9 year old hen with pale comb, almost no tail feathers, now moving slow and less interested in food/treats

[Wyorp Rock]

Oh my, Goldie was not happy about those meds was she!
At least she has the energy to show her dissatisfaction.

Thanks for the poop photos. Yes...I'm always asking for them. First photo there's a lot of fibrous material, hopefully she'll get that out of the system and her crop will start to function a bit better.
Second photo. I isolated a spot of that below. Is that worm, shadow, flash, piece of straw...hard to tell.

Putting herself on the high roost is promising, as is eating and drinking some. I think you are treating the crop issue very well, I like to give coconut oil too in addition to the Miconazole.
Sounds like she's improving slightly or at least holding her own, that's what we hope for.

And yes! Her BFF must be included too - what's her name?

 

[BDutch]

9 pm update: She had put herself on the highest roost with the new kids. I put her on lower roost,

Please stop interfering. If you put your older hen at a lower roost, it means you don’t allow her to be high in the pecking order.
Your chicken know better than you, what needs to be done.

 

[FrostRanger]

If you freeze drops of the miconzole you can just drop them straight into her beak. Likewise if you have to give any kind of pill, just open her beak and drop it in. Works best if the hen has wattles you can pull on to make her open her beak but it still works if you can just otherwise open her beak (6 of my 7 birds don't have wattles)

 

[My1stChickens]

Thurs Sept 11. Left her loose to roost last night but no food out. She was up and mingling. She was interested in eating! I put some feed out and she (and the others) went right to it. I grabbed her and put her in the cage for feed topped with scrambled egg (about 10-12 bites) and 3 good bites of coconut oil ,and 1/2 grape. She ate all the goodies, and was eating feed. I gave her the miconizole, her mouth was not all red like last night, looked good inside and out. Butt not as messy, and a good amount of dark green poop under her spot on the roost. Poop had some solid parts-- actually about 1/2" tall rather than flat. She ate some more, and was the first one to the run. I came in to upload pictures and give the update.

Then saw @Wyorp Rock note about maybe a worm? And when I looked at this morning'spoop pictures (larger than life and with my glasses on since I was at my desk) I think I see a worm. I went back out try and poked at that corner of the pile and the thing I was poking with broke and the poop fell on the ground. But I do have the picture. and I do think I see a worm- lower right corner. I need guidance on this. (I only suspected worms one time before and I wormed with Wazine and the hen died.) I have Panacur (fenbendazole past wormer for horses. In horses it's super safe even if you overdose, but I don't know about chickens. And I don't even know what kind of worm that might be but it looks like the same kind as the one from yesterday's picture. I would greatly appreciate some guidance. What kind of worm is it? what do I use? do I have to worm everyone? (Yikes. Those little are WILD.)

So I'm very happy that she's eating but worried she has worms and need a safe and manageable way to resolve this. I have panacur paste (100mg/g) and SafeGuard 10% suspension for goats (100 mg/ml). It looks like you give both orally, or can the liquid goat stuff be put with water? If this is a roundworm, do I do a single dose, followed by a second dose in 10 days? Or do I dose for 5 consecutive days?

It looks like either form is .25 ml/# of bird, and I don't even know what they weigh. Old ladies maybe 5#, 19 week pullets maybe 3.5? Is the dosing approximate or do I need to attempt to weigh each one? Maybe just the old girls and one of the pullets can represent their sisters, because only one of them is docile.

I will await @Wyorp Rock's assistance telling me what kind of worm this is, how much error rate is ok on dosage, and whether I do a dose tonight another in 10 days, or the 5 consecutive days.


@Eggcessive, tagging you just in case Wyorp Rock does not see this tonight.

 

[My1stChickens]

If you freeze drops of the miconzole you can just drop them straight into her beak. Likewise if you have to give any kind of pill, just open her beak and drop it in. Works best if the hen has wattles you can pull on to make her open her beak but it still works if you can just otherwise open her beak (6 of my 7 birds don't have wattles)

Thank you FrostRanger. She's not bad to take the meds once I get her secured and mouth open. She does not have waddles, but I can pry her mouth open and hold with the fingers on the arm cradling the bird then I either squeeze it straight from the tube, or I apply the dose to a finger on the other hand and sort of use the side of her beak to scrape it off my finger into her mouth.
I never imagined you could give a pill that way! I figured they would spit it right back out or worse it would go down the wrong pipe. Do they just swallow it whole?

