Air sac disease

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Hi everyone! I have a 5 and a half yr-old hen that has on and off gape worm symptoms, swollen sinuses, gout, and who knows what else. These started from the age of 3 or 4. She stopped laying when she was 3.

She has all of these problems, yet she's still alive, which is quite a miracle. I give her SafeGuard dewormer and Valbazen (I dose her 3-4 days in a row, stop for 10 days, give another round of dosing about once a month), but it doesn't seem to have a huge effect on her now that she's older.

I know that 5 and a half is old for a chicken, especially if she's sick 24/7, but I just want to help her in some way. Any advice?

 

[azygous]

She certainly does seem to have a lot of issues. How is her behavior? Is she alert, active with a good appetite? Or is she lethargic, standing immobile at the edge of the action, tail held low and flat, and a poor appetite?

These are the criteria I use to decide if a chicken still has a good quality of life in spite of having health issues. If a chicken has things going on that are not treatable, but she behaves in a normal manner, I consider her able to adjust to her issues. But if she is wasting away and appears to be in pain, I euthanize.

The gout isn't treatable for all practical purposes. She's probably been wormed all she needs to be for this year. The swollen sinuses could be from a treatable respiratory infection. I suggest Tylan 50 if you have some on hand or can find it. You may be able to get it here. https://pet-healthcare.revivalanimal.com/search?w=Tylan 50 It may help the airsac disease, too.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

She certainly does seem to have a lot of issues. How is her behavior? Is she alert, active with a good appetite? Or is she lethargic, standing immobile at the edge of the action, tail held low and flat, and a poor appetite?

She follows her friend, a healthy hen, around my backyard. I live in a suburban area so there aren't that many predators, so they are "free-ranged" in my backyard. When her friend leaves to go to another area, she follows happily with a lifted tail, but while her friend is doing her usual digging and stuff, she stands with her neck short, tail down.

So for example, when I refill their food, she comes out of her "tired state" (tail down neck short) and comes to eat the food. I think the reason she doesn't dig is because of her feet (gout).

She eats, but doesn't eat as much as her friend. But she still will eat.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

She certainly does seem to have a lot of issues. How is her behavior? Is she alert, active with a good appetite? Or is she lethargic, standing immobile at the edge of the action, tail held low and flat, and a poor appetite?

These are the criteria I use to decide if a chicken still has a good quality of life in spite of having health issues. If a chicken has things going on that are not treatable, but she behaves in a normal manner, I consider her able to adjust to her issues. But if she is wasting away and appears to be in pain, I euthanize.

The gout isn't treatable for all practical purposes. She's probably been wormed all she needs to be for this year. The swollen sinuses could be from a treatable respiratory infection. I suggest Tylan 50 if you have some on hand or can find it. You may be able to get it here. https://pet-healthcare.revivalanimal.com/search?w=Tylan 50 It may help the airsac disease, too.

Please reply to this,

Joy's (the sick chicken) swollen sinuses are getting worse, and she isn't eating. Her friend Whitty is going through molt, and since Joy is the top of the pecking order, she pecks at Whitty and now she can't eat when Joy is there.

However, that's not the problem. Whitty's appetite changed, and now she doesn't really like the chick starter anymore, even in a mush. But I wasn't too worried about that, because she is healthy and still eats some, and I figured that she'll be back to normal after she's done molting.

I'm worried about Joy. She's not "normal", I guess I can call her that. When she was around 2 months old, she was pecked by a passing blue jay, so she's "blind" or can't see very well in one eye, so that means she can't see treats or grains, so that means her diet is basically limited to chicken feed.

Okay, the problem is that now she won't eat mushy chicken food, what she usually likes. Even after I added some bird seed, cracked corn, and grains of uncooked and cooked rice. Joy is rapidly losing weight, and I fear that she won't last a couple more weeks. She's not too lethargic, as I said in the post above, but her crop is constantly empty and she's not eating, and her poop is yellow, without any solids.

I can't give her boiled eggs or anything because she won't eat them. Is there anything I can do?

And for the Tylan 50, does it need to be prescribed by a vet? A vet's kind of expensive. :/

 

[azygous]

You may need to tube feed Joy. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-pics-for-visuals-very-detailed-post.805615/ You can buy tubing at Walmart in the aquarium supplies in the pet section. You will then need to find a syringe to fit the tubing. Most pharmacies can oblige you with a syringe for no cost or as little as fifty cents.

Or you can ask a vet to sell you a tube feeding kit. My vet sold me one for $3. I get some jars of strained baby food at the market, meats or veggies, and I mix it with raw egg or yogurt to make a warm slurry. I suck that up with the syringe and after inserting the tube into the beak and down the esophagus and into the crop about four inches, inject the slurry slowly through the tube and into the crop.

I also add some Poultry Nutri-drench to the mixture, and the Tylan dose can also go in as well. (.5ml twice a day for five days.)

You can get Tylan 50 at most feed stores or order it here. https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/tylan?sku=22485-639

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

@azygous This thread is old but she still has the problems. California requires a prescription for Tylan 50. I'm writing this because she suddenly became much worse.

Two days ago, she was fine. Then, yesterday morning, her voice became nasally and sounds like a "sore throat", much like a human would sound like with the flu. I could hear her wheezing. Still has swollen sinuses.

Today and yesterday are very windy and cold, which might have made it worse. I've just put her inside to rest. She's losing weight but still eats mushy chicken food.

Without Tylan 50, what else can I do for her? The weather is going to become warmer in a few days, but it honestly doesn't seem like she can make it past these few weeks, because she is getting weaker.

 

[azygous]

Have you ever tried to order antibiotics from a mail order company? I am wondering if they will ship to California if you try. Tylan 50 is now impossible to get anywhere. I don't understand why.

Try ordering this and see what they say. https://www.revivalanimal.com/product/fish-mox?sku=22150-174

If you have a vaporizer, you can put Betadine in the water and direct it at Joy so she breathes in the vapor.

If she continues to get worse, it may be she doesn't have a very strong immune response. I hate it when it happens, but sometimes we lose the fight.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Thank you for your reply. She doesn't want to eat, so I gave her some Poultry Nutri-Drench water. Would Oxine AH work?
I've been fogging her a few days a week before she suddenly got worse, but sometimes after I've fogged her (about 1.5 hrs each time) she wheezes and sneezes and sounds like she has a lot of mucus in her. Much like she sounds like right now, but after the fogging she'd return to normal the day after, so I don't want to make her worse by fogging her.
Would you call her symptoms/disease a sort of "chicken flu"?

 

[azygous]

It's likely some sort of respiratory illness. Oxine is good. Use that. It's unfortunate you can't get an antibiotic. Her body could use the help.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

It's likely some sort of respiratory illness. Oxine is good. Use that. It's unfortunate you can't get an antibiotic. Her body could use the help.

Update: she seems much better today. No wheezing and seems to have more energy today, but her voice is still different.