Help! 2nd chicken down with mystery illness :((

[coopstudent]

Hi! I could really use some help and advice...or suggestions as to what might be going on. I have 5 hens (had 6 up until 3 weeks ago). We live in southern NH. Our chickens are currently kept in a coop built in our enclosed porch for the winter w/ no heat (they have a lot of light and a heated waterer). They live with a small bantam duck (very messy with the water!) who is heavily bonded to the chickens (possibly the culprit of this illness ?????). We moved them into this temp coop from their coop (converted shed) wayyy in the backyard about 5 weeks ago. Before moving them one of our sex-links (brown comet??) who was a rescue from being culled at a chicken farm 2 years back suddenly became ill. She was atleast 4 yrs old. At first it seemed that she couldn't handle the cold (its been BITTER on/off) so we took her inside with us. She improved A LOT and once everyone was moved to the porch..we put her out with them. After a week or so she was down again (all puffed up, barely eating, messy bum) ..so back indoors she went. Again she improved initially...BUT For 2 weeks we let her out only in the warmest part of the day and brought her in by late afternoon (babied her). Despite this, she Slowly just deteriorated. She started out with a messy bum, acting like she was straining to poop/lay an egg (but wasn't egg bound), very strong ammonia odor, seemingly very small crop despite her eating, very loose "cream-colored" to "dark brownish" poop and periods of just being "puffed" (but was "talkative", chipper, and still eating) . This went fairly quickly to where she started losing a lot of weight, ate very little, and had terrible diarrhea...it was sooo foul smelling (realllllly bad!)...and really frequent. If she moved around much, it just dripped out

(( Also, her abdomen seemed very swollen and cushy...this seemed worse the last week of her illness. We tried massaging, checking for an egg (she had not laid any eggs in atleast 6 months though...probably due to her age???), keeping her very calm and quiet and warm. The last 24 hrs-2 days were the worst....She just got so weak and was out of it. She died quietly in her indoor bed we made her

Now our Almost 4 year old Black australorp is showing the same early signs!! Her abdomen seems a little swollen, shes a little lethargic, "off", and isn't eating well today....a bit of a messy bum. Up until today she was acting fine...a nice weight, beautiful healthy feathers/comb..great appetite, very active!! This one is our 8 year old son's chicken and hes very worried. We've had her since she was a chick. We have no farm vets near us so in the past we've had to go to avian vets and that is EXPENSIVE!! We've had a lot of vet bills this past year!!! Actually, the summer before last this same one became very ill with an unknown virus/bacteria (we lost 1 other from the same thing)...intestinal. Her crop fully blocked up as well. We spent well over $350 to have the vet say he didn't know what was wrong. He prescribed 2 antibiotics and 2 dewormers (and my husband spent a week giving olive oil and massaging her crop). She did recover but we never knew what worked! The one that died got sick around the same time but the vet refused to treat both chickens unless both were seen...so she died before we could get her in. We just can't afford to do another expensive vet visit right now

((((( Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

[4hLuvers]

im not positive what they have, but it probably would help to quarantine that one sick bird and to clean the coop really well (just in case its bacterial) and clean your birds (and the duck) and hopefully the signs will go away.

 

[coopstudent]

I have her separated right now...she isn;t eating at all and her bum is a mess! I'm going to do a thorough cleaning of the coop today. I cannot help wondering if the duck could be spreading bacteria through the messy water habits. It seems like nobody ever got sick until he came along....we've had him almost 3 years now. In terms of cleaning the chickens...should I give them each a quick wash and then thoroughly dry them...or not risk it?? The rest of the flock looks ok as of this moment (we have 3 light Brahmas, and another brown comet besides the sick one). Thanks for the advice!!

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

Did you see any neon green poo from the one that died?

 

[teach1rusl]

Since you already have her isolated, try to get her to eat a little yogurt (maybe w/some crumbles and a "treat" like a few raisins mixed in). Many folks swear by putting a little apple cider vinegar in their water too. If I couldn't afford a vet trip, that's what I would try first. Mine seem to drink more water when I serve it warm. Really try to get her to drink water (use a syringe if needed). See what happens over the next day or so. I'm hoping more people will chime in, as I've never dealt with the issues you're describing. Crossing my fingers for you....

