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[Gargoyle]

I think you are doing all the right things. i wonder if a steaming kettle nearby would help?

I'd be concerned about too much humidity, especially if there is any chill at all. Their respiratory systems are different from ours.

 

[oesdog]

I think you are doing all the right things. i wonder if a steaming kettle nearby would help? I know when my children had croup I filled the bathroom with steam and it helped the rasping breathing enormously. Certainly the asthma inhaler will help with breathing. I do hope she pulls through, she sounds a very gutsy girl and the fact that she is eating is a very good sign.

I have been heating vaper rub in a tub and putting it under a towel that is over the cat cage. I am hoping this is helping. The breathing seems less laboured but I am not sure if it is because she is failing in strength. I am trying everything I can. She is at the moment back beside the radiator. What else can I do? The garlic - I tried that with the last bird that got sick - she died very fast!

Not sure I will try that again. I thought Drummy had sour crop but after 3 sick hens and two deaths this is got to be connected. I am watching the others and am worried about them all now.

Oes

 

[newfoundland]

You are doing all you can I think. Warmth and spraying the air with inhaler, plus the vapour rub (bet that's good old VIC) in hot water will help. If it is pneumonia, with careful nursing, as you are doing, and as long as she can be persuaded to eat, she could very well pull through. Even with antibiotics there are no guarantees, and I believe an ounce of good care is worth a pound of medicines. There is a product called oxine which I have read about on the internet which can be used to disinfect poultry houses but also to medicate lungs. I know it can be bought on the internet, it might be worth trying that or something similar which might be available in horse tack type shops or feed merchants?

 

[oesdog]

Thanks I am doing best I can and am away to spray again now and check on her.

Oes.

 

[oesdog]

I just checked on my girl - She died
Bertha went the way of the others. I am so sad nothing I try works and I am going out to check the others.

Oes -

 

[newfoundland]

Oh I'm so sorry oesdog what a bitter blow! You mustn't feel bad, you tried all you could. I hope the others are ok. i am thinking of you in your sadness.

 

[oesdog]

Yea I am really upset about her actually floods of tears. She was my best girl and I loved her very much. Do you knwo she won best momma hen best broody on BYC!
She sat for 18 weeks on her chicks - this is a pic of her hurding them into a corner to sit on them at 18 weeks they were as big as she was!



I am devistated - Put the others inside early tonight with loads more hay.

I am not convinced others don;t have it???
Oes - it kills fast. - I am sooo upset.

My best girl ! gone.

 

[Gargoyle]

Oes, so sorry to hear this. Do you have any sort of regional or local agriculture service that will do a necropsy? It will help to find the cause, because it might be in others in your flock.

 

[oesdog]

Oes, so sorry to hear this. Do you have any sort of regional or local agriculture service that will do a necropsy? It will help to find the cause, because it might be in others in your flock.

No they don't do that here. - Your thinking that it is something nasty?????? Dorothy had had IB in the past but had long survived it. She had it before I got her and I had her near on 3 yrs? That is the only thing. My flock are a closed flock so if anything came in it came from a wild bird? I am thinking it is the bitter cold that has done the damage. THough Drum-stick didn;t seemt o have the same kind of symptoms as the other two. She seemed to have more sour crop sort of thing going on. Her crop was full of gunge. Drummy usually got sick in the winter time with the same kind of symptoms every year. She would have a bad cold type thing we thought was down to her having had IB before. She always returned to good health when the weather got warmer. Though she never ever laid good eggs as the shells were always thin and the eggs odd shaped. Each of the hens have died differently too.

Dorothy - I left to basically get on with it because she had done every year. Then I head a well like a screech and I went out to find a very guilty looking Drum-stick running away from what can only be described as a murder bid. Dorothy was face down in the mud obviously having gotten trampled into the ground. I lifted her and washed her face and took her inside in a towel. She had terrible death throws and we were in two mind what to do thinking we should have euthanised but she died quite soon after that.
Then Drum-stick got sick out of the blue. I treated her with garlic for sour crop and the crop empted but she just didn;t want to eat after that no matter what I tried. She just started sleeping more and more and then I found her unconsious over her water bowl and brought her in. She just fell asleep and died it was all very peaceful and not a bit like Drummy.
Bertha got sick out of the blue as well - I am wondering if the farm out back di a spray of something? Anyhow she just had this terrible horse rattle - like a death rattle for the off. I brought her in and did all I could with trying to ease the breathing. She got very upset at being crated. But I covered it with a towel so she had dark and calm. She was still eating by herself. Though she sounded terrible. I managed to ease it a few times but then found her dead yesterday. I think her heart just went, what with the stress and being taken away from the others etc? So very different in lots of ways but all seem to be cold realted airway stuff. Maybe it is in another hen - Agnes and Betty have been sounding strange in the past but seemed ok of late. But I cought agnes earlier she looked like she was trying to crow but no sound came out. - Now she is away down the yard with all the others and she is eating and digging like everyone else? I am putting them in early at nights now and they have much more bedding? I am hoping it was just the bitter wind and nothing sinister int he flock - Had a terrible dream last night that they all had chicken flu and DEFRA came down and killed all the hens all around for miles? -OMG it was an awful nightmare.

Oes

 

[Gargoyle]

I am thinking it is the bitter cold that has done the damage

Has it been very damp? Dry cold shouldn't hurt them that much. Where I am, it's worse between 20 and 32 (-6 and 0 C) degrees than it is when it's under 20 (-6) degrees. That's because below 20 it gets real dry. Damp cold is much worse. Our girls like playing around and hanging out outside when it's 5 degrees, (-15 C) as long as they're out of the wind. Of course, they are a cold-hearty Midwestern breed. They don't like the hot weather, that causes them to pant and suffer.