****UPDATE****** Icky thing that FREAKS Me OUT

[Jajika]

You expressed yourself very well and clearly.

I did not understand you originally, but now I get it and you are so right on.

I, too, find it cruel and insensitive to treat sentient creatures so badly.

I hope the vet will find and answer and completely agree with your observations and feelings here.

I love and cherish my chickens and treat them very well. I worry about their little bodies always. They are my pets and I take great responsibility in their welfare.

Good luck. Please let me know how things turn out.

 

[PortageGirl]

Well, is she still acting sick? I'm confused, a shelless egg isn't a huge deal, especially at first. Is she eating and pooing? (I find it amusing that here I call it pooing when anyother time I'd say deficating, sorry I just had to laugh at myself, but I'll prolly keep doing it too.)

the lump sounds like her crop, is it gone down by morning and back full by evening? if so that's normal...

is she hanging her wings down and looking miserable? is she just lethargic, or really unable to walk around..

I'm just trying to figure this out. there's lots of pics here of really weird eggs, chickens wind up fine 99% of the time, so if that's all it is, she'll prolly be ok. filling her up with antibiotics without any idea what you're treating is prolly not a good idea. It makes it harder to treat her another time when it's really indicated.

 

[Right On Reds]

She drinks a lot and eats some farina which I've mixed with apple sauce this evening. She pecks here and there at the scratch but isn't touching the pellets.

She drinks the water on her own and if I sit on the bathroom floor and hold the water up to her little blunted chicken lips she'll drink even more. The same with the farina... she pecks on her own and eats but also seems to like the special treatment of having a spoon held up for her.

She sleeps a lot and can walk around the bathroom pooping her little arse off. Most of the poo is either water/clear/green or white/clear/green. There is a lot of it.

Her eyes are bright, no discharge from anywhere, no wheezing. She does shake her head now and again, and for some reason if my husband clucks to her in chicken language she immediately shakes her head. I have no idea why that would be.

I put her outside for a short time during the warmest time of the afternoon. She walked around for a few minutes and then went to stand under her favorite hydrangea bush. She stayed there for an hour until I lifted her up and put her back inside. I put her out because I thought her perkier..... in that when I went to check her out she seemed more inclined to ease away from me and that is closer to her usual behavior.

As unusual as it to say, she seems content in the bathroom. Very relaxed and somehow relatively alert. She moves from time to time so she can crap in a new clean place.

For a production red comet with blunted beak she seems to like my company. Or perhaps I'm imagining that she does.

So she is not dying looking. Just lethargic, pooing funky things, off her pellets and just quiet and not running from me like her "sister" does. Her wings don't sag or anything and she stands most of the time.

I am relieved to see that others feel as I do. Thanks for the words of encouragement and understanding and for your compassion.

 

[Jajika]

I learned something about chicken behavior when I brought in Frankie, my Black Austrolop (sp), into my office when she would not walk.

I called her my Office Chicken.

After about two days she stopped eating although in every other way she appeared healthy.

The fantastic vet I found confirmed what I thought may be true: When we remove the chickens from their normal and familiar lifestyle, other behaviors change, like eating.

Chickens eat as usual when they are outside and among their own. Unless they are raised inside and develop domestic behavior, the change in environment will affect behavior.

Hence, your little girl's not eating may be due to the same thing?

Just a thought.

 

[Right On Reds]

I took her inside because she was not actively eating nor was she walking and stalking like the others. She was just kinda depressed acting.

If I understood you right, you are saying that she's different inside than outside. However, I only took her inside because she was looking so.. well pathetic.

She gobbled down a bunch of farina today, and drank about half her water bowl which is probably equivalent to half a cup of water. As far as farina intake I would say she ate about 10 tablespoons of farina and she was still at it when I got home from work.

Vet is coming in about an hour so we'll see what he says. I'm gonna have him evaluate my chicken habitat(s) as well.

I went outsided and checked on the others and they're having a grand ole time grazing. Unlike the sickly one, her henhouse "sister" wasn't gonna get within five feet of me......... LOL she is exceedingly active!!

