Neck back posturing, lethargic, tail drop, one eye lid drop unilateral feathers displaced!! Vet can’t see her today!! Help appreciated

FergFarms

Hatching
Feb 9, 2024
2
0
4
EDITED POST AND NEW PICTURES!
She has gotten more lethargic. I caught a fresh poop sample pic below.
Vet can’t see us until Monday and I’m worried that will be too late :(

She is in with 3 other hens. No one else exhibiting symptoms. She had the eye lid drop before the new ladies were placed in pen. They have not had any issues acclimating and have stayed close with her, no fighting, etc.
T-pecks (the sick lady in need) eats 13 way conditioner and we have 17% show flock pellets. Meal worms, apples, TINY amounts of bread as treats.
She has direct probiotics in her water for gut health, minerals and vitamins.
Her posturing has DRASTICALLY changed, see picture. It’s like her head is tucking way back. When I palpate, I can’t tell if there is anything that shouldn’t be there. Her skin coloring has lightened as well. She still loves hugs and scratches, I’m desperate to help her.

Hello!! I have a 3 yo lovely with a bit of a mystery going on. She started with a slight eye lid drop (no discharge, no appearance of injury like scratch, etc) last week. She also has unilateral feather position changes. They appear to to be “ruffled” at all times now. I can’t not feel any knots, growths, injuries or anything on her head and neck area. It’s all unilateral to the left side.
She is eating, drinking and roosting. She does appear lethargic and not as interactive as usual! But still enjoys hugs and scratches. Just doesn’t run up and get excited like usual. Any suggestions? Anything I need to try? Anyone else had a poultry friend present with this unilateral issue before???
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0850.jpeg
    IMG_0850.jpeg
    517 KB · Views: 23
  • IMG_0844.jpeg
    IMG_0844.jpeg
    484.9 KB · Views: 5
  • IMG_0887.jpeg
    IMG_0887.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 6
  • IMG_0956.jpeg
    IMG_0956.jpeg
    974.2 KB · Views: 3
  • IMG_0950.jpeg
    IMG_0950.jpeg
    1,000.5 KB · Views: 3
Last edited:
Welcome to BYC.
It's possible she mightve somehow gotten debris of some sort in her eye, maybe from dust bathing or feed dust as examples. You can flush her eye liberally with saline solution once, then apply a small dab of Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin in her eye once a day for 3 days to prevent infection in case there's an unseen scratch under her eyelid.

Also inspect her closely for lice/mites, especially around the vent area where it's moist and warm, look for lice eggs attached to feather shafts at the same location.
If you havnt wormed her, consider using Safeguard liquid goat wormer or Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer. It would be best to worm all your birds at once.
 
Welcome to BYC.
It's possible she mightve somehow gotten debris of some sort in her eye, maybe from dust bathing or feed dust as examples. You can flush her eye liberally with saline solution once, then apply a small dab of Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin in her eye once a day for 3 days to prevent infection in case there's an unseen scratch under her eyelid.

Also inspect her closely for lice/mites, especially around the vent area where it's moist and warm, look for lice eggs attached to feather shafts at the same location.
If you havnt wormed her, consider using Safeguard liquid goat wormer or Valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer. It would be best to worm all your birds at once.
Thank you so much for the input. Got home today right as they were roosting up and she seems so much worse. Tail down, lethargic. Perhaps I’ve missed something. Will be flushing and checking eye in the morning to see if that solves that issue. I also noticed her poop is liquid/runs with white green and clear bubbles. That’s definitely new.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom