I've had chickens for a little over 3 years now. I've never had bad sicknesses, nothing a little home remedies, TLC or a little antibiotic wouldn't cure. Out of the ....gosh, it must be close to 100 or so chickens I've had, I've only lost a couple to illness, I cured many more from injuries, to worms, to infections with the help of this group.
That was until the past couple months. One of my SLW seemed lethargic. first she was just standing around, not doing much. I'd see her out in the field, not far from the run, but not running around chasing bugs like the others. She wasn't eating much scratch when I would throw some out in the evening to get everyone in the run.
Then one evening, about a week or two after she had a nice warm bath, thinking she was egg bound, and clean off her glumpy poo, I noticed she was twisting her head like she had something caught in her throat. As soon as I picked her up, I tipped her just a bit and about 1/2 cup of fluid came out. Immediately, I ordered those sour / impacted crop pills from a chicken supply store on line.
they arrived within about 3 days, and while I waited I did what ever I could...emptied the crop, fed her yogurt, etc...(Can't remember the name of the place right now...) I gave her the pill, I redosed her the next day. I thought it helped, but a week or so later, she was back to acting sick, I repeated the treatment for sour crop. Still the same, only without the head twising. She was losing weight.
I thought it was worms, so I treated her with valbazen. Seemed a little better, then I re wormed her 10 days later. She continued to eat, but seemed to be getting weaker, and thinner, and still wasn't acting like a healthy chicken.
I tried some Tylan 50. I treated with the Tylan 50 for five days. She stayed the same. I was getting upset now.
About two weeks later I noticed she was no longer getting up on the roost at night. I moved her to a "hospital crate" in the barn. During this whole time I had been giving her yogurt, probiotics, electrolites, ACV, scrambled eggs, and some canned cat food. Anything I could think of to keep her eating and hopefully, put what ever she was lacking back into her. She continued to get thinner. Her wings looked droopy, and I thought she possibly had gotten injured from our big rooster. I couldn't see any outside injuries.
She was waisting away, I could feel her breast bone when I picked her up. Nothing to her. Finally, she wasn't eating, or moving at all, so we had to put her down last week.
This whole ordeal lasted about 4 months from the time I gave her the bath, till we were saying goodbye. She would seem to be on the mend, only to relapse and be even worse.
This morning we lost a young barred rock, that was only about five months old, ( the SLW was 2 1/2 years old.) I had been keeping an eye on her, and noticed she seemed to not be able to stand firmly, she would fall over if another hen bumped her. Over the past few weeks, I wormed her, gave her Tylan 50, electrolytes, and fed her eggs, probiotics, etc... We said goodbye to her this morning. I'm starting to get really freaked out.
I have the three other hens that have me concerned, with the way they look and are acting. Lethargic, tired looking and droopy. Combs are flopped over, one's is still red, one's is lighter red, and one's is a bit pale and shrivelled looking (this one has been looking bad for about 3 weeks, I've wormed her already, about a week ago, due again tonight, and feed high protien foods daily. She had no implications of sour crop.) . They're not dehydrated. It seems like every couple days another one starts to show the symptoms.
I just picked up the one, and about 1/4 cup of liquid came out of her mouth, just like the SLW, however, no liquid came out of the barred rocks mouth, or the one with the shrivelled pale comb...????
What ever this is, it seems to take about 2-3 months to kill them, inspite of everything I try...Please, can anyone shed some light on this?
Oh, also, they continue eating until about a week before they died, and their feathers never fall out or look bad. They act okay one day, and the next they're very lethargic and sitting in nest boxes. Then, they just slowly waiste away...If it's worms, shouldn't the valbazen be preventing this?? I almost forgot, about 3 weeks ago, I also got some Rooster Booster wormer and mixed it in the feed like the directions said and fed it to all of my chickens till it was gone...
Please help...I'm out of ideas, and can't find anything when I look up these symptoms. I was convinced it was worms, but why would the valbazen not work? I only wormed the entire flock once with it, at this time last year. Could I need to change wormers?? I'm soooo confuuuusssed! Any suggestions or insight would be sincerely appreciated!!!
