10-m-o female has never been "right", failure to thrive, now very weak, possible seizure, diarrhea,

[henspoopalot]

I hope someone can help with my Buff Orpington "Buttercup". She hasn't been right since she was a chick. She's 10-months now. Never developed or laid eggs. Now she's very ill. Worming her helped a lot, but she just never got completely better and is now not well again. I'm afraid to worm her again since she's so weak.
Thank you!

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
10 month-old Buff Orpington female, never laid eggs, lighter and thinner pretty much always, failure to thrive, feathers look unkempt - not smooth like the others, comb and wattles never developed, very pale.

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
From the day she arrived as a chick, she has acted kind of odd. Head-shaking, a little off balance. I tried everything even back then... Polyvisol, Tylan 50 orally, selenium, etc. We assumed maybe she had a neuro issue and left it at that. Fast-forward to about 6 weeks ago, she was puffed up and lethargic. No interest in anything. Always cold.
Brought her in and she perks up for a while after various treatments and then regresses. She's had a few close calls where I thought she was slipping away, only to come back. She has had a slight bloody discharge from one nostril, but no respiratory symptoms. Eyes are nice and clear.

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Since a baby chick, but the past 6 weeks have been different/worse.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
No, everyone else is very healthy.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Nothing that I know of.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
She was on omega crumbles/pellets, and treats like fresh veggies, mealworms, and was free-ranging for an hour a day until winter.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
She's had green diarrhea for weeks now. It's yellow mucus with green bits. Sometimes undigested food.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
In the past couple of weeks.... Strike III dewormer (some ungodly things came out in her poop, but I didn't pick around in it. Kind of like lo main noodles, from what I could tell.), Tylan 50 orally for about 5 days (given soaked in a bread piece), Corid for cocci (seemed to help the most besides deworming), Polyvisol (no iron) in her water, Save-a-chick probiotics in her water. Now she's back on Corid again, and again she seems to slightly be improving until today when I think she had a seizure.
For food... she's refusing a lot of food, including her feed. She will still eat grapes (cut up), bits of zucchini, bits of greens, plain organic yogurt, berries. She was eating scrambled eggs, but refusing now. She not drinking much currently.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I hope to treat her myself. We aren't near an aviary vet, and honestly, we are VERY low on money this month. My husband works construction, and winter is hard for us (and our kids). I can't afford a vet unless it's under $75 or so.

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I will if someone needs something specific. Her poop looks like everyone else's who have posted pics of green, runny poop.

She has a Facebook page because my friends want updates on her and love her. Anyone can "like" her page and see photos.
https://www.facebook.com/buttercupthechicken

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use

Currently in a large dog crate with just newspaper that I change daily. There is a sheet over the crate as well as reflective bubblewrap to help keep heat in. She has a 2x4 mini perch, a light if needed, food, water, grit. She roams the house daily as well.

I grew up with chickens, was in 4-H as a child. Had 2 chickens a few years ago as an adult, and now have 6. Never had any issues until this one. I wonder if she has a type of cancer. I forget the name...
THANK YOU!! Pics below. You can tell we love her!

 

[Jrose]

Looks to me like internal laying. Based on my experiences with it, I have not doubt in my mind. I only had one hen who died from it poop yellow like this. I doubt it's blackhead.
The antibiotics were working because her illness is probably due to the yolk buildup in her abdomen becoming infected. When you stop antibiotics, the infection kicks in again. That yellow in the poop if the yolk in her abdomen being excreted. The blood in her nostrils is probably a side effect of her body shutting down under massive stress and infection. Two of the girls I lots to internal laying had blood in their nose/throat upon death, one other had bloody stools mixed with egg yolk. There is no cure, the infection inevitably kills. Some people have prolonged life by sucking the excess yolk out of the abdomen it a syringe and continuing a life-long regiment of antibiotics, but it's no quality of life for the bird

 

[Jrose]

Jrose - Can she have that even if she's never laid an egg ever? She has never developed enough to lay eggs. She never had comb or wattle growth or squatted or anything. She's just always been undernourished looking and never developed past the pullet stage.
She didn't have this yellow poop until about a week ago. It was green/dark green before.

Thank you fro your response! Much appreciated!

My first girl I lost was about 6-8 months old I think. Under a year. She never laid an egg that I know of. I was new to chickens and didn't think twice about how easy she was to pick out because of her tiny comb. She went from apparently fine to dead in less than 3 days. I had only had her a few months. I treated her for egg binding thinking that's what was happening, but upon death she released a strong rotten egg smell and lots of yellow feces- I discovered internal laying.

