EMERGENCY - TRYING TO HELP A FRIEND

[RememberTheWay]

View attachment 3861071This shows where the esophagus leading into the crop is. Insert a feeding tube as you see this insertion of a syringe. It will prevent any fluids from getting aspirated.

When I have a very weak chicken, I mix a raw egg, a little warm water, a teaspoon of sugar and a squirt of Poultry Nutri-drench and push about half a cup of it into the crop. It can perk a chicken right up.

Do you have any resources on making your own tube feeder?

 

[azygous]

You can buy a feeding kit from any vet for a few dollars. You can order on off Amazon. Or find some aquarium or oxygen tubing and cut to about nine inches and find an oral syringe with adequate capacity to fit the tubing.

 

[RememberTheWay]

You can buy a feeding kit from any vet for a few dollars. You can order on off Amazon. Or find some aquarium or oxygen tubing and cut to about nine inches and find an oral syringe with adequate capacity to fit the tubing.

Thank you. That's exactly the information I needed

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thanks for the videos.

Poor little thing.

I would try the vitamin therapy as others have suggested, but I'd lean toward Marek's.

Hopefully she'll pull out of this.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Thanks for the videos.

Poor little thing.

I would try the vitamin therapy as others have suggested, but I'd lean toward Marek's.

Hopefully she'll pull out of this.

I feel like she is slightly improved this morning. I put her in a sling chair last night. Yesterday she was flipping herself over on to her back. I didn't think that was a typical Marek's symptom though? Could be wrong. But anyway. I tube fed her per above instructions on yolk, sugar, vitamins, and I added some herbs I've researched. She was not doing well last night at all. This morning though she seems much more alert. Poops look good. •Question- is there something with the pool that happens with Marek's I should watch for? Her appetite is better, she wasn't eating at all yesterday. Or drinking. She is drinking on her own now. Back in the tote she is able to stop her self from flipping over now, which she was not able to do yesterday. I also feel like her toes are a little less curled now? I don't know. Maybe we are grasping at straws here but I personally feel like nothing I did should of made improvements of it was Marek's at all, right?

Pictured is the sling chair I made from a storage bin tote And a knit sweater I had laying around. I need to make some adjustments to the design but I think once I have it tweaked it will work well for her. I'm am very encouraged that she is eating and drinking on her own now. I couldn't get her to drink yesterday at all and i was only able to get her to eat a few meal worms and a couple bites of scrambled eggs early yesterday. Nothing later that day. I read that vitamin deficiency causes lack of appetite and can also affect breathing and heart rate?

 

[azygous]

•Question- is there something with the pool that happens with Marek's I should watch for?

What do you mean by "pool"? Or do you mean "poop"?

Sometimes you may see slight improvement before the disease progresses again, especially if you've been doing vitamin therapy, it can temporarily improve nerve connections.

I need to caution you against using knitted materials with chickens. They often pick at the yarn fibers and they can get wrapped around the tongue or clog up the crop. We've had chickens die of this after it was thought that an old sweater would make a cozy bedding.

 

[RememberTheWay]

What do you mean by "pool"? Or do you mean "poop"?

Sometimes you may see slight improvement before the disease progresses again, especially if you've been doing vitamin therapy, it can temporarily improve nerve connections.

I need to caution you against using knitted materials with chickens. They often pick at the yarn fibers and they can get wrapped around the tongue or clog up the crop. We've had chickens die of this after it was thought that an old sweater would make a cozy bedding.

It not knitted like that. I sew. It's a jersey knit material, like a T-shirt. But thanks for the heads up

And yes- I meant poop

 

[RememberTheWay]

What do you mean by "pool"? Or do you mean "poop"?

Sometimes you may see slight improvement before the disease progresses again, especially if you've been doing vitamin therapy, it can temporarily improve nerve connections.

I need to caution you against using knitted materials with chickens. They often pick at the yarn fibers and they can get wrapped around the tongue or clog up the crop. We've had chickens die of this after it was thought that an old sweater would make a cozy bedding.

Also- do you know of any threads where there are videos of other birds behavior when it definitely was Marek's (tested) and when it definitely wasn't? I'm just curious

 

[Bkaye]

Also- do you know of any threads where there are videos of other birds behavior when it definitely was Marek's (tested) and when it definitely wasn't? I'm just curious

I have Marek’s in my flock. We treated it as a vitamin deficiency before we had confirmed testing through RAL labs. It’s a mail order testing facility.

I’m not saying it is or it isn’t Marek’s because only testing can confirm or deny. I will say that from my experience Marek’s doesn’t read a text book. Every bird acts differently from my experience. I’ve had birds go lame and flip themselves over like you described. I have had very few show the classical “splits” everyone talks about. I’ve had some that have a huge appetite even though they cannot walk and others that don’t want to eat. The only pattern I have noticed with the strain I have is my younger birds under a year typically develop paralyses and my older birds generally waste away or develop cancer in one form or another.

I have seen a wide range in paralysis too. Some have nothing other than a limp for a long time before it progresses. My first bird that started it all was fine all day, everyone was on the roost at dusk. I needed to go back out when it was dark to do a couple things and found her on the floor unable to walk. She could only push herself backwards. I thought somehow she hurt her back. We did vitamins and some days she appeared like she was getting better and even had more strength but some days she appeared worse.

I found out about the mail in testing. My husband called and spoke to them. We ordered the tasting kit and it took a couple days to get in. Once it came in we clipped a toenail and dropped a couple drops of blood in the vial. Checked what we wanted testing. Filled out the form, went to the post office and overnighted it. 3 days later I had the results in my email.

I do not have any videos of any of mine and honestly if I were you I would not rely on a video for diagnosis. If your friend decides to put her down you can get a necropsy done so they know for sure what they are dealing with or you can try the route I took. I have included the link to the website below.

https://www.vetdna.com/about-us

 

[Bkaye]

Oh and to answer your poop question. The only time with my flock the poop changes is when they go off food and start to waste away. Then it turns green. With Marek’s in my flock it reduces their immune system so I also have a problem with coccidiosis and enteritis which changes their poop when they get it.