Please help to tube feed my chick

[casportpony]

O did call my vet and their fluid is like $24 and they may not even have it in stock

Yeah, it's not cheap. If you don't want to spend that, ask them to sell you a few 30 ml per loaded syringes.

 

[Snowingamanda]

Yeah, it's not cheap. If you don't want to spend that, ask them to sell you a few 30 ml per loaded syringes.

Thank you! I got 3-4 250 ml bags from the hospital so I hope it’ll be enough!

 

[Suedan]

How is she doing?

 

[Snowingamanda]

How is she doing?

Hi, thank you for asking! Here she is, still alive. I know the picture looks bad with dropping wings and all, but she’s been like this for a while. It’s also concerning that yesterday her weight was 252 at 8 pm and today it was 235 at 10 pm (although I weighed her before hydration/feeding and right after she pooped). I try to give her around 45 cc per day between subcutaneous fluids (15 cc), formula (24 cc), and pedialite down the tube (another 6 cc). But I’m terrified thinking that she might be still losing weight!! At 235g she has lost about 50% in total (the smaller black Polish I have weigh 385, and another golden weighs 525, although he is a roo). Tomorrow I’ll try to weigh at the same time, before feeding.
On the bright side - she is definitely not as dehydrated - her skin is much less wrinkled and doesn’t stand as long when pinched. When I take her out for feedings and IV she also stays alert longer, and even holds her neck for good 10 seconds! She also now fights feeding tube considerably more. And the amount of her poops is larger than before. So, I see signs of improvement and keep telling myself that she didn’t get here in one day so it would take a while to get her out of there...

 

[Snowingamanda]

How is she doing?

How are your babies? No blood in stool anymore? You were right, today I finally got to dusting all 30+ chickens for lice/mites and discovered bloody stools in most so I’ll start treatment for them too, but terrible timing as we’ll be leaving for the weekend (but I’m taking the dying baby along so I can continue to feed and hydrate/medicate her).

 

[Snowingamanda]

@casportpony dear Kathy, I’ve read many of your threads and found a lot of helpful info. If you have a minute, could you possibly weigh in on whether si should switch my chick from Sulfa to Baytril? I’ve seen your link to the Baytril caution infopage. Thank you!

 

[Snowingamanda]

So, being a grad student, I do better with specifics, otherwise I get overwhelmed. So, for easier tracking of progress and to know exactly what I’m doing and commit to it, rather than trying 500 things at once and dropping them, I’m going to post my feeding plan based on these calculations:

1). Food: .03-.05 of 235g =7.05-11.75g per feeding. 1g = 1cc. Feed 2-4 times a day, so 14.1cc (min) to 47cc (max), with the mean of 30.5cc of food daily.
2). Water: 30ml per 2.2lb. 235g = 0.52lb. 30/2.2*0.52 = 7.09 ml. 1ml = 1 cc, so 7.09cc per feeding. I’ll assume it’s 4-6 times a day (??), so 28.26 (min) to 42.54 (max) daily, with a mean of 35.4cc of water daily. Now, what % of formula is water?
3). I use 6 cc per feeding. About .6 tsp of it is formula = 4.92 cc (1 tsp)*0.6 = 2.96 cc of formula (approx. 3cc). The other 3 cc is water. So, it’s 50% formula and 50% water.
4). So, of 30.5cc daily food intake she gets 50% water, which is 15.3cc.
5). So, if needed 35.4cc of daily water she gets 15.3cc from formula, so I need to supplement with 35.4-15.3 = 20.1cc.
6). Vet said give 10cc as SC fluid (daily)
7). That leaves 10cc orally (daily).
***
* Formula content: Corid+Sulfa medicated warmed water + .6tsp of Katee Exact Formula for baby parrots.
- Even with only 3cc of 6cc being pure formula, it still adds up to just above the minimum of daily intake.
- To dose Corid: bottle says to add 3 oz to 1pt. 1 pt = 16 fl oz (or 2 cups), so I mix that.
- Sulfa tabs (480mg) instruct to add 1 tab to 8 oz of water. So I add 2 of those. The tabs don’t dissolve completely, so before I use syringe to pick up medicated water to make formula I shake/mix it well and quickly syringe out 3cc.
* Oral hydration content: warmed + probiotics.
* SC fluid: warmed .9% Sodium Chloride (not enhanced with anything).
***
Feeding/Watering Daily Plan for the next 4 days (because 1 day on Corid/Sulfa passed):

8 am: 5cc of SC fluid.
9 am: 6cc formula, followed by 2cc pedialite + probiotics.
12 pm: 6cc formula, followed by 2cc water + probiotics.
3 pm: 6cc formula, followed by 2cc pedialite + probiotics.
6 pm: 6cc formula, followed by 2cc water + probiotics.
9 pm: 6cc formula, followed by 2cc pedialite + probiotics.
10 pm: 5cc SC fluid, followed by a weigh-in.

I know I bother poor baby a whopping 7 times a day, but I can’t (or don’t know how to?) feel her crop (she is just bones and skin), so I’d rather be safe and feed a little bit often at this point.

After 5 days I’ll re-assess if Corid should be discontinued or extended to 7 days and whether to continue Sulfa or switch to Baytril.
Once Corid discontinued I’ll start adding vitamins to pedialite/water (I bought vitamins for all birds in a parrot store section).

 

[Snowingamanda]

Look who is up bright an early!
She was definitely looking for food and was alert for the whole 20 mins I was prepping it for her (in the car as we are on a trip). She even tried to look around and reach for a little crumb on my sweater!
She is now fed and went back to sleeping. Yesterday I gave her only half of Sulfa dose (but a bit more than a full dose of Corid), but today I gave her a full dose of Sulfa as well.

So, this is a chicken with no name - just one of 30 + chickens I have. But yesterday I started thinking, if by some miracle she makes it, I’ll call her Lucky (3 of her siblings died outside before i was able to find them).

Seeing her today, how she fights, and tries to get better, I decided that a more fitting name for her would be Plucky!
(And, of course, if she doesn’t make it, that’ll make it Sucky).

 

[chickenmomma16]

If this little girl makes it I think you deserve an award of some sort!

 

[Snowingamanda]

She woke up and curiously looking around, even tried to preen herself! I just keep hoping it’s not the “surge” before death. Best award would be if she lives