Help! My Kelly is not well - pale wattles/comb, breathing with mouth open

[AuntGigi]

She stopped walking yesterday, but after a treat of yogurt, and then another of oatmeal with electrolytes, some Wazine water, and probiotics, she started walking around again. She slept in a nest box last night, hopped up on her own. I was kind of expecting the worst this morning, but she came out the pop door with the others. Then she sat down in the grass right away. She's breathing with her mouth open a little, and it seems like her face is a little more yellowish than her sister barred rock. Her wattles and comb are very pale.

Everyone else seems fine. She is between 3 and 4 years old, and is the spokes-chicken for our flock. She's Ms Personality and she's been on the news.

Any ideas? I'm not sure she can pull through this or not... her comb and wattles started to pale about 5 days ago, but only yesterday she was acting funny. Her crop was empty this morning, so it's not that. I'm not sure what to do We're giving her more yogurt now. Not sure what else to try.

Gina

 

[Eggcessive]

Pick her up and feel her keel or breast bone to see if she has lost weight. Also look at her lower abdomen to see if it is swollen or seems to be filled with fluid. Liver failure can cause a yellow cast to the skin. At her age egg yolk peritonitis or cancer can be common. Most hens will eat soft scrambled egg when they are ill, and that would give her some nourishment. I would confine her to a cage to look at her stools and notice how much she is eating. If she is still laying, I would check her for being egg bound. Look at her skin for lice and mites. Wazine will only treat for round worms, so You may want to purchase a tube of SafeGuard or Panacur horse paste and treat with 1/2 ml or a pea sized amount for other possible worms. If she would have enteritis, she might respond to a round of antibiotics such as Gallimycin or chlortetracycline in the water.

 

[AuntGigi]

Pick her up and feel her keel or breast bone to see if she has lost weight. Also look at her lower abdomen to see if it is swollen or seems to be filled with fluid. Liver failure can cause a yellow cast to the skin. At her age egg yolk peritonitis or cancer can be common. Most hens will eat soft scrambled egg when they are ill, and that would give her some nourishment. I would confine her to a cage to look at her stools and notice how much she is eating. If she is still laying, I would check her for being egg bound. Look at her skin for lice and mites. Wazine will only treat for round worms, so You may want to purchase a tube of SafeGuard or Panacur horse paste and treat with 1/2 ml or a pea sized amount for other possible worms. If she would have enteritis, she might respond to a round of antibiotics such as Gallimycin or chlortetracycline in the water.

She has lost weight over the past week. I don't feel any swelling or fluid, but I'm very inexperienced here. I did read about the egg yolk peritonitis and the symptoms make sense. Yesterday when she pooped it wasn't very much, two dribbles really (we were outside with her, and she did it right there). But it looked fairly normal, a bit on the soft side, but brown with white. She gobbled the yogurt two days in a row. And that oatmeal two days ago. Is oatmeal good for them? They always seem to like it better than mushed up pellets. We have the electrolyte water available for all the ladies right now.

She's not walking funny when she walks, but she sits a lot. How exactly do I check if she's egg bound? Something odd last night late - she was in the nest box she's been sleeping in the last 2 nights and there was an egg. No way to be sure it was hers, but we haven't seen anyone harassing her or trying to sit in that box. (There are 8 available). The egg wasn't poopy or misshapen, only had a few pimples on it, maybe a bit thick at the pointy end, but normal. Usually nobody lays in the evening. I was so hoping she would have her color back this morning, but she doesn't. She looked completely exhausted when we went to bed. We figured probably laying that egg.

I swear her rear was clean yesterday and today she's got mud-butt on her feathers, which I'll go wash off. I'm hoping maybe she's over the difficult part if that was her egg and it was stuck. I scrambled 2 eggs for her this morning and she ate them at once, happy and flinging egg all over teasing the others with it. But she wanted nothing to do with the BOSS I offered. She did eat some bird seed that dropped from the feeders over night. Should I feed her more scrambled eggs in a few hours? When she finished she wandered off and sat down in the grass. I just wish she'd get her color back.

 

[AuntGigi]

p.s. Thank you.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I'm having a similar problem with a year old Buff Orpington. Her wattles and comb are quite pale and she's been breathing with her mouth open a lot. I've had her in the house for a few days now and I've given her vitamins, yogurt, de-wormer, sprayed for mites, and used some vet rx. She denied her meal worms which is extremely unusual because around here those are an absolute favorite. She is eating and drinking, but is noticeably tired. Originally I thought it was due to the heat, but now that a few days are going by I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions of something else I can try. Henriegga would sure appreciate it

 

[BayBay Peepers]

bump.

 

[Eggcessive]

I'm having a similar problem with a year old Buff Orpington. Her wattles and comb are quite pale and she's been breathing with her mouth open a lot. I've had her in the house for a few days now and I've given her vitamins, yogurt, de-wormer, sprayed for mites, and used some vet rx. She denied her meal worms which is extremely unusual because around here those are an absolute favorite. She is eating and drinking, but is noticeably tired. Originally I thought it was due to the heat, but now that a few days are going by I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions of something else I can try. Henriegga would sure appreciate it

If there have been mites on her, that could have caused anemia. Is she close to her first big molt yet? They lose color in the combs and get extremely worn out during that time. Try feeding her a soft scrambled egg each day--even a chicken on it's last legs will eat those. A product such as Poultry Cell or Poultry Nutridrench may help perk her up.

 

[enola]

You need to worm your hen again. Use Safeguard or Valbazen. Wazine only kills round worms. There are many types of worms she could be infested with. Make sure she has no mites or lice. Use a poultry dust or Sevin dust for gardens. Keep us updated please!

 

[BayBay Peepers]

I haven't noticed any molting yet from anyone. They're all over a year, but all my buffs have saddles on to cover up bald backs. (From an agressive rooster whose no longer here) a few days ago I didn't see any mites but after my last post I did. I sprayed her down with permethrin (sp) and am moving on to do the rest.
Has anyone ever successfully got rid of mites? I went to war with mites twice this year and in between sevin I use De but they keep popping up. I check over them weekly and it seems thatn I don't find them until one has quite the infestation. This week it rained every day so there was no de in the dust bath, but can they honestly multiply that quickly?

 

[enola]

DE is a waste of money in my opinion. I use Sevin, it does the trick. Attacking lice/mites with something that WORKS will get your problem taken care of. To say that parasites in/on chickens multiply very rapidly is an understatement. You will need to retreat the chickens in 10 day intervals until you don't see bugs any more.