What to feed a poorly chicken

S

Sian

New member
Joined
Jun 14, 2012
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
One of my hens was a bit wobbly on her feet today. After trawling through loads of posts for similar problems I decided to take her straight to the vet. The vet has decided she has coccidia, prescribed anti-biotics and anti-inflammatories, first thing tomorrow I am heading to an agricultural supplier to get some parasite treatment (any reccomendations would be gratefully received), and fingers crossed she will make a full recovery.

She literally went from being a bit unsteady this afternoon to barely able to stand by the time we were back from the vet this evening and I am concerned she may not even make it through the night! Is there anything that people can advise I feed her for the next couple of days to get her strength up or anything I should specifically stay away from? I decided to give her a bit of cheese when we got back as I though the fat and protein content may help but am not too sure if this is something which would be good for her in any quantities over a few grams. I thought maybe chick crumb?
 
Chick crumb is good Sian, as is chopped egg in moderation. Cheese I can't recommend as it has a dire effect on our chicken's digestive system. We give Cod Liver Oil with multivits at 0.5mL for Kg bodyweight as a quick on-off pick up plus grapes, cucumber and tomatoes to our sickies to keep their system going. Coccidia isn't going to be helped by anti-inflammatories and antibiotics I think. Presume by parasite treatment you mean wormer, unless she has lice as well? Flubenvet is the only effective wormer we use. But if she isn't eating it will have to be administered by syringe to the back of the throat. Half a scoop (1 gramme) mixed with 1.2 mL of Cod Liver Oil gives about 2.1mL of syrup. One seventh of that per day before feeding.
 
Try to keep her on a low- fat diet with extra protein. Mix up a mash of her usual pellets soaked in hot water to become soft and crumbly, as this will also help to keep her hydrated. Add extras to this to make it more appetising, eg dried mealworms, hulled sunflower seeds (25% protein) and little bits of fruit and veg eg grapes, cut up a bit etc. Egg is good, she may eat either chopped up hard boiled or scrambled with no added salt. You can blend in the shell as well before cooking it. Bio active yogurt is also excellent, mix it in with her mash. Only mix up a little at a time as it will go off quickly and needs to be eaten fresh. If you can get her to eat a reasonable amount you could mix in her daily dose of Flubenvet and will be able to see it going down. This might be easier for you, and better for her digestion, than getting it into her in the way Chris suggests. you are not really supposed to feed human food to hens but many people advise tinned sardines as something nourishing that dick hens usually love.
 
Thank you both for the advice. By parasite treatment I meant coxoid solution but haven't given it as the stuff the vet gave us is apparently for coccidia control, glad I checked first! Do you think it would be a good idea to give a dose to the others though? I have 3 more, none of whom are displaying any symptoms but then neither was she up until yesterday.

I have got the Flubenvet as well, I wasn't too sure if I was going to be over doing it by giving her that on top of the meds so may wait until she is back outside and do them all together. She has perked up a little but is still incredibly weak and a little perplexed at being in the kitchen! I went for grower pellets rather than chick crumb in the end as I figured that probably gives the biggest protein boost. I think I will follow your advice and mash it up with some extras in there. She is a fan of tomatoes so I may make her a little salad too.

Thank you again, you have both been most helpful.
 
She is about 2 and a half, give or take a bit. They are all ex-bats, 2 of them I have had since last april (including the poorly one) and the other two since october.
 
Sian said:
She is about 2 and a half, give or take a bit. They are all ex-bats, 2 of them I have had since last april (including the poorly one) and the other two since october.
Click to expand...

It would be very unusual for her at her age, and being used to your environment to have coccidiosis this acutely.
Unless the vet took faecal samples to confirm the diagnosis may not be correct. Was your vet familiar with poultry?
 
They didn't take samples - despite her providing one in the examination. Having done a bit of research today I have to agree but before yesterday I had never even heard of coccidiosis, never mind knew enough about it to challenge the vets diagnosis. The vet was great but we were actually in there for 3/4 of an hour, with a lot of conversations with another vet out the back so I am guessing they don't get too many chickens through their doors.

However, she is picking up a little so may be responding to the medication.
 
Have you used Flubenvet regularly (every 4-6 months) since you got them? If not they may well all have quite a considerable worm burden and this will pull then down and make them more prone to other health problems. The symptoms you describe could certainly be due to worms. If she were mine i would get some Flubenvet into her ASAP I think and do the others by the conventional method at the same time.
 
I hadn't done. It seems daft now, but until yesterday I hadn't even considered the possibility of a hen getting worms. I got some flubenvet today to start them on.
 
Thank you all for all your help. She is currently happily filling her face with a mashed up mixture of pellets, veg, cod liver oil and wormer. She has eaten more in the last 5 minutes than she has for the last 2 days! The others have a weeks worth of wormed feed prepared too. Hopefully she will learn to love the banana flavoured medicine as I don't relish the thought of trying to syringe it into her mouth 3 times a day as she gets her strength back, it is incredibly difficult to get a chicken to open her mouth whist holding her and the syringe at the same time!
 
So glad she's eating, it sounds as if she's through the worst. If she's managing the flubenvet dose in her mash, might she also eat it with the other medicine in it as well? Syringing liquid down a beak is very tricky, as you say, and if you don't get it just right it can go down the wrong way and cause problems.
I expect she's thinking 'oh good, at last I've got them trained to pay me the sort of attention I deserve!'
 
The technique for feeding direct into the beak is right to the back with beak pointing upwards, tongue down and slowly, giving them time to swallow. Too much will bring it to the front and into the airway and they will choke. Certainly a two person job although with some of our tame ones I have managed on my own. But sometimes even the tame ones can be a struggle and Bottom really needs three people!
 
She is certainly improving. I'm wondering if it worth persevering with the meds - it looks far more likely that it is worms rather than coccidiosis. I'm not too keen on keeping her seperate from the others any longer than necessary and was considering letting her back out tomorrow as she is a lot stronger now. I do have the coxoid solution which goes in the water so could dose them all if symptoms start again rather than chasing her round the garden.
She passed something today, which I presume is a nasty out of her gut - the only way I can describe it is that it looked like a fat yellow slug but was more leathery rather than squishly like a slug.
 
What she passed was most probably a lash - if you put 'lash' into the Search box there are several threads on here about it, with links. As she is 2 and a half she's about the right age for this to happen and she may well feel quite a bit better once it's gone. If she's better in herself and you don't think she's infectious then yes, get her back with the others ASAP as this may be difficult if delayed. If she isn't immediately accepted, maybe you could divide off part of the run with netting so they could see each other through the mesh, and then put her in with them when they've gone to roost and are sleepy so they all sleep together and wake up smelling the same?
Very glad she's on the mend, just make sure she gets a good dose of Flubenvet, and if they hadn't been done for a while, it would be a good idea to do them again in 3 weeks time after the end of the first course, to deal with any eggs which may have hatched subsequently. Then after that every 4-6 months should be OK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top