URGENT advice needed please

Sue

Sue

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My hen with the droopy wings is showing more 'sick chicken' signs this morning. She is more hunched and much less lively. There are two small areas of blood in the house as though someones comb has been injured (a bit on the side of the box, a bit on the floor and a bit on some shavings, but no one seems to be injured. I don't now where this has come from and she isn't being picked on at all by the others.

My question is, should I take her away and bring her in the house? Is this going to cause her more stress or is there no choice now. I will ring the vet later, but he didn't know what the problem was so he's not going to know any more now.

Should I just bring her in and feed her and see what happens?

Should I worm her as he suggested. Could this be caused by worms?
 
Problem is Sue that when chickens sense that another is sick they will attack it. Whether this is to drive it away I don't know, but once blood is drawn they will keep going. You have no option but to bring her in for her own safety in that case. Alternatively she may have stumbled and ripped a toenail -still must come in.

Repeat trip to vet is a waste of time and money in this case in my opinion.

I don't know when you last did Flubenvet worming? It might be worth trying if its over 4 months ago. Problems are she will have to have the full dose in something else because she won't eat enough treated pellets to be effective. 100 -150g per day. 2g of Flubenvet treats 2 Kg of feed so she needs 0.15g per day. You can't measure this so you will need the level scoop onto paper and a blade to divide it- be careful as the dust is toxic, about 1/16th. Or safer to mix with Olive oil and divide that somehow. If worms are heavy the toxins released as they die can kill the bird. I have heard of the physical symptoms you now have with a heavily wormed bird, but that's not the root problem I think. She needs all her strength to recover from whatever it is and a worm burden would be a step too far. I personally would worm, accepting it may hasten the inevitable. Sorry Sue, fingers crossed for her and you.
 
Thank you for your reply Chris. I have got the worming powder out this morning, but despite your instructions I still don't know how to do it!! My maths is my weakest point I'm afraid! All she will eat at the moment is sweetcorn and tuna. The last thing I want to do is overdose her.

I don't think the blood is necessarily hers! She doesn't have any obvious injury, neither do any of the others. It was a very small amount. They are definitely not picking on her during the day. They are totally ignoring her, letting her feed with them without any problem.
 
Ok Sue. Goes like this. She should eat 100 -150g a day of feed and at that normal rate the wormer is dosed as per instructions. One level scoop (2g) per 2000g of feed. So by calculation every day she needs approximately one sixteenth of that scoop in her feed. So to get that using a sharp flat blade level out the scoop on a flat surface. Divide by two, divide one of the halves by two (quarters), divide one quarter by two (eighths) then one eighth to get you the sixteenth you need. Save the divided material as is for next day although the undivided original half can go back in the tub. Can't think of any other way of doing it apart from with Olive oil and a syringe. Draw up 0.8mL into a syringe. Mix one half of a scoop with the 0.8 mL of oil and draw back into the syringe. Dispense 0.1mL of shaken mixture each day. I've picked 0.8 mL to cater for a tiny 1 mL syringe as the graduations are too imprecise on the larger syringes. You will probably only be able to pick up 0.7 mL after mixing anyway, which is what you need for the 7 day dose.
 
Chris, thank you so much or working all that out for me. Trouble is I've thought of another problem now! All my hens need worming, so if I worm her now separately to the others, if she survives (which I'm hoping she will), I won't be able to worm the others because she will be getting a double dose!

So, after all this, what I've decided to do (rightly or wrongly) is worm them all NOW, including her, in the Garvo Alfamix. Only trouble with this is that I am still going to have to supplement her feed with the sweetcorn and tuna that she will eat. This is all getting very complicated and I don't know what to do for the best. If what I'm going to do sounds like a really bad idea, I would be grateful if you would tell me. But I can't work out any alternative at the moment. Even if I separate her from the others and worm her, I don't want to keep her separate for 7 days (worming her separately and the others at the same time). As she doesn't have any sign of injury and they aren't bullying her, I don't know whether it is for the best to separate or not.

If I knew keeping hens was going to be this much trouble, I wouldn't have had them! They seem to be taking up every spare minute of my days at the moment. Either checking on them, or trying to decide what to do for the best etc. etc. They are such a worry!

I really appreciate your help Chris, sorting out the dose for me.
 
Well Sue, good plan but she won't eat the Alphamix will she? She would have to eat only the Alphamix and is she not eating any, so best worm her one way and the others the other. After all she is the main concern at the moment. That can be done with them all together if she remains not eating the Alphamix. They only have to be together for a few hours each day for the bonds to remain anyway -we've done that in the past. Just taken sicky out back into the Orchard for a few hours and then brought her back in.
 
