Dark Marks on Comb Tips

[ClareScifi]

Maybe I will make an appointment, then, for another fecal sample. That would be easy enough. I hate to stress her out with a trip to the vet, but if I can just take a fecal sample, that will be something concrete to go on.

I do have a ton of toxic plants around. I went to a chicken talk and the presenter said he'd never heard of a chicken dying from eating a poisonous plant, that they would just take a nibble and then stay away from them in the future, that they wouldn't ever eat enough to kill them. Was this bad advice?

The likeliest nibble might have been sweet pea flower, though I haven't seen them eat any of them. I have lilies, but they stay away from them, and the lilies of the valley. They did get in my irises early in the season, but they just trampled them and didn't eat them. I have a Brugmansia, but it has no leaves yet. I watch them around my plants closely.

No, I only noticed the falling on her side bit recently, not back when I took the first fecal sample in. At that time I was worried about her poopy butt, but I'm pretty sure she was eating too much spinach. Once I stopped giving her raw spinach, it cleared up.

This particular chicken has been known to lay 2 eggs within a 24-hour period, which puts her at high risk for becoming eggbound or getting peritonitis. This doesn't happen often, but I think it has happened at least 3 times so far this spring. I don't recall her ever laying 2 eggs in one day last summer. All of her shells are nice and thick, even when she lays 2 the same day. She doesn't lay soft-shelled eggs.

 

[Anianna]

This is a mystery. Let us know how the fecal sample turns out. If it is clear, we'll search around some more and see if we can get any answers.

 

[ClareScifi]

Will do. Thanks for your help. I checked my records and it was April 1 that I had the original fecal sample done. So it's been over 2 months, and we've had tons of rain here. This May was our rainiest on record, ever. So that may have contributed to whatever is her problem. I did see her near the rhubarb yesterday, too, and I recall seeing her peck on a stalk (not a leaf) of it.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
Rhubarb is a cathartic, which means it would make her constipated. The only way rhubarb could cause these symptoms is if she has been backed up so long the blockage is making her sick.

 

[ClareScifi]

Good to know. Her stools look normal. They are always rather olive green, probably from all the vegetation she eats, with white. I did notice that yesterday's was quite large in size.

Bad news. I called the vet's office, and it turns out the nice vet who took the sample for such a reasonable price was only a relief vet and is no longer there! Just my luck.

The receptionist said she'd run my request by the regular vet. She is to talk to him at 4:30. They are open only until 5:30. I was hoping to get it done today. I hope he says yes to doing it, but if he doesn't, any suggestions as to how to find a reputable vet with good equipment for such?

I remember calling all around on April 1. Many places said they don't do fecal samples of chickens. PetSmart refused. Prices were all over the place. I should have made a list of the other places that said they'd do one, but nobody had nearly as good a price, except for a place that is 2 hours away and was $3 more expensive.

I did ask for the relief vet's full name. I wonder how I could most easily locate her? The receptionist said she's a permanent relief vet, which I guess is like a substitute vet? She must go around and fill in for vets who are on vacation, leave, etc.? If I can find her at another vet's office, maybe she'd do another sample for me, and they might have better equipment?

 

[ClareScifi]

Update: I've found out where the Relief Vet will be working on Wednesday at 9 a.m., so that's good, and it's nearby. But I don't know whether I should wait that long for taking a sample... So I called that office, and they are out on lunch, but the receptionist said she'd have the vet tech get back to me when he gets back from lunch. Maybe he will do it today, if the other vet refuses.

Does anyone know where I could obtain the relief vet's phone number? I looked in YellowPages and WhitePages.com, but I can't find her. Would there be a Veterinary Medical Association that would tell me? I called the one in Springville but got an answering machine, and who knows when they will get back to me? I thought there might be a staffed national association I could call?

I found out where the relief vet will be on Wednesday by calling her previous place of employment, which had her listed on their web site. They said she's no longer with them, and they need to update the web site, but they did volunteer to me two places where she might be likely to be working as a relief vet. The 2d one said she wouldn't be at their office until the 20th of this month. It is a long distance away, so I didn't really want to go there, anyway.

But the office where she will be on Wednesday told me that she works 6 days a week, so she is probably working somewhere today and somewhere tomorrow, but I don't know where, and they said they didn't know, either.

