11 week old FOAMING at the mouth

[fowlweatherfriends]

QUick rundown:
I have 15 11 week old pullets
Everyone is healthy and fine
Freeranged during day
Cooped at night

Let them out this am, offered them a pasta treat at about 11:30 am and all chicks came running except one.
Kids just found her a few minutes ago sitting under our mobile home. She was easy to catch-offered no resistance.

She is a bit lethargic and is panting, mouth open a bit, and had a "slime" looking or stringy saliva patch around her head and neck. My first suspition was a snake tried to eat her. I heard they leave slime. If a snake did try and eat her, do they abort the eating if the prey is too large?

She is foaming at the mouth somewhat-it has been twice in 20 minutes. And the foam comes out in a bit of a drip-glob and we wipe it and it stops.

Could she perhaps have gotten poisoned?

I found out that some soapy bleach water was dumped out back and there is a small puddle. But all the other birds have not messed with it, and no one else is showing any bad signs. The soapy water is diluted fairly well.

I don't know what to do with her or what to offer. I don't know if this is a snake attack or an internal thing. I could REALLY use some help as to best ways to treat her!
Thanks!

PS: She has now kinda thrown up a yellowish saliva and it looks like a tiny green plant stem came up with it. She is breathing open mouthed and her tongue is up towards the roof of her mouth. Will milk help? Ipicac (sp? syrup for poisoning?

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Anyone? Today is the first day they have actually made it to a grassy area to graze. Most of our yard is heavily shaded and no grass grows. The front section is where I saw them ranging this morning-in the grass patch. There is a type of three leaf clover with small yellow flowers in the grassy patch.

I found out the water that was dumped did not have bleach-it was only soapy water the kids dumped out-so no bleach poisoning.

She has thrown up more. I have her in isolation in a cat cage with fresh water offered.

 

[hencackle]

Is this what the plant you saw? http://main.nc.us/naturenotebook/plants/sourgrass.html

My chickens eat it sometimes and I haven't seen any adverse effects. I'm glad there wasn't any bleach in the puddle because you should NOT induce vomiting.

I'm not really sure, but you might need to do a molasses flush. The ratio is 1 pint of molasses to 5 gallons water, given no longer than 8 hours.
You can use an epsom salt solution flush, but it tastes horrible and you have to squirt this down the throat. The ratio is 1 teaspoon Epsom salt in 1/2 cup of water. Administer it twice daily for 2 or 3 days.

Maybe somebody else has a suggestion.
Stephanie

 

[SpottedCrow]

She still might've gotten into the soapy water...
I would sincerely doubt it was a snake unless it was a very LARGE snake because she wouldn't be alive to tell you about it...Even non venomous snakes kill their prey before they eat it...by constricting them in their coiled bodies.
It really sounds more to me like she poisoned herself. Have you put down any fertilizer, or insecticide recently?
I'd try the molasses flush before the epsom salt one, but that's just me.
good luck with her.

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Whew! What a day!
Well, the jury is still out on what actually happened to her (we affectionately call her Black Bottom-she's brown at the head and neck and turns to a black butt).

She threw up what looked like bile just a couple more times. I gave her a small amount of milk before I had to run an errand. I was hoping the milk would dilute any toxins, and help settle her stomach. And I had filled her waterer with vitamin/electrolyte water.

She is up and chirping to me, can walk fine, eyes look clear and normal, and she has taken in some of the water I left for her. I am keeping her in isolation until I feel comfortable with her mixing witht he other girls.

This afternoon I asked a local old timer (familiar to poultry) what the problem could be. His first reaction was snake. He said the juvenile black snakes sometimes will grab and attempt to eat their meal, and in the process inject a bit of toxin whith their fangs. He said if a non-venemous snake were to bite humans it wouldn't be fatal, but could cause us to be ill. You know, I just am not sure-and I DON"T want to believe it was a snake, but I am leaning more towards it. My land is heavily wooded, and I have about 50 acres beside me of heavily wooded forest. Since I purchased this place we have seen snake after snake. And yes, cottonmouths as well as king snakes, black racers, and more.

I can't help but think that the slime pattern on her head and extending right to where her body widens out, could only be a snake. I did try to wipe the slime off, and it was just that-slimy. I kept wiping at it and it seemed to smear to different areas but not completely go away. The foam and throw up weren't slimy and were easily cleaned up with water.

She appears to be fairly normal, and if you didn't know there was a problem earlier, the only sign now would be a bit of dried saliva on her beak. I need to get more emergency info on how to handle poisoning treatments. I have mineral oil, peroxide, guaze, bandages, triple antibiotic lotion, apple cider vinegar, teramyacin, v&e. But I had no clue what to do in case of accidental poison ingestion or predetor bite. Can poisonous spiders harm chickens also?

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

And yes, hencackle, the clover does look like that! My kids went out to try and match the stem that she had thrown up. They brought me about 25 different kinds of weeds! I can see I am also going to have to learn to identify what it growing wild around here.
I never use pesticides, but I did notice the neighbors across the way had a bit on an ant hill-but my chickens don't range that far away due to the dog they have, and they are still a bit skittish about leaving the home area.

 

[ZuniBee]

First, I am very new to chickens. I raised ostrich from eggs to sale and after reading your post it sounded exactly what used to happen to our baby ostrich when they ate ants. I don't know if you have fire ants or ants that bite but when our chicks tried to eat the ant and they bit them they would have that reaction. They almost always died until we gave them benadryl. We would give them benadryl with an eye dropper and within a few hours they were perfectly normal.

 

[hencackle]

Fowlweatherfriends, don't worry about the sourgrass, you don't need to get rid of it. When I was a kid, I used to eat it

There haven't been any pesticides sprayed in my yard since DH & I bought this house 19 years ago.

Yes, snakes can regurgitate, although I haven't seen it happen.

You asked about poisonous spiders--my chickens eat black widow spiders. Every summer I find some black widows and I toss them to the chickens.

I know that powdered charcoal absorbs poisons although I wouldn't know how much to give a chicken. You can find this at a health food store or a drug store.

How is the chick now?
Stephanie

 

[dlhunicorn]

here are several sources for looking up info on plant toxicity:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=toxicologydisease&action=display&num=1165263379

and here on emergency situations (look at the articles in the thread on vomiting on page two):
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=emergencies

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Thank you unicorn for the links-they may come in very handy in the future.

Black Bottom girl was begging to go out with the girls today. No signs of vomiting, no signs of any lasting issues. Her having eaten an ant was a possibility that I considered after it was mentioned. We have some pretty fierce red ants and some huge cow ants. The only thing I can't associate with having eaten a toxin is the slime she had all around her head and neck. I will probably never know for sure what happened, but I am going to go with the assumption it was a juvenile snake due to the slime. Even when she was foaming, and then vomiting, none of that reached the top of her head or back of her neck like the clear slime did.

I have read several methods for trying to keep snakes away. But the feedstore guys seem to think that nothing really will work in my area to keep all breeds away. I used moth balls last summer/fall around the perimiter of my home. But this year I figured the chickens would eat them so I am not putting them down.