Heat Stress/Heat stroke - How long do symptoms last?

[MROO]

Glad you are out of the hospital, and glad they think it’s not Mareks. Do you know what test they did, such as PCR test on feather shafts. Usually, I’m told that it is done on feather shafts and tumor tissue, tumors which may be found internally. We always like to know how things are dealt with around the country, to let other folks know. So happy for you after losing your chicken, that it is coccidiosis.

I wish I had more to go on, but I had to rely on the "professional judgement" of the veterinary community, here. None of the "professionals" in my area knew what to do! It took so long to find someone who had real instructions on how and where to get a necropsy done that, by the time I found someone, the time limits had passed and results were "not guaranteed" and astronomically expensive to attain. I now have a direct contact for the New Bolton rep I spoke with, which will give me access to free advice, when I need it, but does not help with the high costs of being "out-of-state." The only "in-state" lab I found is Salisbury, which is nearly a four hour drive for me - and they didn't respond in time, either. That is NOT THEIR FAULT, though. By the time I found their information, it was already late for a necropsy, and shipping bio-hazards is complicated.

This whole episode, from the first heat stroke death through the complicated mess of conflicting symptoms to my own bout at the hospital has been a nightmare roller-coaster ... all downhill until the very last hill.

Going forward from here, I plan to be ready, should this sort of crisis arise again. My project, as soon as I'm back up to speed, myself, is to compile a list of phone numbers, addresses and instructions on how and where to get a bird necropsied, so I won't have to lose precious time jumping through ridiculous hoops. My list of "need to knows" are as follows, and I am open to suggestions to add to it:

Avian specialist veterinarians and their hours
Emergency vets with an Avian specialist on staff or on call
Direct contact numbers and e-mails for the appropriate labs IN MY STATE
If possible, a list of pricing (I got quotes from $14 to over $300 for the same service!)
Specific instructions on how to package and send a specimen
Have all packing and mailing supplies on hand, just in case.

Thank you, again, to everyone who responded so quickly, especially @micstrachan, who stepped up so quickly when the panic first set in. You people, and this community, are wonderful!

 

[Kiki]

I am glad they are feeling better!


I have a list of all state labs here:
Necropsy and disease testing lab info

Your specific state lab is:
https://mda.maryland.gov/animalHealth/Pages/laboratory.aspx

and your state lab's price list for testing and necropsies:
https://mda.maryland.gov/AnimalHealth/Documents/Lab fee listing.pdf

your state lab's shipping instructions:
https://mda.maryland.gov/AnimalHealth/Pages/laboratory.aspx#shipping

 

[MROO]

I am glad they are feeling better!


I have a list of all state labs here:
Necropsy and disease testing lab info

Your specific state lab is:
https://mda.maryland.gov/animalHealth/Pages/laboratory.aspx

and your state lab's price list for testing and necropsies:
https://mda.maryland.gov/AnimalHealth/Documents/Lab fee listing.pdf

your state lab's shipping instructions:
https://mda.maryland.gov/AnimalHealth/Pages/laboratory.aspx#shipping

Thank you - You just gave me more information than my Agricultural Extension Office did! They didn't even include the Frederick Lab. If I'd known that one existed, I'd have been in the car the morning after Peanut died. It's only a little over an hour away.
The shipping instructions I got from the Ag Ext Office are different, too, at least for a carcass. They included a styrofoam cooler as one of the packing boxes and the timeline was longer. I have a feeling our local Ag agents need to do some updating! I'll let them know Monday morning.

 

[Kiki]

Thank you - You just gave me more information than my Agricultural Extension Office did! They didn't even include the Frederick Lab. If I'd known that one existed, I'd have been in the car the morning after Peanut died. It's only a little over an hour away.
The shipping instructions I got from the Ag Ext Office are different, too, at least for a carcass. They included a styrofoam cooler as one of the packing boxes and the timeline was longer. I have a feeling our local Ag agents need to do some updating! I'll let them know Monday morning.

I don't know who or what a local Ag person is.
It is better to deal straight with the state labs themselves.

 

[micstrachan]

I am so happy to hear how well things are going! Great job asking for help and taking it to heart! Your birds re so prettycand lucky to have you!

 

[MROO]

I don't know who or what a local Ag person is.
It is better to deal straight with the state labs themselves.

Sorry I disappeared for so long. I didn't have much of a choice. I've been scary-sick, myself, but here's an update:

The fecal floats (including mine, as a precaution) all came back negative. The vet says that it may be related to the full course of treatment the birds received. The dead birds were too far gone to get a good swab. She recommended another float be done when we reach the 10-days-past-treatment mark, before I give the second 4-5 day round of Corid. According to the vet, no one needs a direct dose then, just Corid in the water, to take care of anything that may have incubated, since. Is that good advice, or should I give Fella and FeatherFoot the full two-drop oral dose again, too?

Despite three of them being attached There is no sign of illness in any of my other coops/runs. There really never was. The chickens that were sick were all super thin. No one else has even lost weight. Their feathers are shiny and they have good tone - muscle and fat - on their keels. Some are just coming out of their first real molt - and they're just beautiful! The only exception is the two month old, who has the scraggly teenage look about him, still - but he never left the brooder so he wasn't exposed to anyone else or the soil. My broody on the front porch never batted an eye. As a precaution (and to make sure I didn't transfer anything) I treated them along with the others, just in case.

The local Ag person here is our Agricultural Extension agent (and the 4H rep we are all told to go to as a first line of defense.) Our Ag agents work for the University of Maryland, but the current rep isn't really a chicken person. I didn't know that at the time, but I got the sense that something was missing - which is why I came immediately to all of you here on BYC. There's more experience at the other end of my keyboard than I can ever hope to find in a book or through a phone. Thank you, ALL of you, for getting me through a crisis I thought I was prepared for ... but wasn't.

I learned some valuable lessons, last week, about my chickens and about my own health. The first of which is to contact the labs right away. I genuinely didn't know I could do that, because my local resources all said that I had to go through a vet. By the time I did that, it was too late. You all saved Fella and Featherfoot ... and probably others down the road, as I'm sure this nasty stuff (or something else like it) will rear its' ugly head again someday. BackYard Chickens is absolutely amazing. I am truly grateful to be a part of this community.

 

[Eggcessive]

Thanks for your update and good luck.

 

[micstrachan]

Thank you for the update, and I hope YOU are feeling better!

 

[MROO]

Thank you for the update, and I hope YOU are feeling better!

Thanks. It'll be a while, but I'm getting there ...

 

[MROO]

I had a BIG scare, last night. As I transferred FeatherFoot and Fella to their new outside abode, I realized that Fella was limping. After all he and I have been through, that was call for instant panic on my part. I immediately pulled him out for a thorough inspection and found ... a fuzzy poo-blob stuck between his feathered toes! I gently pinched it off and voila, no more limp! I wish all medical emergencies were that easy to solve!