 

[coopstudent]

I have to say that I truly appreciate the help and support! Well, as far as the one that died we saw a variety of colors...from creamy frothy to dark brown to greenish (like a yellowish green and at times it looked like spinach green mixed in) ...At the very end it was like a greenish color to a darkish brown/green and completely watery. It had an extremely foul odor to it!! As far as my current sick girl...I posted another thread called WAHHH prolapse...update etc.. She is straining and dripping a lot of yellowish white liquidy poop mixed with bits of "spinach looking" green. She is pushing so hard that she has prolapsed a few times. I got some advice on how to correct it and while ..ahem.. up in there I first checked for egg remnants...nothing.. However, in her intestine I found what felt like lots of hard gravely pieces of stuff. I pulled some out and realized that its insulation...hard, petrified pink pieces of insulation!!!! A few weeks back the chickens managed to uncover a sheet of foam insulation in their temp coop. We promptly removed all the insulation...but not before they had eaten a WHOLE SHEET of the stuff!! Thats a lot of insulation to eat in less than a day! We thought nothing more of it until today when I found the hard bits of pink. We *think* she may be blocked...unless its just a complication going along with another illness... THe chicken that died 3 weeks back was sick BEFORE she had any contact with the insulation.......I wish we could figure out what is going on...whether its the same illness, a total coincidence etc..

I fed her some yogurt, vitamins and electrolytes, and duramycin . She is refusing all food and water so we are having to try with the syringe and drip method.

 

[aveca]

Boy , thats too bad for such a young bird. If the yogurt is refused you can get and beleive me I dont like them as much as the next person , but antibiotic packs at your local farm and tractor , mix an amount W water according to thier directions and use an eye dropper. Try like mad to keep everything as clean as possible.... I have one of those heated waterers also and love it but if you have a messy duck you might want to clean it much more often thou they can be a nightmare (at least for me) to get back together. I raised mine up onto some flat rocks so they cant kick everything into it ,It is up high enough for the sebright hens to also reach in it. it stays cleaner for a lot longer... We had a problem a few years ago with they never put enough fill dirt on our hen pen and everytime it rained it got soupy in there, It could have been a nightmare and it was a real battle until it was corrected now nice, dry and fresh shavings 2 X week. There are people who literally have alergic reations to extream cold but cant remember the name of it,,if it affects chickens? I really dont know. Might be worth investing in a heat lamp to hang over them at night during the worst of the weather....My rooster doesnt seem to fair real well in the cold either . but not like that. Somone may brig up worms, when the weather gets nice use anything from natural to tractor supply brand. when the bird feels better and we hope she does. Sounds like a bacteial infection by the way you describe the smell.

 

[coopstudent]

Thanks very much! I really am frustrated with my heated waterer (omg..it IS such a pain to fill!) because it seems almost like anything that gets in there stays at just the right temp to breed bacteria. I have it raised up so that the duck cannot climb into it and the chickens can't kick stuff in BUT the duck still makes a disater! Just this morning we cleaned it and filled it only to have it look disgusting an hour later. That tiny bantam makes such a huge mess with it. It looks as if he goes and takes shavings, and food...spits it into the water to rinse it and sort and then drinks/eats from it. We are planning to make him an enclosure inside the pen where he can see them through the hardware cloth BUT have totally separate food/water. As far as bedding we use about 6 inches of shavings over a wood floor changed completely about once every 10 days. They have shavings and then hay in their nest boxes that gets changed reguarly. My husband is going to see if he can hang a light above them...we have the metal heat lamp used for brooding chicks that can be hung with a 100 watt bulb (maybe a red light that emits heat??????). I feel bad I haven't disinfected the coop itself very well (besides water/food etc..) because its all pourous wood

The coop they will have in the spring will be easier to clean in this respect.

 

[aveca]

I use a regular brooder heat lamp with red bulb reduces picking on each other .Dont beat yourself up too bad about it. Things come up with poultry . Sounds like the duck needs his own pen.. Ive been able to change the heated water 1X week. By the end of the week there are some bits in it but not too bad, it came unplugged a couple times but caught it right away, but boy is it a bugger to get back together when your filling it, the whole thing was filled, I went to turn it over to carry it outside and the whole thing just came apart and however many gallons went all over kitchen floor. it took every towel from the bathroom to clean it up.jeeees, but I sure love how dependable it is when its out there. I dont have to fret over waterless chickens when Im at work cause its all frozen up... Once in a while you might have some feed that got damp and you dont really know it and it can cause problems too, we resorted to putting garbage cans with the feed in the basement , in the summer we run a dehumidifier. They might have gotten into something, kind of a mystery but just from what you say, it sounds bacterial. yogurt really will help reset PH in the bowel and help if you dont like the chems. but if its extream, you might have to.

We have to keep all our feeds put away in basement cause our neightbor had a bear pick up a sack of purina chicken feed like a big bag of doritos and walk off with it, they vidioed it he literally looks like a person carrying a big bag of chips down the road

 

[teach1rusl]

Any updates on the condition of your sick chicken???