Thank you BYC community, I know you can help.
That was until the past couple months. One of my SLW seemed lethargic. first she was just standing around, not doing much. I'd see her out in the field, not far from the run, but not running around chasing bugs like the others. She wasn't eating much scratch when I would throw some out in the evening to get everyone in the run.
Then one evening, about a week or two after she had a nice warm bath, thinking she was egg bound, and clean off her glumpy poo, I noticed she was twisting her head like she had something caught in her throat. As soon as I picked her up, I tipped her just a bit and about 1/2 cup of fluid came out. Immediately, I ordered those sour / impacted crop pills from a chicken supply store on line.
they arrived within about 3 days, and while I waited I did what ever I could...emptied the crop, fed her yogurt, etc...(Can't remember the name of the place right now...) I gave her the pill, I redosed her the next day. I thought it helped, but a week or so later, she was back to acting sick, I repeated the treatment for sour crop. Still the same, only without the head twising. She was losing weight.
I thought it was worms, so I treated her with valbazen. Seemed a little better, then I re wormed her 10 days later. She continued to eat, but seemed to be getting weaker, and thinner, and still wasn't acting like a healthy chicken.
I tried some Tylan 50. I treated with the Tylan 50 for five days. She stayed the same. I was getting upset now.
About two weeks later I noticed she was no longer getting up on the roost at night. I moved her to a "hospital crate" in the barn. During this whole time I had been giving her yogurt, probiotics, electrolites, ACV, scrambled eggs, and some canned cat food. Anything I could think of to keep her eating and hopefully, put what ever she was lacking back into her. She continued to get thinner. Her wings looked droopy, and I thought she possibly had gotten injured from our big rooster. I couldn't see any outside injuries.
She was waisting away, I could feel her breast bone when I picked her up. Nothing to her. Finally, she wasn't eating, or moving at all, so we had to put her down last week.
This whole ordeal lasted about 4 months from the time I gave her the bath, till we were saying goodbye. She would seem to be on the mend, only to relapse and be even worse.
This morning we lost a young barred rock, that was only about five months old, ( the SLW was 2 1/2 years old.) I had been keeping an eye on her, and noticed she seemed to not be able to stand firmly, she would fall over if another hen bumped her. Over the past few weeks, I wormed her, gave her Tylan 50, electrolytes, and fed her eggs, probiotics, etc... We said goodbye to her this morning. I'm starting to get really freaked out.
I have the three other hens that have me concerned, with the way they look and are acting. Lethargic, tired looking and droopy. Combs are flopped over, one's is still red, one's is lighter red, and one's is a bit pale and shrivelled looking (this one has been looking bad for about 3 weeks, I've wormed her already, about a week ago, due again tonight, and feed high protien foods daily. She had no implications of sour crop.) . They're not dehydrated. It seems like every couple days another one starts to show the symptoms.
I just picked up the one, and about 1/4 cup of liquid came out of her mouth, just like the SLW, however, no liquid came out of the barred rocks mouth, or the one with the shrivelled pale comb...????
What ever this is, it seems to take about 2-3 months to kill them, inspite of everything I try...Please, can anyone shed some light on this?
Oh, also, they continue eating until about a week before they died, and their feathers never fall out or look bad. They act okay one day, and the next they're very lethargic and sitting in nest boxes. Then, they just slowly waiste away...If it's worms, shouldn't the valbazen be preventing this?? I almost forgot, about 3 weeks ago, I also got some Rooster Booster wormer and mixed it in the feed like the directions said and fed it to all of my chickens till it was gone...
Please help...I'm out of ideas, and can't find anything when I look up these symptoms. I was convinced it was worms, but why would the valbazen not work? I only wormed the entire flock once with it, at this time last year. Could I need to change wormers?? I'm soooo confuuuusssed! Any suggestions or insight would be sincerely appreciated!!!
Thank you BYC community, I know you can help.