 

[FrostRanger]

Thank you FrostRanger. She's not bad to take the meds once I get her secured and mouth open. She does not have waddles, but I can pry her mouth open and hold with the fingers on the arm cradling the bird then I either squeeze it straight from the tube, or I apply the dose to a finger on the other hand and sort of use the side of her beak to scrape it off my finger into her mouth.
I never imagined you could give a pill that way! I figured they would spit it right back out or worse it would go down the wrong pipe. Do they just swallow it whole?

Yep, they just swallow it. I had to give one of my girls Lavender calcium for a few days when she was laying soft shelled eggs and I just held her and opened her beak with one hand and plopped the pill straight in with the other hand. Very easy

Now my neighbor's dog kiko on the other hand.... That dog is nigh impossible to pill. Even with 2 people and me literally sticking my hand in his mouth he will not swallow a pill (and no, high value food doesn't work, we tried). Thankfully he's not on any medication now 'cause I would be stuck (neighbor had a stroke a few months ago and I am feeding her dogs while she recovers). Thankfully my late dog Ranger was trivial to pill, wrap in cheese and toss. He actually did have to take medication daily for allergies for a while (he thankfully grew out of it after a while)

Oh and for context all the dogs in question are large pit bulls. Ranger was nice but her dogs (she has 4) while nice to me, I would be hesitant to trust around others (very poor socialization and 2 are dog aggressive)

 

[My1stChickens]

Please stop interfering. If you put your older hen at a lower roost, it means you don’t allow her to be high in the pecking order.
Your chicken know better than you, what needs to be done.

Hi BDutch. She was too high for me to administer meds. I returned her to the high roost. Normally the two older girls roost together, and the 3 littles roost together-- but separate roosts. For whatever reason they ALL went to the highest one, which the older girls don't typically use.
No issue with pecking order. There's just give of them and they are quite nice to each other.

 

[My1stChickens]

Thursday Sept 11 PM update. Hot afternoon so at snack time, I brought watermelon- she ate 3 cubes. Still upright, moving slow but not as pitiful.
Tonight after dusk, I tried to weigh them all. Bathroom scale was registering nothing on the (flat) floor of the barn, so I had to go to the horse barn for a concrete aisle. Then one at a time caught the girls, walked them from coop through hay barn across yard to horse barn to weigh them. Got my weight first for the baseline then recorded my weight with each hen. At the end did my weight again and either the scale is not accurate or I lost almost a pound doing this chore. Once I verified the math, the weights I got were lighter than expected. I'm not sure I trust them to be accurate. My bathroom scale is one that does not really work as designed unless you get on it barefoot- because it measures lots of things. I have wracked my brain and the best I can come up with is to burrito wrap each hen, put her in a big Ikea bag and use the digital luggage scale. Then subtract weight of the bag and the wrapping. I have a digital scale, and could put a bin on it but a wiggling hen would not be workable.

The weights I got were 3.6# and 3.8# for Goldie and her BFF. The pullets ranged from 2.6# to 3.4#. I would have estimated the older girls at 5# and the littles at 4#. I did notice most had sharp breastbones. And they did not eat great today. It was hot.

Anyway, Goldie still has a "ball" rather than a smooth crop, but it's lower and firmer. I massaged/palpated it a bit, and did not find any really hard areas. And it's definitely lower, whereas the squishy crop was much higher, right under her neck.

Gave miconizole and coconut oil. She's starting to hate me.

Been reading so many posts-- and after I was so proud to have found Safeguard for goats, found some that said don't use it if they are molting. I'm willing to deal with funky tail feathers if I can get her healthy. I checked on albendazole, and it's out of stock or on manufacturers backorder everywhere I could think to look.

I know I need to worm them all tomorrow.... just need to know with what, for how long.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have Panacur (fenbendazole past wormer for horses. In horses it's super safe even if you overdose, but I don't know about chickens.

I have panacur paste (100mg/g) and SafeGuard 10% suspension for goats (100 mg/ml). It looks like you give both orally, or can the liquid goat stuff be put with water? If this is a roundworm, do I do a single dose, followed by a second dose in 10 days? Or do I dose for 5 consecutive days?

