Pullet suffering from clostridium perfringens...

[ChickenGurl15]

Last night, our australorp pullet "Roxy" was acting slightly lethargic, today I went to let her and the other chickens out, and she sat there for a minute, then slowly walked outside. About 3 hours ago, I went outside to get the birds inside for the night, and there she was, not moving at all. She is a feisty one and usually runs away from you, and does not particularly like to be held...but she did not run from me, and never fussed when I picked her up... so I ran inside with her, telling mom "this bird is dying". So, we got our emergency chicken cage out, set it up in the house, and placed her inside. She has been laying down the whole time, and hasn't stood up. She was drinking tons of water when we first put her in the cage. but now she isn't drinking a thing. She wont eat, either. She keeps getting really hot, or really cold. so we have a heat pad or cold water just in case. We made her homemade electrolytes that we found on the internet (which she has drank quite a bit of). I went to check on her, and I can hear her intestines making loud noises. She is very responsive to sound and touch, and is able to move her head and blink. And the poor soul "bock bock"s at me when I'm not petting her or when i walk away. When she pooped about 2 hours ago, it was white liquid with green chunks in it (yep, I almost barfed) I looked up her symptoms, and feces type on the internet, and found all the symptoms and poo matched "clostridium perfringens".
I'm not sure what to do at this point, I don't want her to die... please help

This is not Roxy's poop, but I found this picture of poo from a chicken suffering from CP...it looks EXACTLY identical to what she passed earlier.

 

[Granny368W]

Last night, our australorp pullet "Roxy" was acting slightly lethargic, today I went to let her and the other chickens out, and she sat there for a minute, then slowly walked outside. About 3 hours ago, I went outside to get the birds inside for the night, and there she was, not moving at all. She is a feisty one and usually runs away from you, and does not particularly like to be held...but she did not run from me, and never fussed when I picked her up... so I ran inside with her, telling mom "this bird is dying". So, we got our emergency chicken cage out, set it up in the house, and placed her inside. She has been laying down the whole time, and hasn't stood up. She was drinking tons of water when we first put her in the cage. but now she isn't drinking a thing. She wont eat, either. She keeps getting really hot, or really cold. so we have a heat pad or cold water just in case. We made her homemade electrolytes that we found on the internet (which she has drank quite a bit of). I went to check on her, and I can hear her intestines making loud noises. She is very responsive to sound and touch, and is able to move her head and blink. And the poor soul "bock bock"s at me when I'm not petting her or when i walk away. When she pooped about 2 hours ago, it was white liquid with green chunks in it (yep, I almost barfed) I looked up her symptoms, and feces type on the internet, and found all the symptoms and poo matched "clostridium perfringens". I'm not sure what to do at this point, I don't want her to die... please help

This is not Roxy's poop, but I found this picture of poo from a chicken suffering from CP...it looks EXACTLY identical to what she passed earlier.

What do they say to do for this problem? I have Australorps so I'm interested... Rae

 

[ChickenGurl15]

What do they say to do for this problem? I have Australorps so I'm interested... Rae

I looked on this one sight, and found that this person said that she had her sick chicken on a 10 day course of antibiotics because it had CP, she only had amoxicillin, so she used it, and said her bird got better, but unfortunately that is all I know ):

 

[Granny368W]

I looked on this one sight, and found that this person said that she had her sick chicken on a 10 day course of antibiotics because it had CP, she only had amoxicillin, so she used it, and said her bird got better, but unfortunately that is all I know ):

So sorry, I hope someone from here will tell you what to do.... this site has some very good people to give you advice...

 

[Blooie]

I'm sorry that I can't help you, either, but might I suggest also posting this in the chicken diseases and emergencies section?

Here is the link for you: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures

You may well get more answers there! Good luck to you and Roxy!

 

[ChickenGurl15]

I'm sorry that I can't help you, either, but might I suggest also posting this in the chicken diseases and emergencies section?

Here is the link for you: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures

You may well get more answers there! Good luck to you and Roxy!

Thank you!! But I am not sure how to post my thread to the diseases and emergencies section unfortunately... any tips?

 

[Blooie]

Sure. You can just click on the link I gave you. At the top, above the posts, you'll see a box that says "Start new thread." Click that, just like you did to post here, and describe what's going on just as well as you did here or copy your post and paste it in the message box. But be sure to say that you copied and pasted your post from another forum since sometimes duplicate postings in multiple places is frowned upon! I don't think this would fall into that catagory, but I usually make sure to specify that in any posts I copy and paste as a courtesy.

 

[ChickenGurl15]

Sure. You can just click on the link I gave you. At the top, above the posts, you'll see a box that says "Start new thread." Click that, just like you did to post here, and describe what's going on just as well as you did here or copy your post and paste it in the message box. But be sure to say that you copied and pasted your post from another forum since sometimes duplicate postings in multiple places is frowned upon! I don't think this would fall into that catagory, but I usually make sure to specify that in any posts I copy and paste as a courtesy.

Thank you!

 

[ChickenGurl15]

Roxy sadly did not make it through the night...I woke up, and she was not breathing and she was stiff. One note I took, is when I went to clear her rump from any poo remnants, (I know, gross, had to be done) I sort of held her upside down, and all the water she drank poured out of her mouth and nostrils. Then her intestines made even louder noises. so I put her back in her cage. Does anyone know why she did this?! How can I protect the rest of the flock from getting the same thing?

 

[Tati]

@ ChickenGurl15: In 1997, my mother died from cancer AND clostridia infection, which she had contracted as a hospital infection when undergoing cancer surgery. Since we had only 1 bathroom in our apartment, we had rented an extra apartment for my mother nearby, where we (together with a caregiving service) took care for my mother for about 2 months, until her death. Because we knew that clostridia infection is highly contagious, we called the health department and asked what kind of precautions we should take in order to avoid infection. We were told that no disinfectant really did the job, the only way was washing hands, bedding, and clothing with soap/detergent (in order to loosen the pathogens from the oily surface) and then rinse them off with LOTS OF WATER. It is the RINSING that does the job.

I don't know how this can be translated to chickens. I would replace in their surroundings whatever can be replaced and rinse whatever can be rinsed (treating oily surfaces, such as food dishes, with soap/detergent before rinsing.) You might also want to spray surfaces with hydrogen peroxide, but it probably won't do much. If you choose to use hydrogen peroxide, keep in mind that its acid will burn human as well as animal skin as long as the hydrogen peroxide is wet. Chlorox is probably more effective (yet still not sufficient to kill clostridia), but when it gets together with organic matter (like dust), it forms cancer-causing toxins.

Good luck!

P.S. Should any other of your chickens get sick, make sure you isolate it asap.