Chicken lethargic and refusing food/water for a week

[PuddleEndChicken]

Thank you for this. The usual poultry wormer used in the UK is flubendazole ("Flubenvet") and I was going to worm the rest of the flock with this but it lists all the worms and it doesn't say it works for tapeworm. I used mebendazole on this chicken so far.

I think I'm going to need to find a vet and check this out for peace of mind to make sure this one is fully wormed and also the rest of the flock. In the UK it seems the main human tapeworm is only via pigs and none near our smallholding us so hopefully we are OK !

Meanwhile the chicken Cleopatra is doing much better, she is much stronger. The base of her neck still hangs down but if you prop the neck up a bit, she can move her head around well and is pecking strongly at food and turning her head around.

I'm feeding about 4 times a day but she's eating a massive amount - last meal she ate a whole scrambled egg plus a handful of layers pellets made into mash (plus vits).

Her head movement has really strengthened so I'm hoping that she'll gradually be able to lift her neck too ??

Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Praziquantel and albendazole are both used to treat tapeworms in humans, so those may be available in your country to get one of those from a vet. Albendazole would need to be used a certain number of days for tapes in chickens. Praziquantel can be used once and repeated in 10 days for tapes in chickens.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

@coach723 I have found a local agricultural vet and am going to speak to him later today. They are suggesting Flimabend which is flubendazole that can be dissolved in water for the whole flock. I'll check that this works specifically for tapeworm.

Meanwhile Cleopatra is stronger and if you can support her neck, she can move her head around and eats well but there is a real twist at the base of the neck where it joins the body.
So this means her whole neck drags on the ground and she can't lift it up. What are he chances that the base of the neck can gradually come back into position ?

She views things upside down so gets disorientated and thrashes around and ends up sleeping on her side. I've tried a sling but she struggles to get out after a while. She seems happiest lying down with head laying sideways on a towel.

What are the chances that the base of the neck can gradually come back into position ?

 

[coach723]

There is mixed info on the efficacy of flubendazole on tapes. Some say yes, some say no, some say it works on some types but not all. My personal preference would be praziquantel since that seems to be effective against them all. As far as her neck, it's very hard to say. I have read threads that had similar issues and it took weeks to resolve. Sometimes patience is the hardest thing, but it's very hard to predict, especially since the underlying reason is not known for sure. You have certainly done everything you can, and I hope you ultimately have a good outcome.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

@coach723 well we are still going !! Cleopatra is eating well and pooping normally now however her wry neck is just the same if not worse and that's after 16 days of Vit E, multi vits, selenium and layers mash with egg, yoghurt etc.

If I untwist her neck and support it she can stand up for a few seconds, but then she gets frustrated that I'm holding her neck and backs away at which point she falls over. The rest of the time she just lies on her side with her eyes open or closed. The neck has done nearly a 360 degree turn. She can shake her feathers but she can't preen herself.

I can't think what else to do and am wondering whether to euthanise as her quality of life is nil as I have to feed her and clean the poop or she would be lying in it. Although I don't think she is in pain and does eat well. I've seen some other posts on this website that suggest aspirin or prednisone to get the inflammation down so I'm wondering whether to try that as a last resort ? Do you think this would help and if so what dose ?

I'm taking my puppies to the vet on wednesday and if there's no improvement in Cleopatra by then I might take her too and see what they say/possibly euthanize then.

Very sad to be at this stage. Her gut is completely back to normal now but there's been no improvement in the neck at all over 16 days (including putting her in various slings/neck braces etc). Thanks !

 

[coach723]

Sorry for the late reply. I really don't know if aspirin or prednisone would be helpful. When a head injury is the suspected cause of wry neck those are sometimes used. Plumbs Veterinary drug handbook dosing for aspirin:
!!Avian:
a) 5 grams in 250 mL of water as sole water source (Clubb 1986)
Note: Because of the significant hydrolysis that will occur, this
solution should be freshly prepared every 12 hours if stored at
room temperature or every 4 days if kept refrigerated at 5° C.
There is some dosing info here, in post #2:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/aspirin-dosing.1198396/
Prednisone I think you would need to get from a vet, I've never needed to use it. Again, Plumbs dosing info:
!!Birds:
As an antiinflammatory:
a) Prednisolone: 0.2 mg/30 gram body weight, or dissolve one
5 mg tablet in 2.5 mL of water and administer 2 drops orally.
Give twice daily. Decrease dosage schedule if using longterm.
(Clubb 1986)
For treatment of shock:
a) Prednisolone sodium succinate (10 mg/mL): 0.1 – 0.2 mL/100
grams body weight. Repeat every 15 minutes to effect. In
large birds, dosage may be decreased by 1/2. (Clubb 1986)
As for when it's time to say good-bye, that is such a personal decision that we all grapple with at some point. There are many variables, if you think she is suffering and not going to get any better, then certainly it's a justified decision. If you are able to have her seen by a vet, then hopefully they can give you some better advice after seeing her in person, and can advise if euthanasia is the best option at this point, or if there are some other treatments you may want to try. It is never an easy decision, making it is the hardest part really.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

@coach723 I'm sorry to let you know that we have reached the end of our journey with Cleopatra this morning. I took her to the vet, they said that not only is the neck continuing to rotate but it looks like the rest of the spine as well. She said, given all the interventions that I've done that they think it could be a neurological issue. I asked if it could be contagious to the rest of the flock and she said it's possible but seems unlikely given that Cleopatra started having problems at start of July and none of the other chickens has shown any symptoms at all.

