Chicken seizuring and throwing up- Now suspect sour crop- question!

[miniwarrior]

I have a 3 year old buff orpington who did not come out of the coop this mornign and was making soft noises. when I looked inside and tried to pick her up she threw up a tan-ish liquid and gave a sharp high pitched squawk as if in pain. I have isolated her in a crate with straw bedding and a little food and water (which she is not interested in) and now she keeps having seizure-like fits where she throws herself in the air and lands. in between the fits she looks as though she's trying to squawk or throw up but all that comes out is a very small sound. i can't find any evidence of other injuries or illness and all the other hens seem to be normal. i would like to treat her myself if possible or if this is something that has no cure, i would like to put her out of her pain.

Has anyone ever seen this before? I really want to help her. it's quite upsetting to see her like this.
thanks
-shirene

 

[miniwarrior]

OK- so I am pretty sure she is probably poisoned, although I have no idea by what. the seizures have stopped now and she has collapsed but seems to be breathing normally- maybe a little labored. I took her food out since i know after a seizure you aren't supposed to eat.

Is this something she can recover from??? Any advice or ideas on what is going on would be much appreciated.

 

[miniwarrior]

OK- i guess this is an unusual problem since nobody has responded... Butters (that's her name) seems to be acting more normal now that it's afternoon. I had to go to work for a little while but she is able to walk now and doesn't seem to have had any more fits (i can tell because there aren't any more feathers around her crate than when I left). Has anyone ever had this happen to one of their chickens? What would you recommend for treatment as far as how long she should stay isolated??

I know this might be an odd thing to happen, but i'd really appreciate some input here...

 

[AndreaS]

I'm sorry to see no one else has had any suggestions for you. I don't have experience with this particular issue, bit I have done extensive chicken health research, and I'll be glad to share some links and suggestions with you. Again, I'm no expert, but here's what I would do.

Definitely keep her isolated. Do a really thorough exam, especially check her crop. Make sure It's not super squishy, no sour smelling breath, make sure it emptied in the morning. Take a good look at her poop.

If you think it might be poisoning, I would read this thread all the way through. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=219553

You really have to read the whole thing to get a full picture of the flush treatment. Does she have access to any moldy items (compost pile, possible moldy food, etc)? Apparently in botulism cases the feathers are easily lost or pulled out.

I would try some serious nutritional and supplement approaches as well. Poly-vi-sol baby vitamins without iron, three drops on the side of her beak daily. If you have a vitamin mix like aviacharge 2000 or nutridrench for poultry, you could add that to her water. Or maybe some very diluted electrolytes.

As for feed, I would give plain organic yogurt with live cultures, mashed up hard boiled egg yolk, her crumbles ground fine in a food processor.

If you really think it might be botulism, follow the instructions in the thread I linked above.

Keep her isolated in a nice warm, quiet and dim area. Make sure she is drinking and eating easily digested foods.

Hopefully someone with more suggestions or experience will chime in. If all else fails you can call Peter Brown of first state vet supply and see what He thinks. He offers telephone consultations.

Please keep me updated, and good luck!
Andrea

 

[miniwarrior]

Hi Andrea,
Thank you so much for the information! This morning she seems to be back to normal! But I am going to still doctor her a little while longer. I read through the thread on botulism and am definitely going to flush out her system with the molasses/ water solution just to make sure she is clear... or do you think if she's acting more normal now there is no need?

She wasn't interested in food yesterday- but she took a few bites of the yogurt/egg/crumbles mix this morning so that was a good sign! definitely not the same appetite as usual though. She did poop a little yesterday, but it was very grainy- like it hadn't fully been digested. I took it out of the coop now. Her crop is normal and is empty this morning- although she didn't really have much in it to empty from yesterday. I'm going to get some Rooster Booster from my local feed store- he didn't have the aviacharge or nutridrench. I tried looking up ingredients to compare the two but couldn't find a list of aviacharge so I'm thinking I'll just go with what i can get today. I'm going to dose the rest of the ladies with it also to make sure their immune systems stay strong!

This is so strange! hopefully it was just an isolated incident and she is in recovery. my main question is how long to keep her isolated before it's ok to put her back in with the rest.

thanks again for your post! i had done a search on poisoning but the botulism thread did not come up so that was very helpful.

 

[farmer_lew]

Sorry to hear about your Butters, but am glad to hear that she is doing better. I am also glad that Andrea was able to help you out. I have no further info for you, other than what Andrea was able to provide, but would suggest you keep Butters isolated until she is at least eating, drinking and evacuating normally.

 

[AndreaS]

You know, I think I would probably do a gentle flush regardless. I think threehorses also mentions baby applesauce mixed in for a gentle flush, and as a prebiotic so the probiotics can better work.

I'm not familiar with rooster booster. If it doesn't have a good oil multi vitamin solution in it, I would pick up the poly-vi-sol (no iron) and use that as well. The b vitamins should help boost her appetite.

I agree on keeping her inside until you know for a fact that she is eating and processing her food like normal.

So the thing that seems strangest to me about all of this is the "throwing up". Chicken's digestive systems have no reverse function, they can't really throw up. What I would wonder about is the possibility of crop issues, of choking, or perhaps even something like gape worm. I've read that sometimes with gape worm, chickens will cough and gag and jump around trying to expel the worm. Have you wormed them recently?

These are just ideas.....but I guess what I'm trying to get at is that there might be something else going on other than botulism, so I would proceed with caution and keep a very close eye on her. Gentle molasses/ applesauce flush (I would not use Epsom salts) followed by probiotics, vitamins, easily dissolved foods and close observation.

I'm so glad to hear that Butters is feeling better today, and I hope she keeps it up! Let us know how she does

 

[aonlineshop]

i will be reading all the post on this thread.....

 

[miniwarrior]

Thanks everyone for your helpful posts!! I have had my own sudden mysterious allergic attack and was not able to take care of Butters as much as I wanted yesterday because of it. (maybe it was a sympathy illness!) anyways, I will definitely look into gape worm- thanks for that lead!

I have been giving her the Poly-vi-sol no iron drops and today just finally was able to put the Rooster Booster in her water. Now that I am off of work, I will definitely do a flush of her system tonight. She is still not very interested in food, although she seemed to have eaten a little of what I put out there for her. I just gave her scrambled egg so we'll see if she goes for it. When I gave her the scrambled egg, I watched her for a little while and she did the "throwing up" thing again and a few drops of the same tanish liquid came out of her mouth. She has pooped a little but not much.

ok- i am going to research gape worm right now!! thanks again for all your help and suggestions! we'll have to see where this goes i guess.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How does her crop feel and look? is it somewhat flat in the morning before she eats and full in the evening? is it squishy or hard feeling? smelly?sorry just saw her crop is good, glad shes feeling better.