Normally I clean all poo on the premises (in houses and in yard) everyday, and it's killing me to leave todays poo mess in the houses, yard and bathroom until the vet sees all the various poos.

I try to clean every speck of poo every day. Is that excessive?

 

[PortageGirl]

Excessive? Not exactly, it's good to be cleanly, but don't drive yourself crazy over it. Chickens poo. It's good not to let it pile up much at all, I -think- most of us clean under the roosts somewhere between daily and every three days or so... (I'm on the 3 day side if time allows, sometimes longer, but not much longer if I can help it) I may clean more often during the winter to diminish moisture in the coop, but again, I don't stress over it.

I don't clean out in the yard much, but do daily around the back door cause my free-rangers figured out what door I bring the treats out through so they tend to 'visit' the door off and on all day 'just in case'. I don't have kids who run around out there though, if I did I'd probably try to keep it cleaned up more.

 

[Right On Reds]

Okay the vet and his mobile clinic van left a few minutes ago. He seemed a very nice person and he took his time and spoke to me at great length. I liked him a lot.

He examined Stella and noted she was skinny. Took a fecal sample. He is not sure what it is but says he suspects worms. He said all the things I did were good. He left me panacur which I will have to give for five days. Ten days after the panacur stops I am to give her some ivermecterin liquid which he left for me.

He also gave me metrovidazole which I am to administer once per day, orally.

I asked what her chances are and he said he wasn't sure. He said he has seen chickens worse off make it, and some better off not make it.

He walked around my backyard and checked out the other chickens. I asked if I deserved an award for cleanest place, even though I hadn't cleaned poo today. He laughed and said that without a doubt, I get the award for the most gigantic poos he's ever seen LOL.

The vet bill wasn't too bad.... $165.00. Add that to the $60 I previously spent on meds and wormer and the ACV and yogurt I bought today........ all for a two dollar chicken. My husband and I are laughing about that part, but neither one of us would do it any other way.

In a day or two I'll know the results of the stool sample. Oh and he said that the round disgusting thing was a malformed egg as if the body started making an egg and quit, unable to finish it off due to her condition/thinness.

He thought there was a possibility of peritonitis but that he believed it wasn't.

One of the cutest things was the vet going to give todays meds to Stella. He gave one shot of wormer, and when he went to give the next syringe, she popped up her head, stretched her neck out to him and opened her beak to take it in. It was adorable.

Gosh, I hope she makes it.




Perhaps I should come with a "Super Pooper" avatar or something.

 

[PortageGirl]

It sounds like you've got yourself a great vet! Seems like he's very sensible. I think the cost was worth it if both because it sounds like his instructions for your hen are sound, and because you have now established a rapport with him so you know who to call on in the future.

While your hen is in a way somewhat of an emergency, it's not a drastic "OH MY GOSH!!" sort of a thing, with blood flying etc. Too often that's how we wind up picking a vet, the only one who can be reached at the last minute. Now you have a real person to go to instead of frantically flipping pages in the phone book with shaking hands.

 

[magsrags]

How is stella!! Inquiring minds wanna know. I hope she made it OK.

 

[Right On Reds]

She had a couple of really good days, then today she regressed again.

I'm back to forcefeeding everything. She's not drinking any significant amount of water on her own.

Tonight I force fed her a few syringes of watered down cream of wheat/oat mix. Plus her antibiotics and then four syringes of pedriatric pedialyte.

She is still alert and after some syringes she protests with some energy.

I hate this, I really do. I hate force feeding her but she hasn't given up so I keep trying.

I don't know how much (in quantity) I should be force feeding her. I'm afraid of doing too much or too little.

I do know her crop is empty. After my feedings it filled a wee bit, then seemed flat again.

She hasn't pooped much at all, but still spends a lot of time standing and is alert.

I'm at my wits end. I feel so incompetent.

Monday will be a week since the vets visit. Her worming is finished and I still have another 8 days of antiobiotic.