- May 17, 2014
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Hey everyone- stick with me this is long but I'm trying to be as descriptive as possible. I noticed about a month ago that our 1 year old Ameraucana hen Snuggles was looking a little thinner than usual and that she had stopped laying. I didn't think much of it because some of the other girls had stopped laying too and started molting and I figured she was getting ready to molt too. Other than that everything was as normal, she went out foraging with her friends and came running for treats, and roosted at night with them. She would have stopped laying right around the time they all were wormed with fenbendazole (the first time- they were re-wormed again in 14 days because I noticed roundworms on the poop board).
Anyway, on Tuesday evening I was checking everyone over for mites - no sign of any thankfully- and I noticed that Snuggles is really thin under all her feathers and her keel bone is really sticking out. So I sat down with her laying across my lap and started to inspect her all over to see if I could find any visible problems and I discovered after very close inspection and parting all of her feathers and combing through them that along her left side just under her wing she had about six fleshy bumps pea size and smaller, and about three on her right side in the same area. More towards her tail than her "armpit". Her preen gland also appeared to be impacted. The lumps were flesh colored, and they seemed to be slightly tender to the touch. There were any feathers growing out of the lumps, maybe one or two had a feather near the side of the lump. I also noticed her feathers seemed brittle and some of them were falling out. I wish I had taken pictures of the lumps but I didn't.
I brought her in the house and lanced the lumps and they looked like fatty tumors with a clear to white-ish liquid pus mixed in. I could easily pull the fatty clump out and some of the liquid would come out with it. Left behind after the lumps were removed was just a flat area with a little round hole where it was lanced. I then gave her a bath with an antiseptic shampoo I had gotten from the vet, blow dried her, put ointment on all the lanced areas, gave her a shot of penicillin, and put her in my enclosed garage where she heartily ate.
She's been in the garage since Tuesday night and she hasn't gotten any better. I've monitored her weight and she hasn't gained or lost. Her lanced areas are scabbed and look good and she hasn't developed any other new lumps (I've been inspecting her all over daily). Her eyes appear bright and she is still eating but she seems to have lost a little bit of interest in eating, shes not as enthusiastic as before. She gets water with nutri-drench in it and last night she acted like she just realized the water dish was there and drank nearly an entire cup of water in an hour. Shes pooping plenty too, there looks to be a lot of feather dust (the shiny feather cuticle stuff) in her poop and she poos a lot of liquid with the solid every time she goes. Since staying in the house she has been getting a mix of layer pellets and grower finisher crumble, some rolled oats, a tiny bit of scratch, lots of meal worms, some wet cat food once a day, defrosted peas, last night she had a raw egg yolk and some apple pumpkin baby food on top of her crumble.
Maybe she is getting depressed being segregated from her flock? I was just worried about what would have caused the lumps and her weight loss (first thought- Mareks- she is one of the few that wasn't vaccinated but most of my flock has been. She hasn't shown any other symptoms and the lumps didn't really look like the pictures online. No one else is sick or has these strange lumps). Her skin color is good and her feathers aren't falling out like they were, she just seems a bit depressed now and isn't gaining any weight. I have a decent sized cage I can put in my coop so she can be with her friends but be kept safe while she gets her strength and weight back. Oh and I should mention that last night I decided to give her the penicillin shot in her leg muscle instead of her breast muscle because her skinny little breast muscles have been getting the shots and they looked a little bruised and I thought I'd give them a break, I've given a thousand shots so this shot was no problem. But after the shot now she won't walk on that leg
I'm hoping it's just sore and that will pass.
What is everyone's thoughts and opinions on this? Snuggles is my step-daughters favorite chicken- she hatched her and raised her. When she found out her favorite chicken was sick she demanded I get some medicine and make her better NOW so I really don't want to lose Snuggles since she's only a year old. What else can I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Anyway, on Tuesday evening I was checking everyone over for mites - no sign of any thankfully- and I noticed that Snuggles is really thin under all her feathers and her keel bone is really sticking out. So I sat down with her laying across my lap and started to inspect her all over to see if I could find any visible problems and I discovered after very close inspection and parting all of her feathers and combing through them that along her left side just under her wing she had about six fleshy bumps pea size and smaller, and about three on her right side in the same area. More towards her tail than her "armpit". Her preen gland also appeared to be impacted. The lumps were flesh colored, and they seemed to be slightly tender to the touch. There were any feathers growing out of the lumps, maybe one or two had a feather near the side of the lump. I also noticed her feathers seemed brittle and some of them were falling out. I wish I had taken pictures of the lumps but I didn't.
I brought her in the house and lanced the lumps and they looked like fatty tumors with a clear to white-ish liquid pus mixed in. I could easily pull the fatty clump out and some of the liquid would come out with it. Left behind after the lumps were removed was just a flat area with a little round hole where it was lanced. I then gave her a bath with an antiseptic shampoo I had gotten from the vet, blow dried her, put ointment on all the lanced areas, gave her a shot of penicillin, and put her in my enclosed garage where she heartily ate.
She's been in the garage since Tuesday night and she hasn't gotten any better. I've monitored her weight and she hasn't gained or lost. Her lanced areas are scabbed and look good and she hasn't developed any other new lumps (I've been inspecting her all over daily). Her eyes appear bright and she is still eating but she seems to have lost a little bit of interest in eating, shes not as enthusiastic as before. She gets water with nutri-drench in it and last night she acted like she just realized the water dish was there and drank nearly an entire cup of water in an hour. Shes pooping plenty too, there looks to be a lot of feather dust (the shiny feather cuticle stuff) in her poop and she poos a lot of liquid with the solid every time she goes. Since staying in the house she has been getting a mix of layer pellets and grower finisher crumble, some rolled oats, a tiny bit of scratch, lots of meal worms, some wet cat food once a day, defrosted peas, last night she had a raw egg yolk and some apple pumpkin baby food on top of her crumble.
Maybe she is getting depressed being segregated from her flock? I was just worried about what would have caused the lumps and her weight loss (first thought- Mareks- she is one of the few that wasn't vaccinated but most of my flock has been. She hasn't shown any other symptoms and the lumps didn't really look like the pictures online. No one else is sick or has these strange lumps). Her skin color is good and her feathers aren't falling out like they were, she just seems a bit depressed now and isn't gaining any weight. I have a decent sized cage I can put in my coop so she can be with her friends but be kept safe while she gets her strength and weight back. Oh and I should mention that last night I decided to give her the penicillin shot in her leg muscle instead of her breast muscle because her skinny little breast muscles have been getting the shots and they looked a little bruised and I thought I'd give them a break, I've given a thousand shots so this shot was no problem. But after the shot now she won't walk on that leg
I'm hoping it's just sore and that will pass.What is everyone's thoughts and opinions on this? Snuggles is my step-daughters favorite chicken- she hatched her and raised her. When she found out her favorite chicken was sick she demanded I get some medicine and make her better NOW so I really don't want to lose Snuggles since she's only a year old. What else can I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
but I can confirm that she did not have Mareks. She had developed gurgly breathing off and on and after another bath and blow dry I noticed that her lower abdomen appeared slightly distended and a little tender to the touch. While enjoying an afternoon treat she started having a lot of trouble breathing, as if she had fluid in her lungs and passed away just a few minutes later. I decided to open her up to make sure she had no internal lesions, to investigate the stomach bloating and to basically see if there was anything else I could have done or anything I had done wrong. When I opened her stomach cavity a gooey egg yolk pus like mixture ran out accompanied by a somewhat foul smell. All of her internal organs looked good, no lesions or tumors, all good color. Poor Snuggles was just a year old and died of egg yolk peritonitis.
