Please Help! My favorite hen is sick!!!!

[ShiviBear]

My most favorite girl, Bjork, is not feeling well.
I knew immediately when she didn't dart out of the coop like a mad woman..she kinda sauntered and instead of going towards the feed door, she went to drink from a puddle.
She did not eat, and now I think she had less if an appetite yesterday.

Her crop is squishy, there is still a bit of undigested food and digested mush but not like ALOT...less then other hens I've had that had sour crop.

She doesn't seem to pushing to get an egg out and her abdomen seems normal, no fluid.

Lastly, when I pick her up she makes a noise, kind of like a sigh with a whine.
It's making me very nervous.

She also has some poop pasted to her beautiful fluffy behind.
And she only pooped a tiny small poop.

I started treating the girls for coccidiosis 2 days ago as something has been off with the flock as a whole recently.

I had their poop tested about 16 days ago and although they were positive for hookworm, they were negative for coccidia but that can be an easy one to miss.

I am a 3 days late for their second round of worming with topical ivermectin.

A few chickens (maybe 15 hens and a rooster) also have dirty behinds and they are not eating as much as they used to.

One hen died a few days ago....she stopped eating and was weak, literally died seconds before I was going to cull her. My guess was Marek's as she seemed to be blind and all the hens I've lost died after going blind first then becoming paralyzed and not eating.
It was the first chicken I lost since September of 2020 (out of 58).

The chickens have also been shaking their heads...I haven't used the poultry dust as I had the impression that the ivermectin killed both parasites AND mites, but was planning to use it today because I def had mites on me the other day.

I'm torn between starting monistat and antibiotics.
Could it be something upper respiratory related...the flock went through 2 bouts of URI although she never got sick but they have all been better the past few weeks.

I got her pedialite, yogurt, probiotics and some baby food.
Will post a picture of her butt soon.
Anybody have any ideas?
Anything else I can check?

I really love this hen SOOOO much. I'm very worries, please help.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Lice and/or mites can cause death. I'd be sure to address that immediately. I was also under the impression that ivermectin treated this but the lice/mite will need to bite them for it to work and getting these bites/feeding will cause anemia > death. Since I'm not so focused this morning, hopefully someone can clarify and/or correct

@Wyorp Rock
@Eggcessive
@rosemarythyme
@aart
@azygous

Tagging a few folks.

What are you feeding, including treats? How old is she? Have you brought in any new birds recently?

 

[azygous]

There's a ton of worry in your post. You're handling the situation very well, as far as I can tell. Stepping up with the treatments is the sensible approach. It helps rule out the common illnesses before jumping to the more serious possibilities.

One you might cover with this favorite hen is egg binding. It's easy to overlook when you're concerned about the entire flock. Just yesterday, I was all ready to stuff a penicillin tablet down my favorite hen when I saw her standing lethargically with eyes closed. Before I had a chance to medicate her, she disappeared into a nest box and passed two paper thin shelled eggs. So she got a calcium tablet instead of the antibiotic.
This is what I suggest you also do. Give her one of these.

One each day until she's laying normally again with good quality egg shells. Hopefully, a stubborn egg is behind her lethargy.

If you suspect Marek's is causing blindness in your flock, look at their pupils and compare them with right and left. With Marek's it's usually one eye affected and the pupil is shrunken and irregular. Look at the color of the irises. The affected eye may be faded and muddy colored. If you see this, you probably have ocular Marek's in your flock.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would go get some Safeguard (Fenbendazole) to treat for the hookworm. Dose is .23ml per pound of weight given orally once a day for 5 days. This will take care of the worms.
Ivermectin will treat lice/mites, but it's not that effective against internal parasites anymore.

If you notice mites/lice still on the birds, then treat them with a permethrin based poultry dust or spray. Housing needs to be treated as well.

 

[ShiviBear]

Lice and/or mites can cause death. I'd be sure to address that immediately. I was also under the impression that ivermectin treated this but the lice/mite will need to bite them for it to work and getting these bites/feeding will cause anemia > death. Since I'm not so focused this morning, hopefully someone can clarify and/or correct

@Wyorp Rock
@Eggcessive
@rosemarythyme
@aart
@azygous

Tagging a few folks.

What are you feeding, including treats? How old is she? Have you brought in any new birds recently?

Hello HeatherKellyB, thank you for your quick response.

I am feeding Bjork (and the flock) Purina Layer Pellets, an occasional mix of scratch grain/crumbles and table scraps from time to time. The girls eat pretty healthy.

I do not know how old she is exactly as I took over the flock from my sister and she never really distinguished individual birds, some hens would die and she would just get new ones. My guess about is between 3 and 5.

We did get a new bird from a neighbor who lost all of his but one (he is very old) but we did think that they died of neglect rather then disease. I had her quarantined for almost a month..she came roughly 3 months ago. She did come down with a URI but AFTER she spent time with our birds. She's fine now.

I just went to check on Bjork and she did end up eating. Less then usual, but she did eat and her crop did seem to go down a little. I don't think it's sour crop.

I think it might either be an upper respiratory because of that strange sigh (I think they are carriers of Mycoplasma as they usually get sick when they get stressed but get better with Denaguard) or it COULD be mites. Or Marek's, can't rule that out but she is a generaly very healthy girl immune system wise.

 

[ShiviBear]

Thank you all for your responses, I do not know what I would do without all you kind and knowledgeable people on this forum. Truly....

I have to run my parents cat to the vet as he was attacked by a stray cat last night.
Seems like it's never just ONE thing going awry...

I will update with Bjork soon.

Thank you all again.

 

[rosemarythyme]

@Wyorp Rock
@Eggcessive
@rosemarythyme
@aart
@azygous

Tagging a few folks.

Unfortunately I don't have anything helpful to add, but wish OP the best and hope the issue can be resolved with the help thus far.

 

[BellasBackyardRanch]

My flock recently had something very similar and the exact same symptoms I forgot the name of it but in order to treat it you put Tylan 50 in ALL of the water that the chickens have access to, its a little expensive and you do need a vets permission but it works great. My chickens were also gargling (idk if that is also happening with your chickens) they get the sickness 2 weeks before having symptoms, i suggest you dont buy or sell any chickens for the next 3 weeks as it spreads easily. You put the medicine in their water for 5 days straight but you cant eat their eggs or cull any of your chickens for the next 2 weeks. Hope this helps, always make sure to check with your vet as I am not at our house physically looking at your chickens to see whats wrong with them.