To dose or not to dose, that is the question...

[Eggcessive]

It might be easier to give the med undiluted, but I don’t know if you have tablets or a liquid. If you have a label to show in a picture, that might be helpful. I was just looking up dosage for someone else, and Plumbs Vet Handbook lists 25 to 50 mg per pound twice a day for 5-7 days is the usual dosage for Bactrim or SMZ-TMP.

 

[Criticalicious]

Walmart sells a kitchen scale for around $10-$12 and they're often open 24 hours. I found if I can get the hen in the crook of my left arm just right sitting in my lap, it is easier to dose with my right hand by myself rather than trying to coordinate someone else holding her in the proper position to cram a syringe in the beak.

 

[CaptainSamH]

It might be easier to give the med undiluted, but I don’t know if you have tablets or a liquid. If you have a label to show in a picture, that might be helpful. I was just looking up dosage for someone else, and Plumbs Vet Handbook lists 25 to 50 mg per pound twice a day for 5-7 days is the usual dosage for Bactrim or SMZ-TMP.

That math sounds like what the vet prescribed (for a not-quite 4 lb.bird). It is in liquid form and what Criticalicious described is pretty much how I've come around to getting it into to her. The towel helps and I sit down with her snuggly under my right arm, using my right hand to get her beak open. It then takes 2-3 squirts to get it all in with my left.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Just wondering, what dosage of Bactrim did your vet prescribe, for how long, and how much roughly does your chicken weigh?

Sorry that she is not eating much. Have you tried offering a variety of foods where one might strike her? Has she eaten any cooked rice and buttermilk? I usually try wet chicken feed—just a small amount in a cereal bowl with a lot of water. Then scrambled egg, tuna, chopped meat, or Friskies pate canned cat food. I tried to vary it on one very sick hen, so that she would not starve.

She may have a reproductive disorder that is slowing her crop from emptying. Some people will tube feed chickens who won’t eat.

Also, I don't know if she heard you, but after that last dosage (that I had to wake her up for because of the timing ), she scarfed like 5 or 6 1/2-inch chunks of squash. So is squash like pumpkin in that it's good for digestion? I'm hoping the answer is yes, because I'd love to see her poop moving along better. That being said, she did have three poops over the course of the evening - one while she was roosting that looked mostly like grass with some wet watery urates, then after the meds and the squash another two chunky green ones. Is this a positive thing?

 

[CaptainSamH]

Also, I don't know if she heard you, but after that last dosage (that I had to wake her up for because of the timing ), she scarfed like 5 or 6 1/2-inch chunks of squash. So is squash like pumpkin in that it's good for digestion? I'm hoping the answer is yes, because I'd love to see her poop moving along better. That being said, she did have three poops over the course of the evening - one while she was roosting that looked mostly like grass with some wet watery urates, then after the meds and the squash another two chunky green ones. Is this a positive thing?

Oh and the urates in the last one were more creamy and less watery than they have been...

 

[CaptainSamH]

Had your breakfast yet? Here's more poop pictures...one from overnight and a couple from this am. The most recent is the photo on the silver tarp. Any idea what the red/brown seed looking things are? Normally i would have thought it was the wild bird food they get sometimes from under the bird feeders, but the last chance she would have had to eat that was yesterday morning.

 

[Criticalicious]

Food takes 12-24 hours to move completely through the chicken's digestive system. So it could be the bird seed you mentioned. Almost looks like berries. I'd poke it to test the hardness or glove-up to figure out what those red things are.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Food takes 12-24 hours to move completely through the chicken's digestive system. So it could be the bird seed you mentioned. Almost looks like berries. I'd poke it to test the hardness or glove-up to figure out what those red things are.

Thanks, really helpful info. So if she was free-ranging until midday yesterday, that's why her poop looks mostly like grass. Given that for the last 12-15 hours she's only eaten squash, apples, yogurt and a bit of bread soaked in electrolyte/probiotic water, should I expect to see her poop start to look a little different?

 

[Eggcessive]

Squash is high in fiber, so it is good that she likes it. I would keep offering a variety of foods, but try to get her eating chicken feed. It looks like she is passing undigested seeds—millet or milo—in her poop. Does she have access to some granite grit? Try some cottage cheese or cooked rice with a little buttermilk, but as always, small amounts, and vary the foods. Those might firm up the droppings a little.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Squash is high in fiber, so it is good that she likes it. I would keep offering a variety of foods, but try to get her eating chicken feed. It looks like she is passing undigested seeds—millet or milo—in her poop. Does she have access to some granite grit? Try some cottage cheese or cooked rice with a little buttermilk, but as always, small amounts, and vary the foods. Those might firm up the droppings a little.

Excellent... I think that's what I'm seeing? (See most recent poops below - do I take it as a good sign yhatvthose urates aren't in a puddle?). I've also given her some rice and tuna which she ate up (~1\3 cup of tuna). Maybe will sprinkle some wet feed and a little grit on the tuna next...