911!!

[B_Chickle01]

I have my soon to be 5month old chicken here yesterday I opened her coop and she looked all puffed out and sluggish! Her crop has been empty but she’s now showing interest in eating I bought her inside with me. I gave her nutridrench yesterday evening then save a chick electrolytes in her water. Then last night I started her on corid( as someone instructed) and she doesn’t seem better! I’m really scared I just lost 2 chickens! One just a week ago and the other a couple weeks ago. She’s showing a lot of the same signs as them..puffed up sluggish lethargic not eating. She also just took a poop(attached below) and I have no idea what’s going on or what her poop is about. I’ve never seen any poop like this from any of my chickens! Please help! The last 2 photos were from last night!

 

[Eggcessive]

Usually by this age a chicken on your land should have built tolerance to coccidia in the soil and poop. But she may have some immunity problem or something else may be going on. When you lose a chicken unexpectedly, it is best to send the body, kept chilled to the state vet for a necropsy and diagnosis. Corid dosage is 2 tsp of the liquid or 1.5 tsp of the powder per gallon for 5 days. Change it daily. Make sure she is drinking or give it with a dropper or feeding tube. Can you take a sample of her droppings to your vet for a fecal float and gram stain? That is the best way to know if they have coccidiosis or worms, or something else intestinal.

 

[azygous]

The electrolytes perked her up because she is weak. She very likely has a bacterial infection, possibly C. perfringens, a deadly toxin associated with anaerobic bacteria such as found in decaying compost piles or vegetation deep where oxygen is scarce. Chickens can feed on insects that thrive at this level and become so sick they die in the first 24 hours after exposure.

It's crucial to recognize the symptoms and get an oral antibiotic started as soon as possible as this bacteria is vicious. Any broad spectrum antibiotic will work if you have anything like that on hand. Or call Tractor Supply if you are in the US (please people, add your location to your profiles!!), ask for fish amoxicillin. The dose is 250mg per day for ten days.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

@B_Chickle01 , I have followed along silently during your hard fight to save your Charlie. I am so sorry she didn't make it.

You must surely be exhausted by now. And being as today is Friday, you may need to get her body to a lab for necropsy Today. (Unless the lab performs necropsies on weekend days too.) Meaning you may need to drive her there yourself. If that is the case, a friend or family member who will drive while you ride along as a passenger would be easier for you. Exhaustion and distress are never good combinations, especially when driving.

Re your sadness at not being able to bury her, after her necropy is completed you may be able to request cremation and have her ashes returned to you. Also, consider clipping a few of her beautiful feathers to keep. And you (and your kids) can still make a memorial to Charlie. For example you can make a gravestone by painting a rock with her name on it, you can hold a backyard memorial service with your kids, & you can bury her feathers if its really important to you to at least have a part of her there.

During Charlie's last hours, she surely felt your comfort and care. Her opening her eyes to gaze directly at you just before she passed was her way of showing her gratitude. I hope that by having a necropsy performed, you can learn her cause of death and prevent future losses in your flock.

 

[azygous]

Do you have an oral syringe? Let's give her a Corid drench dose just on the outside chance this is coccidiosis. It can't hurt. Also, do you have Poultry nutri-drench? You can put it in the same syringe as the Corid. Measure out .3ml of undiluted Corid and squirt a half dropper full of Nutri-drench in the syringe. If you don't have Nutri-drench, add a little sugar to the Corid, maybe a quarter teaspoon.

Pry open her beak and slip the syringe in along the right side, hers, not yours. Go slightly under the tongue to avoid the airway at the center of the throat.

 

[B_Chickle01]

I'm sorry. What was her name?

Thank you. Her name was Charlie. As in Charlie Brown. My daughter named her. She had big beautiful brown circles around her eyes the rest of her was black the day she was born. Loved her name.

 

[TheCluckyClucker2]

Don't feel like a failure! You did everything you could. Figure out what is wrong with your flock and fix it. I had my 2 day old chick die in my hands and I cried for so long. He was special to me. The night before I woke up every 2 hours to check on him.

 

[azygous]

There is just as much fluidity in gender roles among chickens as there are among humans and other animals of Planet Earth. Your observations are quite good. Those hens will miss Charlie.

Four hours to the lab is prohibitive. If you saved a sample of Charlie's final poop, it would be well worth the time to find a vet who can send it to their lab for you for the fecal float and bacteria gram stain tests. It should hold up if kept cold.

Next, and this isn't going to be easy to contemplate, you can do a home-style necropsy on Charlie's body yourself. It's understandable that most people we suggest this to immediately reject this idea. I'd say just 2% are game to do it. It does require shifting yourself into a very clinical and emotionally detached state.

If you decide to take this on, it would involve a bare minimum of opening the abdominal cavity, exposing the organs, and taking a quick look for anything that appears out of the ordinary. A lot of the time, if there is something compelling to find, it's staring you right in the face, it's so obvious. Things like a liver ten times larger than you'd expect a chicken liver to be or an abdominal cavity awash in a murky brown liquid with bean size tumors floating in it, exciting stuff like that. You can get a general idea that a pathology was at work.

The fecal tests can add the scientific underpinings to what you see inside of your hen. It can tell you the name of the bacteria that killed her. Or that there was no bacteria found. It will also tell you if she had coccidiosis or heavy worm load. What it can't tell you is if a poison killed her or an avian virus, but if you find tumors when you look inside her, you will have a pretty good idea a virus had caused the tumors, but not which one.

Lastly, if you take photos of the contents of her body, some of us here may be able to spot something and recognize it to supply a little more information. For example, one very young hen that died suddenly in my flock had an impressive collection of what appeared to be hard boiled eggs in her abdominal cavity. We all learn from each other here, and I posted a thread on my findings from that home necropsy. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/internal-laying-what-it-looks-like.1349959/ If you find something like that in your hen, you'll know it's something that's not likely to kill more of your chickens.

 

[Ada06]

Aww praying for you!! I have been following, as I had a similar issue in my flock, that I still have not figured out. I took one in for necropsy and all they said it was is: emaciated. But that wasnt the problem. I hope you can figure it out, and no more chickens of yours die!!

 

[Thunder344]

@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

Egg bound?