RIR Acting Lethargic - Please help

[Dottie the Chicken]

Any updates?

 

[Starburst]

Any updates?

She’s stopped panting for the moment - just lying there, really quietly, occasionally making this weird hiccuping sound. She doesn’t really seem interested in food or water, going to try to give her some water and hopefully get her to eat.

 

[aart]

She’s stopped panting for the moment - just lying there, really quietly, occasionally making this weird hiccuping sound. She doesn’t really seem interested in food or water, going to try to give her some water and hopefully get her to eat.

How's her crop been functioning?

 

[Starburst]

How's her crop been functioning?

Her crop has been feeling basically the same for the past few mornings/nights - because she’s refusing to eat, there is hardly anything but water in there - just feels squishy and mostly empty.
Tried giving her more eggs but she wouldn’t eat, no matter how much I tried to convince her. I don't think she’s taken any food for a day and a half now... still trying to find plastic tubes for tube feeding.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

@azygous, is there a way we should be feeding her if we can’t get any tubes? I’m just concerned that she hasn’t eaten anything today and she only ate a bite or two yesterday morning.

 

[azygous]

Trying to feed a chicken with just the oral syringe is just too stressful for all concerned. Don't you guys know any old people with pulmonary issues that use oxygen? How about contacting your local ER for a scrap of discarded tubing? They can't sterilize and reuse that stuff. They toss it. You only need a ten inch piece.

Oxygen tubing has rimmed fittings which are perfect to fit an oral syringe into. But you can make it work if the tubing has none. You will just need to find a syringe to fit into the end of the tube so the contents go into the tube and not blow around the outside. In fact, you can fashion a collar by heating the tube ending with exposure briefly to a flame then smash it on a cold hard surface so it expands to form a flared end which makes it easier to fit a syringe into. Any drug store should carry syringes and most of the time they will be free for the asking. In fact, you could even use a turkey baster as a syringe.

In lieu of tubing, you will need to make a soupy mix of raw egg, yogurt and sugar and try to dip the hens beak in it to tempt her to eat it on her own. Water is more important right now, but if she goes much longer without food, she will become too weak to eat and too weak to fight.

If we had a functioning post office, I would gladly mail you a feeding kit. But the mail is not really moving these days, and will get worse before it gets better, if ever.

Recently, I sent away for a test kit so I could send in a blood sample to try to find out what ails my pullets. I discovered that there is no such thing as "overnight express mail" even though they will sell it to you. My blood sample was required to get to the lab in under 30 hours to be viable. It now takes a week or more for mail if you're lucky. I had to toss the kit and forget about the test. I think we may be living in a third world country.

 

[Starburst]

Trying to feed a chicken with just the oral syringe is just too stressful for all concerned. Don't you guys know any old people with pulmonary issues that use oxygen? How about contacting your local ER for a scrap of discarded tubing? They can't sterilize and reuse that stuff. They toss it. You only need a ten inch piece.

Oxygen tubing has rimmed fittings which are perfect to fit an oral syringe into. But you can make it work if the tubing has none. You will just need to find a syringe to fit into the end of the tube so the contents go into the tube and not blow around the outside. In fact, you can fashion a collar by heating the tube ending with exposure briefly to a flame then smash it on a cold hard surface so it expands to form a flared end which makes it easier to fit a syringe into. Any drug store should carry syringes and most of the time they will be free for the asking. In fact, you could even use a turkey baster as a syringe.

In lieu of tubing, you will need to make a soupy mix of raw egg, yogurt and sugar and try to dip the hens beak in it to tempt her to eat it on her own. Water is more important right now, but if she goes much longer without food, she will become too weak to eat and too weak to fight.

If we had a functioning post office, I would gladly mail you a feeding kit. But the mail is not really moving these days, and will get worse before it gets better, if ever.

Recently, I sent away for a test kit so I could send in a blood sample to try to find out what ails my pullets. I discovered that there is no such thing as "overnight express mail" even though they will sell it to you. My blood sample was required to get to the lab in under 30 hours to be viable. It now takes a week or more for mail if you're lucky. I had to toss the kit and forget about the test. I think we may be living in a third world country.

Thank you so much for all of the help you've been giving us - for reference on what to look for, would something like this work:

I wish I could ask my ER for scrap tubing, but I'm afraid that would be very difficult to obtain with all the restrictions in place on going to it...
Trying to see if any stores might have any tubing like above nearby, but I am not having much luck. Only thing I can find is on Amazon, which would take several days to get here. I'm going to keep looking.
Again, thank you so, so, much for all of your priceless knowledge and for being such an amazing person - you've really been so much more helpful than I can say, and no matter what happens, I will forever be grateful for the compassion and help you have given me.

 

[azygous]

Yes, syringe and catheter. That's what you want. Anyone reading this, they should get this kit, too and keep it with their chicken first aid kit.

 

[Eggcessive]

Most hardware stores and big box stores sell plastic tubing. Walmart sells aquarium air tubing which works for thinned feed and fluids. A 35 ml syringe from the feed store will fit that, and you can take it to see if other tubing does.

 

[Starburst]

This is the one thing that’s similar that I can get at my local Walmart - would it work? Looks a little thick...?