Foul smelling diarrhea, eye discharge, and lethargy

Thursday February 20th our chicken Lulu, was demonstrating the "penguin" waddle, along with distancing herself from the flock. She was still eating and drinking, but not herself. She seemed to want to stand and would close her eyes while doing so. We brought her inside on Friday (the 21st) to better monitor her behavior. She had foul smelling diarrhea, but still was alert. We thought she might be egg bound since she hadn't laid in 2 days, so we did the warm bath treatment, a vent exam, which ruled out egg bound since we felt nothing inside her vent. Then I thought she might have worms and tried one day of Wazine, but no improvement. She doesn't seem to be improving and I have exhausted BYC looking for answers that matched her symptoms. Lulu is now losing feathers, won't eat and we are giving her water with Corid (we are on day 2), I thought maybe she might have cocci. But now with the eye discharge, I'm at a loss. Her poop isn't so bad smelling now, but she also hasn't eaten in a few days, except for the yogurt we are diluting with water.

I would appreciate anyone's input and suggestions. Lulu is a 2 yr old Gold Sex Link, with no health issues in the past. No one else in our 15 chicken flock is exhibiting any of these symptoms.

Bump

This looks like Coryza to me, especially with the smell and swollen eyes.

Did you look into that? I have no experience with Coryza, so other than Googling the same stuff you can, I don't really have anything else to offer. :/ Sorry.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pou...verview_of_infectious_coryza_in_chickens.html

MrsB

I wonder if she has a massive infection?

-Kathy

3rd day of Corid today and Lulu is drinking on her own. Eyes are not cloudy anymore and she is opening them. She took 2 bites (pecks) of mash, so we are hopeful she is turning a corner. Thank you Mrs.B and Kathy for replying!! I so appreciate your expertise! Ive never heard of Coryza, I will be sure to look into it, just in case. Thank you again ladies!!

casportpony said:

I wonder if she has a massive infection?

-Kathy

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what is massive infection? I have got a few chickens sick, heavy breathing. one pullet keep snoring for 2 days now. first 1 half of face was swollen, then after antibiotic that part got better but the other half got swollen (under the eye). here is how my cockerel looked on sunday:


this is how he looks today (still not drinking or eating on his own):


here is my pullet. she cannot even breath properly (totally blocked nostrils) and her face is not getting better even after 40 hours of antibiotics, slightly overdose which she can handle:


they are not smelly, their poops are normal considernig that they don't eat normally. there is no discharge from their eyes. the only problem is breathing and mucus in nostrils. the other day we had nice warm weather and suddenly a heavy windy storm with a significant drop in temperature.

any idea what it might be? I treat them with doxycycline, helped the cockerel (he is still bad, but much better regarding his condition 2 days ago) and other birds - 2 of them got well instantly, but this poor one seems to be very weak.

how long does it usually take before they start drinking and eating on their own?

P.S.
there are no injectible antibiotics for chicken here where I live. I treat the rest of the flock with water soluble oxytetracycline and neomycin sulfate mix (all medicines have been prescribed by a vet).

dawg53 said:

I suggest that you look up information on Mycoplasma Gallisepticum (MG.) Treatment would be Tiamulin (Denagard.) Your other option is to cull sick birds.

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thank you.
I live in greece and we don't have the same medicines. the antibiotics I use gave good results with some birds. my cockerel is much better today, he even ate a little bit. my pullet is weak, she is about 4-5 months old. the vet warned me she might not make it, but I will try to save her anyway. she is still kind of snoring but at least she opened her eye a little bit. another pullet (production red) is coughing but she eats and drinks. she is a heavy bird so I hope she is strong enough, they are both in the house now as well as 2 cockerels. I love them too much to cull. they are my pets, eggs are just side effect!

chickengr said:

thank you.
I live in greece and we don't have the same medicines. the antibiotics I use gave good results with some birds. my cockerel is much better today, he even ate a little bit. my pullet is weak, she is about 4-5 months old. the vet warned me she might not make it, but I will try to save her anyway. she is still kind of snoring but at least she opened her eye a little bit. another pullet (production red) is coughing but she eats and drinks. she is a heavy bird so I hope she is strong enough, they are both in the house now as well as 2 cockerels. I love them too much to cull. they are my pets, eggs are just side effect!

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I just learned from @Eggcessive that you can use bit of peroxide to try loosening the snot in their nostrils and use dental picks to actually pick their nose! I'll try to find that thread and put it on this post.

Here, post #6 has a good link and posts#9,10 and 11 have discussion. All of that plus some vet RX should help the hen breath a little easier.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/954162/clogged-nare-difficult-case

Google infraorbital sinus flush in birds. I have not tried it yet, but there is lots of info on it, including videos. Of course this should only be done to stable birds as too much handling might be enough to kill a critically I'll one.

-Kathy