- Thread starter
- #11
AlohaChickenGuy
Chirping
- Dec 3, 2021
- 29
- 76
- 51
He responds to my voice by barely moving his head and his eyes are seen moving below the eyelids, but he still just lays lifeless otherwise.How are you and he doing?
Last night, he did not move at all about his cage at all. I think he is getting weaker without food or maybe he just isn't going to make it. He is lower on energy overall. But I did change up some variables last night.
Last night I turned off the heating lamp because I felt like he was getting too hot and the light exposure through his eyelids might be keeping him awake. So maybe he didn't move because he wasn't hot or because he was able to get better rest?
My computer room sits between 70 and 85 degrees, so I just left my computer on playing some Classical Christmas music since I read that chickens actually enjoy the sound of classical music and I thought it would bring him some comfort. Hopefully it didn't keep him awake.
He will also only take one sip of water instead of multiple now. I've since started trying to give him water through a tube, but I don't have a small 1cc tube so I cannot directly feed him to the left of his trachea causing him to sometimes accidentally aspirate and I immediately discontinue to allow him to rest.
He has thick mucous dicharge that comes up clear or brown. It slowly drains from his beak while he is resting or comes out of his mouth when he goes to drink. I clean it out as best as I can with a q-tip but I'm not sure if it's coming from his respiratory or digestive tract at this point or what it could be.
I found some amoxicillin, but it's 500mg tablets and expired from 2019. Antibiotics typically can go up to 5 years past expiration from my understanding so I'm not sure if it's a great idea to try to break it apart and mix it with water at 250mg. What would you recommend? I read something about mixing with coconut oil? That doesn't seem like a great idea based on his condition.
What is something I could potentially tube feed him straight into his mouth for more energy/nutrition? I don't have regular vitamins on hand but figured I could try to find something for parrots or other birds at a pet store. It seemed like a lot of people were using parrot medication/feed substitutes for chickens. There's a Hawaiian local chicken store, but she isn't open on weekends and this happened Friday afternoon. My wife and I plan to ask her advice on Monday.
I'm not sure. He's going on 48 hours. Trying to keep him hydrated as best as I can figuring food is secondary. However, I just feel like he's very low on energy and I'm not sure what else to do.
If he doesn't make it, I just want to know I tried as best as I could for him. I've known him since he was just a little guy running around with his sister. They were the only two that survived the cats in our neighborhood.
We lost a prior rooster to a car and there was nothing I could do for him. This guy though, I just want to believe that if I keep him hydrated and comfortable - He might heal and recover to some extent. Based on where he's at, I feel like he's still got some fight left in him. But, I also feel like he might be in pain and suffering and it's my fault for trying so hard.
I go back to work tomorrow and won't be able to take care of him. My wife has stuff to do. I'm really hoping for a shift in the next 24 hours. But I feel like I need to get him antibiotics and/or food.