Rattling breathing open mouth!

[SusanPC]

I went home at lunch and used the tube-feeding method to give Lulu gatorade/water for hydration. I wound up giving her 40ml. Probably not enough for her weight based on your 15ml per pound, but I was a bit wary shoving stuff into her crop, as a first-timer. As scary as tube-feeding looks, it was much easier than I thought it would be. I will mix the baby bird food/liquid mixture and give that to her when I get home, but wanted to hydrate her before I pumped food into her. I also gave her another .5ml Tylan50 injection. When I get home I plan to give the Tylan50 to all the other hens again, orally. Now that I know I can tube-feed Lulu, I'm assuming I can put it in the syringe with her food/liquid, if she won't eat or drink.

The dosing for the Tylan50 has me a bit confused. I have the liquid for injection. I am not familiar with these types of calculations or powder vs. liquid medications. I want to confirm that the medication I have (liquid Tylan50) can be given at 4 ml per day for a 4 pound bird (3 ml for a 3 pound, etc.). I will be making another run to the store on the way home from work for a scale. Besides the dosing amounts, my plans are as follows. Please let me know if I should do anything differently.

As long as my other three hens haven't stopped eating and/or drinking, I am going to leave them in the coop/run and give them about 2 ml (depending on weight) of Tylan50 liquid orally two times per day for a total of 5 days. I started Tuesday evening, so I will finish on Sunday morning.

I am going to keep Lulu inside the house and continue to give her food/gatorade mixture and 2ml (depending on weight) of Tylan50 orally by tube-feeding two times per day for a total of 5 days. I started on Tuesday evening, so I will finish on Sunday morning.

For the 9 chicks, I am going to switch the antibiotic in their water to Tylan50 for 5 days. They have already been drinking water with Terramycin in it for 5 days. If any of them start symptoms (I did see more runny poops than usual today in their grow-out pen... :-( ) I will bother you casportpony for how to give them their meds.

Thanks so much again!

 

[justplainbatty]

antibiotics can cause diarrhea bc it kills good and bad bacteria. Give all birds probiotics to restore gut health/balance.

 

[casportpony]

I went home at lunch and used the tube-feeding method to give Lulu gatorade/water for hydration. I wound up giving her 40ml. Probably not enough for her weight based on your 15ml per pound, but I was a bit wary shoving stuff into her crop, as a first-timer. As scary as tube-feeding looks, it was much easier than I thought it would be. I will mix the baby bird food/liquid mixture and give that to her when I get home, but wanted to hydrate her before I pumped food into her. I also gave her another .5ml Tylan50 injection. When I get home I plan to give the Tylan50 to all the other hens again, orally. Now that I know I can tube-feed Lulu, I'm assuming I can put it in the syringe with her food/liquid, if she won't eat or drink.

The dosing for the Tylan50 has me a bit confused. I have the liquid for injection. I am not familiar with these types of calculations or powder vs. liquid medications. I want to confirm that the medication I have (liquid Tylan50) can be given at 4 ml per day for a 4 pound bird (3 ml for a 3 pound, etc.). I will be making another run to the store on the way home from work for a scale. Besides the dosing amounts, my plans are as follows. Please let me know if I should do anything differently.

As long as my other three hens haven't stopped eating and/or drinking, I am going to leave them in the coop/run and give them about 2 ml (depending on weight) of Tylan50 liquid orally two times per day for a total of 5 days. I started Tuesday evening, so I will finish on Sunday morning.

I am going to keep Lulu inside the house and continue to give her food/gatorade mixture and 2ml (depending on weight) of Tylan50 orally by tube-feeding two times per day for a total of 5 days. I started on Tuesday evening, so I will finish on Sunday morning.

For the 9 chicks, I am going to switch the antibiotic in their water to Tylan50 for 5 days. They have already been drinking water with Terramycin in it for 5 days. If any of them start symptoms (I did see more runny poops than usual today in their grow-out pen... :-( ) I will bother you casportpony for how to give them their meds.

Thanks so much again!

Do you have any friends that are doctors, vets or pharmacists? If so, show them this:
Quote:

CRD indications:

• Administer medicated drinking water for three days; however, medicated water may be administered for one to five days depending upon severity of infection. Treated chickens must consume enough medicated water to provide 50 mg per pound of body weight per day. Only medicated water should be available to the birds.

Turkeys:

• Administer medicated drinking water for three days; however, medicated water may be administered for two to five days depending upon severity of infection. Treated turkeys must consume enough medicated water to provide 60 mg per pound of body weight per day. Only medicated water should be available to the birds.

Another dosing source picture:

Source - http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/18.pdf

More Tylan info:


Disclaimer: I have no medical training, but the info above suggests that most people don't give it often enough. Due to my one experience when the shot caused muscle damage, I will *never* give it as an injectable again, but I would give it orally. Powder or injectable, don't think it matters as long as the proper # of mg per pound are given in a 24 hour period. All data above suggests that it should be given more than once a day. What the proper number? I can't say for sure. If you're good with math, go through all the numbers and give what you feel comfortable giving.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

This adult peahen was treated with Tylan 50 orally at 4 ml twice a day.




