Blue Comb, breathing hard, lethargic. Help!!!

[JPoe]

My 1.5 year old barred rock was not getting on the roost wednesday night. I checked her over yesterday and found a lump on the right side of her face, her comb is a blueish purple and she was barely moving around at all. She has bright green diarrhea, is very skinny and is breathing very fast and is refusing to eat or drink now.

As of yesterday I have been giving her penicillin injections and Poly-Vi-Sol drops. There has been no improvement and I just moved her to a crate inside. My guess is some sort of upper respiratory infection but if anyone has more experience with this, we would greatly appreciate any information.

 

[Eggcessive]

When you say a lump on the right side of her face, I assume that is swelling near or around the eye. That does sound like a bad respiratory disease such as mycoplasma, coryza (usually has a bad smell), laryngotracheitis, or infectious bronchitis. She doesn't sound like she will make it from the color of her comb and her other symptoms. Just keep her comfortable (she might need heat to keep warm). The green diarrhea is from her not eating. If you can give her scrambled chopped egg or wet chicken feed in a paste it would help. Tomorrow, you might want to get some Tylan 50 and some syringes and needles. Tylan can be given as a shot (1/2 ml) into the breast muscle each day for 3 days, or 1/2 ml by mouth daily for 5 days. Not as good would be to use Tylan powder in drinking water 2-3 grams per gallon of water for 3-5 days. Other meds if Tylan is not available would be Duramycin-10, galimycin, and Denagard., . There are some specific meds for coryza. You may have an outbreak of this in your flock, and will need to decide if you want to cull or treat them. Hopefully this will be your only case. Here is a link to diseases: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 

[JPoe]

Thank you for your help! I have a heat lamp on her now and she seems to be sleeping. I tried feeding her some eggs but she wasn't interested. I have had success tube-feeding this particular hen several months ago, but I am afraid it would be too stressful on her now. I really don't want to lose her, though.

The rest of the flock is on duramycin-10 in their water since I noticed this hen's symptoms. Is there a reason I should try Tylan 50 instead of the Penicillin G Procaine I have used the past two days?

 

[Eggcessive]

So many bacteria are resistant to penicillin nowadays, but I would keep her on it and see if it does her good. You are really doing a good job doing injections and able to tube feed also. Hope she starts to mend soon.

 

[JPoe]

She passed away in the night

I wish that it wasn't Saturday so I could see if the state extension office would do a necropsy on her. Hopefully the rest of the flock is okay... Thank you again for your help!

 

[Eggcessive]

If you could refrigerate (not freeze) the body in a plastic bag until Monday perhaps they could help[ you then. So sorry.

 

[realsis]

I'm so sorry you lost her very sad news!

 

[JPoe]

I am starting to think it was avian pox that killed her. One of my other hens has white nodules stuck in her comb and it has been pretty rainy around here with more mosquitos than usual... The hen that passed was molting and may not have been getting enough food and I think now she may have had the wet form of the pox. I will check her mouth and throat before I bury her. I don't think my fiance will take kindly to a dead chicken in the fridge, unfortunately. He is tolerant, but there are limits, haha. Thank you for your condolences. I've never lost a girl to disease before and it is really lame.