Advice-hen's tail goes up&down. Smelly watery white&green poo.Puts head down & watery stuff fr beak

[ShellyByTheSea]

Hi everyone!
Louise is sick. I'm not sure what I might be trying to treat.
She hasn't laid an egg in months so I'm thinking that she is older.

Symptoms:
Moves/rolls her vent.
Tail is going up and down.
Tail more in the down position.
Standing still.
Not digging around.
White around vent.
Poo is VERY watery & green/white.
When she puts her neck down or when I pick her up and her head goes down, a bit of watery bile comes out of her beak/mouth.
She isn't eating her favourites.
She did eat a bit of warm/cooked oatmeal this morning.
She is drinking some.

I've added ACV to water.
I've bathed her and massaged her belly twice in the past two days.
I've scrabbled egg - didn't like. (usually does like it)
I've tried live yogurt - won't eat. (usually likes it)

Could be vent gleet? I've checked her crop and it is rather full...but not sure if that is from the bit of water that she has had and the oatmeal. I need to find out how long it takes for a crop to empty after eating. If you know, please share!

She recently lost her flock mate. It's been a week and a half...and I only rescued two hens...so she is now by herself. I spend time with her and bring her on cold nights.

Symptoms have been a couple of days. She might be old too.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I read once that Monistat can be used for sour crop if that is it. If you've tried this, please let me know some details.

Thanks so much...love and light!

Shelly

 

[KayTee]

Does her poo look anything like this?


Photo courtesy and coyright of Jennifer Miller - 'Nambroth'

If so, it is possible that she has clostridium perfringens (an intestinal infection), which may or may not have been the result of an impacted crop or blockage in the intestine. (I am not a vet, and not diagnosing anything, just trying to give you ideas based on my own experiences).

I had a chicken who suffered with this last autumn. I think it was my fault - I fed her some raw meat scraps, and since she is the greediest hen she gobbled more than her fair share. I'm sure that one piece got stuck in her crop, went rotten and caused the infection.

Here is the link to my thread explaining what I did to get her better: (basically high doses of amoxycillin or similar antibiotics)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...r-posts-on-byc-a-public-thank-you-to-nambroth

Alternatively you could check out the world-famous 'poo chart' to see if anything looks similar!
http://chat.allotment.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[ShellyByTheSea]

Hi KayTee! Thanks so much! Thanks for caring and sharing! Yes...the poo does look a lot like that. I'm going to have another look just to make sure. I do have some Amoxil 100mg pills that are left over from fostering a sick kitten. From what I see on the internet, Amoxil and Amoxycillin are basically the same thing. I'll have a read over your link to see how I can give it to her. I have 8 pills. I have taken all her food and water away to see if her crop will go down. I'll keep you posted! It's so cool to have people reach out who understand and care!!!! Peace...from Nova Scotia Canada. Shelly

 

[KayTee]

Shelley, by all means take her food away, but don't remove her water. If she is having diarrhoea then she needs to replace the water she is losing or she will dehydrate rapidly. My girl drank ridiculous amounts of water when she was sick.

I'm pretty certain that the Amoxil 100mg sounds like the right thing. The dosage given on the veterinary amoxicilin I bought was 10mg of pure amoxicilin per kilogram weight per day. 1kg = 2.2lb, so for an average 4 - 4.5 lb bird you need around 20mg per day, or 1/5 of a tablet. That's virtually impossible to dose exactly, so my advice would be to crush up 1 tablet (which gives you a 5 day dose), mix it with 5 teaspoons of water, and then use 1 teaspoon of the mix per day on a very small amount of food. (Or if 5 tsp isn't enough, double up to 10 tsp and use 2 tsp per day, etc)

Cinders also went off her treats, but I found that she would still eat plain boiled white rice, so every morning I gave her a teaspoon of medicine on a couple of spoonfuls of rice. If she ate all the rice then I gave her more, but I put the medicine on the smallest amount of rice possible, to make certain that she ate it all. (As I explained in my post, I thought I was losing her, and dosing wasn't easy, so she ended up getting almost a double dose, but it worked!) It won't be instant - Cinders still had watery poo for a week or so, but it very slowly got less watery, and she started to show an interest in other food.

