Scorpion sting - sick hen UPDATE - doing better with benadryl

[annek]

That is WONDERFUL news, if the benadryl works it will be fantastic. We don't have scorpions here, but sure did have them in Texas. Horrible nasty little things, I was so afraid of moving some with me here to SC. Please let us know how she does, I am pulling for ya!

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Annek, we have them here too, not no where as serious but they can make you ill if allergic. I thought they were only in the mountains, but I have seen several times my little Cornish bantams running around with a brown scorpion in their beak.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
I use a mash of ACV, yogurt, egg, chicken broth, avian vitamins, baby cereal, and starter crumbles for feeding sick birds with a low appetite. Mix the yogurt and liquid ingredients in a blender to suspend any oil from the broth, the egg will keep it suspended. Then refrigerate and mix with equal portions of the starter and baby cereal. I mix a little at a time let warm to room temperature and use a syringe used for hand feeding parrots.

I have brought back some weak birds with this mixture, and after they get the taste they will usually eat from the syringe without force feeding.

 

[crazy hen quartet]

Well I am completely astounded. After I made the last post, Victoria decided she had had enough of the couch and jumped/fell onto the floor. She headed for the dining room so I picked her up and took her outside on the back porch, figuring I would sit out there with her for a while, maybe she wanted to be outside. I couldn't see putting her in a little cage if she felt like walking around a bit.

I set her down and she proceeded to slowly walk all the way around the house to the hen pen and plopped down right in front of it. She kept eyeballing the nesting boxes so I took her in the pen. She sat for a moment and the other hens came over and looked her over, then she stood up, walked over to a nesting box and got inside.

If she lays an egg I will be astounded.

Chickens are incredible animals. I wouldn't be surprised if she were her old self within a few hours.

 

[annek]

Totally amazing, I am buying some liquid Benadryl next time I go into town for my medicine box! Thanks so much for you information! And for your chicken-you go girl!

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Just remember that they make non-drowsy benadryl for children. (for those of you thinking of stocking it in a med kit) That may have been the reason for the sleepiness.

So glad that she is making such a quick recovery.

 

[Beed]

Victoria is a wonder chicken! I am so glad she made it. You are a good Mom. I am going to keep children benadryl in my first aid kit since we have Florida bark scorpions around here. Found one in some papers I have in bedroom last week! Bark scorpions are unique to the scorpion world because they can climb vertically and upside down, walls and ceilings-yikes! Again I am sooo happy for you and Victoria.

Here is pic of the yucky guy I found in bedroom-my sister made me save it so she can see it when she visits-gross!haha. Is this what they look like in Arizona?

 

[NotTheMomma]

I followed your thread last night, and said a prayer for you and your hen because I didn't know what else to do.

I'm glad to see things worked out!

I live in VA< and I don't think we have scorpions around here, I hope not anyway!!!

Glad to see Benadryl does work on chickens though!!

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Quote:
This is what they look like here in Arizona

http://www.venombyte.com/venom/scorpions/arizona_bark_scorpion.asp

Edit: Maybe the difference in color is because of the enviroment. Its all sand, dirt, and brown here and so are these scorpions.

 

[crazy hen quartet]

Well, sure enough she laid an egg. I can't believe her body was putting one together through all that distress.

About the drowsy vs non-drowsy benadryl, I suspect it actually did her some good to be sedated. She was initially panicking not only because she couldn't breathe, but she wasn't able to control her legs so she was thrashing somewhat. I think being in a "forced calm" helped her a lot, especially until the paralysis wore off a few hours ago.

Just a few minutes ago she was in the pen laying on the floor (getting up and moving occasionally) so I got her and force fed her some pedialite and kefir. She was not to thrilled about that. I need to get some vitamins and mix it with the kefir and crumbles and get some food in her I think. She is alert and breathing just fine, but still quite weak.

Beed, in AZ the bark scorpions are very pale, almost translucent. They glow under UV light so we often go outside at night with hammers and blacklights on scorpion hunting expeditions. Time to do that again I guess! Oh, and I will NEVER feed a scorpion to my girls again! (at least not without cutting the stinger off!)

Thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Victoria

Victoria and her flockmates. Frodette, the scrappy little EE on the left has been very concerned for Victoria and jumped up on a chair to see what I was doing while I was force feeding her earlier.