Water in lungs?

[chickenlady12]

My chicken has been sick for a couple of weeks. I figured out she had impacted crop and my neighbor and I did surgery to remove the blockage -- it went well, she is recovering slowly. She won't drink ANY WATER on her own, so I have been "feeding" it to her with a syringe. I understand this can be dangerous, but it was going fine and she seemed OK to drink what I squirted into her mouth. Then the syringe was lost after going into the dishwasher. I switched to a turkey baster, which I would mostly just tip into her beak. I did this for a couple of days before I found the syringe again. But now she is making gurgling noises when she breathes and weird coughing noises that sound sort of like farting. Did I get water in her lungs? What should I do?

 

[casportpony]

Never dealt with that, but that is why people shouldn't syringe feed, instead they should tube feed. What antibiotics do you have? See my signature for info on how to tube feed. If you can do crop surgery, you can tube.

-Kathy

 

[chickenlady12]

Thanks. Honestly, from the videos, it looks like it would be a lot quicker and easier to tube feed her the water, rather than dribbling it into her beak and waiting for her to swallow it like I've been doing. Where do I get a tube? Do I have to be careful inserting it so that it doesn't go into the lungs, or are the lung passages too small for the tube to fit? I have Duramycin-10.

 

[casportpony]

Most vets have the tubes, but you could also use aquarium tubing or refrigerator water line from a hardware store, just melt the end with a lighter to make it smooth. Read the threads, they should have all the info you need there. If you still have any questions about how to do it, let me know and I'll try to answer them. Also, did you watch the videos with sound on? Lots of good info there, too.

For a full sized chicken I would suggest using a size 18 french tube. it's almost impossible to get it in the wrong whole.

-Kathy