Someone dropped off a starved almost dead cockeral *update

[JestersEye]

Quote:
I've been offering her egg yolk, but she doesn't seem interested in eating much of anything on her own. Her appetite seems completely shot! At first she had seemed to like the yolk, but then she lost interest even in that. Right now, she has egg yolk, oatmeal, crumbles, and cracked corn available in her cage... and still I find her crop completely empty in between the feedings I give her of parrot formula. She isn't panting anymore, though, and she appears alert enough; so I'm just trying to keep her going until her appetite comes back. I wish I could do more somehow, but I guess it will just take a LONG time to bring her back to what she was.

She was in fine health at the local 4-H Fair on Aug. 7-9, and she's been inside the house now for about a week; so the weight loss evidently happened very quickly! I'm gonna try the bugs as you suggested. I already tried a few worms (Nightcrawlers), but she didn't know what to do with them. I ended up cutting them up and force feeding them to her for protein. Meal worms or crickets sound like a nice treat, and she may be able to handle them better. If it wasn't so hot out, I would put her in the front yard to forage since I know that some of the other chickens had found an ant nest to feast on there recently. I'm afraid the heat would stress her out again, though... maybe I can put her out for an hour or so on a cool evening.

Thanks for the advice and sympathy. Good luck with Lucky!

 

[luvchicks8]

I agree thanks for taking care of him at least the beast ,Oh I mean person thought you would care for him or they would not have dropped him off. They could have left him to starve to death.

 

[chickenlady]

Redhead, I commend you for what you are doing. Best of luck.

Jesterseye, you should probably have a fecal test done on your bird. She may have cocci. I would not ignore this weight loss, she is obviously ill. You need to find out quickly before you lose her. Best of luck to you also.

 

[LauraSBale]

I wish you the best, i hope she gets better soon, poor thing, I think its a pullet to.

I wonder if she was locked up in a cage or something, and she started to eat her own feathers to stay a live.

they may have gotten for their kid, like when Tractor supply sells all the baby's in April, and the parents got sick of taking care of it.

 

[JestersEye]

Quote:
Wouldn't there be blood in her poo if it were Cocci? I've been checking her feces regularly and never saw any blood anywhere. I may go ahead and take her to the vet. I was just trying to save the expense, because I'm job searching at the moment and finances are an issue.

I let her spend about an hour outside this evening, and she pecked a bit at the ground. I don't know how much she actually foraged, but at least she showed some interest in exploring. I also bought her some small crickets at the pet store, and she eventually ate about half the container. She also ate a bit of crumbles and cracked corn on her own. I had given her a good feeding of parrot formula around 10:30am, and her crop was still a bit full from that. I wish it were easy to get mealworms this time of year, but everyplace that normally carries them are out. I may have to order some online.

 

[Kim65]

This is such a great story!! Thanks for saving the little fella

There is a quote on someone's sig line in another forum that says the measure of a civilization's "heart" is how they treat their animals. That is so true about individuals as well

All the people who admit to sleeping with their livestock, THANK YOU for reassuring me I am very weird but not alone

I sleep with a dog, two American lavender geese and a d'Anvers blue quail pullet I got two weeks ago on Craigslist. The rest of my flock won't accept her . . . so at night, she comes in the back door and roosts in my bedroom. She sits in the same spot and I just sweep her poo up every morning when she goes back out side.

 

[PoultryPedia]

That is GREAT how you've figured things to get her to eat!!!
Something else I was reminded of tonight was how much my pullet likes moths. If you turn on your porch light in the evening, you can draw in some nice ones. Then just take your chicken out later & hold her up close to the light, & let her grab moths & other buggies gathered there.

 

[RedHead]

Well here's a little bit of an update on lucky. He's finally getting a little bit of meat on his chest and his comb is starting to try and stand up and he's slowly getting his voice back as well. The egg a day seems to be working well for him, all I do is crack a fresh one from one of my girls and mix just enough feed in it to make a mash and he inhales it lol. He's also gotten a bit more attached to me lol He tries so hard to keep up with running right behind me while I'm doing my normal house work, it's cute. I'll take some more pics of him when his eyes stop looking so sunk in. Granted he's getting a lot better, but his face is still sunk in a little bit.

 

[LauraSBale]

oh thats great to hear

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Good for you Redhead!