Help! My hen is sick!!

[thechickgal]

Hi, I just got this hen and I know for a fact she is sick, just not what's wrong. I just got her today from someone in my neighborhood. I also got a hen from them who is perfectly fine but have swollen, scaly feet. The sick one has been sneezing, has a runny nose, coughs, and seems a little weak. One eye seems to be watery as well. She is eating good though. The other hen appears to be well, just weird thick scaly rough feet. Their combs are very pale and dim. Does any one know how to help the sick one. I have the sick one separate from the rest, but the other seemed fine so I added it in with the flock. ( They haven't picked on her at all.) I'm more worried about the golden comet hens health. The australorp is very sweet but her feet are very odd. Someone please help!

 

[Pyxis]

I don't want to alarm you, but she likely has a nasty respiratory disease and the one you just put in with your other birds likely has it too. This is why quarantine is so important - they can carry these diseases with absolutely no sign of them until they are stressed, and they are highly contagious, so if that other bird has been living with the obviously sick one it likely has it too. I'd remove it from your other birds ASAP for this reason and for one other (that I'll get to later) but it may already be too late. You'll have to watch your flock like a hawk for symptoms now.

The really devastating thing about these diseases is that a lot of them can't ever be cured once the birds have them. You can treat the symptoms but they will reappear every time the bird is stressed, such as coming into lay, during a molt, during a cold snap, etc.

You can try to treat this and it will get rid of the symptoms but the bird will probably carry the disease for life and if you ever do put her in with your flock they will catch it from her. If there is a bad smell coming from her, especially from her nasal discharge, it's likely coryza. If no smell, you can try treating for mycoplasma as it is likely that. To find out definitively what it is you could ask a vet to run a blood test (which will probably be expensive) or you could cull her and send her for necropsy, but if you want to treat her that would kind of defeat the point. These are the only ways you will ever know for sure what this is though, and putting her in with your birds without finding out puts them at risk of being sick for the rest of their lives.

As to the other bird's rough looking legs and feet and the other reason you need to take her out of your flock, it sounds like she has a severe case of scaly leg mites, which are contagious and will pass to your other birds and then you'll have the circus of trying to treat a whole flock for them. You can use something like ivermectin if it comes to that, but hopefully you'll take her out before they have a chance to pass to the other birds. To treat her, slather her legs in vaseline every day for a week or two to smother the mites out. Do the same for the sick one because she likely has them too but her case is probably not as bad. Watch the rest of your flock to make sure you didn't pass them on to them by putting the first bird in with them.

 

[thechickgal]

OK thanks I'll take the other bird out asap and the sick on does have an odd smell ,sort of like wet dog.

 

[Pyxis]

OK thanks I'll take the other bird out asap and the sick on does have an odd smell ,sort of like wet dog.

Coryza is more of a roadkill smell, or at least that's how I've heard it described.

 

[thechickgal]

OK thanks I'm so relieved. Will I ever be able to add the 2 to the flock? Is there any cure or something I can do?

 

[Pyxis]

OK thanks I'm so relieved. Will I ever be able to add the 2 to the flock? Is there any cure or something I can do?

There is no cure depending on the disease, which unfortunately to find out what it is would require a potentially expensive blood test at the vet or culling the sick one and sending her for necropsy. Without doing one of the above however you would never know for sure what it was and putting them with your flock would risk them all getting sick.

To start I would treat the sick one with some Duramycin if you want to get her better (at least for now).

 

[thechickgal]

OK I'll go to rural king tomorrow to grab some antibiotics