bent comb,water white strand poo,need diagnose please.

[FRENZY]

I had just lost my 3 yr old australorp 2 weeks ago,
she had stopped laying in feb.
And I noticed that her comb was bent over,had water poo
with white strands,
I gave her antibiotics but it was too late.
Now my sexlink seems to be having those same symptoms.
She also has a messy butt and has not layed in3 mo.
THey eat layer mash,free range for 2 hrs a day,
Now flys are hanging out around her butt and driving her
crazy.
I know that it must be a seriouse problem.
And i need help with this B-4 it sreads to the rest of my flock.

 

[threehorses]

You absolutely MUST clean her vent and then put something, like baby powder, on it. If it is left wet, the flies will lay eggs and there will be maggots, guaranteed. Some maggots (screw worms) eat living flesh. All are sources of infection. If they happen, clean them off with lots of water, honey (it suffocates them), etc. Then dress the wounds (neosporin - or a dry spray) and powder to keep dry.

In the mean time, to help you try to find answers quickly, could you please answer the questions from the following sticky-post link into this thread so that we can start to develop a flock history? The more additional information you tell us about your flock, everything you can think of, the better and more accurate we can be with our help.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569 <-- the sticky post

You will want to pick up the hen and examine her carefully as follows and let us know what you find:

Examine her weight; is she thin, heavy, skinny, lumpy, fat?
Examine her eyes: are they clear and bright? Pupils both round and reactive to light?
Examine her beak: are her nares (nostrils) clear? Is the inside of her mouth healthy and pink? Does she have excess mucus? Is her beak pale in color?
Examine her crop: Is she holding feed after a night of not eating?
Examine her skin: check carefully for lice/mites (see below). Look for any broken skin, redness of vent, scratches, anything abnormal.
Examine her abdomen: Feel delicately between her legs and back up to her vent - do you feel any lumpiness, or is she firm, or is she hard?
Listen to her respiratory system: With your ear against her throat and chest, listen to her breathing. Do you hear hiccups, wheezes, rales, or rattles?
Examine her vent: Other than the clinging droppings, do you see white or black waxy stuff near her vent? sores from the droppings? (clean and treat and dry them). Is her actual vent opening tight and dry, or is it dilated (open) and moist. This can indicate if she's trying to lay.

Tell us more about diet: do your hens have access to both granite type grit as well as oyster shell? Is she on a laying diet for 95% of her diet, grains less than 5%?

Worming: do you worm?

Environment: does she have access to any compost, kitchen scraps, manure piles, ponds? Is her bedding dry and clean? What is the area like where she free ranges?

Thank you for answering all million of these questions (wink). The more info put in, the more info we can put out. I look forward to your reply.


Mites and lice: they're nearly microscopic, and mites only go onto the birds at night often enough and then occassionally they just remain off the bird while they lay their eggs in the wood of the coops, etc. Check them at night, with a flashlight (and the coop light on), and a light colored pillowcase to help you find mites. Ruffle through all of their feathers. Pay careful attention to the warm/moist areas under the wing feathers, near the vent, along all the feather shafts, etc. If you find them, you must treat the bird and the premises and the birds must be retreated at least once in 7 days - preferably twice. Recheck a few times this week and next to try to find mites. Let us know if you find anything like this and we'll advise on treatment.

 

[FRENZY]

no I have never wormed my chickens,I gusse it coudnt hurt.
I clean thire coop every 2 weeks.
use pine shavings.
I have well water, wich I was told has 15% per billion arsenic,
I just got rid of my roo,who favored her and the diseased chicken
by finding food and feeding it to them.
grit and oyster shell free choice.
once a week treats of yogurt,egg,oatmeal,and family dinner
leftovers.(no meats)
They love cheese!
I feed layer mash once a day.
They did get into compost but it has been two months ago.
I am now adding acv to the water.
thank you so much for the reply.I am going to clean her
up tomoro.
my vet referd me to a vet that will do a fecal test,
but they quoted $30.

 

[threehorses]

10 ppb is the safe levels of arsenic for your drinking water. I don't know how you would go about fixing that - but it's possible that might have at least a little to do with this. Is it possible to give them (and yourself) drinking water from a different source? Arsenic over long terms causes cancer, liver issues, etc. It apparently usually takes a bit of it, but over time it could be different. And in chickens, it could also be different. It would be good to get it back down to what the EPA considers safe levels.

On the rooster - it's possible that he was leading her to food and that she is depressed, but I would definitely think that it might be something else.

White droppings can indicate that something is effecting the kidneys. The rest of their droppings... are they normal?

I'd try first to make sure their diet goes back to mainly their laying mash, the oyster shell grit, clean (or OACV) treated water, the yogurt, and egg. Less oatmeal just in case. A good deal of treats and especially grains can cause calcium levels to go down. If your Australorp wasn't laying, and wasn't molting, it's possible (not ruled out at least) that their calcium levels might be down. Usually calcium absorbtion has just as much to do with phosphorus levels (which get too high with much treats or grains) or vitamin D (which can be too low) than actual calcium. But at least it would rule out dietary issues.

The white in the droppings - when you say strands in the droppings, which of the following would you say best describes the droppings:

Mostly solid but with white material in it
Mostly clear liquid with white material running through it in little streams
Mostly solid or liquid, but with white solid strings running through it - possibly a worm?
Mostly creamy liquid with whiter strings?

What color are the non-white parts? Are the droppings at all frothy? I think I was thinking you were saying they're having white diarrhea - but I want to make sure first.

And incidentally, were any of these chickens from the hatchery? Does this hen have buddies any more? Are the other hens doing alright?

