Chicken lethargic and refusing food/water for a week

[PuddleEndChicken]

I posted about this chicken about 5 days ago and she's still hanging on in there !

She's a "Blue Angel" variety and part of a free ranging flock of 14 chickens/bantams.

We noticed she was lethargic about a week ago, droopy tail, head slightly to the side, standing still with eyes closed for long periods, wobbling walk and putting wings out to balance,, gaping mouth. Don't think it is contagious as rest of flock are fine. So over the last 5 days we have:

• checked her for being egg bound and gave magnesium baths and felt her for swelling etc - she is pooping quite a lot so I don't think that's it
• wormed her - some worms came out - maybe gapeworms - and since then no gaping mouth
• it felt like some grain and lumps in her crop so have given her yoghurt/vegetable oil/soft porridge and massaged the crop about 3 times a day
• treated her for red mite (we saw she had a few but not infested)
• given her vitamins
• kept her in our warm kitchen each night

Over 5 days her poop went from black with grains in, to green with worms and grain in, to bright green (bile ?), and now today back to green/brown then white/yellow but no bits of grain in it now. I can't feel any lumps or grain in the crop now. She has a bit more energy and her tail is back up and she's more upright, not wobbling walk or gaping mouth. But she walks slowly around the yard and has been grooming herself a bit but spends a lot of time still with her eyes closed and tries to fly up to roost early.

My main concern is that I haven't seen her eat or drink anything herself for 7 days now and even refuses it if we offer it to her beak. Maybe her crop hurts ? I am syringing about 30 ml of yoghurt with a bit of oil and vitamins into her over the course of each day but she seems to be surviving on that as she's not taking anything herself, not even water.

I'd really welcome suggestions as I can't just feed her and her be so weak indefinitely. Does she need a complete break from food and just have water for a day or two ? Do I need to syringe porridge into her to give her energy to find her own food ?

Thanks in advance for your answers !

 

[coach723]

What did you worm with, and what dose?
What did you treat with for the mites? Did you also clean out and treat the coop?
So she's 7 -7.5 months old approximately? Have you been able to confirm if she's laying or not? Does her abdomen feel bloated at all, below the vent, between the legs? You can compare with others her age. Can you get weight on her, a digital kitchen scale works well, and see how her weight is compared to the others? Does her keel bone feel well muscled or is the bone very prominent? Pictures of her droppings might be helpful.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Thanks for getting back to me, I am getting quite desperate to know how to help her !! Her crop was flat this morning and I couldn't feel any more grain or lumps in it. Over the day her poop is much more normal going from black last week to bright green yesterday to brown/yellow/white today. See photo of latest poop (sorry !!).

She seems stronger when she does move. Also her face is back to slightly pinker rather than white today.

Didn't see her eat or drink today but she did swallow water when I dipped her beak into it. She also seemed to open her mouth for the dropper of yoghurt/oil/vitamins/ACV that I gave her, I didn't have to force her mouth open so much (because she's hungry ? because she's got used to the dropper ?).

In our flock, we only have two "blue angels" so in my answers I can only compare to the other blue angel we have, and they are quite different !!

• Wormed with 50mg of mebendazole (as a tablet, couldn't give her pellets with wormer as she's not eating) was going to repeat in 7 days ?
• Used Nettex total mite spray (permethrin) on her
• have cleaned out and treated coop but chicken has been in kitchen or outside while being treated so hasn't returned to coop
• Yes chickens are between 7 and 8 months now
• Definitely laying for last 5 weeks - we have two "blue angel" chickens which are our only blue eggs. We get two blue eggs each day so I assume one from each of them.. In the last week we've only had 1 blue egg each day as the sick chicken has stopped laying since being ill.
• No bloating below vent between the legs, feels the same as the other one. Vent does pulsate a bit while she's standing but she seems to poop quite often (must be clearing something as she's only taking in about 45ml of yoghurt/oil a day).
• She weighs about 950g. The other is heavier but she was always bigger and more agressive with more muscle (we thought she was a cockerel until she started mating the rooster and laying eggs !)
• Keel bone has some muscle, not very prominent - the other chicken has more.
• See these photos of how she was before....

and here she is now.....
Her posture is not very erect, tail not as low as before but her neck and head are tucked back into her breast and the breast really sticking out. Seems like she can't bend forward to peck the ground but she looks down at it ?? But still doesn't want food even if we lift it up for her. Stands like this most of the day.

Last photo I'm sending is of the other "blue angel". You can see it has a completely different posture and bigger comb which is why we thought it was a cockerel !

Any suggestions would be really helpful thank you !

 

[coach723]

I've never used that wormer, but from what I can find it should be dosed at 30 mg/kg of bird weight for three days in a row. 1 kg = 2.2 lbs, so for a 6 lb bird the dose would be about 80 mg. That is what I would do, especially since she seemed to improve after one dose. Worms can cause a lot of internal problems in some birds, including necrotic enteritis, if not treated. If you under dose you risk having some of the worms survive, which will have you going in circles, and can contribute to making the parasites resistant to that medication.
Dosing info I found here, one says to mix in water, I would not do that, I would directly dose the bird to make sure they get it all:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18777386/
http://www.poultrydvm.com/drugs/mebendazole
When treatment is done I would give some probiotics for a bit to try to get her gut healthy. You can use chicken ones (make sure they are probiotic only, not combined with electrolites), a multi species one like pro bios, or even human ones.
For the mites, it usually takes at least three treatments with the permethrin to make sure you get them all. The mites will hide in the nooks and crannies of the coop, and the spray only kills the mites, not the eggs. So you have to repeat treatment to get any that continue to hatch. Usually three treatments at weekly intervals to make sure you've gotten them all. Make sure you discard and replace all bedding and nesting material. You can put some tape on the ends of roosts sticky side up and check in the mornings to see if any mites are stuck to it. Some mites only come out at night to feed on the birds.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Thanks for this.

