necropsy revealed that Beatrix had cancer - ovarian.
We are medicating remaining hen for the clostridium spores then going to get 2 more chickens after her 2 weeks on the medicine. All 3 hens will be going to a new home in a month or so.
thanks for all the help!
--janis
Sadly, Beatrix died during the night.
I gave her a bath yesterday, and she seemed perky enough. While inside, she devoured the yogurt I gave her and pecked at the chicken feed. She seemed in good spirits.
Her comb had started to look dry and less bright on Friday - so my layman's opinion is...
the med is metronidazole ... the vet ended up being able to do a once daily dosage, and it was fairly easy to give it.
They didn't enjoy me holding their beaks open, but they did ok
I put her in the coop, and the first thing she did was eat ... always a good sign in my book.
thanks again
Well - an update. My vet is a specialist, and she always has interns at the clinic, who do random things in the spirit of extended education. Anyway, they did a fecal on Beatrix and found: sporulated rods. They are a cause of clostridium - which is an intestinal disease related to (not...
thanks. the irony is that over the summer, we decided we need to sell our house and move. One of the hardest parts of that decision has been knowing that I had to re-home my chickens. We found a new home for them, and I've been stalling because I love my girls. But now that there will be...
vet thinks it is neurologic - possibly an abdominal mass/cancer? (she is thin, so the mass could be normal intestines) the fact that she has gone so long without laying gives credence to disease theory.
sadly, she is worse today. we have elected to do no further testing or treatment...
Vet called. She is stumped, but she does have experience with backyard chickens, so I'm taking her tomorrow.
sigh.
thanks for all the advice y'all!
--janis
I went to feed store today - got a vitamin/electrolyte supplement. She is sipping it very very slowly. The feed store guy is perplexed, too. He did say that 2-3 years is the max laying potential for a lot of hens, which is disappointing to me, but I have to be realistic: she hasn't laid an...
I didn't bathe her today. My husband got a children's vitamin that has some iron in it ... anyone know if that's an issue? I don't intend to go out again tonight, and I won't give anything to her til tomorrow, since she's in her coop already for the night. She is just in the hay, not on the...
well, he ended up getting a children's vitamin that has some iron in it ... anyone know if that's an issue? I don't intend to go out again tonight, and I won't give anything to her til tomorrow, since she's in her coop already for the night. She is just in the hay, not on the perch.
Is there anything we could find at grocery store for an undiagnosed but generally-something-is-wrong-with-her hen? We can not figure out what's wrong, but she seems lame but has an appetite. She is 2.5 years old.
See post below "2 year old barred rock limping" - for more details.
Same today. She seems a little more alert, if anything, but she's still slow and just sitting mostly.
She seems spooked by me now - she runs when I come near. That *did* start before the bath, but she really doesn't want me near her now, hah.
I gave them leftover fruit/yogurt home made...
no poison. not even ant or weed control. no mold in the feed.
She did look like she was walking better this evening, but she still seemed VERY sedentary and cautious. Maybe it was some type of sprain. When I bathed her, I felt her legs and feet, and they seemed "ok" - but I don't have a...
Newcastle just doesn't seem logical. There has been no gasping or wheezing. Poop seems normal - definitely not green. (except her wet feathers did seem to have something yellowish dried in them ...)
She was outside of her coop short time ago and tried to walk to me. Seemed marginally...
No worse, no better.
I just gave her a bowl of yogurt, an ear of corn, and her own small bowl of water. She ate/drank it all. Not voraciously, but she does seem alert and has an appetite.
Last night, we had her out in the kitchen on a towel. Gave her water. She got her bearings, then...
I checked her legs while I was blowing dry her feathers. Everything seems just fine. She would curl her toes and seemed to not want to straighten them out, but i think that may have been more nervousness since she didn't have secure footing while on my lap.
I looked and looked at both hens...
Her appetite seemed pretty normal today. She was out scratching the dirt like the other hen. We had been feeding them an organic feed, but before christmas, the feed store was out of it, so we go the regular MG layer feed. Any chance the feed is to blame?
She is still inside. I am afraid to...
Does anyone have actual experience using this on birds? We're having a mystery-illness situation right now, and for good measure, we treated their coop for mites, even though we don't actually see evidence of them (or I don't know what I'm looking for).
One of our hens is limping severely, but...
She did really well in the bath. I sat with her in my lap while blow drying for about 20 minutes. She was very content. In the bath, she drank the water I was able to get most of the dried poop off her feathers, and her skin doesn't look inflamed at all. I don't see any evidence of mites...