I have just joined and hope to get some advice with a hen I have rescued please.
I have recently moved to Portugal, I don’t yet have a flock here, but did have hens in the uk for many years prior to moving.
My Portuguese neighbour has a large flock of mixed hens and a couple of cockerels, they are only fed scraps, their water is green and foul and they are not thriving, two weeks ago she came to me with a completely paralysed pullet, her husband wanted to kill the bird, but my neighbour begged me to help her.
The hen was very malnourished, is I think about 14 weeks old, a pretty black and white hen. She was unable to move anything other than her head, her legs, wings and neck were floppy. But her face was a good colour and her eyes were bright and begging me to help her.
I took her home and gave her egg yolk by syringe and did some reading. I thought either Mareks, a head injury (or neurological problem) or vitamin difficiency. So treated for the latter.
I started her on vitamin e (400mcg) and b complex (1/4 of a human capsule) gave her egg yolk, water by syringe and when I was happy she could swallow ok I added in soaked chick crumb made into pea sized pellets and put in her beak. I realised she was covered in mites, so treated her with ivermectin spot on and the following day she passed a huge amount of round worms.
After two days she started to move her wings and push with her feet, but she would only lay flat on her belly with her legs out behind her. Daily she got a little stronger, but after about 8 days she suddenly started gurgling, so I rushed to the vets, who diagnosed pneumonia, she had an antibiotic injection and three days of steroids.
She was much better by day three, but was still not able to coordinate her legs and her neck skews to one side, so I took her back to see a bird specialist vet, he confirmed it’s a really bad case of vitamin deficiency, suggested I add in selenium and extra thiamine and gave her 10 days of steroids, (dexamethasone), 0.6ml by injection for three days and the rest 0.4ml by mouth. She reacted very badly to it, started tremors, constant drinking and really went downhill, so I stopped after day two. I changed to prednisone and we are just starting today on 2.5mg by mouth a day.
So to summarise she is having 400mcg of vitamin e, 1/4 of a b complex capsule, 25mcg of selenium, a small blob of marmite (thiamine) with chick crumb in water, she also has scrambled egg.
It is now getting to the beginning of week three, she can now talk, but is still unable to stand, when I hold her she doesn’t seem to know where her legs are going,one wing is pulled up and her neck twists round to one side, so she lays with her legs behind her and cannot hold her head up fully, but she is a real fighter and an amazing character (she hates being dirty and squeaks when she poops to call for me to clean it and her up), she loves laying on me with her head on my neck and I really hope she can recover, but how long do I continue?
I know if she can’t get up soon she will end up with pneumonia again, and she can’t live like this, plus I’m worn out, she doesn’t sleep well and needs pretty much 24/7 attention, so I cannot do this indefinitely, but if anyone can give me hope she may recover I will carry on as long as it takes….
If you got this far, thank you and apologies for the incredibly long post!!!
I should also add I am adding Epsom salts to the water when I bath her (which is every couple of days) and I am exercising her legs and massaging her neck every hour or so.
I have recently moved to Portugal, I don’t yet have a flock here, but did have hens in the uk for many years prior to moving.
My Portuguese neighbour has a large flock of mixed hens and a couple of cockerels, they are only fed scraps, their water is green and foul and they are not thriving, two weeks ago she came to me with a completely paralysed pullet, her husband wanted to kill the bird, but my neighbour begged me to help her.
The hen was very malnourished, is I think about 14 weeks old, a pretty black and white hen. She was unable to move anything other than her head, her legs, wings and neck were floppy. But her face was a good colour and her eyes were bright and begging me to help her.
I took her home and gave her egg yolk by syringe and did some reading. I thought either Mareks, a head injury (or neurological problem) or vitamin difficiency. So treated for the latter.
I started her on vitamin e (400mcg) and b complex (1/4 of a human capsule) gave her egg yolk, water by syringe and when I was happy she could swallow ok I added in soaked chick crumb made into pea sized pellets and put in her beak. I realised she was covered in mites, so treated her with ivermectin spot on and the following day she passed a huge amount of round worms.
After two days she started to move her wings and push with her feet, but she would only lay flat on her belly with her legs out behind her. Daily she got a little stronger, but after about 8 days she suddenly started gurgling, so I rushed to the vets, who diagnosed pneumonia, she had an antibiotic injection and three days of steroids.
She was much better by day three, but was still not able to coordinate her legs and her neck skews to one side, so I took her back to see a bird specialist vet, he confirmed it’s a really bad case of vitamin deficiency, suggested I add in selenium and extra thiamine and gave her 10 days of steroids, (dexamethasone), 0.6ml by injection for three days and the rest 0.4ml by mouth. She reacted very badly to it, started tremors, constant drinking and really went downhill, so I stopped after day two. I changed to prednisone and we are just starting today on 2.5mg by mouth a day.
So to summarise she is having 400mcg of vitamin e, 1/4 of a b complex capsule, 25mcg of selenium, a small blob of marmite (thiamine) with chick crumb in water, she also has scrambled egg.
It is now getting to the beginning of week three, she can now talk, but is still unable to stand, when I hold her she doesn’t seem to know where her legs are going,one wing is pulled up and her neck twists round to one side, so she lays with her legs behind her and cannot hold her head up fully, but she is a real fighter and an amazing character (she hates being dirty and squeaks when she poops to call for me to clean it and her up), she loves laying on me with her head on my neck and I really hope she can recover, but how long do I continue?
I know if she can’t get up soon she will end up with pneumonia again, and she can’t live like this, plus I’m worn out, she doesn’t sleep well and needs pretty much 24/7 attention, so I cannot do this indefinitely, but if anyone can give me hope she may recover I will carry on as long as it takes….
If you got this far, thank you and apologies for the incredibly long post!!!
I should also add I am adding Epsom salts to the water when I bath her (which is every couple of days) and I am exercising her legs and massaging her neck every hour or so.
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