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

[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.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I've really used them as road map and I think I'm seeing progress. I've basically figured out how to get the antibiotic syringed into her beak myself, though she is NOT a fan and it's a little sticky. But we have a morning dose and a nighttime dose - hopefully, I'm not totally screwing up her sleep pattern.

I still feel like she's considerably underweight (her keel is still quite pronounced), but based on your recommendations I've been able to get her eating with some enthusiasm - her favorite is the tuna, she's eaten almost an entire can over the last day and a half along with a bunch of other stuff. I give it to her intermittently and have mixed a variety of goodies in with it at different servings, like crushed up calcium citrate, papaya enzyme, electrolyte/probiotic powder and yogurt. She's still having some rice and squash and I've added her feed - both wet and dry (Nutrena Hearty Hen) - with some grit back into her regimen. Will grab some cottage cheese and buttermilk from the store tomorrow and hopefully be able to hit Target for a scale so I can weigh her.

I'm not sure if it's good news yet, but her poop appears to be a bit more solid today - less grassy and maybe more digested? I stopped giving her mealworms because it looked like they were still fairly intact in the poop and I wanted more digestible stuff. Though she still has some wet stool, her urate is waaay different than it was before I brought her inside and got the meds in her - it's not wet and stringy(?) anymore, it's actually coating the solids and not in a puddle around them - like the previous photo...will try and get another pic tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope what I am seeing is real progress and not just my wishful thinking and I really hope I can bulk her back up - I assume if I can't do that then she won't survive, right? Anyway, fingers crossed and grateful for this community and your help!

 

[dawg53]

Like a kid in a candy store, it would be best to wean her off the goodies and back to regular feed. Boiled plain white rice mixed with buttermilk should stop the runs, cottage cheese is another good probiotic. Yogurt tends to pass through them, I dont recommend using it. You can mix her feed in any of the mixtures anytime and she should eat it. Then wean her back to regular feed.

A good way to dose liquids other than tube feeding or by the beak is to pull the wattles down and her mouth will open. Then shoot the liquid meds in her mouth, same is true for liquid wormers. Use a syringe without a needle to do this, and only shoot 1/2cc at a time in the mouth. Anything more than 1/2cc, she could aspirate, AND you MUST let go of the wattles RIGHT AWAY so she can swallow the liquid on her own. If you dont let go of the wattles, she could aspirate, then there would be big problems.
If you decide to administer liquids this way, it would be best for someone to hold the bird for you. Then you pull the wattles down and administer the liquid yourself. She might shake her head while pulling down on her wattles, hang on and she'll tire.
You might want to do a practice run a couple of times before actually dosing her with the meds.
When you actually do it, preload your syringe and do it quickly, less time for her to struggle...and dont forget to let go of the wattles. BTW, if there's no wattles, pull down the skin under lower beak and her mouth will open.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Like a kid in a candy store, it would be best to wean her off the goodies and back to regular feed. Boiled plain white rice mixed with buttermilk should stop the runs, cottage cheese is another good probiotic. Yogurt tends to pass through them, I dont recommend using it. You can mix her feed in any of the mixtures anytime and she should eat it. Then wean her back to regular feed.

A good way to dose liquids other than tube feeding or by the beak is to pull the wattles down and her mouth will open. Then shoot the liquid meds in her mouth, same is true for liquid wormers. Use a syringe without a needle to do this, and only shoot 1/2cc at a time in the mouth. Anything more than 1/2cc, she could aspirate, AND you MUST let go of the wattles RIGHT AWAY so she can swallow the liquid on her own. If you dont let go of the wattles, she could aspirate, then there would be big problems.
If you decide to administer liquids this way, it would be best for someone to hold the bird for you. Then you pull the wattles down and administer the liquid yourself. She might shake her head while pulling down on her wattles, hang on and she'll tire.
You might want to do a practice run a couple of times before actually dosing her with the meds.
When you actually do it, preload your syringe and do it quickly, less time for her to struggle...and dont forget to let go of the wattles. BTW, if there's no wattles, pull down the skin under lower beak and her mouth will open.

Cool. Have pretty much left our the yogurt as she doesn't seem interested anyway. Started adding in her feed (with grit) yesterday and mixing probiotics powder in with the rice buttermilk mixture.
The runs seem to have abated - if I'm reading these poops - from this morning - properly. Thoughts on the poop pics?
If she is still skinny, can I still give her tuna mixed with feed (will that help her gain weight?)?
Thanks for the advice!

 

[Eggcessive]

Chicken feed should make up the majority of her diet, but if the tuna helps to get her eating, that is good. Egg (soft scrambled chopped) is also good protein. My chickens are not fond of just yogurt, but the plain greek non sweetened is usually good for probiotics and mixes well with wet feed. If you are giving the probiotic powder then you don’t need yogurt or buttermilk. The rice or cottage cheese are good for firming up runny poops, but might not be needed if her poops are more firm. She still looks to be passing seeds in her poop, but the poop looks better. If your regular local vet could test some fresh droppings with a gram stain for enteritis, that might explain the seeds and things being in the poops. It sounds like she is recovering, and hopefully you can get some weight back on her.

 

[dawg53]

Seeds can pass in feces if the seeds are too hard to be ground up in the gizzard. The feces looks good, maybe abit too much urates in the first pic, perhaps due to the antibiotics. It's important to keep her well hydrated with water when antibiotics are used.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Seeds can pass in feces if the seeds are too hard to be ground up in the gizzard. The feces looks good, maybe abit too much urates in the first pic, perhaps due to the antibiotics. It's important to keep her well hydrated with water when antibiotics are used.

So the urates are waaay different than they were 4-5 days ago when they were watery and stringy (for lack of a better word). So I am glad to see them more "solid". I do have a small (2 gal.) waterer in there that I refresh daily (with a gallon of water + electrolyte/probiotic powder) and it looks like there is substantially less water each day...maybe I'll use a sharpie to mark where I fill it to. I also soak some bread in the water and soften her feed with the water as well.

 

[Criticalicious]

Grit should be freely offered in a side dish at all times rather than sprinkled on the food if possible. She'll eat what she needs to stock up her gizzard.

 

[CaptainSamH]

Grit should be freely offered in a side dish at all times rather than sprinkled on the food if possible. She'll eat what she needs to stock up her gizzard.

Offered freely too. Just want to make sure we're avert a slow crop - we missed that in the last one that was sick.

 

[CaptainSamH]

POOP UPDATE: This looks like a healthy cecal poop, yes?

 

[dawg53]

Yes, looks normal.