Sick hen acting confused and not eating at all PLEASE HELP!

[micstrachan]

Although I am scared to try this I will if it comes down to it.

There is plenty of info on BYC on this.@casportpony and @Overo Mare are quite experienced with it. I suggest reading the articles, watching videos and gathering supplies in case it comes to tubing. And you will he glad to have the skill. I think it’s the most important skill I’ve learned since starting my chicken journey six years ago.

There is significant risk involved, so should be a last resort in my opinion. However, when done correctly it can literally be a life saver.

If you are interested iand have the time, here is my journey when I finally learned to do it to save my hen, Ester. She later died of advanced ovarian cancer, but tube feeding saved her through a hard molt in winter.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/#post-23785681

 

[Bridge89]

There is plenty of info on BYC on this.@casportpony and @Overo Mare are quite experienced with it. I suggest reading the articles, watching videos and gathering supplies in case it comes to tubing. And you will he glad to have the skill. I think it’s the most important skill I’ve learned since starting my chicken journey six years ago.

There is significant risk involved, so should be a last resort in my opinion. However, when done correctly it can literally be a life saver.

If you are interested in have the time, here is my journey when I finally learned to do it to save my hen, Ester. She later died of advanced ovarian cancer, but tube feeding saved her through a hard molt in winter.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/#post-23785681

Wow so useful thank you soo much!!!!!!

 

[Egg Blues]

You might want to look up the symptoms for Marek's disease, just in case. It's awful. You'd far rather have your hen die of worms than live with Marek's. We've lost three birds, two hens and a rooster, to what we believe was Marek's. In our case, the two hens both basically starved to death from not being willing to eat, even though we force-fed some vitamins with a bit of sugar water for calories. One had very noticeable deterioration of the eyes--we tried eye drops on her, even. The other seems to have developed an internal tumor. We tried giving them shots recommended locally--it did no good. The rooster lasted the longest. He went blind, and couldn't find the water on a hot day. Ouch. We have other chickens now; one hen and several two-month-old chicks. We'll see how they make out. No plans to let any of these chickens leave this property anytime soon.

We had bought all three birds from a poultry enthusiast whom we now suspect of being very illiterate with raising poultry. Had we known, we would have stayed far away. But these were a rare breed for our area, large birds known for being better egg-layers than most of the local chickens (many locals raise chickens for nothing more than their meat or for cock-fighting).

Live and learn.

You probably don't have Marek's. But you might want to look it up just the same. Our hens also tended to move erratically, lacking balance, and drooping their heads to the ground. Even when roosting at night, they would hang their heads, almost as if it were more comfortable for them to breathe that way.

After you learn more about Marek's, you might learn, as well, that the vaccine for it actually tends to promote it. This is because they live longer, and shed more of the virus in their dander for others to be infected. I won't have any of my birds injected with the Marek's vaccine--and to think, some are injected even before they hatch!

NOTE: We still don't have any proof of Marek's for our birds, nor for transmission of it...they say the symptoms often don't appear within the first four months, and some birds, particularly those which are adults already when exposed, may never become symptomatic. So we are in "hold your breath" mode, waiting to see what will become of our birds a few months from now. But we are highly suspicious of it, having observed the symptoms, including the eye problems, tumor growth, loss of appetite, seeming loss of sanity, loss of balance, and tendency to droop the head or sprawl awkwardly on the ground on their sides.

 

[Bridge89]

I have been giving food, electrolytes and vitamins from a feeding tube thats reallly helping her.. I have also given panacur a second time. She still acts very wobbly on her own two feet and will fall over to the side at times. I'm at a loss. I dont know whats causing her to fall over. Any ideas ???

 

[Penelope25]

Hello everyone. My chicken Emmy is about 1.5 years old, she lives in an enclosed run with 12 of her sisters. Shes always been spunky and quite the leader considering her small stature (bantam barnevelder)
About a week and a half ago we noticed she was not eating or being herself. We immediately brought her inside and started monitoring her and noticed right away that she had worms in her stool. This was last Wednesday. Come Thursday we started hand feeding wet crumble and egg and started giving her ACV and garlic to maybe try to help her the natural way. By saturday she was still not eating or drinking on her own so i went to TS and got Panacur. I gave her Panacur when i got back home. A pea size amount. Fast forward to today she is still not being herself or eating on her own. She just seems "drunk" and confused. She will sit up and close her eyes and just rock a litttle to the sides until she loses her balance and regains it quickly and starts doing it again or shell just lay down with her head forward. She's lost a couple off feathers also, maybe about 6 to 8 since last Wednesday. She is not dehydrated. I have given her nutridrench and rooster booster vitamins and electrolytes mixed in with her crumble and water. I dont know what to do to help her anymore. Her poop is green now but I'm thinking maybe it's the nutridrench since it's a very dark color before ingestion...idk!!

Should i repeat panacur? If so when? And how much?
Aside from trying to recover from worms what else can this be?
If it is her trying to rid herself from the worms, how long can I expect this to last?
What else can I do to make sure she doesn't die?
Whatever information helps! Please someone help me! I don't want to lose my favorite girl!

Hi, my hen did this too a while ago. She didn’t have worms but we discovered that she was molting. She also walked around like she was drunk so we brought her inside. I found it really helped putting about a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in her water to make her drink. She also seemed to be much calmer when I came in to spend time with her. Hope this helps!