Left is day 1 - Right is day 6 or 7 (I think)


This is the thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/846873/please-help-with-sick-peacock/470#post_14879715

-Kathy

 

[SusanPC]

Thanks Kathy - my husband has his RN license and is now a pharmaceutical rep., so he will feel comfortable working the dosages. He gets home late tonight and has been in back-to-back meetings, so although he's tried to be helpful over the phone, it's just not the same as having his expertise here. That photo you sent is amazing! I think I may be turning over some of my chicken nursing activities to him...

I've tube-fed Lulu the baby avian mixture with gatorade, 30ml, yesterday evening, this morning, and at lunch today (after giving her liquids only yesterday at lunch. I also gave her gatorade by syringe by mouth as her mouth was very dry when I tried to tube-feed at lunch today. It went more smoothly after she was moistened up for the tube-feeding. I gave her 1 ml orally of the Tylan50 yesterday with her feeding and gave her an injection this morning.

She still sounds bad (the gurgling, rattling breathing), but she seems more alert and actually had a small semi-formed poop today. She hasn't laid an egg since this whole thing began on Monday, so hopefully that is not a problem and simply a result of her body conserving it's energy. Thanks again and I will keep you updated.

 

[casportpony]

You might want to think about buying some Baytril for her if the Tylan doesn't work.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/959119/baytril-enrofloxacin-sources

-Kathy

 

[SusanPC]

Update: the tube feeding has been going well, but her respiratory issue isn't making marked improvement, even with the increased dosage of Tylan. She isn't interested in walking and only takes a few steps and then plops herself down. She will not take food or water. We have kept her in a crate in the house and I took her outside today, because it is sunny and nice temps, but it didn't seem to improve her spirits, although she took a few more steps than inside to find a cozy more protected spot under a chair. Her breathing is improved, no more heavy gurgling and distressed open-beaked breathing, but she is very much rattling. We wonder if she might just have been too severely affected to recover fully. We are going to give her a few more days to see if she can make more improvement. If not, we will decide the best way to euthanize her. It's sad to think about it, but I don't want to drag this out more than a week if it's unlikely she can regain full health. Thanks for your support. It's been invaluable.

 

[justplainbatty]

Update: the tube feeding has been going well, but her respiratory issue isn't making marked improvement, even with the increased dosage of Tylan. She isn't interested in walking and only takes a few steps and then plops herself down. She will not take food or water. We have kept her in a crate in the house and I took her outside today, because it is sunny and nice temps, but it didn't seem to improve her spirits, although she took a few more steps than inside to find a cozy more protected spot under a chair. Her breathing is improved, no more heavy gurgling and distressed open-beaked breathing, but she is very much rattling. We wonder if she might just have been too severely affected to recover fully. We are going to give her a few more days to see if she can make more improvement. If not, we will decide the best way to euthanize her. It's sad to think about it, but I don't want to drag this out more than a week if it's unlikely she can regain full health. Thanks for your support. It's been invaluable.

I totally understand, but it sounds like she has improved a little. And like @casportpony said, you could switch antibiotics if the one you're using isn't helping much. It sounds like what she's got is akin to pneumonia in humans. It takes a long time for recovery. Can you give her more time?

 

[SusanPC]

Hi justplainbatty - thanks for the recommendation. If it was only the respiratory issue and she seemed to be getting back to normal, I would definitely consider continuing treatment. After I posted yesterday, my husband and I actually took her out again and she actually ate and drank a little and I thought I shouldn't have posted so soon. Unfortunately, the longer we had her out, the more we noticed another issue. She is not able to walk well and is having balancing issues. In the house, we thought it was just because she was ill or weak and didn't have much opportunity to walk around, but it's become apparent over the last 24 hours that she may have some neurological issue. I spoke with our state's extension office poultry vet. From her symptoms she might have MG and/or Marek's. He can test by blood, so we are going to send samples. I will post what I find out.

 

[justplainbatty]

Hi justplainbatty - thanks for the recommendation. If it was only the respiratory issue and she seemed to be getting back to normal, I would definitely consider continuing treatment. After I posted yesterday, my husband and I actually took her out again and she actually ate and drank a little and I thought I shouldn't have posted so soon. Unfortunately, the longer we had her out, the more we noticed another issue. She is not able to walk well and is having balancing issues. In the house, we thought it was just because she was ill or weak and didn't have much opportunity to walk around, but it's become apparent over the last 24 hours that she may have some neurological issue. I spoke with our state's extension office poultry vet. From her symptoms she might have MG and/or Marek's. He can test by blood, so we are going to send samples. I will post what I find out.

I sure hope it's neither of those....you still have her on vitamins, no help neurologically? I hope you don't lose all your birds as you mentioned before. Will be watching for results and recommendations....meanwhile, if you haven't seen this, it lists and explains many chicken diseases, including Mareks and MG. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/
Best wishes, will be thinking of you....