 

[FRENZY]

I took her to the vet,He thinks it is peritonites and gave her
an injection of penicillion.
and she has an open wound on her vent area,yes there were
lots of maggots that we cleaned off.
no mites or lice.
tho he thinks that the wound is caused from the diarea whitch
caused the maggots.
so he recomended for me to dust with permethrin and keep her in the house and giving antibiotics in the water untill it heals.
her poo is clear with small brown bits,he does not think that
ther is a worm problem.
he advised that I should not be feeding lettuce and veggies to my hens that it isint good for them.
I thougt that I was doing a good thing,oh well,
but I am asking you Threehorses what you recomend for me to
feed her while in sick bay,I trust and appreciate your feed back
as I am sure others feel the same as I do thank you so much.

 

[threehorses]

Well yeah - you didn't really say what family dinner was.. iceburg lettuce isn't great for birds. Some greens actually are as treats - like mustard and collard greens, a little spinach, the greens you'd usually have to cook. But all treats like that should be less than 5% of their total diet.

And yes - I believe the wound was actually a sore caused by the diarrhea. that happens, particularly in the summer, and you do have to watch for it. Any time in the summer that I hear about any birds with droppings clinging to their vents, I'm pretty quick to ask them to please get it off, check for sores, and keep the area dry. Flies feed on moisture. It's possible that because the sore became a wound that you might have encountered some screw worms, which will eat living flesh. They just want moisture. So watch for flies and anything wet on your birds in the summer.

I keep a thing of screw-worm wound spray in my barn in case I ever see anything. I dress the wound with neosporin (you can do that too - clean it with warm water or wound wash, treat with neosporin, spray a tiny bit of wound spray over that. Then you can powder their tushes with baby-powder or permethrin. It'll dry the area, kill the flies, hopefully kill larvae (Screwworm wound spray kills the larvae aka maggots).

Do you know which antibiotic he gave you? Should be listed on the bottle.

As for the feed, I'd give her the usual layer mash free choice - they should have that all day long. It's nice to leave just enough to where they finish (mostly) by the last thing at night so you don't encourage rodents. But I'd rather then have it overnight than miss some time in the morning if you can't get to them til late.

So all the layer she'll eat, her medicated water (change daily with fresh medicated water), you could give her a little bit of boiled egg but it shouldn't be necessary really. I'd hold off on the yogurt until you tell me which antibiotic. If it's Baytril (enrofloxacin) then you can give yogurt once a day - a teaspoon for her. If it's anything ending with -mycin or -cycline, then don't. Wait til afterwards. Then do it daily for 2 weeks.. Then weekly or monthly as needed, or daily if you want to give them a healthy treat; I know a few people who do it daily.

Veggies can be alright - but not cooked the way we do for dinner. Fresh and raw is generally better. If you want to spoil them, grated carrots are fun (lots of vitamin A there too), some of the greens mentioned - ones you'd usually cook - not the lettuces, a few berries now and again (it'll turn their poop colors so don't panic if it does), never raw potatoes and honestly cooked aren't really useful. Those things can be handy in a healthy flock as very small treats. I think of them more as "bribes". Use them to get the chickens to be easiily handled.

By the way, I have to commend you on taking the bird to the vet. That's really good stewardship there. Be sure to finish her antibiotics completely - don't lag a day. Keep her up until they're done. Again thank you for taking good care of her when she needed it.

 

[Fergie]

I have a 2 year old golden sex link hen who is struggling with peritonitis. She hasn't laid in over a month, and her comb has just become crooked in the last day or so.

I am just curious about what kind of prognosis your vet gave you? My vet said peritonitis is very serious and usually fatal.

She drained about 2 cups of fluid from my hen's abdomen, I was told to give her antibiotics for as long as 4 weeks if necessary. If she was still alive within a week, she said the antibiotics must be working. I have been adding the duramycin-10 (tetracycline hydrochloride) to her water for 10 days and she's still alive. She looks pretty rough, though. She sleeps much of the time, and stays in that ruffled up position. She has good days and bad days. Some days it appears her appetite is off, and other days she's pretty perky and looks around for something to eat. I can still feel underneath that she's swollen up. We are continuing to medicate and keeping our fingers crossed.

 

[threehorses]

Your vet is right - usually peritonitis is a very bad deal. Did your vet determine why? Like is there some sort of internal laying or broken egg inside? Or just a bacterial infection?

Do keep up with the antibiotics absolutely as long as the vet recommends without a day missed - that is very important.

Did he tell you which bacteria, specifically, he was treating against?

 

[Fergie]

No, she didn't tell me which bacteria. Because I have two hens with this problem, she suspects that it's from a nutritional deficiency, and recommended I change to another brand of feed. We also had a hen pass away about a month ago. All three of them quit laying this spring, two of which were having trouble with egg shell formation. And the two she examined have what appears to be the egg yolk peridontitis. She drained their abdomens, and said to give them antibiotics. She said this usually doesn't appear in multiple numbers in a flock without some nutritional deficit going on.

 

[threehorses]

Good call on the vet's part.

What did you do to correct the calcium deficiency? It looks like she was talking about vitamin D3. Hopefully she also told you to feed mostly the laying feed and few (not lots of) grains as the phos content will cause calcium not to be absorbed as well. Calcium deficiencies are rarely about calcium alone. And the calcium in laying hens is the minimum - many need more of the actual calcium, which is why we give the oyster shell (in addition to the granite grit as oyster shell is too soft for grit use). So that they can self-supplement if they need. And of course keeping the D3 up and the phos level - not too high or low.

I'm glad you have a vet that's on the ball - and thank you for taking her in to get that sort of thing checked out! Thank you for replying as well.