Deworming question

[Eggcessive]

If she is acting like she is egg bound you could give a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D tablet or a Tum orally into her beak to swallow.

 

[Weetamoo93]

If she is acting like she is egg bound you could give a human calcium citrate tablet with vitamin D tablet or a Tum orally into her beak to swallow.

She's not really acting egg bound and I have not felt anything hard from an external or internal exam. I think the lack of egg(s) is stress and age. I have given her a couple calcium carbonate tabs (generic brand Tums) in case that is an issue.

Since she ate yesterday, I'm offering her food soaked in whey from yogurt.

 

[Weetamoo93]

Update: I'm mercy culling her tonight.

She got better and was walking around eating and drinking. Went to feed her this evening and she kept "wagging" her head and clumsily pecking at her food. Whenever she wasn't wagging it around, her head was trembling. Fast forward to all the kids in bed and getting the baby down and I can hear a sporadic commotion outside. I go to check and she's in the stargazing position, and very unsteady. I take her out to evaluate and she just starts violently thrashing; I thought she was dying on me right there. But she stopped and shakily held out her head for a bit before violently throwing it back. I'll get a video if possible prior to the cull; I do have a video of the head wagging.

I've had wry neck in a cockerel before and he just held his head at the wrong angle. She looks uncomfortable and I think the best thing for her is to help her move on. She's had a good life but the last two weeks have not been the kindest to her.

 

[Weetamoo93]

I'll work on uploading the videos of her behavior, but here's the photos from the mercy cull. I've only culled cockerels, so I'm not familiar with old hens.

She has a lot more fat than I expected (I guess that's where the term "fat old hen" came from?) and no eggs in development. I didn't see any obvious signs of infection or illness, so I put her in the fridge to feed my family (or dogs).

Attached organ photos in case someone sees something I don't. I meant to and totally forgot a photo of just the liver. That's what I get for doing this so late/early.

 

[Weetamoo93]

I didn't get a video of the thrashing on the ground, but this is what she was doing.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. Poor thing. I agree, that is a lot of fat inside the body. I am not a pro at necropsy photos. If the liver was tan or light colored, it may have been fatty liver disease. I had one with that and the fat was 1 1/2 inches thick, between every organ, the liver was tan, and there was a large blood clot next to the liver. What do you feed your chickens? Is it fresh dated? Vitamin E deficiency can cause neurological problems, and E can leech out of feed if it gets old. I would also look at her wry neck and tremors as being possible Mareks. Usually Mareks is a problem in younger chickens. I’m not sure if fatty liver disease would affect her brain and cause neurological symptoms. Thanks for posting the necropsy photos.