Ms. Crazy Chicken Lady
In the Brooder
- Jan 25, 2018
- 27
- 19
- 29
Hello wonderful fellow chicken people! This is my first time posting on this forum, and I need your help! I have used BYC many a time to learn about chicken health and disease. I have had chickens since I was 5 years old and I remember my mom learning about gape worm from BYC when one of our first hens died from it. This is a life saver for chicken lovers!
I am desperately writing this post because I have read what feels like hundreds of posts that are similar to what my hen is experiencing but nothing quite matches her unique symptoms.
Figletta (Fig) is a 6 month old Black Australorp, her sister of the same breed and age (Nugget) has just begun laying last week, right when Fig's symptoms became noticeable. This made me think egg issues could be her problem, perhaps egg binding or petronitis. But she has been ill for 10 days now and no sign of egg in her vent, pooping regularly and no eggshells in her vent either. So I ruled this out.
Figs symptoms are:
#1 lameness and weakness in the legs- especially the left leg. this began with the toes on her feet curling up into a ball when she tried to stand or walk. However, this symptom has not gotten worse, in fact her toes on both feet no longer ball up she can straighten them and hobble around a bit but the balance and apparent stiffness issues continue. Her leg is NOT parylized she can use it but seems to have poor motor control and weakness.
#2 Some sort of breathing respiratory issue. There are no sounds of wheezing stuffiness or distress. There is no evidence of any facial discharge or mucus in her mouth or nose. No wetness or runny nose at all. Clear bright eyes very alert, no bubbles or puffiness. I can tell she is distressed only because she occasionally opens her beak very slightly to breathe and if she gets riled up excited or tired from moving a lot or us feeding her medicine, this beak breathing does get very noticeable. She opens it all the way and pumps her neck a bit, and her face gets red. This does not last long after exhertion and she soon relaxes and can breathe with beak shut and her face goes pale with normal wattle and comb color. I also noticed her throat under her wattles seems extended fully, not quite swollen, because she is using all her throat muscles to breathe.
#3 She occasionally attempts to itch her head- but she cant because of balance issues and falls over. She wipes her beak constantly on anything in front of her and sometimes shakes her head. None of these are frequent or severe enough for me to believe it is gapeworm. I checked her ears and there was a tiny bit of clear light colored crustyness but nothing alarming. I swabbed her throat for worms- got nothing.
#4 Eating/drinking overall health- Her crop does not get fully full but she still eats, though pickilly, on her own and still drinks water on her own. She has been living inside in our living room in a large box since we noticed she was sick (because I live in Maine and its January and -11 here some nights :0 ). We do encourage her to eat and drink and hold food for her in our hands, and she likes eating more when we do that. I gave her water though a dropper at the beginning before I saw her drink on her own. She does eat and drink less than a healthy chicken but is still eating enough to maintain a good weight. She still has breast meat on her and half fills her crop with food sometimes. Her body, NOT her throat makes a weird loud gurgling digestion noise when she eats and drinks? Idk. She can move around her box well but hobbles and slips often so she spends most of the day sitting and preening her feathers and sleeping. She talks to us often when we talk to her <3
#5 Droppings
- She poops multiple times a day but not as frequently as a healthy hen. Her droppings range on a daily basis from large brown and white, small brown and white, large solid dark green and white, clear liquid, light white and a bit of yellow, to mushy green and white. Sometimes they seem normal and healthy (brown and solid) other times they look like they came from a very ill bird (green or white and watery).
#5 Medication/ treatment so far- We first tried natural things like ACV garlic colloidal silver, electrolites etc! Nothing changed. Then after 4 days of that we started her on durymycin-10 in her water for about 3-4 days. Then nothing changed much. We stopped the durymycin to give her a dose of safeguard just in case it was worms. Nothing changed. Now we have had her on Tylan 50 for 3 days now. We started the first day with an oral dose of 1/2cc and then the next day an oral dose and an injection each of 1/2 cc. yesterday we gave her a second injection of 1/2cc tylan. A third dose will happen tonight.
I am SO stumped about what to do!! She doesnt get much better or much worse no matter what we try. Just stays the same. We are going to do tylan injections for 5 days and see how it goes. My best diagnosis is one of the Micoplasma infections or some other respiratory infection. I did not see her get attacked or injured though I guess this could be possible somehow. Perhaps she has internal injuries that I dont know about? We dont free range in the winter so I dont know how she could have.
Besides that, here is everything I considered that she could have and why I ruled it out or am unsure.
#1 Dreaded Mareks: I have researched the shit out of this and gone back and forth, I guess she could have it but she has not gotten worse, she does have splits sometimes but her legs feet and wings are not parylized are not getting worse.
#2 Egg issues: I checked her early on and if she did have egg binding or petronitis she would have died already.
#3 Worms of all kinds: I dont think its gape because I have seen that and I know it well, no worms in throat and no improvement after a dose of safeguard. I dont think it would be round worms or other worms because of her leg issues and respiratory symptoms?
#4 Respiratory infection: I still think this is most likely but it still doesnt quite fit? She is missing leg swelling or obvious nasal discharge and her breathing is silent. Absolutely no bubly eyes or swelling, her eyes are clear bright and she is alert to sounds in the house.
#5 Ear mites? Or other lice/mites: I checked her ears but her little ear feathers are black, so though I did see some crustiness I dont think there were mites. Though she does try to itch her face? I have checked her feathers for mites and lice- nothing. Vent looks normal a bit dirty because of an occasional watery poop. I dusted her with DE and she cleans herself every day so...?
#6 Nutrient deficiency or Vitamin deficiency: She has been eating and drinking regularly including ACV electrolites leafy greens yogurt bird seed and normal feed. I think she would have shown recovery after 10 days if it was this?
