1 Dead Hen- possible illness in flock- need dx, treatment

[OrpingtonHopeful]

So I had one yr old BO hen, Henrietta, die suddenly on Saturday. Found her in the run without a mark on her. Thought perhaps she was eggbound as I had noticed a decrease in eggs, which, until her death, I had assumed was due to the beginning of molting. Also considered eggbound as I had noticed no other symptoms. I did notice on Friday night that she had a little poop stuck to her feathers below her vent, but not much (and not occluding her vent at all) Her tush was sooo poofy and fluffy with her feathers that she has gotten soiled on occassion, but cleans herself up within a day....

One last consideration at that time is that she may have gotten into our butterfly garden while free ranging earlier in the day and gotten a hold of a tiny bit of Foxglove- don't know how much it would take to be toxic....

I have been carefully observing the others, also 3 BO almost 1 yr old gals. At first I just noticed the same- all of them have broken, rough looking feathers- and the occassional white tuft poking out, and feathers about the coop and run- Molting, right?

Today I noticed one, Lucy, is shaking her head alot, or itching at her face with her talon. No gurgling sounds. Poofing up her feathers a bit now and then.

Someone is producing large, firm poops- as big as a golf ball. No signs of worms in the feces.

They have pine shavings as bedding in the coop. Dirt in the run. We allow them out to free range occassionally, with supervision (we have a red shouldered hawk that lives in the next door neighbor's tree) They dig through our garden and compost and I have seen them get tons of earthworms.

I haven't given them ACV in their water in a long time because we switched to a galvanized waterer...

I gave them yogurt with non iron liquid baby vits and applesauce Saturday (after I discovered Henny) and Wednesday. I also gave them fresh strawberries chopped up....

They have oyster shell free choice

They eat layer pellets

Copius fresh water available

I bought Wazine, Invermectin, and Corrid....

Thought with the shaking head and hx of wading in the compost and garden for worms Lucy may have gapeworm?

My question- I have never wormed them- they are 1 yr old. Do I have time to pre-worm with Wazine to avoid a toxic dump of dead worms into their system (if they even have any) and wait two weeks to tx with the Ivermectin?

Or do I go to critical and guess gapeworm, tx just Lucy with Ivermectin now, wait 2-3 weeks and tx all with Wazine and then f/u with Ivermectin in another 2-3 wks?

I don't want to wait until something is dire, but I don't want to guess and do something that kills a hen instead of helps....Lucy is my little one's favorite hen.


I could also use help with dosing. I searched and found a lovely old post that prescribed 2 tbsp wazine in a gallon of water left for 24 hours as the only drinking water- Is that correct?

How about dosing for gapeworm with Ivermectin?

Thanks in advance!
Sarah

 

[chickenzoo]

I personally would dose them with Ivermectian just encase there are internal and external parasites. 1/2 cc for a full size chicken, under the wing in the bear area is where I give it. If you don't want to wait 30 days to eat the eggs after worming, you can try the Wazine. I typically give 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.

 

[teach1rusl]

Sorry about the loss of your fluffy butt Henrietta. You know, sometimes I think when an illness or death occurs, we start to LOOK for symptoms. The head shaking thing can happen for many reasons...and occurs from time-to-time with my girls. We all get itches sometimes, and headshakes is an initial reaction; followed by scratching with the foot when that doesn't work. As long as I don't see it happening all the time, I don't worry about too much anymore.
It does sound like molting to me, regarding your girls' feathers. But I would check for mites, just in case that could be an issue (and because it's just good to check periodically). Golf ball sized poop means nothing to me, except big poop. Sometimes it's big snack for my dog, sometimes a little snack...lol. Some people worm once or twice a year, needed or not. They just like the time schedule. I'm doing it like I do my dogs and cats, worming if I actually find worms. I look at their poop every morning as I scrape it off their dropping board into the poop bucket

Unless I see suspicious looking poop on a regular basis (everyone gets a sick stomach from time to time), I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[OrpingtonHopeful]

Thank you both for your replies. I so adore this site and appreciate all the support!

It is scary, losing one without any clue as to why- It is possible that I am just spotting trouble because I am looking for it- I am just so worried about losing all of them after spending the last year raising them. They are just such sweethearts and, until Henny died I totally thought I had this city-chicken farmer thing down

It truly has been so easy (well except that 1st week when we lost power and had to figure out how to keep these little babies warm without a heat lamp!)