Do you think it would be nervy of me to call that office again and ask them if they could contact her for me (surely they have a phone number for her) and see whether she could do a sample for me tomorrow at whatever location she is at? Especially if their veterinary tech refuses to do it?

 

[ClareScifi]

Well, darn. I'm not having much luck with the vets today.

The first place didn't call back as they had promised they would, so I had to call them again. They said their vet wouldn't do the sample, that he doesn't have the right dye for it, that I'd have to go to an Avian Specialist. This is the place where the relief worker had done the fecal samplng for me on April 1, so now I wonder whether that whole thing was bogus, if they don't have the right dyes, and I just wasted my money on a worthless test?!

The second place said the same thing, that they wouldn't do it, I'd have to go to the Exotic Bird place, and that even if the Relief worker who took the earlier sampling is at their office on Wednesday, she can'd do it there, either.

So I called the Bird Place, and they require that I bring the chicken in to see them. They won't do a sampling alone.

I guess I made an error in revealing to the vets' offices that the sampling was off a chicken stool. Had I not said that and just taken it in to them with them not knowing, they would have thought it a cat's or dog's stool, and I would have found out whether my chicken has worms or not, without having to stress her with a trip to the vet.

Now I don't know what to do. That Exotic Bird Place is pricey, too, and I'm on a tight budget. Poor Chicken. :<(

 

[Anianna]

It might be worth taking her in to see that avian vet, especially since we haven't been able to pinpoint an issue for you. If all you do is take in a fecal sample and they find out it's not worms, you still won't know what the problem is.

 

[ClareScifi]

It would probably turn out like when I took my kitten to the expensive vet. I told her what I thought the problem was, and she pooh-poohed it, saying she didn't have the right symptoms for that. She gave him medicines and procedures, all expensive, I might add, that stressed him out, and he died-- of the disease I had diagnosed that she hadn't thought he could possibly have. I wasted my money big-time, and there was no cure for the disease, so taking him did no good. If anything, it shortened his life. The stressors of the visit, medicines, treatments triggered the fatal malady. I no longer trust vets. She claimed his was a rare presentation. Well, I was able to figure it out before she did, and I'm not a vet. Poor Kitten. I still have PTSD after that episode. He died on February 23 of this year, 9 days after taking him to that vet. I buried my little boy and felt I caused his untimely passing by taking him to the vet.

It is the luck of the draw with these health care people. It might be worth it, though. Thanks for brainstorming with me. She has seemed really good all day. A man asked to see her, a nonmedical professional. He said she doesn't look at all like a sick chicken to him.

I'm wondering if somehow she might have rubbed her comb on a tractor and gotten some oil or grease on it where it looks dark. It seems like an awfully big coincidence that it would be where the comb has the tendency to redden, but I guess that would be the part that sticks up the highest, and it is odd it's only on one side. I tried to rub it off but wasn't successful as the hen doesn't really care to be fondled much. She never has. She did lay a perfect egg today and free-ranged quite a bit, and tried to snag food off my supper plate, which I thought was a good sign.

I guess I'll sleep on it. The avian place said I could call about 4 tomorrow, when the bird specialist comes in to work, and get in for an appointment tomorrow evening, so that's a comfort, especially if she should worsen overnight.

 

[ClareScifi]

Update: My chicken does seem a lot better.

I couldn't find her yesterday afternoon and called and called. But she was under the neighbor's van, and when I looked there, I noticed some hoses that hand down really low, and now I'm thinking perhaps her comb rubbed on them, and that's what turned the one side black, because it has faded to gray and is almost unnoticeable. So weird that it coincided with the reddened area, unless it might have turned red from the rubbing, too?

I think I read on one site that eating something poisonous can cause the comb to turn black, and since she had the falling episodes, I still wonder about that? Or the heat that day.

But yesterday she seemed fine, and even joyful. Yesterday my chicken came running toward me when I called her for a treat. Halfway to me, she suddenly jumped up at least 18" in the air, then landed on both feet, and then continued making a beeline toward me. It was so cute. Why do chickens jump like this in the middle of running? I felt so flattered! It looked as if she were "jumping for joy!"

She is eating well and seems happy, even though her sister is out of commission, brooding. Today, though, I was working in the kitchen and turned around, not realizing my chicken had followed me into the house. I almost stepped on her foot. Since her sister isn't available to play with her, I guess I have turned into her surrogate sister, and she is sticking very close.

Chickens are so sweet.