Another sick hen..same symptoms

[casportpony]

Looks like a cecal.

I think you are correct.

 

[vantain]

Has she perked up now that she is warmer?

A little. She acted like she wanted out of the cage, which I’m sure she did. I turned out the light to let her sleep a little later, since she seemed to want to sleep. It was a little later than when she would normally go to roost at this time of the year.

I have a camera on her, and checked it after I left the room. I caught her standing and preening! Now she is sleeping. Her crop is still full and seems to be mostly liquid.

 

[Kiki]

I lost a hen back in May, to what I believe was internal laying. She stopped laying one day, and then started having crop issues and repeated soft shelled, and no shell yolk messes. It went on for about two months, and she lost so much weight.

Anyhow, a second one is now starting to show the same symptoms. Like the first one, she is an ISA Brown, about 21 months old. Yesterday, she was lethargic, but roosted with the other two overnight. I checked her this morning, and her crop had not emptied during the night. She spent most of the day going to the nest repeatedly to lay an egg, and even acted like she laid an egg, but she had not. She would then go back out into the run, get a drink of water, and stand around hunched up again for some time before repeating the process.

I have three hens, and did get three eggs today, so I’m sure she eventually laid the egg. But even so, she was still rather hunched up this evening before going to roost. She is clearly not feeling well.

She did eat and drink this evening before roosting. I plan to check on her in the morning, and if her crop has not emptied, I will crate her in the coop to monitor her droppings.

One thing to note...she has laid a couple of soft shelled eggs in the past week. I don’t think she is lying internally yet, but this is how things started with the one I lost back in May.

Anything else I should consider? I don’t think she has a sour crop. Her crop was full and squishy this morning, maybe a little doughy.

My little flock of three ISAs are reaching the two year mark, so I have been expecting the losses. They were good to start with I guess, but their breeding certainly puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to reproductive issues.

What exactly do you feed your birds?

Eta... Any treats?

 

[casportpony]

I caught her standing and preening!

A very good sign!

Her crop is still full and seems to be mostly liquid.

Hopefully she will start to digest some of that now that she is warmer.

 

[micstrachan]

So glad you brought her in. Heat is key!

 

[vantain]

What exactly do you feed your birds?

Eta... Any treats?

Purina Flock Raiser with Oyster shell as free choice right alongside their feed. There is free choice grit available as well.

For treats, I occasionally give them some black soldier fly larvae and some grains. Not a lot, maybe two or three times a week. Amounts to maybe a 1/4 cup for all three birds.

 

[vantain]

Great! Do try to get it warmer.

That's okay, it might be good to offer her some plain water too.

Can you post some pictures of her poop?

Her crop is still full this morning, and still a bit doughy in how it feels.

She is alert this morning, but seems weaker. Should I feed her anything, despite the fact that her crop is still full? Continue with the Miconazole, add in an antibiotic...?

Her stool looked like this this morning. It was more gritty, not pasty like yesterday. More “normal”, but loose as you can see.

 

[azygous]

Offer soft boiled egg beside a dish of dry crumbles, and give her a probiotic tablet. Keep up with the miconazole. And make grit available. That can help the doughy lump.

 

[casportpony]

Her crop is still full this morning, and still a bit doughy in how it feels.

So yesterday was sloshy, today is doughy? Is it any smaller?

Should I feed her anything, despite the fact that her crop is still full?

How big is her crop? Ping pong ball, golf ball, tennis ball, or baseball sized?

Continue with the Miconazole

It probably won't hurt.

add in an antibiotic...?

Do you have any antibiotics? Do you have any Corid? Do you have any de-wormer?

Her stool looked like this this morning. It was more gritty, not pasty like yesterday. More “normal”, but loose as you can see.

The poop from yesterday was an abnormal cecal poop. Abnormal because it was covered in mucus and it had grit in it. Today's poop is what I call abnormal regular poop.


Cecal vs regular poop.
I think this explains the ceca pretty well:
"by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock

For those of us who have never seen the inside of a chicken, it turns out that a chicken’s anatomy is pretty darn interesting. I recently took a class where poultry anatomy was explained and although there are many interesting bits throughout a chicken’s digestive and reproductive systems, today I am going to concentrate on two tiny sacs that help with digestion.

Located at the at the ileo-colic junction (the end of the small intestine) and before the beginning of the large intestines are the cecal pouches. These little pouches or sacs are analogous to the cecum in mammals except that with chickens, there are two. (Makes sense, chickens proportionally eat a lot more fibrous material that needs to be broken down than mammals do.)"

So how do these sacs help chickens with their digestion? The main purpose of cecal pouches is to collect fibrous material from the small intestines. While this material is being held, the cecal reabsorbs as much water as possible, while at the same time fermenting and breaking down the coarse material that the chicken has eaten (twigs, fibrous materials.)

The cecal pouches then expel and empty that fermented, partially-dehydrated mess two to three times each day.

Here’s the tricky part and what you really need to know about cecal pouches. The droppings from the cecal appear much different than the normal intestinal poultry droppings. A regular normal chicken dropping is firm, green to brown in color, and had a bit of white urate deposit.

A normal cecal dropping, on the other hand, is a brown, soft, moist dropping with a strong odor. A dropping that sometimes causes some chicken owners alarm as they mistakenly think it is an indication of diarrhea and illness.

Thick, sticky, brown chicken droppings will occur on a daily basis. It’s important to identify these and recognize that they are normal dropping as a result of chicken’s having those cecal pouches."

 

[vantain]

So yesterday was sloshy, today is doughy? Is it any smaller?

How big is her crop? Ping pong ball, golf ball, tennis ball, or baseball sized?

It probably won't hurt.

Do you have any antibiotics? Do you have any Corid? Do you have any de-wormer?

The poop from yesterday was an abnormal cecal poop. Abnormal because it was covered in mucus and it had grit in it. Today's poop is what I call abnormal regular poop.


Cecal vs regular poop.
I think this explains the ceca pretty well:
"by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock

For those of us who have never seen the inside of a chicken, it turns out that a chicken’s anatomy is pretty darn interesting. I recently took a class where poultry anatomy was explained and although there are many interesting bits throughout a chicken’s digestive and reproductive systems, today I am going to concentrate on two tiny sacs that help with digestion.

Located at the at the ileo-colic junction (the end of the small intestine) and before the beginning of the large intestines are the cecal pouches. These little pouches or sacs are analogous to the cecum in mammals except that with chickens, there are two. (Makes sense, chickens proportionally eat a lot more fibrous material that needs to be broken down than mammals do.)"

So how do these sacs help chickens with their digestion? The main purpose of cecal pouches is to collect fibrous material from the small intestines. While this material is being held, the cecal reabsorbs as much water as possible, while at the same time fermenting and breaking down the coarse material that the chicken has eaten (twigs, fibrous materials.)

The cecal pouches then expel and empty that fermented, partially-dehydrated mess two to three times each day.

Here’s the tricky part and what you really need to know about cecal pouches. The droppings from the cecal appear much different than the normal intestinal poultry droppings. A regular normal chicken dropping is firm, green to brown in color, and had a bit of white urate deposit.

A normal cecal dropping, on the other hand, is a brown, soft, moist dropping with a strong odor. A dropping that sometimes causes some chicken owners alarm as they mistakenly think it is an indication of diarrhea and illness.

Thick, sticky, brown chicken droppings will occur on a daily basis. It’s important to identify these and recognize that they are normal dropping as a result of chicken’s having those cecal pouches."

I have safeguard and Enrofloxacin.