Solitary chicken - need advice

[hilda-and-evadne]

I've posted before about my maran's crop being like a little balloon filled with water - sometimes a lot, sometimes a little - and I thought she might be suffering from sour crop. However, she continues alert and talkative and greedy, and her comb and face are the right shade of red. Putting two and two together I began to wonder if she just can't absorb layers pellets and is beginning to be undernourished, because

 

* her poo sometimes appears to contain part-digested pellets;

* she eats the poultry grit;

* she drinks a lot of water;

* when I give all the hens a dish of porridge oats and live yogurt every

afternoon, she eats her share;

* her egg shells did not strengthen like the egg shells of the others did,

noticeably, after I started giving them all limestone flour with their

afternoon treat;

* her first poo this morning was green liquid (symptom of not eating enough).

 

So it began to look as if the oats and yogurt treat was the only real quantity of food she was absorbing.

 

This evening, I made up a little dish of 80gms layers pellets softened with boiled water and mashed with a fork with a little poultry spice added. I took the maran out of the run, wrapped her in a towel on my knee, massaged her crop and made her a little sick three times - but not by holding her upside down, as I don't know how I would avoid drowning her - and then offered her the dish of softened pellets. She ate nearly all of it. Ate nearly 80gms of chicken feed at a sitting!!

 

I could put them all on layers mash but I have read on this forum that mash gets thrown around more than pellets, and I don't want to encourage rats. Anyway, I have only just bought a new sack of pellets.

 

I'd welcome your advice on how I make sure my maran gets enough to eat: I mean, if I have to hand-feed her like this, should I do it twice a day, or only once but in the morning, or what?

 

What would cause a hen not to digest pellets properly, so that they came out the other end almost unchanged in shape? Ie she hasn't absorbed the nutrients from them?

 

Sorry for the long post.

 

Edited: to add information about the egg shell

[hilda-and-evadne]

Have been looking on other poultry fora and found references to the Rickets Diet, which I think I will try.

 

A sick bird can often be helped by the Rickets diet. Feed the birds once a day for three days or until you feel the bird is looking and acting better - usually 3 weeks.

 

This amount feeds one bird. Each serving consists of:

 

½ to 1 x cooked egg yolk… crumbled into mixture

1 teaspoon of cod liver oil..

1 very small drizzle of honey

2 x tablespoons natural yoghurt - no sugar

2 to 4 tablespoons rolled oats or Baby rice

1 dessertspoon of beef tin cat food…… Not dog food

A few grains of multi vitamin powder

2 tablespoons of grated apple..

Mix to make a crumble mixture not runny, if you have to roll into pellets and force feed, and then gently massage the neck in a downward motion to get it down into the crop, then do it, the bird may be too weak to eat or have lost the desire to eat….

 

Always have fresh clean water available at all time for the bird and good quality food

Feed the rickets diet in the morning. Also have her ordinary feed and fresh clean water available at all times: if it has not been fully eaten with in 12 hours throw it out... make another one the next morning.. don't add to it.. clean out the dish it was in also before adding the new mixture.

[Egluntyne]

Is she losing weight?

[Budgies]

I wonder if she has a partial blockage of some kind. This might cause the water she drinks to back up in her crop which would make it feel squishy rather than firm too.

 

It might be worth a visit to the vet to see if there's anything that can be done.

[hilda-and-evadne]

Is she losing weight?

 

I haven't weighed her but she must be, if not eating enough. Being a maran, she is one huge ball of feathers, so it is hard to tell just by looking at her. I can feel her breast bone, when I pick her up, but she is still quite a heavy bird for her size. Am hoping that I have noticed this problem in time.

[hilda-and-evadne]

I wonder if she has a partial blockage of some kind. This might cause the water she drinks to back up in her crop which would make it feel squishy rather than firm too.

