Sick Chicken, TWISTED neck!! Looking up at the sky =( Please Help!

[jerseygirl1]

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html

I found this from one of the links on crooked neck

Lefy hadn side of the page, scroll down to Crooked Neck

 

[onlyonealice]

Thank you Jerseygirl1. I read the post... I am going to the third vet tomorrow to ask for some Prednisone... I hope this vet will know more about birds/ chickens and be able to help. Cici had her worst day yet today!

 

[BlackberryFarm]

How did it go at the vet? Is Cici doing better?

 

[onlyonealice]

My heart is so heavy right now. I really need a sign of hope..
The vet visit....well it went.... just went.... Everyone is writing her off, but at least this vet seemed to be more knowledgeable that the other once we've seen so far, and he was more polite about Cici life expectancy. (He did encourage us to take the number for some Chicken Dissection place so we could find out what was wrong with her after the fact...)

Too bad he was at some conference when all this with Cici first started.
He gave her an injection of Vitamin A and B and he gave me one (with vitamin B only) to take home and give her today..which despite my fear of needles and ever GREATER fear of giving anyone else a shot, I did.
He put her back on Albon, having explained that coccidious is very difficult to get rid of and may still be running in there doing its dirty work. He put her on it twice a day (she had it once a day last time) and he also upped her calcium dose to twice a day.


Anyway, despite all this Cici is getting worst....

*sob* We've started tube feeding her....because she was loosing weight (she is at 308 grams now), I guess what she was eating on her own was not enough.
She is getting the Kaytee Exact baby bird formula. Since Tuesday morning August 16th, we've fed her 6 times about 6-15 cc each time (we gradually increased the amount since the doc said to go slow since she has not been eating at full strength for some time and because it was our first time tube feeding any animal and we were pretty much scared the way Cici is right now - poop-less!).

That brings me up to my most URGENT concern. (I am shacking as I write this because I am so scared and upset...) She is NOT POOPING! Since Tuesday morning she has only pooped ONCE (Tuesday at 11 PM) and that was only after I was wiping her butt with a warm wet paper towel. She let out a rather giant poop the same color as the formula we've given her. There was some white stuff in it and some bloody stuff..(a little piece of meat the size of half a raisin). It also smelled REALLY bad.
Since then there has been no more poop. I have never in my life wanted to see chicken poop so badly as I do now!!!!
I called the vet... He told me we've pretty much done all we can... but we can, if there is no poop by tomorrow morning, give her something that will "force" her to poop. But it is only a short term solution. I am leaning towards doing that just to give her body a few more days to try and fight / beat this thing

(

The problem is.... I am not sure if her crop is emptying anymore (in tears). I fed her at 5 am and then at 9 am. Since then, it has not really emptied. I know so little about chickens that I am not even sure if that is normal! My guess is NO.

IS THERE ANY WAY TO NATURALLY HELP HER / STIMULATE HER TO POOP????????

The vet suggested giving her some hot water to help push things along...... (by the way he had us mix the formula with non-flavored Pediolyte and that is what he told us to give her as water)

She was going to the bathroom just FINE before the last vet visit (she pooped right before going in his office) Before the Vitamin shot and the Pediolyte with the formula. Could that have caused her to stop going???????????...or is this just hoe this mystery illness is progressing??

Right now.. she is resting. Her head bobbles back and forth....as if letting it turn the "correct" way bothers her (I can only describe it as a person nodding off to sleep and then popping their head back when they went to far down).
Aside from that, every now and then she tries to twist her head ever further closer to her feet and when she does that she flops her right wing and her right leg around and her head kind of twitches...
It really feels like her balance is what she is struggling to find....=\\

Ok that is it for now...

if anyone has any similar experiences...or can help,knows anything that would help, help her poop, help her eat, help with her balance, help with anything.....let us know...


Thank You

 

[onlyonealice]

SHE POOPED!!!! SHE POOPED!!!! I have never been so happy to see chicken poop before!!!
It took her 20 hours, but she pooped!!!
it is still not normal and very bad, but some poop is better than none!!!!

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
I would agree, I had a silkie hen which had what I assumed was wry neck. I added extra vitamins in their water and she was fine in a few days.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Maybe its time to end her suffering already?

 

[onlyonealice]

Quote:
ChickieBooBoo...your avatar looks scary....hehe and so does your post!

