Green diarrhea & head tilt on Buff Orpington hen, please help!

[VictoriaTemple]

Newbie trying not to panic here, please help! Gertrude is a Buff Orpington hen, approximately 1 1/2 years old, weighs about 6 pounds. I have had her since July 21, and she has always been alert, fiesty, and a hearty forager (attacks earthworms like she was starving to death!). Has not laid any eggs for 3 weeks due to heavy rain and interpersonal problems, but otherwise a sound hen. 3 days ago she became listless and reclusive, separating herself from the flock. She is beginning to molt. Has bright green diarrhea and refuses to eat, drink, or forage. Comb and wattles are pale and dry-looking, tail drooped, eyes partially closed and tired. Breathing seems fine. Feet ice-cold. Very quiet. This morning would not stop tilting her head to the side, which frightens me (a neurological disorder?). I am currently on antibiotics for a Giarda infection, is it possible Gertrude might be infected (or even the source?). Please advise, my local vet will not see chickens, and I lost 2 to typhis in early July. Gertrude likely does not have typhis, the symptoms don't match. Please help! I'm so afraid of losing another one!

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Where are you located? Is her neck twisted as they will do in wry neck? That can be from a head injury, a vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, or from an infectious disease, such as Mareks or respiratory disease. Molts can be a time for illnesses to show up since it is a time of stress. Green droppings are from not eating enough. Usually, my sickest chickens will accept a bit of scrambled egg. Tuna or wet chicken feed thinned with water are others to use. If you can get her on some vitamins that include E and thiamine, and give a small amout of egg or tuna for selenium, that would be good. If you can post a picture here, or a video to YouTube with a link here, we may be able to tell more about her.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Thank you for your help, Eggcessive. Her neck doesn't quite look like wryneck, it is very mobile with no apparent weakness, she just keeps twitching and turning her head every which way, backwards, upside down, everywhere. She was stumbling badly this morning, but I just bathed her with Epsom salt with peppermint oil in it and some oregano in the bath water, and she seems to be perking up a little. I rubbed some VetRx on her comb and wattles, which she seemed to like. Will put more on feet and wings as directed. Her diarrhea was terrible, and her usually full crop is nearly empty. I got her some plain yogurt & put vitamin/electrolyte powder, Durastat powder, a few drops VetRx, and her favorite golden flaxseed in it, but she won't touch it. I don't want to overmedicate, but I don't want to loss her either. She is on my couch now drying off in front of a heat fan.

I don't feed my chickens commercial poultry feed because I am on food stamps with no other income right now. I borrowed the money for the medicine today. I feed mixed bulk grain, which I share with my birds (wheat and white millet, with alternating amounts of flaxseed, sunflower seed, barley, oats, whatever), scratch grain (cracked corn, wheat, and milo), large amounts of fresh assorted weeds from my chemical-free yard, and fruit&veggie scraps (sweet corn cobs, tomatoes, salad greens, melons, peppers, anything the food bank farmers market will save for me). They also have a small forage area (dirt, unfortunately, until I can afford some more fence), where they dig bugs and worms everyday. They have pretty much pecked it out of anything big like earthworms, but I dig those for them daily until new ones hatch. I don't know what I could be missing in their diet except medications, which they will have to do without.

although her breathing seems ok and there is no nasal or ocular discharge, I wonder if it isn't a respiratory infection. It has been the rainiest summer on record, and nothing is able to dry. We live under trees, so there is mold everywhere, especially in their ancient and very leaky co-op (my friend is working on building a new one but has to battle the rain). Their feet are always wet and muddy, there's just nothing I can do. Plus we are swimming in mosquitoes! Not ideal conditions, certainly,and I guess I should have expected disease, but I didn't. I just need to know how to keep my birds as healthy as possible!

thanks again!

P.S: My 1 1/2 year old Rhode Island Red hen, Jane, is also showing signs of illness. She was getting bullied by my Jersey Giant roosters until last week, so I thought that was the cause of her trouble, but now I'm not sure. Tired eyes, drooped tail, dry pale comb & wattles, and considerable weight loss. Still actively forages and eats ok, just seems depressed. A little gentle discipline of the roosters helped some, but she still isn't right. She's Gertrude's best friend, and I think she will get the same treatments (bath, yogurt, etc.). I just wish I knew what is wrong. Losing a hen and a pullet to typhus ripped the stuffing out of me, and I just can't go through that again. I was infected too, but have been cleared.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Oh, sorry, thanks too for the welcome! I am in Pennsylvania. I haven't made it over to the new intro forum, too worried about my girls!