Anyway they put her to sleep and I felt very sad. I gave her all the care and support I could over the last month, but she just couldn't pull through.

RIP Cleopatra, she was a good chicken and I will miss her ☹☹

@coach723, thank you sincerely for all your help over the last month, I couldn't have got this far with out you and it's most appreciated ! Despite the sad ending for Cleopatra I have learnt SO much about the mysterious working of chickens and their symptoms and feel much better equipped to help the rest of my flock in the future. Are you able to tell me a bit about your own set up eg do you live on a farm ? what type of chickens do you have and how many ?

 

[coach723]

I'm very sorry that you lost her. I think many of us have had a bird that we tried very hard to save, only to lose them ultimately, and I think it makes it all the harder. It's hard to be so close every day doing all you can, and then get terribly attached and feel the loss all the more. I'm glad that you were able to have her seen by a vet, and hopefully that gave you some peace of mind that you had done all that you could. Sometimes, despite all our best efforts, there just isn't anything we can do. Doesn't make it any easier.

I have 12 acres in the middle of no where in North Florida, I have two heifers (Brangus) and a spotted donkey, currently 28 chickens (a number that is always changing!) , a Great Pyrenees dog, and a cat that arrived as a feral kitten after Tropical Storm Debby in 2012. My chicken breeds vary, my local place that I used to purchase from carried all sorts of breeds with arrival dates so I could get what I wanted, and they closed a couple of years ago, and I loathe shipping chicks, so have not had the variety I got used to. So I have a fair amount of sex links now, both red and black, not my favorite. I've got one Barred Rock left, one RIR hen left. 5 EE's, 2 Gold Laced Wyandottes, 1 light Brahma, 2 Speckled Sussex, my roosters are a Gold Laced Wyandotte and one of his offspring that is a mix with a EE. I have quite a few mixes from the two roo's with all the others, I've hatched more here lately since I can't get particular breeds easily anymore without shipping. My Post office is so unreliable that I really don't want to ship babies. I had one Wellsummer hen that I lost this spring, and I was terribly sad to lose her. I always look at TSC, when they get chicks, but most often don't buy since I just don't want more sex links at this point, and many times they are mislabled anyway. Last trip one of the bins was labled "australorp pullets" and every chick in there was red or yellow.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

I'm very sorry that you lost her. I think many of us have had a bird that we tried very hard to save, only to lose them ultimately, and I think it makes it all the harder. It's hard to be so close every day doing all you can, and then get terribly attached and feel the loss all the more. I'm glad that you were able to have her seen by a vet, and hopefully that gave you some peace of mind that you had done all that you could. Sometimes, despite all our best efforts, there just isn't anything we can do. Doesn't make it any easier.

I have 12 acres in the middle of no where in North Florida, I have two heifers (Brangus) and a spotted donkey, currently 28 chickens (a number that is always changing!) , a Great Pyrenees dog, and a cat that arrived as a feral kitten after Tropical Storm Debby in 2012. My chicken breeds vary, my local place that I used to purchase from carried all sorts of breeds with arrival dates so I could get what I wanted, and they closed a couple of years ago, and I loathe shipping chicks, so have not had the variety I got used to. So I have a fair amount of sex links now, both red and black, not my favorite. I've got one Barred Rock left, one RIR hen left. 5 EE's, 2 Gold Laced Wyandottes, 1 light Brahma, 2 Speckled Sussex, my roosters are a Gold Laced Wyandotte and one of his offspring that is a mix with a EE. I have quite a few mixes from the two roo's with all the others, I've hatched more here lately since I can't get particular breeds easily anymore without shipping. My Post office is so unreliable that I really don't want to ship babies. I had one Wellsummer hen that I lost this spring, and I was terribly sad to lose her. I always look at TSC, when they get chicks, but most often don't buy since I just don't want more sex links at this point, and many times they are mislabled anyway. Last trip one of the bins was labled "australorp pullets" and every chick in there was red or yellow.

Thanks for all your support, I'm still in a bit of shock she's gone ! The kitchen seems very empty without her - my husband thinks I'm crazy !!!

Wow, your set up sounds great ! I had to look up all those different breeds for the heifers/donkey/dog as we don't have any of them in the UK and they all look wonderful! Your place must be wonderful.

You are lucky that you can get such a variety of chicks,and have things like TSC (even if they aren't labelled very well !). We don't have anything like that here, you have to go to a specialist poultry dealer and often they only can give you a pure breed adult hen and they won't give you a pure breed rooster to match in case you start breeding and set up some competition to them !! We have a Pekin bantam rooster and 3 Pekin hens - one very broody and she's hatched out 7 bantam chicks (trying to work out how many girls - could be as many as 4 which is unusual !). We have 3 Easter Eggers, 1 is an Araucana/leghorn cross and she lays blue eggs (Cleopatra that I just lost was the second of these) and 2 which are Araucana/something else cross which lays green eggs. I then have 2 Rhode Island Red hybrids (very dark brown eggs), 2 Sussex hybrids (almost white eggs) and 2 Cuckoo Maran hybrids (dark brown eggs). We also have 3 Japanese quail which are getting quite tame. We did have one Italian quail but it managed to escape when we opened the cage for feeding and flew away !!

Other than that we have two whippet puppies which are adorable, so finding our way with those ! And the next door farmer has some of our land for his flock of Kerry Hill sheep which are a Welsh breed.

Thanks for all the help and information, it's been great chatting with you on this site. I'll be keeping in touch with my future chicken questions !!