Unsecure chicken perches

[LittleOwl]

Sybil still has 3 more days of antibiotics to take, and she is getting steadily wiser to this. The first two days her breathing was bad so her beak was open. The next couple we gave her it on things that she loved, liked grapes, and even a teensy bit of bread. Yesterday she woud not take any of these nice titbits and resolutely clamped her beak shut - somehow OH managed to get it in but it took ages and stressed her, and happened as a fluke really. So, is there any magic way of getting her to open her beak so we can syringe it in as easily as possible?

 

Thank you!

[Egluntyne]

Wrap her in a towel so that she doesn't flap about, and squeeze the corners of her mouth . Her beak will open automatically.

[LittleOwl]

Thanks Egluntyne, much appreciated. We'll try that today.

 

We are also off to buy a fishing net this morning so that we can catch them with less stress.

[Plum]

I've found if one doesn't want to be caught I quietly herd her into a 3 sided corner then can pick her up without too much stress. Hadn't thought of a net.

[Leicester_H]

Is it liquid?

I had to give one of mine anti-biotics recently, and decided it was too stressfull (alround!) to do using syringe.

So I got the smallest piece of bread possible (approx 1cm cube (or smaller))and soaked it with the liquid - she wolfed it down in one go with no problem - possibly a little (5%) rubbed off, but she got the vaste majority of it.

Just a thought, H

[l_ouise]

You can inject small amounts of liquids etc into insects bodies and they will still move for a while before they die.

 

My chickens can't resist insects so that is what i'd probably do.