Any ideas please...

[Janie]

Hi all

One of my Marans hens (laying but not for at least 2 days) is acting oddly. She hatched in spring 08.

She is making a strange noise - almost a quack/bark. This has been going on for about 5 days.

She is slowly opening and closing her mouth a lot - looking like she's taking a very deep breath.

I haven't seen her eat today (but I haven't spent that much time with them today to be honest.)

Her crop is large but feels fluidy rather than hard with food.

Her breastbone feels very noticable, ie she feels very thin.
I dont know of that's nornal for her tbh as she is a flighty bird and doesn't like to be handled, another odd sign that I could pick her up just now.

I have looked in her mouth for any obvious obstruction - nothing. And everything else about her looks fine.

Will update tomorrow on the poo front ;o)

Have dealth with an impacted crop before in a different breed and although there are similarities (enlarged crop) there are differences too (No fluid coming out of beak, the noise she is making which is quite loud)

Any ideas...?

 

[gumpsgirl]

I'm thinking worms. Have you ever wormed you chickens?

 

[dlhunicorn]

Have a look through the information here:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=emergencies&action=display&num=1161893898

 

[Janie]

Thanks for your help guys, seems we have Mareks disease.

The hen was culled today

Bloody shame she was a great layer and was gonna be top 'dog' for breeding this spring.

As my dad (a farmer) always say 'If you've got livestock, you've got deadstock'.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Strange. Those symptoms don't sound like Marek's. What makes you think it was Marek's?

 

[Janie]

I took her to a vet (who I discovered specialises in chickens

)

As she had lost a huge amount of weight he believed she had a tumour on/in her crop which was basically starving her to death.

 

[Janie]

Oh, and weirdly her right foot appeared parallised (sp?) when we got to the vets. I hadn't seen that symptom before then.

 

[Bandana]

Bummer. Sounded a lot more like sour crop to me. Sorry you lost your girl.

 

[Janie]

Yeah, it is a bummer - she was a good lil layer.

I s'pose the tumour caused a blockage in the crop so the symptoms would be the similar. Nothing was getting through, and she was literally starving.

I cleared her twice yesterday morning and the 'vomit' was just mushed up food whereas the sour crop I have treated was foul smelling, initially clear & slightly viscous.

I wish I'd spotted it earlier in her - she can't have been very comfortable by the end.

Lots of lessons learned with this one tho - the biggest being regularly pick up all my birds (whether they like it or not!) so I recognise sooner if they are losing weight or similar.

Thanks again all xx

 

[dlhunicorn]

There are many things that cause weight loss (weight loss in Mareks usually occurs from the paralysis and not being able to get to the food ) ... cancer is very common in chickens actually and not always viral.
crop stasis (the musculature not moving the food out of the crop) is caused by many things also... the only way to know for sure is a necropsy.
Sorry you lost her.