peahen neck degloved by predator - took to emergency ..

[Knix6468]

They sewed her up re hydrated her, gave her pain meds, they told me that everything looked ok but there might be some neurological things from the anesthesia. I have antibiotic pills as well as pain meds i am suppose to give her. been giving her water via syringe. I brought her home yesterday morning after the injury occurring on Wednesday night.
She is moving her head all weird and I think it is due to tight skin on one side of neck from injury ( we think she was attacked by a predator that shinnied out on perch).
A couple questions,
How much water is minimal for her not to dehydrate?
I got her to peck at food one time, but her closed beek kind of speared the banana, so I made banana mush and fed it to her in the syringe. ( she ate about 12ml of it) toward the end of giving her water and mush she started making weird vibrating throat noise and I assume that is because she aspirated some water she flipped her head around back and forth and seems to have recovered from that.

any help on food , volume of food volume of water i could give her while she recovers?

thanks

 

[Knix6468]

i think i found information on water requrements, and OMG i am headed back in there with more water. thank you forums

"So I was thinking and thought I should elaborate a little about fluids...

@ChickenCanoe asked:
Quote: Which was in response to my post about giving 200 ml of fluids under the skin to a sick peahen who weighs 3.7 kg (8.14 pounds). That 200 ml is only 5.4% of her weight, which happens to be the amount most mature non laying hens drink in a day, so while it might seem like a lot, it was really just her daily maintenance dose, which made me remember the time my vet had me give fluids to an egg bound peahen... for that she suggested 200 ml under the skin *twice* a day, and I'm gonna guess that's because the fluid requirements of laying hens are more than twice that of non-laying hens.



Any of you watch Dr K? If so, did you see the last episode where they gave a 15 gram Sugar Glider 2 ml of fluids? Anyway, just something to think about the next time you read about someone trying to keep their bird or mammal hydrated using an eye dropper."

 

[KsKingBee]

I am glad to see you tube feeding your sick hen but do be careful to not give all that fluid at once. I will divide up the feedings into three times per day of 60 to 90 ml per feeding. If you can go to a big pet store like Pets-R-Us buy the Kaytee Baby Bird Food or if you can not get that some canned cat food or even human baby food to make a slurry from will do. It is very important that she gets plenty of fluids first and will require proper nutrients as well. The Kaytee food would provide that in proper balance. There are lots of threads here on tube feeding and if you see @casportpony signature line there may be links as well.

 

[casportpony]

@Knix6468 ,
Read and watch these:

• https://lafeber.com/vet/tube-feeding-birds/
• https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/updated-go-team-tube-feeding.805728/

How much does your hen weigh?

@KsKingBee is correct, with a full sized hen it's best to start off with 60-90 ml amount, less if it's a smaller bird.

 

[Knix6468]

thanks for the encouragment!! she has a bend in her neck which we believe is to be from having lost maybe an inch of skin. She wants to eat through her mouth but the food keeps getting it stuck 50% of time in the neck, she flips and flips her head around and back and forth.
Has anyone else had a pea that had some skin removed to where the neck wont go completly vertical?
AND we have had more pea deaths, found the killer though its a season raccoon, bypassed the trap right to my crosshairs, but sadly my pellet gun was not sighted in so it was 3 inches above his head, got it sighted in tonight and will be out there at dusk, it seems the first hit is about 11:00. (I was out there last night to kill it when it came back to eat my bird it killed, the thing sneeked up slowly then grabbed the body then yanked it into the shadows to eat it, it was like a scary movie where you see the body pulled into the shadows, this raccoon in my opinion is un-rehomable, we counted and he has nabbed and ate 6 birds out of the pen, so we didn't realize that we were under attack for a while.)

 

[KsKingBee]

I have sewn a few birds up and the skin usually relaxes enough for full movement.

 

[Knix6468]

this is good to hear, but, wow, how did you hold them down while sewing?

 

[KsKingBee]

My wife usually holds the bird while I sew. We trade off and work as a team when it comes to working the birds. She is better at some things and vice versa. There are pics of at least one of my sewing jobs on a huge rip here somewhere if you search.

 

[Knix6468]

I want to let you all know our birdy looks like she is going to pull through, she has started acting like a bird again, she can eat but messy, and is actually drinking by herself. She is not having such a hard time swallowing and she is acting like a bird.
We are so relieved. (no dead predator yet, but its not for lack of trying, we will fight on.)

 

[KsKingBee]

Thanks for the update!