Pullet unable to use her legs.

[mustangrooster]

Echo has been doing.... okay today.

I'm having to assist her in eating/drinking as she seems too weak to do it on her own, but if I just put the food to the side of her beak she seems to swallow it (same for water). I got her baby food, and I mix the Vitamin B complex in with it; I'm feeding her 3 times a day. She manages to get a spoon of feed down, but I don’t think that is enough, she has lost weight already…I might need to syringe feed her. I've also started her on St Johns wart, 10 drops in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. I've also added Vitamin B to her water, I just want to get as much as possible into her.


Yesterday I got rid of most of the mite's with a ACV and Salt bath, so I hope it relieved her a bit. She sleeps all day in her sling, only becoming alert when I pick her up, and take her outside to see her friends. She has bright eyes and becomes very alert when I'm outside with her, so it makes me think she still has a fighting chance. But, I am worried about her, It would be horrible to lose her, she is just so sweet. I feel like I could be doing more to help her, but I really don’t know what else I can do.

 

[christwodog]

It sounds to me like you're doing a great job, above and beyond what others would do. If it does come down to tubefeeding, it's not that difficult. You could give her polyvisol, which is the liquid vitamin mixture for infants - but check and see how much vitamin B it contains, you wouldn't want to O.D. her on vitamin B. I have given sick ones hard boiled egg mashed up and yogurt also. But as long as she's trying to hang in there, I think she's got a fighting chance. I think it's great that you take her outside, the stimulation is really important to keep them going. Good luck, I hope she makes a full recovery!

 

[ChickNanny13]

IF you do use PolyVisol check that it's without iron.

 

[mustangrooster]

Well, she has lost a lot of weight, and after reaching out to someone on BYC, I've also figured out that she is very dehydrated. I've resulted to tube-feeding, and although I was nervous about it, I just managed to get 25ml of sugar water into her...to keep her hanging in, until I figure out exactly how much water she needs per feeding.


She weighs just under 2.4kg, so just wondering if you guys know how much ml of water/food she needs? I saw on an article that they need 2-3ml per 100 grams of body weight, so I roughly calculated that she needs 125 ml, but is that correct? She's going downhill, so the sooner I get fluids into her....the better....

 

[ChickNanny13]

I have no clue but just wanted to lend some support

 

[mustangrooster]

I have no clue but just wanted to lend some support

Thank you.... I'm so worried about her.

 

[christwodog]

It should be about 100 ml every 24 hours, that's for a 4.5 lb chicken. That's what my vet told me when I had a critically ill hen who had to be tube fed. We gave her an omnivore powdered food that you mix with water to the desired consistency and that's what we fed her until she regained strength enough to eat on her own, it's called Emeraid but I think it's only available thru a vet. You may look for a baby parrot food at the pet store, I believe they have those in powder form that you can mix with water, regular or electrolyte water. So the liquid food does count towards the 100 ml amount, so it's easy to keep track. I just measured out 100 ml on a jar and made a mark, to make it simple for measuring.