5th chick dying in my hands right now - help!

[muddyfeathers]

That's good info to know. Can you post a link to that study? Curious if they played with the dosage any.

 

[casportpony]

That's good info to know.  Can you post a link to that study?  Curious if they played with the dosage any. 

See post 250, the study is there. And yes, they tried different doses.

-Kathy

 

[ivan3]

That's good info to know.  Can you post a link to that study?  Curious if they played with the dosage any. 

See post 250, the study is there. And yes, they tried different doses.

-Kathy

Depends on the method of dosing. Ivermectin injectable/oral given as a liquid tends to be broken down rapidly, pill forms are somewhat more effective. Here is a study on utility of a pour-on formulation on a cohort of `backyard' (barnyard) chickens (2010) infected with Heterakis Gallinarium (as in study linked to). The entire study and much ancillary info.:

http://www.medwelljournals.com/fulltext/?doi=rjpscience.2011.41.44

 

[familypendragon]

Well, unfortunately I did everything the expert at the Texas A & M Poultry lab told me to, exactly the way he said to do it. I had no reason to assume it was bad information. Two hens died yesterday and the vet here had me bring them and 3 live ones in. One live one is the one who last year had the eye infection and rattles very bad but pulled through though she is blind in that eye. Another was a hen who had no symptoms till today when she started the rattles. The third was one of the month old hatchlings I thought was sneezing.

They kept them all for 3 hours. They determined they likely would not get trustworthy results from testing/necropsying either of the dead hens. They said they listened with a stethoscope to the breathing of the chick (Amber) and the one eyed hen (Blue Bell is her name) and heard nothing at all wrong with their lungs. They said Amber never sneezed while they were watching. The white hen (Mrs Cheeks) was sounding bad, so we decided we would sacrifice her for the good of the rest of the flock. I had to put down a $350 deposit. They will be observing her over the weekend, doing whatever tests they feel are necessary, and then performing a necropsy and sending all the prepared samples to Texas A & M themselves. They will call me once I hit the $350 mark and let me know what else they think needs to be done and how much it will be. They had me take the other two home. I gave them a 29 page printed and emailed history of everything I could think of regarding the issues. I gave them photos, links, videos etc. I hope to finally get some answers - even if they tell me its hopeless at least then I'd know. I don't know how much more I can justify spending given our situation, so I am just going to hope that will be enough to find out what is going on.

 

[lovingmyhens]

I'll be praying cause this is crazy! How's your neck?

 

[familypendragon]

I'll be praying cause this is crazy! How's your neck?

Thanks, the CT scan showed no cysts, just swollen glands and tonsils. But they were considered "within normal range". So I can only assume that with the size of the lump it must be a whole bunch of them that are just minimally swollen so that they combine to make what looks like one large lump. I go back next week for a follow up to see if he wants to do a needle biopsy or anything.

 

[lovingmyhens]

Mucho prayers girl!

 

[casportpony]

If I were you I would de-worm the whole flock with Safeguard or Valbazen *orally*, *not* in the water. Until you do you can't say that your flock is parasite free. Parasites could very well be a part of the problem.

If any more get sick, try giving them antibiotics orally or by injection, *NOT* in the water.

-Kathy

 

[GaChick34]

It sounds like your everything you possibly can. It's so hard to believe that no solid info has been able to be made, yet. I can't imagine how frustrating this must be.

 

[familypendragon]

I treated them all with Valbazen tonight. What about mites? I see them looking itchy now - although that could also be chiggers since we have them bad right now due to all the rain. 3 more have died since I sent the one in for necropsy. Always in threes - its so weird... So far I've only gotten a preliminary report back from the vet, who got it from TxA&M. The vet wants to wait till the final results are in. Everyone in his office has been out with a stomach flu so its been really slow going. I am going to link the preliminary findings if I can figure out how to do it, because frankly I am not sure what it means. I fear that what I am reading is that they DID NOT test for Aspergillosis AGAIN even though that is one of my chief concerns. AND it looks like again they are saying that just based on circumstances they are going to AGAIN label it "likely mycoplasma" with no test results to support the finding and AGAIN treat for that even though it has been completely ineffective using 2 rounds of Tylan, 2 rounds of Speclinx (SP?), and 2 rounds of Denagard. I never saw ANY improvement from any of them. They are recommending 2 weeks of Doxycycline powder in their water. I sent a message back to the vet (who I so far have never actually met or talked to myself) that I really want a test done for both so that I can see some results to justify re-medicating them. If it IS aspergillosis then treating for mycoplasma can actually make it worse from everything I am reading. And they also put that they couldn't rule out things like Bronchitis, Newcastle Disease or Mareks. Why not? Can't they test the blood for those as well?

Here are the preliminary findings in case any one more knowledgeable can help me translate them

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-hekgXwOEsbcThodGpnXzJmV1I2MlItcFQ3cWR3M2QtRVd3/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks so much

ETA: I still have the Ivermectin Pour On and found these instructions https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/wormy-tidbits-of-information so I guess I should try that for possible mites. I am a little worried about giving too high a toxic load to chickens already weakened so I will wait a day or two before doing it. And then I will do the Valbazen again in 10 days as recommended.

~Melissa