Help! Dying chicken won't eat/drink; yellow watery diarrhea

[bosmatthews]

My Buff Orpington "Maple" is 2 1/2 years old. She's been sick for about three days.

Won't eat or drink at all.
Started out with watery, yellow diarrhea but hasn't dropped any in last 24 hours - probably because not eating or drinking. But is quite poopy on the butt from the yellow diarrhea she had previously.

Over the last 24 hours I've squirted water with the antibiotic Sulmet into her mouth about 5 times. She's probably only gotten a couple of tablespoons total - she fights my opening her mouth to squirt the stuff in. I don't know if she's gotten enough to make a difference.

***Can anyone tell me how much Sulmet is enough to be useful, and should I continue to force it into her???***

She can stand up for a minute or two then lies down and doses. Won't even eat bread or other favorite foods. I don't know what is wrong with her or what else to do. No Vet around here that will see chickens

***I'm in Vermont - is there anyone in Vermont reading this that knows of a Vet that will see chickens???***

Any other suggestions? I don't know what else to do and I don't want to lose her - she's a favorite of the family!

 

[chickenlady]

When was the last time she was wormed?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

Sounds like she is going down on you. TRy Poly-vi-sol vitamins. Remember chickens can't control too much fluid at one time going down the throat and will drown. The Sulmet should have taken care of any diarhea causing organism..Have you considered poisoning?

 

[bosmatthews]

Thanks to you both for responding to my message!!!

I forgot to add that I have 5 other chickens all of whom seem healthy and normal. I've isolated the sick chicken from the others as of two days ago, to avoid contagion.

I've never wormed - sorry to be so dumb, but I'm not even sure how to do that or where to get the stuff.

Poisoning? I don't know but I kind of doubt it. The chickens are in a coop and large run most of the time but go out daily when we're home, to free range in the yard. We don't let them free range when we're not home due to dogs and predators.

Thanks for the warning about liquid and drowning. I probably need to be more careful about that. I know the medication should have worked by now if it's going to, time-wise, but I'm not sure that I've gotten enough into her for it to work so I'm inclined to keep going. Any advice on that?

I'll look into how to worm - thanks.

 

[bosmatthews]

UPDATE

We lost Maple

I took her to a Vet and he said she had a large mass in her intestines that she wasn't likely to recover from, so he euthanized her and did an "autopsy" for me. He said her intensins and liver were completely full of tumors and she had stopped eating and drinking because the tumors were completely blocking her system. The diarrhea she started out with was from straining against all this blockage.

Has anyone had a chicken with cancer like this before? I'm curious how common this is, if it's a genetic problem or something else. The Vet said he didn't think I did anything wrong but I'd love some feedback from the experts who read this site! I would hate to see another of my peeps suffer like this. Maple was only 2 1/2 years old

thanks