LynnaePB
Free Ranging
Thank you this seems to be exactly what he has. I dont have easy access to vitamins and chicken first aid so I'll take him to the vet tomorrow. He's really uncomfortable now and in the downwards position almost fulltime
I'm so sorry to hear he is getting worse. Hopefully the vet will be able to help out with a feeding tube (a puppy sized one may work), a feeding syringe and a smaller 1 cc syringe to give vitamins with.
I'm not sure if the vet would have any hand feeding formula on hand or not. Do you have any pet stores nearby? They usually carry a hand feeding formula for parrots. If you have access to a regular grocery store with a vitamin section you can give him human vitamin E, selenium, and a B complex if the 1 cc syringe will fit in his mouth.
If you don't have access to hand feeding formula and can't get it very quickly you can try soaking his chick starter but I'd be worried it may not be liquid like enough to get through the tube. In a pinch I might try raw egg yolks if I had nothing better. I Hope the vet will have something better though.
For the vitamin E you'll want to try to get one that is at least 400 mg (if it's less you can double up). The selenium pills I've bought before came in 200 mcg pills and for a little silkie I'd try to give 25-50 mcg so you may have to break the pill into smaller segments. The selenium is easy to crush into a powder to mix with the other vitamins. I'm not sure the exact amount that is in the B complex pills but I give my silkies suffering from wry neck half a crushed pill once a day.
If you can get the syringe into his mouth and have access to the human vitamins you'll want to give him....
25-50 mcg crushed selenium, half a crushed vitamin B complex pill, with 400+ mg vitamin E. The vitamin E comes in a gel capsule and you can squeeze it out and mix the two powder vitamins into it and suck it into the 1 cc syringe. Give him this once a day and then give him an additional dose of just the vitamin E later in the day. Continue for several days after symptoms have completely gone.
Vitamin E and B are hard to overdose. Be careful not to give too much selenium though as out of the three vitamins it is the easiest to overdose.
If it takes a little while to get the vitamins or order them if you have to he should be ok as long as he is still eating/drinking or is able to be tube fed by you. Good luck!
