[North Devon Dumpling]

I posted the other day about one of the girls who is off her food, not laying and looks generally fed up.  They havn't been wormed, so I now have Flubenvent, however two things.

1.  How do we get the flubenvent down a hen who won't eat (tried cat food and just not interested).
2.  Thought she had an enlarged crop, but upon inspection can't feel the crop at all (which could of I suppose be cos she isn't eating.

She is drinking fairly well and does peck about a bit.  Her head is up by tail down and looks 'stiff'.  She isn't egg bound but her poo is very watery (she did a proper poo yesterday after OH decided a bath might be nice for her!).

They are all free range, get all the various bits and pieces, we haven't got lice or red mite (although this particular hen did suffer with leg mite recently but we have sorted that one).

Thanks for your help.

[joyfull]

you really are going to have to get her to eat something, have you tried marmite spread on a bit of bread? if she will eat this then you could sprinkle the flubenvet onto that. Failing that you will have to make a gruel type of consistency and feed her with a syringe, they don't have much in the way of fat reserves so action is needed quickly I'm afraid 

[Vember]

Will she eat mealworms? dried ones with a smidge of oil and then pop some flubenvet on, might just work

[North Devon Dumpling]

you really are going to have to get her to eat something, have you tries marmite spread on a bit of bread? if she will eat this then you could sprinkle the flubenvet onto that. Failing that you will have to make a gruel type of consistency and feed her with a syringe, they don't have much in the way of fat reserves so action is needed quickly I'm afraid 

Will try marmite thanks.  I was starting to think down the syringe route, mind you it should be easier than trying to give a cat a worming tablet (I still have the scars  )

[joyfull]

try vembers idea as well as all chickens and ducks just lurve mealworms 

[North Devon Dumpling]

try vembers idea as well as all chickens and ducks just lurve mealworms 

Would do, but not sure where I would find them, have lots of marmite in the cupboard but few mealworms.  We have lots of earth worms and the girls are pretty keen on them most of the time, but I am not sure she will even go for those at the moment.  She did have a bit of layers mash for breakfast but very little.  Think it might have to be the syringe, but worried about choking her, guess you just dribble it in rather than push the plunger down too hard?

[joyfull]

you can get meal worms from shops and garden centres that sell wild bird foods - usually died but some places also sell live ones. Just make the mash up thinner and feed her a little bit at a time 

[North Devon Dumpling]

Thanks, will have a look.  She took to the nest box yesterday afternoon from 3pm right up till bedtime and couldn't seem to get on the perch (until we directed her to the ladder!).  I really thought she wouldn't be with us this morning but she is and pecking about here and there.  Even had a bit of mash with flubenvent in, so hopefully she is on the mend.  Will have a look for meal worms though as if we can get them dried they would be a nice treat for them.

Thanks for all the help.  NDD

[joyfull]

keep in touch and let us know how she's doing  , joyfullxx

[North Devon Dumpling]

Found meal worms in Morrisons  you should have seen the look on the face of the guy on checkout, I nearly said 'they are my favorite treat with a glass of wine' but just couldn't  .  The local garden centre didn't do them.

So we have a syringe and a soup made up of whizzed meal worms (she wasn't really interested in the whole ones), a bit of runny layers mash with the flubenvent in (we made up a big bag of it yesterday) a bit of water and some jelly from cat food!!!!  She is so light now and so frail that she didn't run away when we picked her up to feed her.  Couldn't get her beak to open (without loosing my fingers, so she still has some pep left) but cuddled her close whilst OH dribbled 'soup' over her beak.  She actually seemed to like it and did have a bit (probably not more than about 5ml, but it is a start).   At least she is still up and hasn't gone to bed and is not sitting in the nest box.  Will try to keep this up every hour until bed time and then not sure what we will do tomorrow as I am at work all day.  At least I feel we are doing something and if she doesn't make it we can't say we didn't try.  If she does come through I think we might have a very tame hen as she will be so used to being picked up.  Must say if someone had told me 5 years ago that I would be drip feeding a hen with worm soup I would have laughed alot.  If she doesn't make it will have to get some more as we will be down to 2 and our neighbours are eating us out of eggs!

[happychickens]

One thing I have found handy has been grapes, cut into manageable sizes, if they are not very bitter the chickens seem to eat them because they are easy, especially if a healthy one eats it first if they are unsure and not had them before then I put some worming powder on that - good luck

[ehs284]

We used milk in a syringe and gave asprin dissolved in water. Thought maybe dehydration and pain could be a problem as well as parasites/food. It seemed to work. Saved the Flubenvent until she felt better. Also gentle massage of the tummy seemed to help and keeping her warm.  Kept her in warm kitchen in a box to sleep. This happened twice to the same hen. The second time she laid an egg and suddenly improved, although no feeling of egg when massaging. Been fine for months now. Asprin dissolved in water dribbled into side of beak seems very acceptable and works. HTH

[North Devon Dumpling]

Afraid things aren't getting much better here, she still looks perky and bright eyed, but doesn't move out of the nest box now and is so horribly thin you don't like to pick her up.  We are trying with nice things in a syringe regularly which she will take, but its not much.  We really don't think she will survive (actually am amazed she is still going).  It may be time to put her out of her misery but because she still seems bright I am reluctant to as I keep thinking she might get better.  At what point would people think this would be the right way to go?

[Kate and her Ducks]

Its a really hard decision and I'm sorry she is not improving. The easy thing is if there are any signs of suffering then it needs to be done. Harder when she seems comfortable and undistressed but if she is really not improving and you have tried all you can in terms of worming, encouraging diet and fluids etc then I think you are right to consider it. Don't know the answer though.

[North Devon Dumpling]

Decision taken out of our hands (poor little thing), went out just after my last post to change the bedding in the nest boxes (as she was pooing in there) and she was dead.  Just wish we knew what had killed her (she didn't seem in pain, was so bright eyed, but just not eating or drinking - other than what we managed to get down her).  I used to be good at animal anatomy stuff at school but can't bring myself to do an autopsy on her, also not that familar with poultry anatomy so not sure I could find out anyway.  Big concern is that the other 2 remaining hens are OK (lost one to Mr Fox in April) and they seem fine, very greedy and just doing normal chicken things.  Will need to find some more now to keep up with our egg requirements.

It is sad, but it is a fact of life and a fact of keeping stock, just hope we did everything we could for her.

Thanks for all your help on this forum, always a very helpful place to go when I have questions about our hens.