Advice on care for lower respiratory infection? Any advice really appreciated

wemimew

Songster
5 Years
Apr 17, 2019
154
166
133
Hi everyone,

I would desperately love some help with treating my sweet girls - any advice would be appreciated!

My 2 yo silkie bantam was broody and when I brought her inside to break her noticed that she was quite ill. Below are the symptoms she had and the treatment I have done because I couldn’t get to a vet for a few days. I’m devastated because 2 days prior she came out of the nest to sit on my lap and seemed in fantastic health (she did a very normal looking poo right next to me and nothing seemed wrong).

- Smelly face and visible difficulty breathing: Amoxyclav tabled half tab every 12 hours. No discharge was visible from the nose or eyes and no rattle when breathing.
-Bright green sticky poop: I thought it may be coccidiosis secondary to the resp Infection so baycox for 2 days 0.36ml. Been raining a lot so can’t rule it out, sand run and free ranging time.
- oozing fowl pox lesions on face and wattles - Tricin gram +- antibiotic cream - healed overnight (mosquitos have been horrendous here).
- Pendulous crop - she is in a crop bra


There was no real improvement over 2 days before I could get her to the avian vet although she did stop standing in the hunched way you see with coccidiosis infections. Her poops are now small and green with bright yellow urates. She is also walking very slowly and choosing to sit down all the time - her skin is completely black so I can’t see if her comb is turning purple or not. She eats very little and I am hand feeding her their pellets crushed and wet and egg yolks. She also has electrolytes in the water.

The vet confirmed fowl pox lesions, no oocysts (already treated) and a lower respiratory infection. They were happy with the medication i was already giving her so gave me some more although they wanted to admit her into hospital. We are not in a financial position at the moment to spend thousands on hospital care for her so I had to decline and pray i could treat it at home. She has also been put on Sporanox as she had a yeast infection starting from the antibiotics. She has been in a hospital pen ontop of the fridges with a heat lamp since she came into the house a few days ago.

She had very limited energy and if she flaps her wings she needs time to catch her breath. The poor thing isn’t suffering but is struggling. I have read that bright yellow urates are a sign of organ failure so I am guessing her liveris struggling. She is not an overweight bird


My question is have any of you had to deal with something like this before? Is there anything else I can do to help her recovery? Is there something that the vet could of missed? Apologies for typos and formatting - I’m on mobile and it’s not cooperating for me.
Thank you :bow
 
Can you see any yellow plaques inside her beak or throat? Yellow plques can be a sign of wet fowl pox or canker. Canker lesions smell bad, and can grow large inside the thoat and esophagus to the crop. Her case seems very complicated, and it sounds like she has along road ahead to recover. Fortunately fowl pox is a virus that is limited to about a month. Pox around the eyes and face can make things like mycoplasma (MG) an opportunistic infection. MG does not repond to amoxicillin. It can be treated with Baytril, tylosin, oxytetracycline, and tiamulin. Fowl pox virus is not treated with antibiotics. Are her eyelids swollen or does she have bubbles, drainage or crust in the eyes? If you have any pictures that may be helpful.
 
Can you see any yellow plaques inside her beak or throat? Yellow plques can be a sign of wet fowl pox or canker. Canker lesions smell bad, and can grow large inside the thoat and esophagus to the crop. Her case seems very complicated, and it sounds like she has along road ahead to recover. Fortunately fowl pox is a virus that is limited to about a month. Pox around the eyes and face can make things like mycoplasma (MG) an opportunistic infection. MG does not repond to amoxicillin. It can be treated with Baytril, tylosin, oxytetracycline, and tiamulin. Fowl pox virus is not treated with antibiotics. Are her eyelids swollen or does she have bubbles, drainage or crust in the eyes? If you have any pictures that may be helpful.
Hi Eggcessive, no canker - thank goodness. Her eyes are all clear so you wouldn’t think it’d respiratory until you see the breathing problems. I will try to get a poop pic when I bring her out shortly. I am going to call the vet and see if doxycycline will be any good for mg as it is the only other antibiotic I have on hand. I also had a thought thismorning that her symptoms seem to be in like with heart issues so hopefully it’s not that.
 
Can you see any yellow plaques inside her beak or throat? Yellow plques can be a sign of wet fowl pox or canker. Canker lesions smell bad, and can grow large inside the thoat and esophagus to the crop. Her case seems very complicated, and it sounds like she has along road ahead to recover. Fortunately fowl pox is a virus that is limited to about a month. Pox around the eyes and face can make things like mycoplasma (MG) an opportunistic infection. MG does not repond to amoxicillin. It can be treated with Baytril, tylosin, oxytetracycline, and tiamulin. Fowl pox virus is not treated with antibiotics. Are her eyelids swollen or does she have bubbles, drainage or crust in the eyes? If you have any pictures that may be helpful.
Hello again, I just spoke with the vet and they were unwilling to offer advice about changing over antibiotics unless I brought her back in for further tests. I’m more than a little bit unhappy about that so may be time to find a new specialist. I also have oxytetracycline and doxycycline on hand - would either of these work with MG? I wouldn’t push and would take her to the vet for testing but I don’t think she has the 3 days left in her poor thing.
 
Some poop pics, these look good compared to yesterday.
9AB22210-6EE5-4494-B77C-C75ED2AD382F.jpeg
544F10DA-B70B-4F04-9CDC-FB43EA45D14B.jpeg
B1D5066E-7BAB-48C0-AE4C-E9956A7A3349.jpeg
 
Hello again, I just spoke with the vet and they were unwilling to offer advice about changing over antibiotics unless I brought her back in for further tests. I’m more than a little bit unhappy about that so may be time to find a new specialist. I also have oxytetracycline and doxycycline on hand - would either of these work with MG? I wouldn’t push and would take her to the vet for testing but I don’t think she has the 3 days left in her poor thing.
I went over @Eggcessive post above and it looks like the oxytetracycline will treat MG! I'm going to keep you and your sweet girl in my thoughts and prayers.
 
Thank you for your replies. I’m going to switch over to doxycycline this arvo (tiny tablet I can hide in a grape) and hope for the best. I should mention I had to take off her crop bra because it was making it more difficult for her to breathe incase anyone comes across this post in the future. I’ll keep commenting as things progress but any further advice is most welcome :love
 

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