It looks like either form is .25 ml/# of bird, and I don't even know what they weigh. Old ladies maybe 5#, 19 week pullets maybe 3.5? Is the dosing approximate or do I need to attempt to weigh each one?

The weights I got were 3.6# and 3.8# for Goldie and her BFF. The pullets ranged from 2.6# to 3.4#. I would have estimated the older girls at 5# and the littles at 4#. I did notice most had sharp breastbones. And they did not eat great today. It was hot.

I'm willing to deal with funky tail feathers if I can get her healthy.

To me, it's looks like a Roundworm, hopefully @Eggcessive or @dawg53 can take a look at the photo to give their thoughts.


Panacur horse paste (10%) or Safeguard Liquid goat dewormer (10%) can be used. Both are Fenbendazole, just a different brand and form (paste vs. liquid). Dosing is the same for both too.

You are correct that the dose is 0.25ml per pound of weight given orally.

Give once, then repeat in 10 days to treat Roundworms Only.

Give 5 days in a row to treat most all worms that poultry can have except for Tapeworms.

Neither formula mixes well with water, so you are better off giving either the paste or the goat suspension orally by weight.

For me, I usually give for 5 days in a row, but if you feel that is too tedious, I would at least treat Goldie for Roundworms (once, then in 10days) to see if that makes a difference. Worms certainly can affect the overall health and cause some crop issues if there's an infestation.

Oh, just reading and trying to cover everything. Yes, if all the pullets are similar in weight, get a good guestimate and dose them. Fenbendazole is pretty safe.

Being hot can be very miserable for them all. Hopefully you'll get a break in the weather soon.

Oh, with you feeling a ball now in her crop lower down. Normally you wouldn't massage a crop that is Sour and fluid filled, but if it's now feeling like a ball with not much fluid, give her a massage when you give the coconut oil and Miconazole, see if you can break it down a bit. She had a lot of fibrous material in the poop, so she may have a ball of grass(?) or something in there, hopefully this can also be resolved.

If I forgot something, forgive me. Ask away!

 

[My1stChickens]

To me, it's looks like a Roundworm, hopefully @Eggcessive or @dawg53 can take a look at the photo to give their thoughts.


Panacur horse paste (10%) or Safeguard Liquid goat dewormer (10%) can be used. Both are Fenbendazole, just a different brand and form (paste vs. liquid). Dosing is the same for both too.

You are correct that the dose is 0.25ml per pound of weight given orally.

Give once, then repeat in 10 days to treat Roundworms Only.

Give 5 days in a row to treat most all worms that poultry can have except for Tapeworms.

Neither formula mixes well with water, so you are better off giving either the paste or the goat suspension orally by weight.

For me, I usually give for 5 days in a row, but if you feel that is too tedious, I would at least treat Goldie for Roundworms (once, then in 10days) to see if that makes a difference. Worms certainly can affect the overall health and cause some crop issues if there's an infestation.

Oh, just reading and trying to cover everything. Yes, if all the pullets are similar in weight, get a good guestimate and dose them. Fenbendazole is pretty safe.

Being hot can be very miserable for them all. Hopefully you'll get a break in the weather soon.

Oh, with you feeling a ball now in her crop lower down. Normally you wouldn't massage a crop that is Sour and fluid filled, but if it's now feeling like a ball with not much fluid, give her a massage when you give the coconut oil and Miconazole, see if you can break it down a bit. She had a lot of fibrous material in the poop, so she may have a ball of grass(?) or something in there, hopefully this can also be resolved.

If I forgot something, forgive me. Ask away!

Thank you SO much!

About fenbendazole and molting.... I found other posts where it said don't do it use Valbazan. Everyone is out of Valbazen but I found one resource that said use pyrantel pamoate, which is just Strongid horse wormer. Would you recommend I just go with the fenbendazole, or Strongid? Just for Goldie since she may be molting. (If Strongid, what dose and how often?)

Part of me thinks the "right" thing to do is the 5 days and just know everything is covered. I'm pretty scared of aspirating them. I think I'd feel safer with the paste. With paste, they can "chew & swallow" whereas liquid could get away from them. Unless I can figure a way to soak bread or feed with their dose, and feed one at a time in a cage or something like that.

Finally, do you think the roundworm only dose is reasonable? Or is it really better to go all in for 5 days. I'm on the fence, and value your thoughts on this