HELP!! My hen is down an I am not sure whats wrong.

[trishg37]

I have a hen (Salmon Faverolle 23 weeks old) that I found not moving on 3 days ago.

I let all the chickens out to free range in the yard for a couple of hours and she was fine. An hour after I put them in I noticed she was standing in the corner not moving. I assumed she was just resting. I went out again that night to close them up and she was in the exact same position. I had to pick her up to put her in the coop and on the roost.

The next morning I let them out and she stayed on the roost. I did notice she had diarea but no blood in it just green and white very watery. No worms that I can see.

I came back out an hour later and she still has not moved. I then took her inside and put food and water down for her, but she never touched either. All she does is stand there until she gets too tired then she will sit. Then she won't stand till you pick her up.

After 24 hours, I thought it might be Cocci so I went and got Corid and added it to the flocks water to treat the entire flock just in case. I also started giving her water using a syringe. After 2 days she still hasn't shown improvment so last night I started feeding her with a syringe also so she can keep up her strength. I also gave her 2 warm baths and I put my finger into her vent to see if she was egg bound, but I felt nothing hard everything was soft.

This is day 3 now and now she is laying on her side, and she will only pick up her head when you come by. I still gave her some water then laid her back down.

PLEASE HELP I don't know what's wrong or how to figure out what is wrong. I think she might die today if I can't figure this out.

I no longer think it is Cocci but I figure it can't hurt the flock to medicate them anyways. Just to be on the safe side. I have also wormed the flock but not the sick hen because I read that you shouldn't worm a weak chicken.

 

[realsis]

How is her breathing? Any noise when she breathes? Any mucus or vomiting? Her symptoms sounds like my three girls .ended up my girls had a respitory illness. Listen closely making sure there is no wheezing. If there is or you suspect it might be respitory you can treat with tylan50 which is the antibotic tylosin. Small birds are 1/4 cc large birds 1/2 cc given in the breast muscle for once daily for 5 days. Not certain this is what your bird has but the symptoms sound the same. Only one of my three had wheezing. They started out sitting in one spot stopped eating then ended up on their side. I suppose you could try the tylan 50 and see if she improves. I hate to say this but by the time they are on their sides it doesn't look good.i wasn't able to treat my girls on time for lack of other symptoms and by the time I started treatment it was too late sadly I lost them. Not saying this will happen with your bird. But symptoms sound very familiar. I finally figured out it was respitory when one of my three began to wheeze. The other two didn't ever wheeze. I can't see your bird but symptoms sound the same. Of course I can't be 100% certain this is what is happing with your bird but if you want you can try the tylan50 it is basically geared for respitory issues. If you feel this might be the case you can try it. I wish you the very best and hope your bird gets better. You can wait and see what other people think. But my girls did the same thing and in my case it was respitory. I hope this helps a bit. I wish I could say with 100% certainty that's the issue but I can not.i can only say my girls did this very same thing. I hope you get this figured out soon. My prayers are with you and I wish you the best.

 

[trishg37]

I am willing to try anything at this point. I don't here any wheezing but she would leave her beak open to breath every once in a while. I hope I am not to late.

Thank you VERY MUCH. At least I have another avenue to try.

 

[trishg37]

Well I just got back from getting the tylan50 and she is dead. I will keep an eye on the others to make sure they are not coming down with the same symptoms.

Is this contagious?

 

[casportpony]

I'm sorry for your loss, but you should know that by the time you found her the dying process had probably already started and there was probably nothing that could have saved her. Now would be a good time to get baseline weights on the rest of your birds and that will allow you to monior their health better. Probably also a good time to dust them and worm them with a wormer like Safeguard or Valbazen.

If you're in the US many States have free or low cost necropsy services:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahln/downloads/all_nahln_lab_list.pdf

-Kathy