Poorly Hen

CorvidLady

Chirping
5 Years
Mar 9, 2014
100
6
73
Hello everyone, I was hoping someone here could give me some insight.

We have a small free range flock of three young (22 weeks or thereabouts) Ameraucana hens and one GLW roo. All have been exceptionally healthy and hale since bringing them home.

Roughly four days ago, I noticed our little blue hen wasn't with the others. When I went out to look for her, I found her laying down under a hedge, listless and weak. I took her inside and assessed her. She had a pale comb and could barely keep her head up. It also felt as though she had a hard lump in her throat. We syringe fed her some water, and Olive oil, thinking it could be a crop impaction.
We isolated her inside and kept an eye on her. After a few hours her comb really reddened up, and she could stand. We tried more Olive oil, and a crop massage, but nothing happened.
She stayed indoors for two nights, we gave water, and she ate a few bites of food here and there, but was still listless. We felt for a stuck egg, but her pelvis feels empty (she hasn't begun to lay yet). We gave her an epsom salt bath.
Nothing. She was just sort of hanging in there.
Yesterday afternoon she seemed to perk up, ate quite a bit of food from my hand, and so we let her out to walk around. She was walking and foraging a bit, but slowly and was definitely still very lethargic.
Today, she seems to be back sliding again. This morning she seemed to have a bit of a head tilt, but it doesn't seem to be there right now.

I'm stumped. It happened literally overnight.
There are no wounds, aside from a superficial looking scratch on her comb. No discharge. No respiratory sounds. Her vent looks ok. All droppings look normal, except she hasn't had anything but urates in a couple of days.

The lump in her neck seems to be her bones, as she has lost weight. Obviously whatever is wrong had been going on long enough for weight loss, though I have no idea how I didn't notice, since I interact fairly closely with them daily. Her behavior had been completely normal prior to finding her under the hedge.

Any insight at all would be very much appreciated.
 
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Sounds like she could really benefit from supportive care and maybe worming. Do you know how to tube feed? That's where I would start. Keep warm, 80-85 degrees is ideal. Tube lots of fluids (30ml per 2.2 pounds every 6 hours), maybe with some corn syrup.

-Kathy
 
Thank you, Kathy. I don't know how to tube feed.
She hasn't had a stool in a few days, but there were normal looking white solid urates in her crate yesterday. Nothing today.
 
At her age a size 18 french tube would be perfect. If you can't find a vet to sell you one you could use aquarium air line.

-Kathy
 
We gave her wormer yesterday, and found a dropping this morning in her crate, the first in several days.

400


I don't notice anything unusual?

She's about the same today as yesterday.
 
Little update.
She ate almost an entire banana, and grazed a bit on grass yesterday. This morning she's walking about, and eating a bit of scratch on her own.
She is, however, favoring one ear it seems, rubbing it every so often on her back, and scratching at it occasionally. She's still uncoordinated, and slow, sitting floofed at times .
Could it possibly be something to do with her ears?
 
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What I haven't thought to mention is that I've noticed she's carrying quite a heavy lice load. The other two hens have none that I can see, and the roo has some nits, but I can't see any live bugs.
At any rate,I treated them all , and the coop yesterday with DE, since apparently we can't get Sevin here without a license.
How long approximately before the DE kills the live bugs? I know I'll have to dust again in a few days to get hatched nits.
 

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