What is the best way to rehydrate a sick chicken

[Kye2672]

I have a sick chicken- she has isolated herself in her nesting box ( I thought she was just nesting at first). Her poo is largely white with some green - but not at all runny. I have been giving her antibiotics from the vet for just almost two weeks now ....and she is still alive but doesn't seem to be getting any better.
She is not eating or drinking herself. I have been giving her water with electrolytes for the last couple of days- about 5-8ml 3 times a day from a syringe. I have also given her 4-5ml of mashed up chicken crumble via a syringe for the last 2 days.
How much water and food should I be giving her- she weighed just under 2 kgs when at the vet most two weeks ago but she has dropped more weight since then.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[SmiYa0126]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive please help!

 

[azygous]

What you are getting into this little patient is not nearly enough to sustain her without her drinking and eating on her own. She needs at least 100ml at a feeding. The only way to get this amount into her is by tube feeding. You will need a tubing kit for a small animal. You can get one from your vet or order it online.

Once you have the tubing kit, here are the instructions how to tube feed.

Tube feeding a chicken is about the safest most fool-proof things a chicken keeper can do. There is pretty nearly nothing that can go wrong. Even a child can do it, and this past spring, two kids on this forum successfully saved the lives of several hens in their flock by tubing a life-saving solution over three days.

First, obtain the small animal kit from a vet or from Amazon. You can fashion your own from oxygen tubing or aquarium tubing. You would need to find an oral syringe to fit the tubing that holds about one to two ounces. A slender one millimeter syringe is too small to do much good.

Next, cut the bottom off at around nine or ten inches to make it easier to manage. You will prepare a solution of raw egg, a little yogurt, maybe a little soy protein powder and enough warm water to make it flow through a tube. I add a squirt of poultry vitamins such as Poultry Nutri-drench. Or you can buy baby bird formula from a pet store. This is to feed a weak or starving chicken. Other uses would be to give electrolytes to a shock victim or a flush solution to an impacted chicken. For an average chicken, about half a cup of solution will be how much to tube in.

Now, what most people fear most - the part where you insert the tube. But this is very easy as the chicken has a direct channel going from the right side of the throat right into their crop, by-passing the airway so there is zero chance of aspiration.

After wrapping my chicken securely in a towel to confine wings, I hold my chicken on a work bench with my weak arm. With that hand I pry open the beak holding it open, and with my strong hand, I insert the tube in her right side of the beak, going slightly under the right side of the tongue. This channels the tube right into the esophagus which goes directly into the crop. You can see this in the photo below, only it will be the tube and not the syringe.

I measure the tube from the beak to the bottom of the chicken's crop and make a mark so I'll know when the tube has reached the lower part of the crop. The first time if you hit the wrong hole your chicken will start to cough. It's okay, no harm, just back out and try again. Once the tube is in, the chicken will be calm and comfortable. Then you can begin feeding. It feels pleasant to the chicken, and most are very cooperative throughout the process.

If the chicken struggles and bucks all of a sudden, it's not because of anything you did. They get bored and tired of the process like a toddler would. Pause until the chicken settles down again and finish. The whole process takes no more than five minutes. Each time you do it, it gets easier and quicker.

Learning this can save the life of your chicken, and it can save you so much time and frustration. And it's very, very safe. Anyone can do it.