Still, tonight Lucy's comb color looked a tad off (maybe a little more bleached than normal or purply) and she was in the corner of the coop looking like she was laying for a long time---few hours?--She kept poofing and growling at any other of the gals who would wander in to eat-

I went out just after dark and she was still there- She fluffed up big and growled at me- She was eating from a seated position and also getting into the oyster shell. I picked her up and her crop was good with feed and shell, i couldnt feel an egg in her gut (but truthfully I have never palpated for an egg before and so ???) Anyway I returned her to another place in the coop and she just sat down in place. Usually all the gals curl up together in the nest box (and then lay eggs anywhere else in the coop, lol) so I found it odd that she was still in the corner, separate- and when I placed her down closer to them she didnt walk to join them, just plopped down...

I'll keep an eye out to see if there are changes, but if this sounds like something to any of y'all, and there's a treatment I need to do- please let me know! (and truly thanks for the possibility that I am simply a nervous nelly!! I'd hate to waste your time, but I'd rather be diagnosed as nervous chicken friend than keeper of sick chickens! I'd even joyfully add it to my sig- Nervous first time chicken keeper! )

Oh, as a side note, The feedstore guy today said with her head shaking that it is "AI"???? and to give her Ivermectin right away or the next symptom would be shaking her head and throwing blood around?? He had also mentioned feeding his hens styrofoam to help their eggshells, so I thought I'd check on BYC for advice on worming or possible disease before I jumped on his advice....

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Ummm...I have NEVER heard of feeding chickens styrofoam. I would be in a panic if I caught mine eating anything like that. I don't know what AI is???? Maybe do a search here on the site. I know when I first read about gapeworm, I was LOOKING for those signs. I saw some of my girls doing the headshake thing, and even opening their mouths wide on occasion. I was scared to death, so went to one of DH's coworkers (who keeps chickens). He told me that often birds will do that simply when they have a full crop (maybe like us getting something stuck in our throat?). I kept watching them, and it went away. Oh, they'll still do head shakes on occasion and such, but as I said earlier, unless I see something consistantly, I'm going to try not to stress over it. The girl you lost could have died from internal laying, heart failure, almost anything. If you saw no obvious signs, you'll probably never know.
Your one girl that's staying puffed up and growling at others sounds broody to me. Is she in a bedding area that is "nest like," because typically they find a nest like area to hunker down in. Search "broody" using that feature, but it sounds like the classic signs. I have a broody right now. She even growls at me, all hunkered down in her nest, puffed up like a blow fish...but I still handle her and pet her anyway.

 

[OrpingtonHopeful]

Quote:
Ummm...I have NEVER heard of feeding chickens styrofoam. I would be in a panic if I caught mine eating anything like that. I don't know what AI is???? Maybe do a search here on the site. I know when I first read about gapeworm, I was LOOKING for those signs. I saw some of my girls doing the headshake thing, and even opening their mouths wide on occasion. I was scared to death, so went to one of DH's coworkers (who keeps chickens). He told me that often birds will do that simply when they have a full crop (maybe like us getting something stuck in our throat?). I kept watching them, and it went away. Oh, they'll still do head shakes on occasion and such, but as I said earlier, unless I see something consistantly, I'm going to try not to stress over it. The girl you lost could have died from internal laying, heart failure, almost anything. If you saw no obvious signs, you'll probably never know.
Your one girl that's staying puffed up and growling at others sounds broody to me. Is she in a bedding area that is "nest like," because typically they find a nest like area to hunker down in. Search "broody" using that feature, but it sounds like the classic signs. I have a broody right now. She even growls at me, all hunkered down in her nest, puffed up like a blow fish...but I still handle her and pet her anyway.

DH said the same thing about Lucy being broody (Also about me being paranoid. Silly thing is that HE is the one who pointed out to me that Lucy was going around shaking her head and trilling) She has NO eggs under her, silly girl.

lol about your broody- does sound like Lucy- She had been in the same corner, near the feed, since yesterday afternoon so I put her out in the yard for a few minutes today and she sat there for a while not walking. She finally did get up and walked and had the BIGGEST poop I have ever seen from a chicken- crazy big (sorry if TMI). Then she was nibbling on the grass and scratching well, but shaking her head alot- she growled at me every time I approached, lol!

She has been head shaking a lot, now that I am watching lol, for about 3 days. I am a researching madwoman but cannot bring myself to uncap this Ivermectin- don't want to kill my gal trying to fix a possible non-issue, lol.

I may worm all with Wazine just as a preventative, and then maybe Ivermectin as the follow up-I just didn't want to use Wazine, then realize she truly has gapeworm and now it'd be too much chemical load (Wazine with Ivermectin within a day or two) to dose her properly (and what is the proper dose for 1% Ivermectin, the advice is soooo varied!) and she dies of gapeworm, untreated.

Thank you again for all of your responses!