Help! Chicken with crookneck and foul discharge from mouth now labored breathing

[Peach Mom]

My 2 to 3 year old hen yesterday had a strange neck position. I picked her up to feel her crop/neck and a bunch of yellow green foul smelling liquid came out of her beak. At first I thought it was a neck/ head injury. This morning she was having very labored breathing. Could this be sour crop gone bad? I gave her a dose of colloidal silver as that was the only antibiotic I had on hand that I knew would be safe. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Noobchick]

Could be a few things. Wry neck (vitamin defeciency), sour crop, ascities. Have you done a search on this forum? It may turn up some answers.

 

[Peach Mom]

I keep looking and trying to figure it out. She has had 3 doses of colloidal silver and seems to be improving a little. There is no more discharge from her mouth and her breathing is better. When I got a look at her back end it was dirty from the runs and crawling with little blackish bugs the size of a grain of rice. I put lots of diatomaceous earth on her and the bedding in her sick pen. Any ideas what those bugs could be? I am new to this and really appreciate any advice.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like she has sour crop and vent gleet which are both fungal infections that are treated with probiotics, ACV in the water, and antifungal drugs like nystatin orally and mycostatin on the cleaned vent. With such an infestation of mites, I would use some Sevin dust today and in 7 days.

 

[Peach Mom]

Thank you! I plan to hit the feed store this morning and then the whole flock is getting treated and everything cleaned out and coop /run / pole barn where they hang out treated. I had no idea they had parasites. Unfortunately the older chickens I have came with the house we bought and are not tame which makes them almost impossible to catch and check over properly. I will hunt down the antifungals and give some kefir as well as they say it is the #1 source of probiotics.