 

[Eggcessive]

It might be cheaper in the long run to just get a bag of Dumor layer pellets from your feed store. A 50 pound bag here is $10 now, and scratch grains or other grains are just $2 less. The layer feed has the right mix of minerals, vitamins, and protein-carbs-fat. You don’t have to give anything else, although most put out grit and oyster shell.

I wonder if she might have a neurological problem. I don’t know that it would be from a nutrition problem, but it is possible. Can you possibly post a video to YouTube with a link here, of her doing the odd movements of her neck? Mareks, a seizure disorder, or nutritional deficiency could all be possible. So far I haven’t read any symptoms of a respiratory nature, although head shaking could be one. Usually, watery eyes, nasal drainage, sneezing, gasping, or wheezing can be some signs.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Wouldn't a neurological disorder like Marek's have shown up younger? This is very sudden, and although barebacked by her old rooster, Gertrude was very healthy when I got her, up until 3 days ago. Plus, Jane is sick too, just not nearly as bad.

Layer pellets are expensive here, and I don't trust the "crude protein" they put in them. They smell horrible, and I have no cash to buy them anyway. I buy the grains and seeds with my food stamps, and I enjoy them too. Bought a bag of crumbles once when my first hen got sick (typhus), never again. Took it back to the store, traded it for chick grit and a suet block, which my chickens love and are never without. I doubt mine would even touch the stuff now, all 8 have been off poultry feed for at least 1-2 months, and they are picky eaters because they can afford to be. Thank you though. It's not really a matter of "cheaper", because you can't buy pellets on food stamps, and if I borrow for them once I will be constantly borrowing for them until my Social Security Disability starts.

I can try to post a video tomorrow, but my Kindle usually does not take good video or pictures. Gertrude is so much perkier after her bath, I really am much more hopeful, though she still will not eat. Praying fervently for my girls!

 

[RyRe2010]

Mareks or any disease on a chicken can really pop up at any time. Doesn't have to be a young bird. I just had a pullet do this too and I just took her to our state animal disease diagnostic lab today. She declined despite my efforts of trying to nurse her. I will post results of her necropsy if you like.
Also, make sure you are isolating her from the others

 

[Eggcessive]

When you say they got typhus, do you mean fowl typhoid or salmonella, or possibly coccidiosis? What did you treat them with?

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Mareks or any disease on a chicken can really pop up at any time. Doesn't have to be a young bird. I just had a pullet do this too and I just took her to our state animal disease diagnostic lab today. She declined despite my efforts of trying to nurse her. I will post results of her necropsy if you like.
Also, make sure you are isolating her from the others

RyRe2010, thank you for your input! What were your pullet's other symptoms? I would very much appreciate the necropsy findings, I am always anxious to learn. Gertrude is isolated in a quarantine pen, Jane might go in tomorrow, but I'm hesitant because she is still eating and foraging readily and voluntarily isolating herself from the other birds.

Eggcessive, my first hen ( a red Sex-Link) and a cochin pullet both died of salmonella typhus. That was 1 1/2 months ago. The Sex-Link was the carrier (adopted from an Amish farm, was also crawling with straw lice. Yuck!). They both died within 48 hours, no time for more than comfort measures and isolation. I contracted the disease myself doctoring the pullet, and managed to eradicate it with propolis, a resinous wax made by honeybees and used worldwide in place of antibiotics (I am deathly allergic to cefexime, the only antibiotic class used safely against salmonella typhus). This was confirmed by a lab, so it can't be the cause of my hens' illness. As I said, I have a secondary Giarda infection, and am on metronidazole for that.

Jane had a runny nose when I took Gertrude back to the pen after her bath, so between that and the dried-out combs and wattles, I'm pretty sure it's a respiratory problem. Apparently my hens don't cough or sneeze much, they just learned to breathe shallowly (likely because of the moldy coop.) Neither hen wanted to be cooped at all tonight, so my 2 Jersey Giant roosters are guarding them. My young cochins don't seem to mind the mold in the coop, but my hens sure do! Can't blame them, I'm sensitive to it too. New coop very soon! Put dewormer in their water just in case, they do eat a lot of earthworms and other bugs, which I understand can carry parasites.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Incidentally, on an unrelated subject, if your birds ever get external parasites like straw lice, bathe them with Epsom salts. My Sex-Link was almost bald with them, and 1 wash with Dr. Teal's Epsom salt foot soak with peppermint oil (which I just happened to have in the cabinet) killed every louse, even the nits!