It is not that I want to see her like this...we struggle with this decision every second!!! And, if it makes you feel better, whatever amount you think she is suffering, we are suffering many more times over. I just want to give her a fighting chance. It has only been 12 days and for most of those days she was looking pretty good. She was avid about eating and fighting through this. So I decided to fight with her. I took of work and have been proving support 24/7 (when I sleep my hubby takes over). We only have 1 chicken....not 5 or 12 or 43.....just ONE. We want to try all we can before giving up. Sometimes we get sick, sometimes we brush shoulders with death...the only thing we can do is tell him..."Not Today" and hope that he accepts that. I mean we don't give up on humans so easy (I can just imagine a gunshot victim being brought into the ER, doc says "let him stand on his own feet" - victim falls over- doc says "Oh sorry he is too far gone to bother trying to save him") so why do almost all sick chickens go to the chopping block? Why is it so ridiculously hard to get anyone of our so called friends, and family and coworkers, and vets to feel ANY compassion for chickens? They all look at it as a joke, a salad topping!!!! Maybe if more vets educated themselves on chicken health (after all PETCO has books on pet chickens, so chicken are recognized as pets!) then these poor creatures would have more of a shot! Right now all I see vets doing is stabbing in the dark as if I brought in some unidentified species from the amazon! <---sigh....just a personal rant!


Anyway, I have been scavenging this forum and found 3 things I want to try. Colloidal Silver, Bovine Colostrum, and Hypericum. I just need to find out if they can be given simultaneously and what the doses are. I read about Hypericum and have the dose for that, I just need the other 2. Cici is 300 grams. If anyone knows anything or wants to share some stories about these medicines, I am all ears.

Thank YOU!

 

[jerseygirl1]

I applaud everything you are doing to save your pet's life - one thing I'd like to mention - please do not overdo it with the vitamins - chickens can and HAVE died from a term I call "over-vitaminizing" - an overdose of vitamins, the old saying " Too much of a good thing" is true here. I speak from experience. Vitamins and electrolytes in the water AND baby vitamins with an eyedropper, caused my chickens death. Be careful and good luck

 

[onlyonealice]

Quote:
I am worried about that too... I am worried about everything! I am worried sick!
but I am also very very very desperate!

Right now, she is on Albon (I cant wait for it to be done! sigh!), she is on a Calcium supplement, and she is on the Kaytee Exact Baby Bird Formula mixed with Pediolyte (electrolyte water). If I give her any extra water, it is regular water.
Also....I've started her on hypericum since the vet thinks it is Merek's.
I want to try the things I've read about that people have had success with....I am just scared! I have questions and am not sure where to get the answers since some of these posts are so old.

If anyone has any information on Colloidal Silver and Bovine Colostrum I would love to hear it!
For instance there are apparently 3 types of Colloidal Silver. Ionic silver, silver protein, and true colloidal silver. Am I looking for the TRUE COLLODIAL SILVER?
And what is the dose for that and for Bovine Colostrum for a 300 gram chicken?

By the way, here are the posts I read that make me want to try this in my Cici:

1)

This isn't an emergency, just a helpful tidbit of information to help. Despite what you may have heard, there IS a cure for Marek's Disease. It is a homeopathic remedy called "Hypericum." Hypericum is a small creeping herb that, when used hollistically, numbs nerves and dulls pain. When given to a bird suffering from the symptoms of Marek's Disease, it will cure the bird by working on the theory that "like cures like," in other words, by giving the bird the symptoms it will take the symptoms away. I've used this herb with great success to fully cure birds of Marek's Disease. You can fnd Hypericum at health food stores, $8 for 100 tablets. Hypericum must be diluted before it can be used:

- 1 tablespoon of DISTILLED water per tablet Hypericum (must be distilled water, tap water is ionized and will deactivate the Hypericum)
- MUST be mixed in a GLASS or PLASTIC bowl (metal with react with the water and herb)
- drip 5-10 drops (bantam) or 10-15 drops (large fowl) on the afflicted bird's tongue. Be sure the bird rubs its beak together because the Hypericum MUST touch the sinuses (located on the roof of the mouth) in order to work
- treat every 12 hours (morning and night) with a fresh batch
- recovery may be as quick as 1 day or as slow as several months

The treatment works best if you begin treating early. If you delay treatment, the Hypericum may not work or it may be a very slow recovery. IF YOU OVERDOSE YOUR BIRDS ON HYPERICUM, don't worry. The bird will exhibit extreme symptoms, and make a drastic improvment within a 24 hours. Hypericum is also helpful for pain. Only treat birds that are showing symptoms.

HOW CAN I TELL IF MY BIRD HAS MAREK'S DISEASE?

