Chicken bald back

[den_the_cat]

I have a two chickens with coccidiosis at the moment - the first has been to the vets and is recovering weell - in fact she's tearing down the 'isolation ward' wanting to get back with her mates - which she can't do until Friday when she finishes her medicated water.

 

All the others were also medicated for a shorter period (as per vets advice) and seemed fine, but one little girl (LF but very small) has now gone downhill badly.

 

She was definately eating on Monday. Tuesday evening she was a bit quiet, Wednesday morning I isolated her and she hasn't been drinking or eating. Yesterday I was syringing medicated water down her (she probably took about 150ml) and last night we gave her about 4 teaspoons of porridge oats made with medicated water as well.

 

She did make it through the night but was quite mucas-y this morning, presumably from the oatmeal, so I gave her 20ml of water and she perked up quite a bit.

 

An hour later she was standing and I have her another 10ml water, which seemed to totally wear her out and she's been sitting with her head down ever since. Breathing is deep but not especially laboured and she's now starting to show more signs of alertness again (about half an hour after the water)

 

So - my question is - since syringing water or food down her seems to exhaust her so badly, how often should I do it. The vet has prescribed Baycox which is water soluble and I'd like to get a reasonable amount down her for at least two days, which is the standard treatment period, after which I assume the coccidiosis will be mainly treated and we'll just have the weight loss to deal with.

 

But I feel awful distressing her by forcing food and water down her. My plan was to do a syring of water (5ml) every half hour and some feed every 2, but she'll be constantly exhausted by that - does anyone know the best regime and how much I actually need to get down her in the short term?

 

Any advice gratefully recieved - I don't really want to give up on her but equally I don't want to mess her around more than necessary when she just wants to be left alone.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum . I'm so sorry to hear about your poorly girls . I'm really sorry I have no experience of this at all but I know others have, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon .

 

Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job already though .

[Budgies]

Wow, you've got your hands full!

 

Chickens don't actually need very much water ordinarily, as they get a large amount from the food they eat (grass, worms etc)

 

If the mushy stuff you're syringing into her is made with water, she probably won't need water separately too.

 

I'd syringe some sloppy food into her three or four times a day and probably no more (maybe 20ml a time). She'll be on lighter rations than normal like that of course, but it's just an intermediate measure until she starts perking up of her own accord, when she'll start wanting other food.

 

I'd also offer her porridge (make up some ready brek, not the porridge made with huge oatmeal pieces as this takes far more energy to digest for poorly ladies) and see if she'll take any.

 

Of course if she does start to seem dehydrated (their comb feels weird) and is showing signs of distress then a few mls of water before she goes to bed maybe?

 

Good luck!

[Egluntyne]

Welcome to the forum. You are doing the right thing by syringing water into her. She needs to stay hydrated.

 

I can't say I agree that chickens don't need a great deal of water. Mine get through copious amounts.

 

As she is unwell, she will need less of course, but at regular intervals throughout the day, to support her circulation and keep her kidneys ticking over. Some Avipro added to it might perk her up a bit.

 

Might be worth dissolving some pellets and giving her that as a sloppy porridge to get some useful nutrients into her.

 

If she is no better tomorrow, I'd be inclined to take her back to the vet idf she were mine.

[Budgies]

 

I can't say I agree that chickens don't need a great deal of water. Mine get through copious amounts.

 

 

I only say this on the advice of my vet. When Chutney was ill two weeks ago, very little was passing through her digestive system. She had pretty much stopped eating and drinking.

 

When I told my vet I'd syringed water into her (10ml per hour), my vet (who is very experienced with poultry) said that I had had no need to do this at all, because of the sloppy porridge I was getting down her neck too.

 

I have to say though, when pressed she didn't ever give me an amount that hens drink/need to drink each day, just persisted in saying they didn't need much at all and that she was unlikely to get dehydrated.

 

I bow to your greater wisdom Eglutine, I've only ever nursed two girls!!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I don't have experience of poorly girls or having to feed/hydrate them, but when I was giving mine Zolcal D recently I mixed it with 1 litre of water per day. Three hens got through almost all of that in a day (and one day they finished it without me noticing ).

 

I was interested to see how much they actually got through.

[Budgies]

Hi Den, just thought I'd pop back on here - I was reading elsewhere that if a chook has coccidiosis, you must reduce their protein intake too.

 

Normally in a sick chook you'd feed things like mealworms perhaps once they take solid food again in a bid to give them a bit of what they want, but apparently in coccidiosis it can make things worse, so might make sense to keep the protein low until the medication has done it's thing.

 

 

Good luck with your girls

[sandyhas3chucks]

i was sure it was some silly amount like a litre a day but some of that can be got from foods eaten, like cucumber almost totaley water, grapes and lettuce. not that a sick chook will get that much down em, without drowning i was happy to get half pint in a day down mine. if syringing

[den_the_cat]

Thanks for the advice everyone, the first girl made it and is back chooking around as normal, the second unfortunately didn't I think she was just so small anyway that it hit her really hard.

 

The good news is that all the other girls and the cockeral are absolutely fine, although not laying especially well again yet (especially the cockeral ).

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear about your smaller girl but am glad that the others all seem OK.

[Budgies]

Sorry to hear that the little one didn't make it, but good news that the others all seem well!!