 

It is starting to look as if it might be a partial blockage, perhaps between the crop and the next bit of her digestive tract, whatever that is. Am trying to think what it could be, and what might gradually dissolve/move it. I don't use straw at all, so it isn't that. I read somewhere that if it is a bit of oyster shell, then apple cider vinegar in the hens' drinking water should gradually erode the edges.

 

It might be worth a visit to the vet to see if there's anything that can be done.

 

On another thread, I've recounted what happened when I telephoned the vet surgery. It seems that the vet(s) know zip about hens - when I asked how much the consultation would cost, I was told that it would be "at the hamster rate".

 

I'd love to have a vet that knew about poultry but I don't know of one yet.

 

Anyway, this morning, although my maran's crop had not gone down to empty it was much less pendulous. I took her out of the run, massaged her crop, and offered her a small dish of 40gms layers pellets mashed up in boiled water, a small amount of live yogurt, one hard-boiled egg yolk and a few grains of poultry spice. She ate about half of it. (I don't have all the ingredients in the house for the Rickets Diet but she doesn't yet have rickets! I will, though, buy the other stuff in.)

 

Thank you for your interest, guys. I am on a steep learning curve, and all advice and comments are welcome.

[Budgies]

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=4447&view=unread#unread

 

I don't know where you are in London, but have you seen the list of forum recommended vets on the thread above?

 

If there's nothing on there near you, is there an urban farm or petting zoo nearby that might have a reliable vet?

 

I have my fingers crossed for you that it's something stuck in her system that you might be able to free up rather than say a growth, which my girl seemed to have.

[ellisyellis]

hi,

 

maybe it might be just her. hens crops will be big and full in the evening as the digest their food once roosting and should be empty by the time they wake up. you could try layers mash instead of pellets if your worried. also a pippet with veg oil down the throat can help but dont do too much as she may not be able to breath and start gurgling. x

[hilda-and-evadne]

I don't know where you are in London, but have you seen the list of forum recommended vets on the thread above

 

Thank you for that, I didn't know about this list of vets. Unfortunately, the nearest two are nearly an hour's journey away (I am in Greenwich).

 

The nearest urban farm was/is Mudchute, and I don't know actually if that still exists. But good suggestion - thank you.

[hilda-and-evadne]

hi,

 

maybe it might be just her. hens crops will be big and full in the evening as the digest their food once roosting and should be empty by the time they wake up. you could try layers mash instead of pellets if your worried. also a pippet with veg oil down the throat can help but dont do too much as she may not be able to breath and start gurgling. x

 

No, if you look at my other posts about my maran, her crop has not been empty in the morning for some time, and lately her crop has not been "full" in the correct way. I considered giving her a little bread soaked in olive oil but, at the moment, I don't think that that is what is needed - and too much oil can overload the hen's liver.

 

Thanks anyway.

 

She laid an egg today but, again, the shell is a bit thin (which it shouldn't be, as all the hens have limestone flour and dustbath to eat as well as grit). I am going to hand-feed her again first thing tomorrow with softened pellets with other things added.

[hilda-and-evadne]

In case of interest, I came across an old American poultry-keepers manual on the web, and there it said that if water came out of the hen's mouth when she put her head down then to give her charcoal to eat. Am treating this with caution, as it is an old book, but funnily enough I had just added a shovel-full of ash to their dustbath (donated by my neighbour who occasionally lights a real fire in the sittingroom), and my maran has been showing more interest in the bits of charcoal than the other hens have.

[hilda-and-evadne]

Well, I seem to be doing something right, am happy to say. My maran hen's poo this morning was completely normal, instead of green and watery.

 

I her separately again, first thing, with 40gms of pellets made sloppy with water.

 

Still got to work out why her digestive system has not been breaking down and absorbing pellets.

[Egluntyne]

If you think her crop is blocked, you could try giving her undyed anglers maggots, a small handful several times a day. If you persist with this for a few days, they can often eat their way through a blockage.

 

It is worth considering that the blockage might be due to something amiss internally such as a growth.

 

If there is no improvement after the weekend, I'd take her to the vet for a look see.