EMERGENCY 3/15/25

[Mr_martyg]

Hi there!
I have a bird in trouble and need some assistance. I am not a novice when it comes to injuries, emergencies, etc. but I’m kind of stumped on this one. I have a nightshade Orpington that I found in my coop just recently…. I found her away from the rest of the crew with wrye (sorry spelling) neck laying on her side.
Since I saw her the day before acting normal with no signs of distress, so therefore, I knew things happened pretty quickly. My immediate thought was one of two things, either a random coop injury (I do have a bully polish that is looking like a good meal right now) or vitamin deficiency of some sort because we are coming out of winter. I immediately isolated the bird and started monitoring her habits as well as supplementing with infant polyVisol, vitamin E, solenium treatments. Making sure she’s getting a ton of water and feeding her food/water by hand to make sure that she’s eating in between and making sure that the food is getting and clearing her neck. Usually if it was wrye neck, I see progression.
It is day number four of quarantine, and she still lays on her side at night time, during the day on occasion, I see her in submissive stance as her balance is off. What is concerning to me is her feces. She has black tar poop which concerns me that there’s an internal injury that is not repairing itself. If somebody thinks it’s something else, please let me know because I don’t wanna have to dispatch this chicken if need be, however, if this is prolonging something that’s inevitable, I don’t want her to be in pain either. Breathing wise, she is breathing deeply and taking water with her eyes open. I find her making her way over to the food as there’s two plates with water and food. The picture below is what I am seeing before I cleaned her vent. No sign of prolapse or water belly. Just thinking of all the things…. I am seeing internal injury please tell me I am wrong….:/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

When was her last egg?

If possible, I'd get a fecal float to help rule out worms as part of the problem.

Was her poop dark before you started the vitamins? Sometimes vitamins can cause dark poop, just checking on this aspect.

It sounds like you are doing all you can for her. Sometimes they can be slow to respond to vitamin therapy. It may be that she has some reproductive issues going on or a disease like Marek's is affecting her, it's hard to know.

 

[Debbie292d]

I like what Wyorp suggests, the vitamins causing the dark poop.

Internal injuries coming from another chicken are pretty unusual. Usually its the head or back that gets pecked, but to cause an internal injury, other than a head injury, wouldn't usually happen.

I always reach for probiotics too for anything awry with any of mine, but I'd keep doing the E and give scrambled eggs for the selenium, just in case she indeed has wry neck or a neurological issue.

I think you're doing fine with her, and she just needs more time to get over whatever this is.

 

[Mr_martyg]

So when it comes to injury and why I would be concerned about injury is the Polish hen that I have has been pretty aggressive. To were that birds fly away from her… My concern was a head trauma injury from reaction or some sort of something that she ingested vs. A “hen fight”. It’s hard to tell when it comes to egg production because we’ve had quite a cold winter and I was having some feed issues where my birds were experiencing a longer than normal laycation. I do not believe it’s Merrick‘s because I would see similar results in the others and like I said before, I don’t believe she’s prolapsed as her vent looks good once I clean off the poop. It’s good to know that vitamin treatments can cause a dark black stool.. I will fight as long as she fights and will keep up with the updates!
Thank you as always!
-M