Belgian d’Uccle increasing signs of illness

[Chirpley]

Hi,

We have a 10 month old female Belgian d’Uccle that weighs 410g who has been showing increasing signs of illness. Her symptoms are:

Head shaking/twitching that appears to be getting worse over the last 2 weeks. She’s not her usual self and is clearly uncomfortable. She has her eyes closed during the day with minimal foraging, displaying anti-social behaviour, she’s still eating and in the early evening she seems to perk up a bit. Her outer ear canal is flaky/dry with some discharge [photos attached]. We have isolated her from the rest of the flock while we treat her with antifungal medication, electrolytes, probiotics and multi-vitamins that we’ve added to her water. We dewormed her again 2 days ago when her symptoms worsened and she has been previously treated for mites with Pestene and we’ve seen no signs of mites since.

Treatments given so far in the last 24hrs:

• Nilstat applied orally - 1ml
• Avi vital – 1ml: 125ml water
• Coccioprol - 0.75g: 500ml water
• Clozole anti-fungal cream applied topically to ears (unsure if this OK)

Treatment given over 48hrs ago:

KilVERM wormer - 6.25ml: 125ml water (1 off dose)

We’ve not been to the vet due to their lack of avian knowledge as we live in a regional area. Our local stock feed/pet shops have been more helpful.

Our flock had been previously exposed to wild birds but we’re now stricter on bio-security so minimal contact has occurred in the last 6 weeks. Our chickens’ free range in our small yard so complete isolation from wild birds isn’t possible.

1 month ago our Silkie died within 1 week of showing symptoms due to some sort of neurological disorder which caused loss of balance, lethargy, weight loss, loss of appetite and nystagmus.

We would really appreciate some help from those with experience as we are very new to keeping chickens and we couldn’t bear to lose another one if we could’ve prevented it. Thanks.

 

[Tookie]

I'm wondering if she could have ear mites.

 

[Chirpley]

Thanks for the reply. Apparently ear mites are just regular mites and we’ve treated all birds with Pestene. I've just had another look and don’t see any evidence of mites anywhere else on her body/head. Do mites cause ear discharge? Could the discharge be a result of an upper respiratory infection? At what stage would we consider giving her antibiotics? We have a bottle of Tetracycline hydrochloride we could give her but I’m scared to do so on top of everything else. Would this have any negative impact on her immune system? We were also given syringe needles of Enrofloxacin from the vet for our Silkie that died that we didn’t get a chance to use. Could we consider this? or would it cause more harm than good?

If it's just an ear infection what could we safely give her to alleviate the discomfort?

 

[Eggcessive]

You can clean out the ear with some hydrogen peroxide and QTips. Then to treat ear infection, plain antibiotic ointment can be put into the ear canal. If mites are a concern, petroleum jelly or mineral oil may be substituted. The enrofloxacin could treat a bacterial infection. There are a number of bacteria that can cause ear infection. That antibiotic is very powerful. Do you think that your first chicken might have had Mareks disease, and this one might be showing signs? I certainly hope it is not that, but Mareks typically shows up in birds under a year old.

 

[Chirpley]

Thanks for the great info Eggcessive. We put a couple drops of hydrogen peroxide into each ear and then a few drops of paraffin oil from the chemist. We also gave her another powdering of Pestene. We noticed today that her droppings were really slimy, like mucus so now we’re leaning back to it being Coccidiosis which we’re currently treating her for. She’s not eating or drinking much so we’re going to try and give her the Coccioprol and probiotics orally with a syringe. Would you recommend giving her the Tetracycline antibiotics as well just so we’ve covered all bases? I’ll be devastated if it’s Marek’s but her symptoms aren’t quite the same.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would prefer to give the enrofloxacin, but you could use either one. Let us know how she gets along. Hopefully, she will start eating and drinking normally. I try wet chicken feed to get extra water into a sick bird, and they usually will eat some wet cat food and scrambled egg, also with water.

 

[Chirpley]

Thanks Eggcessive, we gave her some canned tuna soaked in water and Probiotics. Little padfoot has definitely improved since yesterday, she has started foraging again and is spending less time sleeping during the day. Her ears have also dramatically improved and she isn’t shaking her head as often. We’re still putting a couple drops of hydrogen peroxide and paraffin in each ear and also Coccioprol and probiotics to her water. We haven’t given her any antibiotics with these latest improvements.

This morning she had a hard, golf ball size lump in her crop and after inspecting the other 4 chickens to compare I can only guess she has an impacted crop. We squirted 1.5ml paraffin oil in her mouth, which is about all she would allow us and massaged it for 10mins and it has softened. I’ll give her another couple massages today and hope it has cleared tomorrow morning. Would this be the best approach to take?

I went out last night to double check for mites and was a bit shocked to find 10 of them crawling around the coop with a few full of blood, I thought I had eradicated them entirely. God they’re a nuisance, I’m really sick of them. I scattered Pestene everywhere again and massaged some into the birds roosting on their branches. I’ll keep monitoring it.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have heard that mites are very hard to get rid of permanently. The liquid parafin/mineral oil is fine to use. Some also use chilled coconut oil cut into small peck-able pieces, and offer 1 tsp once or twice a day for an impacted crop. Massage the crop several times a day, and offer plenty of water.

 

[Chirpley]

The chilled coconut oil is a good idea, we'll try that as I really don't like squirting oil down her throat and want to keep her stress levels to a minimum.

Taken yesterday:

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The chilled coconut oil is a good idea, we'll try that as I really don't like squirting oil down her throat and want to keep her stress levels to a minimum.

Taken yesterday:

Are you working the Pestene down to the skin?
In your last photos, it looks like she still has mites on her which can make her feel very bad.

If her crop is not emptying, then I'd begin treating that according to this article.
Coconut oil is a good start. I use it in addition to the other treatments listed.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/