Sick hen...vomiting, diarrhea - please help

[casportpony]

Don't take this the wrong way, but most people that make excuses for not tube feeding end up losing their birds or they wait until it's too late to try. To quote my vet "it's not usually the disease that kills them, it's dehydration and starvation". Tube feeding requires people to locate the supplies, which does take some effort, and some money, so I'll understand if it's something that doesn't fit into your schedule or budget.

 

[Roo Boy]

No offense taken. I appreciate your help and knowledge. It will take some time to locate the equipment, so I'm trying to buy some time.

What is causing this? Is it an extension of the worms, or is there another issue?

 

[Roo Boy]

Update:
Thanks for everyones' help. She is doing much better. We got her eating regular feed, she is laying almost daily agin, and she is putting on more weight. Im certain she would have been dead if not for the help. Thanks again.

 

[Roo Boy]

We just don't know what to do with her, she acted great laid again/flocked/acted normal. We did a lot of feeding watermelon,spaghetti, things she liked for a week or two. I have four small kids (6 and under) and cannot constantly cook special/shop for a sick chicken. We don't want to lose her, but since we done a full round of worming, we've seen her rally really well, but now, after we feel she should be back to nourishing herself via, flock raiser, free range and occasional meal scraps, she is waning again. She's recently started to act reclusive and sick/loner type again. We truly don't want to lose her, but can only give her so much attention and resources. Any other ideas? Tube feeding maybe something we'd consider if it gets her back to healthy for good but not if it is just to maintain status quo and she will always be deficient/struggling without it. Thanks again- signed Roo Boy's wife and the poop pic poster!

 

[ten chicks]

We just don't know what to do with her, she acted great laid again/flocked/acted normal. We did a lot of feeding watermelon,spaghetti, things she liked for a week or two. I have four small kids (6 and under) and cannot constantly cook special/shop for a sick chicken. We don't want to lose her, but since we done a full round of worming, we've seen her rally really well, but now, after we feel she should be back to nourishing herself via, flock raiser, free range and occasional meal scraps, she is waning again. She's recently started to act reclusive and sick/loner type again. We truly don't want to lose her, but can only give her so much attention and resources. Any other ideas? Tube feeding maybe something we'd consider if it gets her back to healthy for good but not if it is just to maintain status quo and she will always be deficient/struggling without it. Thanks again- signed Roo Boy's wife and the poop pic poster!

As Kathy has already stated,tube feeding helps with dehydration/starvation,which will definitely kill her. I have just finished tube feeding a sick silkie for 9 days,he is now eating on his own, Not sure what is wrong with him,suspect some internal injury,he is on aspirin for pain/swelling. I have found that once they do not eat for about 24-48 hours,then they will not and their body starts to shut down very fast.

Does she have any crop issues? Does she eat the grit she has access to?

 

[Roo Boy]

As Kathy has already stated,tube feeding helps with dehydration/starvation,which will definitely kill her. I have just finished tube feeding a sick silkie for 9 days,he is now eating on his own, Not sure what is wrong with him,suspect some internal injury,he is on aspirin for pain/swelling. I have found that once they do not eat for about 24-48 hours,then they will not and their body starts to shut down very fast.

Does she have any crop issues? Does she eat the grit she has access to?

do you think she could be terminally ill and thus tube feeding rendered only a temporary fix? We don't want to prolong the inevitable. Or are there several cases where tube feeding actually brings them back all the way and helps their bodies conquer the ailment (disease even?)?

 

[casportpony]

Before I go into the pros and cons of tubing, did you do the follow-up worming 10 days after the first? And if you could refresh my memory, what did you worm her with and how much did you give her? I'm on a slow connection with the iPad today, so it's too painful for me to look it up.

-Kathy

 

[Roo Boy]

Before I go into the pros and cons of tubing, did you do the follow-up worming 10 days after the first? And if you could refresh my memory, what did you worm her with and how much did you give her? I'm on a slow connection with the iPad today, so it's too painful for me to look it up.

-Kathy

We did do the second dose. We used Safeguard at your recommended dose. We are now trying to tube feed her because she may not make it past today. She has turned for the worse since this morning.

 

[casportpony]

Try tubing small amounts of fluids first, make sure the crop clears, then tube food. Hydration must be corrected before food is given. You could also try giving her a cc or two of corn syrup in case she's hypoglycemic. Unfortunately, if her crop doesn't clear the fluids it probably means that the dying process has started. Hope hope that's not the case, just thought you should know.

-Kathy

 

[Roo Boy]

We started with about 10 ml of slurry (homemade vet researched recipe, none of the stores local had anything and we used a sub q tube (we had from a passed kitty treatment) retrofitted with a medicine dropper, refilled by blowing through a straw) through the tube, we stopped b/c she started to act like she was fading or in pain. I sat and held her for about 15 min. and she acted sleepy. Heard clicking/gas passage in her belly. Her crop, although not very full did seem to clear as it seemed empty after the 15 min. hold time. So I made Jason look up an desired amount of tube feed. We found it to be 50ml. So I held her and just used a medicine dropper this time. She took to it fine and lapped with her tongue to get it down. I got to almost 50ml, say maybe 40+ and her crop felt very full. She pooped twice on me and gagged at me, mid feed, so that was my cue to stop. She is still just acting sleepy, but alive and seemingly enjoying the attention and rest. We made a makeshift pen for her out of the rain in the garage with bedding, water and her typical mash (in case she'd want to try at any point to eat on her own). For now we are hoping she makes it and if not, she will pass with a full belly. Fingers crossed. ( At least the syringe feeding I can sort of handle with a 1 year old, twins and six year old around. It worried me how I could possibly tube feed alone with the children around and no other adult to hold her).Thank you for the pm. we may contact, as to know where to go from here if this works, meaning- at what point do we stop, and how do we know if she is actually recovering or just slowly downward spiraling, assuming she makes it through this...