Silkie thread!

[chickydee64]

My almost 1 month...first Silkies.....................



The light colored are from splash mom.white roo

 

[hokankai]

Try upping the fat content of her feed. Also, try Calf Manna. When riding in the car, do you keep her in a crate or a darkened box? If a crate, throw a towel over it to darken it and remove the visual stimulation.

Are you galvage tube feeding her or just putting the food in her mouth for her to swallow? If galvage feeding, just feed more. She's got a big crop for a reason.

Part of her meal is baby parrot formula, which is high in protein and fat. She has a clear bin I've fashioned into a catch-all transport cage and has been doing really well!

She is being tube fed, a section of cat catheter connected to a 12 mL syringe. She gets fed about 4-5 times a day, about 6-7 syringe-fulls. I think she's getting plenty at this point

Today we had a big milestone, she actually pecked at a bowl of food! She didn't grab it or eat it, but that is the first time in almost two weeks that she's pecked at anything. I feel like we're just days away from her feeding and watering herself. Her personality is pretty much back in that she is getting more "talkative". Still doesn't do a whole lot, but that's kind of how she was before.

Here's a pic of her from tonight

 

[B J Hopkins]

Love her color. Where do u work that u can take her w/u?

 

[Urchin]

The injury happened on the 26th, so we're coming up on two weeks. I feel like she's racing against the clock, her brain healing vs malnourished body. I am trying to keep her from being malnourished, but it's really hard to tell how her body is doing. She gets food and poops though so that's good I suppose.

Unfortunately I can't keep her totally stress free, because tube feeding is stressful, riding in the car to and from work is stressful, etc. However she seems to be responding well to being interacted with and having people pet and talk to her. She sits in my car until after my lunch break and probably just stands around or lays around since that's all she does...haha

I'm tube feeding a six-month-old rooster who has kidney damage. I'll probably be doing it for the rest of his life, but he's an active, alert little guy despite having no appetite. Besides, his vet bills were too expensive to let him die.

Do you have a kitchen scale you can use to keep track of her weight? That'll let you know if she's getting enough to eat. If she's painfully thin, you'll want to keep her under a heat lamp or find some other way to keep her warm. You don't want her using calories to keep her temperature up when you're trying to put weight on her.

You could probably keep her at home if you feed her enough in the morning and at night. That would cut down on her stress. Those crops are amazing at expanding and they can hold more than you think they can. Thunderhead is undersized because his illness has stunted him. Developmentally he's around three to four months old and weighs 1 lb. 7 oz. at his last weighing a few days ago. He's getting 50ml of food in the morning and 50ml at night. That's holding his weight steady with a bit of gain.

Keep an eye on her poop. If it's lime green, she's not getting enough to eat. If it's nothing but clear fluid, then she's putting out too much uric acid and is probably dehydrated. If electrolytes and increased fluids don't cure that, you're probably looking at kidney problems. Thunderhead puts out several clear fluid poops a day because of his kidney damage. I've had to put him on a low protein/low calcium diet to keep his kidneys from being overworked. He mostly gets baby food now -- veggies and cereals with added sunflower oil so he gets the caloric intake he needs. It's so hard to find low protein/low calcium foods with the calories he needs for his high birdy metabolism. Best of luck with her. I hope she gets better!

 

[chickydee64]

Part of her meal is baby parrot formula, which is high in protein and fat. She has a clear bin I've fashioned into a catch-all transport cage and has been doing really well!

She is being tube fed, a section of cat catheter connected to a 12 mL syringe. She gets fed about 4-5 times a day, about 6-7 syringe-fulls. I think she's getting plenty at this point

Today we had a big milestone, she actually pecked at a bowl of food! She didn't grab it or eat it, but that is the first time in almost two weeks that she's pecked at anything. I feel like we're just days away from her feeding and watering herself. Her personality is pretty much back in that she is getting more "talkative". Still doesn't do a whole lot, but that's kind of how she was before.

Here's a pic of her from tonight

She is lovely

and so lucky to have you.............

 

[hokankai]

Love her color. Where do u work that u can take her w/u?

I work at a clinic in the lab . People stop me in the hall to say hi to her when I take her into the bathroom for feeding

 

[hokankai]

I'm tube feeding a six-month-old rooster who has kidney damage. I'll probably be doing it for the rest of his life, but he's an active, alert little guy despite having no appetite. Besides, his vet bills were too expensive to let him die.

Do you have a kitchen scale you can use to keep track of her weight? That'll let you know if she's getting enough to eat. If she's painfully thin, you'll want to keep her under a heat lamp or find some other way to keep her warm. You don't want her using calories to keep her temperature up when you're trying to put weight on her.