All the best for you and your girl, let us know how she is doing.

Katy

 

[ShellyByTheSea]

So funny...I just thought about dehydration and gave back her water! Then saw your post. THANK YOU for working the amount to give her out for me. I sat here for a half hour trying to 'get it' and couldn't get it through my head...her crop is still full after about two hours. I'll get going on the meds and see. She is going down hill fast...and we are going away on Monday for a week. My mom is staying here. It may overwhelm her to have a sick chick on her hands so hope I can see some improvement too. Blessings and I'll keep you posted. Take care and thanks again!

 

[KayTee]

Great minds think alike!

There's really not a huge amount you can do - other than a bit of gentle crop massaging (if your girl will let you), a lot of TLC and medication.
As long as your mum has the instructions for the dosage and can find a treat to put it on that you girl will eat, she can't do too much more. I wasted quite a few doses of medicine trying to find something that Cinders would eat, before I finally fell upon the plain rice, but once I had found it, there was no stopping her!

These things always happen at the worst possible moments, but hopefully your girl will pull through. Positive thoughts are winging their way across the ocean to you!

 

[ShellyByTheSea]

Here are a couple photos of her poo.



The top one has more particles in it...tiny green, few very small black specks and white yeasty stuff...the second is more water and white stuff. I'm boiling rice to see if she'll eat it. I have tube fed before...so if this doesn't work...then I'll get it in her this way. Poor girly. Thanks so much KayTee for your help...and support. {Hugs} Shelly PS...Poo has a very odd smell. Sour/foul...strong.

 

[ShellyByTheSea]

She wouldn't eat the rice. Got some of the water mixture into her with a syringe. I tried the tube but it didn't go down to her crop. Tried twice. Didn't want to force it. I may have got some down into her lungs as she isn't very alert at all. :-( She has gentle laboured breathing. Eyes closed. Isn't standing. I've got her in a cat bed by the fire. She's warm...and loved. You are right and I'll remind myself...that there isn't much more that I can do. Blessings, Shelly

 

[pwand]

If she has sour crop, antibiotics might be the worse thing for her as it kills good bacteria. The problem is you don't know if its fungal ot bacterial. I am not sure, however, I think most is fungal. You can buy fluconazole here in Canada in one capsule for womans yeast infection. This goes into there system as other stuff like Monastate has to touch the crop. With sour crop, ou will see different diahreas. There not all the same. If she is older, she could have cancers, tumours that are causing blockage. Have you checked her to make sure she isn't egg bound? Worms can also cause blockage. We can by Safeguard horse paste to treat for worms here in Canada. Baking Soda in water can help relieve some of the gas caused by the yeast. The dose is in this article.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html

What kind of tube did you try to use?

 

[ShellyByTheSea]

It's so hard eh pwand/Emily...I don't know really what I am dealing with. I know that if I don't try 'something' I'm going to loose her. Yet what I try...might not treat her and make her worse...it's such a tough call. She is in pretty bad shape. I might lose her through the night. I have Monistat cream and capsules here. Do you know how I get this in her? I could try the tube again with some Monistat in it...and see? I used a small catheter that was recommended by Kathy. I used this on my other hen no problem. Maybe I was nervous. Here is a photo of her vent. It feels swollen and there is a red line of raw/soreness there. Hummm???? I'm open for suggestions.

She was treated with Safeguard in October 2013. I have that here. When I bathed her, I put my finger up her vent and didn't feel anything...and have felt around her tummy and I don't feel an egg.

Now I can't get her to eat anything. She is just 'there' barely breathing. :-( So to get anything in her, I'm going to have to try the tube again....