Check your flock history. Marek's Disease affects birds as early as 6 months of age. Symtoms occur most commonly between 6-8 months of age; however, any age bird can become sick, it just becomes less common with age. The incubation period is 2 weeks.

SYMPTOMS INCLUDE: sudden death (fairly common), depression (common), gradual weight loss (fairly common), neck paralysis (not common), paleness (in conjunction with other symtoms), wing paralysis (common), leg paralysis (most common), star-gazing (fairly common), extreme sudden emaciation (rare), mishapen pupil (not common), gray iris (not common), crazy behavior (rare), unresponsive (common), internal tumor growth (not common), tumors on feather follicles (not common), fearful (not common)


2)

My saga with Mareks:

One of my RIR's began to be unable to walk. Her legs were splayed out, one in front and one in back. I felt terrible for her, so I made sure to pick her up and take her to the feed twice a day. After that I'd take her to the water. I'd leave a little feeder right in front of her so she could eat whenever she wanted. Except for her leg condition and inability to walk, she seemed fine. She ate ravenously. I used to sit in the coop and lay her belly up in the crook of my arm while watching the other chickens. She'd close her eyes and I'd sit there and cry. I figured I'd take care of her until I could see that she no longer wanted to live.

She had feces stuck to her tail feathers because she couldn't move when she pooped. I took her to my bathroom, turned her belly up and with a warm washcloth, I carefully blotted and rinsed, blotted and rinsed. The stuff was stuck so strong that it took a good hour to remove most of it. She just closed her eyes and didn't struggle. Sweet, sweet girl.

Someone told me about colloidal silver and how it killed viruses. People used to use real silverware in the old days for it's sterilizing effect on food. I heard that Marek's was a virus so I gave her a dropper full. She started to get better and in a couple of days, I gave her another dropper full. Her legs started to heal and when I could see that she would be walking again, I assisted her walking. In addition to the colloidal silver, my husband and I did visualizations akin to the ones you may have read about having little pac men eating up whatever of the virus remained.

My dream was that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between her and the other RIR's I have because she'd be walking normally again. Well, my wish has come true. She is totally healthy and the only way I can tell it's her is because she's a bit smaller than the others having gone through what she did.

Last week I noticed one of my New Hampshire Reds starting to limp. I waited a couple of days to see if she had injured it and perhaps it might go away. The limp was still there and getting worse. I captured her and gave her a dropper full of colloidal silver and within two days, she is no longer limping.

I'm not saying that this is some kind of miracle cure, but with Marek's, everyone is so darned sure that it's fatal, saying there is no cure, but that is simply not true in our case. Oh, by the way, all our chicks were vaccinated at 1 day old for Marek's.

I couldn't be happier, which is why I wanted to pass this on to anyone who is faced with this issue.


3)

Bless you MoodyChicken for posting this information. I am a firm believer in homeopathic remedies. Four years ago my young mini dachshund showed up paralyzed. His entire hind quarters were dragging, and he couldn't even lift his tail. He was diagnosed with spinal disc disease and we were told at Tufts here in Mass that he would need surgery or be paralyzed the rest of his life. A $3,ooo surgery with no guarantees for success. I said no thank you and took him home. My chiropractor came every day for a week to gently work on him, and we then took him to a homeopathic vet, who prescribed a fresh meat diet, vitamins, and homeopathic remedies. We also did water therapy every night in the tub. It was a slow process, but he came around completely and when I took him back to our regular vet, he had tears in his eyes when he saw him completely healed. We have to take precautions as far as no stairs or jumping etc. but he is great. I also cured my Dad's old pekineese of a large cancerous tumor on her nose just by giving her bovine colostrum from New Zealand. It is a super immune booster that will shrink tumors. Nature can heal. My question is how much of the remedy do you give daily? I have a 6 month old barred rock rooster with Marek's. He has not been diagnosed by a vet, but a couple of knowledgeable breeders suspect that is what it is ,based on the fact that as a 5 week old chick, out of the blue I noticed that he was favoring one of his legs, then it seemed to clear up for a while and then it started up again and got worse. He has one leg in front, and one to the back. His eyes are heatlhy and he eats and drinks well. He is separated from all the others in a large wire dog crate outside during the day and I bring him in at night to the basement. I have him completely protected. The breeder lives next door, and he has no chickens with Mareks. I started giving him the Bovine colostrum a little over a week ago and within a few days, we noticed that his legs were beginning to get stronger and he was flapping his wings. I would like to purchase the homeopathic remedy and try it. I want to save this bird if I can.