We dont have a bird vet nearby. We are on our own... PLease help with any thoughts info questions you may have! Fig and I appreciate any help you can give we are stumped and want to help her before she starts going down hill!
I am desperately writing this post because I have read what feels like hundreds of posts that are similar to what my hen is experiencing but nothing quite matches her unique symptoms.
Figletta (Fig) is a 6 month old Black Australorp, her sister of the same breed and age (Nugget) has just begun laying last week, right when Fig's symptoms became noticeable. This made me think egg issues could be her problem, perhaps egg binding or petronitis. But she has been ill for 10 days now and no sign of egg in her vent, pooping regularly and no eggshells in her vent either. So I ruled this out.
Figs symptoms are:
#1 lameness and weakness in the legs- especially the left leg. this began with the toes on her feet curling up into a ball when she tried to stand or walk. However, this symptom has not gotten worse, in fact her toes on both feet no longer ball up she can straighten them and hobble around a bit but the balance and apparent stiffness issues continue. Her leg is NOT parylized she can use it but seems to have poor motor control and weakness.
#2 Some sort of breathing respiratory issue. There are no sounds of wheezing stuffiness or distress. There is no evidence of any facial discharge or mucus in her mouth or nose. No wetness or runny nose at all. Clear bright eyes very alert, no bubbles or puffiness. I can tell she is distressed only because she occasionally opens her beak very slightly to breathe and if she gets riled up excited or tired from moving a lot or us feeding her medicine, this beak breathing does get very noticeable. She opens it all the way and pumps her neck a bit, and her face gets red. This does not last long after exhertion and she soon relaxes and can breathe with beak shut and her face goes pale with normal wattle and comb color. I also noticed her throat under her wattles seems extended fully, not quite swollen, because she is using all her throat muscles to breathe.
#3 She occasionally attempts to itch her head- but she cant because of balance issues and falls over. She wipes her beak constantly on anything in front of her and sometimes shakes her head. None of these are frequent or severe enough for me to believe it is gapeworm. I checked her ears and there was a tiny bit of clear light colored crustyness but nothing alarming. I swabbed her throat for worms- got nothing.
#4 Eating/drinking overall health- Her crop does not get fully full but she still eats, though pickilly, on her own and still drinks water on her own. She has been living inside in our living room in a large box since we noticed she was sick (because I live in Maine and its January and -11 here some nights :0 ). We do encourage her to eat and drink and hold food for her in our hands, and she likes eating more when we do that. I gave her water though a dropper at the beginning before I saw her drink on her own. She does eat and drink less than a healthy chicken but is still eating enough to maintain a good weight. She still has breast meat on her and half fills her crop with food sometimes. Her body, NOT her throat makes a weird loud gurgling digestion noise when she eats and drinks? Idk. She can move around her box well but hobbles and slips often so she spends most of the day sitting and preening her feathers and sleeping. She talks to us often when we talk to her <3
#5 Droppings
- She poops multiple times a day but not as frequently as a healthy hen. Her droppings range on a daily basis from large brown and white, small brown and white, large solid dark green and white, clear liquid, light white and a bit of yellow, to mushy green and white. Sometimes they seem normal and healthy (brown and solid) other times they look like they came from a very ill bird (green or white and watery).#5 Medication/ treatment so far- We first tried natural things like ACV garlic colloidal silver, electrolites etc! Nothing changed. Then after 4 days of that we started her on durymycin-10 in her water for about 3-4 days. Then nothing changed much. We stopped the durymycin to give her a dose of safeguard just in case it was worms. Nothing changed. Now we have had her on Tylan 50 for 3 days now. We started the first day with an oral dose of 1/2cc and then the next day an oral dose and an injection each of 1/2 cc. yesterday we gave her a second injection of 1/2cc tylan. A third dose will happen tonight.
I am SO stumped about what to do!! She doesnt get much better or much worse no matter what we try. Just stays the same. We are going to do tylan injections for 5 days and see how it goes. My best diagnosis is one of the Micoplasma infections or some other respiratory infection. I did not see her get attacked or injured though I guess this could be possible somehow. Perhaps she has internal injuries that I dont know about? We dont free range in the winter so I dont know how she could have.
Besides that, here is everything I considered that she could have and why I ruled it out or am unsure.
#1 Dreaded Mareks: I have researched the shit out of this and gone back and forth, I guess she could have it but she has not gotten worse, she does have splits sometimes but her legs feet and wings are not parylized are not getting worse.
#2 Egg issues: I checked her early on and if she did have egg binding or petronitis she would have died already.
#3 Worms of all kinds: I dont think its gape because I have seen that and I know it well, no worms in throat and no improvement after a dose of safeguard. I dont think it would be round worms or other worms because of her leg issues and respiratory symptoms?
#4 Respiratory infection: I still think this is most likely but it still doesnt quite fit? She is missing leg swelling or obvious nasal discharge and her breathing is silent. Absolutely no bubly eyes or swelling, her eyes are clear bright and she is alert to sounds in the house.
#5 Ear mites? Or other lice/mites: I checked her ears but her little ear feathers are black, so though I did see some crustiness I dont think there were mites. Though she does try to itch her face? I have checked her feathers for mites and lice- nothing. Vent looks normal a bit dirty because of an occasional watery poop. I dusted her with DE and she cleans herself every day so...?
#6 Nutrient deficiency or Vitamin deficiency: She has been eating and drinking regularly including ACV electrolites leafy greens yogurt bird seed and normal feed. I think she would have shown recovery after 10 days if it was this?
We dont have a bird vet nearby. We are on our own... PLease help with any thoughts info questions you may have! Fig and I appreciate any help you can give we are stumped and want to help her before she starts going down hill!
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