Sue, I know it is off licence, but can't you use Harkamectin on your poorly bird. This will de-worm her - I don't like using it on a poorly bird, as it may be a step too far, but it might be worth a try. What do you think?
 
Hi philcott, I did consider that this morning. It would deal with any lice/mites as well, but I have started the Flubenvet now. I used the dose Chris worked out for me mixed with oil and separated her from the others and gave her some of the sweetcorn and tuna. She ate it all.

I'm at a loss to know what is happening, because she is brighter this afternoon! I have seen her eating the Alfamix, drinking and she had some of the natural yoghurt. She is making a slightly strange noise occasionally. All I can describe it as is 'uh' but in chicken obviously! It's been a week now since the first symptoms. This morning I was VERY worried about her and was in two minds as to whether it was the end of the road. But to see her this afternoon, it obviously isn't.

Thanks for your suggestion.
 
chrismahon said:
I don't know when you last did Flubenvet worming? It might be worth trying if its over 4 months ago. Problems are she will have to have the full dose in something else because she won't eat enough treated pellets to be effective. 100 -150g per day. 2g of Flubenvet treats 2 Kg of feed so she needs 0.15g per day. You can't measure this so you will need the level scoop onto paper and a blade to divide it- be careful as the dust is toxic, about 1/16th. Or safer to mix with Olive oil and divide that somehow. If worms are heavy the toxins released as they die can kill the bird. I have heard of the physical symptoms you now have with a heavily wormed bird, but that's not the root problem I think. She needs all her strength to recover from whatever it is and a worm burden would be a step too far. I personally would worm, accepting it may hasten the inevitable. Sorry Sue, fingers crossed for her and you.
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According to this, she will need about 1 gram for a week's dose. You don't have to fiddle about dividing it into mini-doses for one day, just make up a yummy mix of 7 small eggcupfuls of Alfamix and add 1 gram of Flubenvet to this. Mix it up and give her one small eggcupful per day for the week. Give her nothing else to eat that day until she's got it down - about 5 minutes?
Good luck!
 
Thanks Marigold, but I have no way of measuring 1 gram. Apart from that, I don't think she would eat that much Alfamix. She is eating it a bit, but I am supplementing her with lots of other things just to make sure she eats enough.
 
If you just reckon that a healthy Sussex will eat 1 kilo of pellets in a week, you can just use the scoop given with the Flubenvet to measure out what would be enough for 1 kilo of feed. Mix this small scoop with 7 smaller measures (dessertspoonfuls? of alfamix, just coated in oil to make it stick. Then each day feed her a dessertspoonful of this mixture, mixed in to whatever you know she will like to eat, eg sweetcorn etc.

You take such good care of your hens and their surroundings that I really don't think it's posssible that any of your hens have a big worm burden, though of course like all hens they will have some and it's good to keep on top of this.
 
Thanks Marigold. I think it may be more than worms causing her problems, but this is all I can do at the moment to try to help her, just in case it is worms. It's very difficult to know what to do for the best, I've just got to take each day at a time, but I'm honestly not very hopeful at the moment. But while she's still interested in food I'm going to give her a chance.
 
Just to correct the Olive Oil and Flubenvet paste mixing instructions based on Sue's experiences. You need a 1.0 mL syringe for measuring and dispensing. Mix 0.8 mL of Olive Oil with half a scoop (1.0g) Flubenvet thoroughly. This results in about 1.7 mL of paste. Give 0.2 mL of paste to standard hen per day. Bantams you can halve to 0.1 mL. This is based on a standard hen consuming 100 -150 g of feed per day and a bantam 60 -80 g.
 
Just want to say a very big thank you to Chris or all his time and help today with my problem. I have to admit I was in a bit of a panic and very worried about my poorly hen. Chris came to my rescue (again).

Also thanks to Marigold and philcott. I appreciate all your help and advice.
 
How has she been today Sue?

I know what you mean with the feeling that thinking about the chickens take up all of your time and effort! I've been off sick (only a cold) for most of the week and haven't been able to stop myself going outside every hour or so to check on them!
 
She's still with us at the moment. We had a bit of a drama today and may have found out what her problem is, but I will report back on Sunday with more details.

Thanks for asking and hope your colds better bow cuwiar.
 
hi all after reading all this makes me wounder who needs treating for what all the best uncle fox
 
charliefox said:
hi all after reading all this makes me wounder who needs treating for what all the best uncle fox
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Thank you for your input - it's NOT appreciated!!!
 
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