You could probably keep her at home if you feed her enough in the morning and at night. That would cut down on her stress. Those crops are amazing at expanding and they can hold more than you think they can. Thunderhead is undersized because his illness has stunted him. Developmentally he's around three to four months old and weighs 1 lb. 7 oz. at his last weighing a few days ago. He's getting 50ml of food in the morning and 50ml at night. That's holding his weight steady with a bit of gain.

Keep an eye on her poop. If it's lime green, she's not getting enough to eat. If it's nothing but clear fluid, then she's putting out too much uric acid and is probably dehydrated. If electrolytes and increased fluids don't cure that, you're probably looking at kidney problems. Thunderhead puts out several clear fluid poops a day because of his kidney damage. I've had to put him on a low protein/low calcium diet to keep his kidneys from being overworked. He mostly gets baby food now -- veggies and cereals with added sunflower oil so he gets the caloric intake he needs. It's so hard to find low protein/low calcium foods with the calories he needs for his high birdy metabolism. Best of luck with her. I hope she gets better!

I was tracking her weight, until I realized it was futile. I was weighing her first thing in the morning, but at any given time she has poop in her which skews her actual weight. However she does seem to have a bit more meat on her compared to when she was really light . She is currently a house chicken, so she is in a warm house for the most part, unless she's in the car.

I started out leaving her at home, but with all the other responsibilities I have I didn't feel feeding her morning and night was sufficient. Plus she actually seems to be responding very well to being interacted with, being in a stimulating environment, and getting fed throughout the day. If she stays home she pretty much doesn't move unless I move her around and get her moving.

At first her poop was light green, until I started syringe feeding. Now she does nice sized poops that look normal. Sometimes there is an excess of clear fluid like she got too much water or something, but her poop usually just looks normal with a nice bit of urate there. Her food is 1/2 water, and she gets water throughout the day as well, and the water used to mix her food has vitamin/electrolyte powder in it. I think at this point I've finally got it figured out and she's improved tremendously!

Edit: Just weighed her, and after a big poop she weighed in at 580 grams. However she has food in her crop and system so I'd figure she's around 550grams maybe? Lowest she's registered is 525 grams after a large poop in the morning before a feeding but I don't know if she was lighter before that.

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

My almost 1 month...first Silkies.....................



The light colored are from splash mom.white roo

These are beautiful!

Congrats!! Welcome to the wonderful world of Silkies! -Pam

 

[jajeanpierre]

Part of her meal is baby parrot formula, which is high in protein and fat. She has a clear bin I've fashioned into a catch-all transport cage and has been doing really well!

She is being tube fed, a section of cat catheter connected to a 12 mL syringe. She gets fed about 4-5 times a day, about 6-7 syringe-fulls. I think she's getting plenty at this point

Today we had a big milestone, she actually pecked at a bowl of food! She didn't grab it or eat it, but that is the first time in almost two weeks that she's pecked at anything. I feel like we're just days away from her feeding and watering herself. Her personality is pretty much back in that she is getting more "talkative". Still doesn't do a whole lot, but that's kind of how she was before.

Here's a pic of her from tonight

That's really good to hear. From the picture it looks like the back of a vet clinic--do you work at a vet clinic?

If she's losing weight, she needs more calories. You can increase the calories by using less water in the formula, but of course, you need to worry about hydration. Have you offered her anything that is alive such as meal worms? Their movement might stimulate her to peck at them. Even if she doesn't actually eat one, it might stimulate a feeding behavior response.

I know that I deteriorated for about two or three weeks after my brain injury before I started to improve.

I'm glad she is improving. Keep us posted.

 

[hokankai]

That's really good to hear. From the picture it looks like the back of a vet clinic--do you work at a vet clinic?

If she's losing weight, she needs more calories. You can increase the calories by using less water in the formula, but of course, you need to worry about hydration. Have you offered her anything that is alive such as meal worms? Their movement might stimulate her to peck at them. Even if she doesn't actually eat one, it might stimulate a feeding behavior response.

I know that I deteriorated for about two or three weeks after my brain injury before I started to improve.

I'm glad she is improving. Keep us posted.

I actually work for a human clinic, haha. I'm a Medical Technologist and work in the lab.

I don't think she's losing weight anymore at this point, now that I have a system down that works. I will weigh her this morning after her big morning poop to see where we're at. She mostly lost weight while I was feeding her pellets with tweezers because it was SO inefficient.

It's funny because everything you suggested are things that I have done over the course of the last two weeks through experimenting and trial/error . I think I have her it ironed out now, but I'll have to see how her morning poop looks, haha. I will try the mealworm thing, but so far she's just ignored everything I've put in front of her.