So if she's 1kg then I need to do 30mg each day for 3 days in a row.

I did the worming of 50mg one time and that was 5 days ago.

So shall I now do 3 days in a row starting today ?

 

[coach723]

That is what I would do, three days in a row.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Hi, just to update you...I've given her 3 days of the mebendazole 40mg - 3rd tablet this morning.

I think you're right there was a worm issue as she now seems a bit brighter, her face gone from white to pink to red. She's more upright now and her tail is back to upright (like in the first picture I sent you of her). Her vent is hardly pulsating at all now She is grooming a bit with her feet, but not preening with her beak. For the first time I saw her take one small sip of water from the bowl. She also took a bit of water out of a cup when I held it up for her. I did see her peck the ground a couple of times but she seemed more to be wiping her beak than pecking up food ?

She was a bit wobbly but is very weak as she's been surviving on 3 spoons of probiotic yoghurt/vitamins a day for the last week. She's pooping a lot and I think some worms have come out the last couple of days but it's such a green/brown liquid mess it's difficult to tell.

Her crop finally feels soft with no grains in it and it seems empty in the mornings.

I put her out in the run in the sun in the afternoon and she moved around the run quite a bit but still spent long periods standing still. A couple of chickens and the rooster ran at her and pecked her a couple of times and she hid from them. She didn't eat with the other chickens but she had the strength to fly up to a 2ft high roost with them for the night (fell off once) - she used to go up to 10ft !

We brought her in to the house for the night and offered her food but she wouldn't take it. So I syringed some yoghurt/vitamins into her and also put some small blobs of scrambled egg into her beak. She swallowed it OK.

So she seems to be slowly improving as she did take some water today and maybe tomorrow she will take some food on her own. But I'm worried if she doesn't what else I can do ? She's only eaten what I have put into her for about a week now.

Do you have any ideas about how I can strengthen her up and get her to start feeding herself again ? Maybe she's too weak to feed herself at the moment ?

Could I give 4 or 5 small syringe feeds over the day ? How would I know if I've overfilled her crop by syringing food in ? I also don't want to block up her crop again if there is still an issue. And is it best to feed her early morning so she has energy for the day ?

So many questions ! Many thanks for your help.

 

[coach723]

Try offering her regular crumbles or pellets mixed with some water to make a mash, they usually like it. A little buttermilk may help her gut, it's easier for them to digest than yogurt and also has probiotics. You can sprinkle a little cooked or scrambled egg over the mash to entice her, or some canned tuna. I'm glad she seems to be improving, worms can really make them very sick, many people do not realize. Hopefully that's all it is and she will continue to improve, and should start eating as she feels better. Where in the world are you generally (you don't have to be real specific- country, state, etc), it makes it a little easier to recommend things.
If you feel you need to force feed, then tubing is much safer than syringing it, link below on how that is done. I will often just make a thick mash with the feed and put pea sized bits in the beak with my fingers and let them swallow.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/go-team-tube-feeding-updated-12-29-2019.805728/

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Try offering her regular crumbles or pellets mixed with some water to make a mash, they usually like it. A little buttermilk may help her gut, it's easier for them to digest than yogurt and also has probiotics. You can sprinkle a little cooked or scrambled egg over the mash to entice her, or some canned tuna. I'm glad she seems to be improving, worms can really make them very sick, many people do not realize. Hopefully that's all it is and she will continue to improve, and should start eating as she feels better. Where in the world are you generally (you don't have to be real specific- country, state, etc), it makes it a little easier to recommend things.
If you feel you need to force feed, then tubing is much safer than syringing it, link below on how that is done. I will often just make a thick mash with the feed and put pea sized bits in the beak with my fingers and let them swallow.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/go-team-tube-feeding-updated-12-29-2019.805728/

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Thanks for your reply. We are in the Cotswolds (a beautiful rural part of the UK west of Oxford - if you search online there are lots of photos !). We have a 60 acre smallholding.

This morning her neck was really twisted to the right and she seems to have balance issues - several times fell to the right and had to put her right wing out to support her ???

Could this be wry neck/Vit E deficiency ? Could it be reaction to so much worm tablets ?

She also doesn't seem to have pooped much overnight could be the gut settling after the worming ?

So this morning she seems in better condition and a lot stronger but with twisted neck and tail is down again. I felt her crop and it seems to be quite flat but seemed to have some granules in it ? It could be she pecked a few bits herself in her box early morning or it's something else in her crop but I can't think what as I only gave her probiotic yoghurt and and some scrambled egg yesterday ? Thanks for the advice on feeding, I've been putting in pea sized bits of scrambled egg so will try that with the mash too.

I offered her water and when I pushed her beak in she took it. She also took more yoghurt today and a tiny bit of egg.

I am having to force feed as she really won't take anything herself so far but how can I tell when her crop is full as I don't want to overdo it ?

Many thanks