates help form brain tissues and joint proteins, creates mucin proteins that line the digestive tract, detoxifies contaminants, and improves absorption of nutrients"

plus being in the kennel for so long has left her with droppings in her feathers.

She had a soak, and I just about cried when I could see her keel. this poor little hen, she obviously has a lot of fight in her but oh she is in such bad shape. While I was blowdrying her, she ate a groat that had fallen on the towel, so I started putting cottage cheese and groats in her reach. She ate a fair amount, say 1 tablespoon of groats and cottage cheese. I'ld rather she ate the cottage cheese, but the groats seem to get her eating. She is now resting, exhausted, in the kennel. I am hoping she will start drinking her water as I put the corid dose in it.

I will try to feed her again before bedtime - she seems to eat more when I give her attention and hold out food for her.

If she doesn't make it, which seems so likely ( it will be a miracle if she survives), I am going to do a very thorough and careful necropsy. I hope to learn something!

 

[Leahs Mom]

 

[Eggcessive]

I have read where some people add some of the Corid water to moisten the chick crumbles, and also some will syringe feed the Corid straight. She sounds like such a sweetie. I'm hoping she keeps fighting.

 

[ten chicks]

Have you considered tube feeding her? Often when birds become ill and stop eating,they do not resume eating,they are depleted of energy,basically exhausted. They require constant food to fuel their high metabolism,without this constant supply of food they become lethargic and go into sleep mode trying to conserve what little energy they have left,no food no energy,this is the nature of birds. Tube feeding will give her the required energy she needs in order to function,fight illness and get well.