Silkie with Problems. Help

[SunshineSilkies]

I'm sorry to hear about your baby...Did you check him for mites also? I have had ones that were not at all interested in eating and then discovered they had mites...it's that time of year for them...Is that one of the babies you got from me?

Praying for you...I hope your surgery goes well..

Vickie

 

[KinderKorner]

Yes we did check him for mites. All the birds were dusted only a few weeks ago, and were clean. But we checked anyway, and he was just covered with him. I don't know why they all zeroed in on him. Anyway. They are gone now, and have been for a few weeks. You think he would be recovered now.

Yup he was a baby from you. The best one too. I am so sad. If he dies, I only have the other White Rooster. And he has a very tiny topknot and a few DQ's.

Hopefully he will pull through. He is such a beauty. I had to trim off all his beard and some of his crest though because it was hard to keep him clean at feedings.

Andrea it's not his feathers. They are all trimmed off. He can see quite well.

And yes after he was sick, I fed him some oats and cream of wheat. But that wouldn't be the cause because it was after he got sick and began slipping.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Get some tape (the pink tape made for hair works best, but any tape with a mild tack will work and tape his crest into a ponytail, Pebbles Flintstone style. That will help him see and find food. Sometimes when I have birds individually caged they become bored and don't act quite right, so try to give hime some things to do/grab his attention: bird or rabbit toys, a hanging treat filled ball (filled with something nutritional and easy to digest).

How long has it been since you checked for mites? They sometimes come back really fast. How long has it been since you wormed him?

 

[luvchicks8]

I'm not sure if this is wry neck, I am dealing with wry neck in a silkie and she can't hold her own head up and she does not walk around frontwards anyway. Also she eats and drinks fine so maybe it is somthing else.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
If the treatment you did didn't work for two weeks, then likely that's not it. Usually those will show SOME sort of change - if and only if the base diet is also sufficiently fortified if it were nutritional. If it's neurological, those things take time. Then I'd stop the B supplement and continue with the E as he's still got either something skeletal/muscular or neurological and it hasn't been determined which yet. If nerves were damaged they don't repair - however nerve paths will develop to try to rebuild function. That takes time and exercise. If you feel up to it, since he's strentching his neck and seems to be a favorite boy, I'd give him very very gentle therapy. Look at how he sometimes stretches his neck, and do that with him very very gently a couple of times a day - then stop. Do it daily. Using the area encourage nerve paths to increase their 'efforts' (bad choice of words) to repair the area.

On weight, if you haven't fed a high protein growing type food (or whatever is age appropriate for him) that is a crumble/pellet and completely fortified (at least 95% of his diet) I would do so immediately. Continue the E. Continue vitamins/minerals in his feed or water. Give yogurt just once weekly. If he doesn't have grit, offer him some as textbooks state that abird being given proper grit will do better with weight gain as their food is more broken down (which is why you want to continue the yogurt weekly). I'd go for protein, personally. I find my birds will be in better weight condition with a good high protein feed.

If this condition can correct, it will take a lot of time since it's been a lot of time.

Have you considered something like Nutridrench? It has vitamins/minerals and a higher level of vitamin B which increases appetite. Since he wasn't on a completely fortified feed before, it's possible the B was just increasing to normal levels - not therapeutic levels. Nutridrench and just vitamin E added might make the whole process easier for you.

 

[KinderKorner]

We are really just so confuzed for this little guy he really doesn't seem like anything is wrong Physically, but he just isn't right.

He has had a small little abscess on his toe. We put some medicine and didn't think much of it. I thought maybe Bumble foot but it didn't have a black scab. We thought maybe it was just a callus from standing all the time. Well I check again today and low behold it has a tiny dot the size of a pen head. So perhaps its Bumblefoot. It would explain why he is sickly. Perhaps he has an infection.

We soaked it in epsom salt. Filed it down. Then put a wart removed pad on it and bandaged it. We are hoping the acid eats away enough flesh that we can get in and pull out the black without too much pain. Tomorrow we will take the pad off and soak again. Then maybe put some pid or epsom salt sauve on it.