Crop not filling up?

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I have an eight month old Blue Plymouth named Ethyl. She is one of three Plymouths that came into my flock last year. Her sister, Miss Betty White, passed recently.

Ethyl has been acting off for about two weeks. Her balance has been off, she’s been moving slowly and has been allowing me to pick her up, which isn’t usual. She hasn’t been laying, either. I’m not sure she ever has - I have only seen about a handful of white eggs, which I am assuming was coming from these hens, as I can identify all the rest of my pullets eggs, and no one else lays white eggs.

Here is my conundrum. She is eating and drinking water, but her crop is never full; I can’t even feel her crop at all. She has been separated and I have watched her gobble down food, but nothing seems to settle in her crop. Her breast bone is pronounced, she is light as a feather.

I have given her nutridrench, calcium, vitamin E, but she continues to waste away. I wormed my flock with Ivermectin on 3/24 and again 4/7 after finding tapeworm segments in poop, but could never identify who it was coming from.

Her current poop is watery with white. They are fed layer crumble/pellets with occasional scratch and worms. I have inspected her for mites and lice, and trim her butt feathers because they are messy from her poop, but can’t find anything. I witnessed her stretching her neck high today and kind of gaping. I don’t have hope she will make it, and am prepared to take her for professional necropsy if she doesn’t.

This will be the third pullet I will have lost, but the other two didn’t continue eating and drinking while wasting away to nothing.

Any thoughts? Thank you. As usual, @azygous , you are my go to

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I meant to ask @Eggcessive and @Wyorp Rock as well. The weird thing, too, is her comb hasn’t been pale and she hasn’t been fluffing up or having her tail down. But she can be standing there and if another bird even brushes by her, she will almost fall over. She almost acts like her leg is bothering her, likes she limps if she has to move fast and is weak on one side. I felt her and couldn’t feel anything like her being eggbound, either.

 

[Eggcessive]

Ivermectin is not the best for worming anymore, since many worms are resistant to it. Tapeworms won’t be killed with ivermectin. A wormer that contains praziquantel is best for tapes. Those include Droncit tablets, or horse wormers, Equimax or Zimectrin Gold. For general worms I would use Safeguard or Valbazen. Was she vaccinated for Mareks? That is something that comes to mind.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor thing, it does look like she's wasting away

A Blue Plymouth Rock would lay brown eggs, just FYI.

I agree, Ivermectin is not going to treat Tapeworms so using the correct dewormer is the place to start. @Eggcessive gave you a good list. The dosing and medication names are listed in the link below.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/treating-tapeworms-under-construction.1220309/

I'd work on her drinking well and eating. She may benefit from some extra protein a few times a week - egg, meat or fish are always good choices.
Hopefully she'll come around, but if you do happen to lose her, then getting the diagnostics through your state lab would provide you with the most information.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Ivermectin is not the best for worming anymore, since many worms are resistant to it. Tapeworms won’t be killed with ivermectin. A wormer that contains praziquantel is best for tapes. Those include Droncit tablets, or horse wormers, Equimax or Zimectrin Gold. For general worms I would use Safeguard or Valbazen. Was she vaccinated for Mareks? That is something that comes to mind.

I’m sorry, I misspoke on the wormer, it was Equimax.
None of my chickens were vaccinated for Marek’s. When I had my first chicken issue I really spent time reading everything I could about diseases, and more often than not, I was seeing that it was best to go with the flow of the birds you already had, as far as vaccines. I guess that is is a moot point now

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

See, I was confused about the Blue Plymouth distinction from TSC, as they don’t have barred features? Is that a female thing? The eggs that I labeled as white were the absolute lightest of any of my light browns. I think I googled Blue Plymouth egg color and found white, now I’m rambling..

I have started pulling her away from everyone for a couple hours a day so she can eat as much as she can possibly put in her pie hole, which is impressive, but I will add eggs tomorrow. I already made a call to the VDS and got the info I need for answers, it’s just so weird. I was hoping it was breed thing, losing random chickens is frustrating, like you can never know everything. It amazes me the number of people who have had chickens for years and years.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Plymouth Rock is the breed.

Blue, Barred, White, Partridge, etc. is the color "variety". All Plymouth Rocks lay brown eggs.

Did you give the correct dosing of the Equimax? If you did, then I'd consider deworming her with Valbazen or Safeguard or if possible, get a fecal float to rule out worms being part of the problem.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Plymouth Rock is the breed.

Blue, Barred, White, Partridge, etc. is the color "variety". All Plymouth Rocks lay brown eggs.

Did you give the correct dosing of the Equimax? If you did, then I'd consider deworming her with Valbazen or Safeguard or if possible, get a fecal float to rule out worms being part of the problem.

I did .03 per pound per bird according to several other threads I read, I hope that was correct. As far as the fecal float test, could I just scoop the dirt she poops on? It’s basically just water. I will call my vet tomorrow and see if they even do them.

Would you deworm the whole flock again, or just her? Here is the poop that started the worming. (Not necessarily hers)

Thanks for helping me. Would a worm issue account for her crop not filling up? I guess that’s what’s got me confused.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'd try to gather whatever liquid/dirt you can in a baggy for the fecal float.

See if you can get the testing first to determine if she needs to be dewormed again.
It may be that she has more than one thing affecting her, but at least you will be able to hopefully rule out worms.

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

I'd try to gather whatever liquid/dirt you can in a baggy for the fecal float.

See if you can get the testing first to determine if she needs to be dewormed again.
It may be that she has more than one thing affecting her, but at least you will be able to hopefully rule out worms.

Sounds like a plan. Thank you so much again.