HELP!!! My hen's beak is too bloated for her to eat/drink! HELP!!!

[klaudia21]

I only have 2 chicken: Rooster & Hen; Mr. Egbert & Pecker.
Breed: Unknown
Both 1 yr & 3 months old
Pecker's weight feels the same; 3 lbs maybe
Mr. Egbert is fine, it's my hen though.

She can't eat/drink on her own or even groom her feathers.

Two days ago, I decided to switch from their everyday (30% protein) pellets to scratch. My hen is such a fatty when it comes to food so I thought a variety of 3 different grains would make her happy. Now, the scratch was from a different store I wanted to try out (cheaper too). I opened the new bag and noticed these weird insects! They were as small as a black ant but some sort of beetle looking critters. I thought maybe the birds won't mind and find them to be tasty snacks. I poured just a handful with a scooper in their container so they can try it out. As usual she ran to the food and noticed it was different but tried it anyways. I realized there were too many of that insect in that bag and I freaked, it's like there was over a thousand of them! So I sealed the bag into another tightly to return it to the store. An hour later, my sister told me she saw Pecker puke and seemed dizzy. I went over to look and cleaned her beak, she had bits of Scratch grains in the roof of her beak. There was gooey saliva coming out too. She seemed weak, judging the way she was walking around as well. I also found one of those bugs attached to the roof of her mouth and got it out too. I switched the food back to pellets.

-Now, for the past 2 days, all she does is sleep and try to do the usual (eat/drink/groom/PECK) except she can't. I have to clean her beak because food just gets soggy and stays at the tip because she can't close her beak normally. She doesn't have the strength to peck right now. She seems weak. One side inside of her mouth, bottom beak is a little bloated, and I could have sworn her crest was pinker! It seems a little bit purple near the crown tips


The left side in her mouth, bottom beak, is pinker and a little swollen compared to the other side. The yellow stuff is baby food.
I'll provide another picture if this one isn't helpful enough.

-I have been feeding her Gerber baby food mango/pear/guava flavored and water with a dropper until her crop feels full. About 15 tsp of water and 7 1/2 tsp of baby food about every 2 hours.
-The poop has been very runny since Monday. First it was mostly clear with some dark brown poop in the middle and some green then, the poops were mostly dark green poop with some white. Now today after I fed her, her poop has been mostly yellowy and a little dark brown poop in the middle, or mostly clear with little bits of green, or all clear and yellow, and back to mostly clear and some more dark green.
-So my only treatment has been feeding her food & water every 2 hours (besides when it is sleepy time) so her crop stays full and not baggy.
-Does anyone know of any vet in Miami? I don't know if a vet in Florida would help since I hear chicken are supposedly illegal to have here and now there are some new bird catchers that are from NY ???
-My house is their house for now before we move and they'll have more in a backyard. They are in a room in an open cage to roam in and out of. Inside the cage, there are shavings all over and Pecker lays her eggs once a day in a corner. Their food is in there too and outside of their cage is their water. I cover them up at night with big covers when it is sleepy time.

So anyways I would like to know 2 things:
1. What juice/liquidy and slippery substance with enough protein is there to feed my hen?
2. Is there anything I can provide for her to decrease the swelling she has by her mouth so she can eat normally again? Maybe a natural medicine she can drink? Or ideas that are ok and safe to reduce that swelling?

I am open to suggestions and things I should know. Next time I will always check before buying their food again



I don't want to see a comment that doesn't HELP and/or answer my questions.
Telling me to kill her won't help either.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did the scratch grains with the bugs also have mold in it? Moldy feed can cause aflatoxin poisoning. I don't understand how this caused a problem with her mouth. Why is there swelling in her mouth--is there something inside such as yellow or gray tissue that shouldn't be there? She shouldn't be fed juices or baby food. She needs to be on a good balanced 16-20% protein chicken feed, and that can be made into an oatmeal consistancy with water. If she needs tube feeding or crop feeding, you can use Kay-Tee baby bird feed found at pet stores. Here is a link to more links on tube and crop feeding and one on aflatoxin poisoning:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/805728/go-team-tube-feeding
http://birdhealth.com.au/flockbirds/poultry/diseases/mould_infections.html

 

[welasharon]

I have had two o shamos grab bufo frogs before they knew they could not eat them. They started salivating and their throats started swelling shut. I gave them Benadryl. I figured they were going to die anyway so figured it could not hurt. The swelling went down and I was able to clean out their mouths. You may try that but it seems odd that the feed would cause swelling in the mouth.

 

[klaudia21]

I'm not sure what's up with her mouth either but when she closes it, it doesn't look normal, it's a little uneven and just a little open. But thanks for the advice, the feeding looks great!

 

[klaudia21]

And I don;t know if the swelling continues down her throat, do you think Benadryl will help inside her beak too?

 

[Eggcessive]

I am wondering if you are seeing something in the beak that could be a virus or canker. Fowl pox or canker can cause growths inside and outside the beak that look like yellow or gray growths. Can you compare the inside of her mouth to one of the others? Can you get a picture of the swelling? Both canker and wet fowl pox can cause extreme pain, and getting a chicken to eat is very hard.

Wet or Diphtheric Fowl Pox

Oral Canker

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Oral Canker is a condition which can be found in a wide variety of birds and most commonly in pigeons.
Causes

It is caused by a motile protozoal parasite called Trichomonas gallinae.
This parasite can cause caseous lesions of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus and in certain circumstances, further down the digestive tract. These lesions can become extremely extensive.
This causes the birds to stop eating and drinking, in severe cases the extensive nature of the lesions combined with not eating and drinking leads the chickens to die.
Diagnosis

Diagnosis is often based upon clinical signs but wet smears can be examined under the microscope to confirm clinical suspicions. Speak to your vet.

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Treatment

The treatment traditionally involved the use of a drug called Dimetridazole, however, this drug is no longer available or licensed for use in the UK.
The affected chicken in these photos was treated with Metronidazole, this is a UK licensed medication but is not used in poultry therefore it had to be prescribed under the rules of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate cascade. This also means that any eggs the chicken may lay during treatment and for a specified period after treatment would need to be discarded. Her eggs must never be sold for human consumption. The owner of the hen was extremely pleased with the outcome and has supplied us with plenty of photos to monitor the hen’s progress.