Sick hen and not sure if there's anything more to do after the vet visit

[technolaser]

Hi everyone,

I have a 10 month old Legbar hen who stopped laying about 2 weeks ago. She seemed fine and I took no notice assuming it was just because our winter has kicked in.

Last Wed I noticed that she was very lethargic and eating and drinking very little. On close examination she had a runny left eye and a little clear liquid coming out of her left nostril. I started feeding her mealworms by hand (her favorite treat) and holding a cup for her to drink. She was the same on Friday so I took her to the vet who checked her over. No real answers apart from "let's hope it's bacterial and not viral". The vet gave her a vitamin B injection, prescribed an oral antibiotic and antibiotic eye drops once a day, but there's been no improvement. She's still very lethargic and eating/drinking very, very little. Both of her eyes are now runny but it's not coming out of her nostrils. Her third eyelid on both eyes is about half closed all the time.

I'm keeping her indoors where it's warmer but is there anything else I can do apart from taking her back to the vet?

Thanks for any feedback.

Ruvane.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive Don’t bring her back to that vet. It doesn’t seem like they had any good idea of what it is this time, so it is unlikely that they will know what it is the next time. Keep her away from your other hens and have strict biosecurity so your other hens won’t catch whatever this is. Others will help you better with what this could possibly be.

 

[technolaser]

She's isolated, so that takes care of the others, but I really want to make sure there's nothing else I can try.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

On close examination she had a runny left eye and a little clear liquid coming out of her left nostril. I started feeding her mealworms by hand (her favorite treat) and holding a cup for her to drink. She was the same on Friday so I took her to the vet who checked her over. No real answers apart from "let's hope it's bacterial and not viral". The vet gave her a vitamin B injection, prescribed an oral antibiotic and antibiotic eye drops once a day, but there's been no improvement. She's still very lethargic and eating/drinking very, very little. Both of her eyes are now runny but it's not coming out of her nostrils. Her third eyelid on both eyes is about half closed all the time.

Please post photos of the hen and her eyes.

What antibiotic and dose did the vet prescribe?

General care is to flush the eyes generously with saline, remove any pus, bubbles or debris from the eye and apply your drops or an ointment like Terramycin in the eye.

There are numerous respiratory diseases that affect poultry. Mycoplasma and Infectious Coryza are the 2 more common bacterial or bacteria like infections. Infectious Bronchitis is a virus and will have to run its course.

Work on getting her hydrated, then offer her a wet mash of feed.

Have you added new birds recently?

@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive Don’t bring her back to that vet. It doesn’t seem like they had any good idea of what it is this time, so it is unlikely that they will know what it is the next time. Keep her away from your other hens and have strict biosecurity so your other hens won’t catch whatever this is. Others will help you better with what this could possibly be.

Sounds reasonable. Vets can't do testing, but can send swabs in to find out more. The OP can do the same through their state lab or independent lab testing.

IF bacterial infection, antibiotics MAY help, depending on what antibiotic was given and which bacterial or bacteria-like infection it is.
IF it's viral, then an antibiotic won't help. Antibiotics may be given if it's viral to help with secondary bacterial infection, but again, it depends on what bacteria you're trying to treat as to whether a specific antibiotic is going to help or not.

 

[technolaser]

@Wyorp Rock - Thanks very much. She's getting Ofloxacin eye drops (once per day) and from what I can make out Azythromycin syrup (transliterated into English) 0.3ml once per day.

I'll start rinsing her eyes with saline regularly. I've also started putting some vit B complex drops in her water assuming it can't do any harm. I have tried all her favorite foods and she does eat and drink, but only very small amounts. At least she's not getting worse.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

@Wyorp Rock - Thanks very much. She's getting Ofloxacin eye drops (once per day) and from what I can make out Azythromycin syrup (transliterated into English) 0.3ml once per day.

I'll start rinsing her eyes with saline regularly. I've also started putting some vit B complex drops in her water assuming it can't do any harm. I have tried all her favorite foods and she does eat and drink, but only very small amounts. At least she's not getting worse.View attachment 3711875

If she doesn't improve with the Azithromycin, then I'd try Tylosin to see if that makes a difference.

Keep on working with her and encouraging her to eat.

 

[technolaser]

She seems to have improved a tiny bit. Hopefully it's not just my wishful thinking!

I'll try to get hold of Tylosin.

The input is much appreciated.

 

[technolaser]

Just wanted to give a huge thank you to the members who provided assistance and to post an update.

I'm thrilled to report that after regaining her appetite after 10 days it still took daily, saline eye washes over 2 weeks before her eyes are almost back to normal.

The forum members rock!

 

[Sally PB]

Thank you for the update! I'm so glad to hear the good news.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hopefully she is on the mend and will continue to improve.