BO Hen going downhill, intestines possibly blocked, need help!

[Blue_Myst]

I'll try to make this story as short as possible. My three-year-old BO hen started having symptoms of gapeworm, so I dewormed her over three days with fenbendazole. She stopped doing the neck-stretching, gaping movements after that, but began wheezing. I isolated her and put her onto Duramycin-10 (1 teaspoon into 1/3-1/2 a gallon) for four days. The wheezing disappeared.

Then she started having other problems. At first I thought it was just the antibiotic (her poo became yellow, and decreased in size and became more liquid than solid), but then her appetite has decreased periodically over the last three days. I had to give her a bath yesterday because her backside had become very dirty. When I did, I noticed (yuck) something long and papery hanging out of her vent. I cross-checked photos of prolapses, and that was not it. It looked like a very long worm. The worst part was that it appeared to be blocking up her intestines. I managed to pull out a small bit of it, but the rest was stuck and I didn't want to pull hard enough to hurt her.

Today her appetite is almost non-existent. She's only eaten a little yogurt and some cracked corn. I've been giving her small amounts of Castor oil to see if it will help cleanse out her digestive system, but it hasn't done anything extensive yet. She'll move around, but not with her usual energy, and I can tell she's lost weight.

Any ideas of anything more I can do? I love this hen to pieces and want to do everything I can to help her before it's too late.

I should mention that she had laid an egg two or three days ago, so she's not internally laying as far as I can tell. She isn't in the "penguin" position either. Just unthrifty and depressed.

Did I poison her with the antibiotic? I read the dosage so carefully I'm sure I got it right

 

[dawg53]

If it was flat and segmented, it's tapeworm.

 

[Blue_Myst]

Thank you so much for the response! I just looked up chicken tapeworms, and this looks exactly like what I saw. Except it was only the first inch or so (not up to the segmented part).

Poor girl, she must have a whole mass of it inside of her that hasn't come out yet

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Ok...fenbendazole wont kill tapeworms. You need albendazole...sold as Valbazen, a liquid cattle/sheep wormer. Valbazen kills all known worms that chickens get. Dosage is 1/2cc for standard size chickens and 1/4cc for smaller chickens. Administer it orally, right down the throat. I highly recommend you dose all your chickens with Valbazen and redose them again in 10-14 days. You can order Valbazen from Jefferslivestock.com or order by phone. It comes in a 500ml bottle...quite alot, but is has a 2-3 year expiration date. It costs about $36 not including shipping...well worth the cost. They ship fast too.