Squatting is just a sign that hens think you're Mr. Man and are asking for a favor. Laying hens may or may not squat for you. Only one of my internal laying gals had filled out comb and wattles, the rest never really filled out properly. The one hen was less than a year, but other hens I didn't lose til 2-3 years. I have a girl now that's 3 (two of her sisters have passed from internal laying) and I suspect she's slowly succumbing to this as well. Her abdomen is becoming distended, she acts a bit disgruntled, her laying is decreasing, her comb is losing luster. I have two other girls that are a year old and still haven't laid, still haven't filled out, and have distended abdomens. They act fine but I'm worrying about them too. All these girls are from factory production lines. My quality breeder birds don't seem to have any issues yet.

 

[Stiggy]

What a shame that she isn't getting 100% better, Im sorry I don't know about the lump above the nostril, in reality it could be anything from an ingrown feather, acne/skin issue tumor etc. Also you may want to file back her beak a bit. That poop doesn't look good, once again im suspecting internal organ failure, does it smell sulphury? if so then that's a sure sign her innards are slowly shutting down. If she was looking better on the corrid then I would put her on that and see if she perks up again, if nothing else she may have to stay on that forever, and house chicken it. I would also worm her again, and give her an ivomec as well just to rule that out. she does look quite fluffed up like she has cocidiosis.

My appologies that I cant be of much help otherwise

 

[henspoopalot]

Just an update. I have her on Corid and she's improving immensely. Still has diarrhea, but otherwise doing pretty well.

 

[Jrose]

I've lost a few hens over the years. All were factory birds, all died of internal laying. Some of them I didn't know it was IL until after they died (if the smell of rotten boiled eggs at time of death isn't enough to tell you...). Some lingered for months, flirting with the infection, laying eggs intermittently. Others just laid intermittently (or not at all), but were fine, then within 48 hours were dead. I guess it's the infection that gets them, not the IL itself. It's a genetic defect from my understanding, no cure or hope. Not saying that's it, but my girls (from 9 months old to 3+ years old) who dropped showed similar symptoms before eventually (or suddenly) dying. Is her abdomen squishy?

 

[henspoopalot]

Thank you. She has never developed enough to even lay eggs. Her comb never grew or turned red, no squatting, etc. The Corid is working right now. I think she had a bad case of worms and Coccidiosis, and possibly had some sort of birth defect or genetic issue. At least she's doing better. She's eating, drinking and active.

 

[Stiggy]

Keep trying to get her to eat and stay hydrated, green poop like that is a sign of kidney/liver failure/shutdown. If the corrid is working then that's great, a poop test at the vets might be a good idea or even a blood test to check her levels and immune system levels. Unfortunatly some fail to thrive, although most ive seen who failed died before 6 months. Its great that she has you to take such good care of her and keep her warm and such, I love the pic of her by the fire, she looks very happy

 

[henspoopalot]

I still need help! She's sick again.
Buttercup was on the mend after 14 days of Corid treatment, and I was confident she would go back tot he coop soon. Her droppings were finally becoming solid and she was eating like crazy, putting on weight and had a lot of energy... but now she has regressed again. It seems like every time I stop Corid, she gets sick again. I am definitely giving her enough.

Now she has yellow diarrhea. Also, every time she has an episode of illness, she bleeds a little out of her nostril. Right now she has what looks like a little hemorrhage near her nostril. This is the 3rd time she's had one of these episodes where she gets lethargic, has diarrhea and has the slight bleeding. She is a "house chicken" and has been for 3 1/2 months now, so it's not an injury.

I read about yellow diarrhea possibly being Blackhead, and then thought perhaps the purple lump could be cyanosis starting, so I got Metronidazole at a pet store. They only had powder, so I have been mixing it with a bit of water and using a syringe to get it into her beak. I started 1 1/2 days ago and see no change. Since this treatment is only 5 days normally, I would have thought I'd see at least some sort of change after 1 1/2 days.

Today she is barely eating or drinking, and her poop is just yellow water with a couple of green bits here and there.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction. We are having a tough time financially this winter (husband works construction, and the snow has closed all of the job sites), so we just can't afford an expensive vet bill.

Thank you for reading!

 

[henspoopalot]

Also, I will post some pics in a few minutes of her nostril area.