HELP: Pale comb, head shaking, empty crop

[Zud]

Howdy and thanks in advance to anyone able to give their thoughts on this:

The patient:
Emily Chickens, 8mo old Black Australorp

The symptoms:
-Pale comb - first noticed yesterday
-Head shaking, occasional - first noticed today
-mild nasal discharge, clear, very little - noticed about an hour ago
-empty crop - she's eating treats (grubs, blueberry, the cat's food) but not particularly interested in her actual food. She seems to be foraging normally by behavior, but her crop remains almost empty.
-Also not interested in water.
-withdrawn, only mildly.
-poop has been both solid and normal looking as well as diarrhea in the past hour

The history:
-This flock has been nipple training, with little success, and typically rush to puddles or a dish of water. I haven't noticed Emily drink water at all today.
-This chicken was recently the victim of feather pecking. We believe this was a result of boredom during increased locked in the run time and we seem to have resolved this by adding enrichment to the run. She survived the 7 degree cold snap over a week ago with a bare bum and her feathers have good growth at this point.

She is one of a flock of 5, all the same age.

I was first thinking worms. Now I'm thinking a respiratory infection?

Thoughts? Remedies?

Thanks again!

 

[Zud]

UPDATE
We've gotten her to eat quite a bit by adding some water to get food and mixing in some raisins and corn.

She's *refusing* water.

 

[willchickeneat]

UPDATE
We've gotten her to eat quite a bit by adding some water to get food and mixing in some raisins and corn.

She's *refusing* water.

Separate her and spend money to treat her...

Or cull her from the flock before it gets worse.

If you want to try saving her, it's going to cost you. For example, sounds respiratory due to the nasal discharge. Is she sneezing or making raspy breathing noises?

For respiratory, depending on the state that you live in, you may not be able to buy antibiotics over the counter anymore. It requires a vet prescription. $$.

Most people would suggest trying "Denagard". You can order it via Amazon for about $65.00. $$$. It helps with respiratory. You mix it in water. Some people use Tylan 50, or other kind of antibotics such as Premoxil. For Tylan, you do injections. Premoxil is powder and you mix 5g/Gal.

Also buy VetRX. It's like Vicks for chickens. Costs about $15-25. You rub the oil on their comb, wattle, nose area and wing area. It's for temporary relief. You can also put a few drops into their water. $$$$.

This time of year is also good for deworming your flock, just in case anemia (pale comb) is due to internal worms. Buy Safegard GoatDewormer bottle. It's a liquid bottle that is white milky bottle. You mix 3ML/1Gallon of water and have them on it for 3-5 days. $$$$$

Check for mites, have ivermectin on hand. You put drops on your chicken skin and it gets rid of mites. Mites can cause anemia. Check their vent area to see if you see lice eggs/mite eggs or tiny bugs. Can cost about $60.00 bottle. $$$$$-$

Lastly, you should on give your birds "Red Cell" once a while. It has tons of iron and other nutrients. People usually give them to their horses or goats. You can also give it to chickens. I mix some in a gallon water, then give it as their water source. You can also mix it into their feed by making it a mash (ferment feed style). $30.00/bottle. This, you should get if you own animals anyways. Helps improve overall vitality, especially roosters. $$$$$-$$

Try all of this, your chicken should get better. But then, the question is, is it worth the money to try to save her? How much does the chicken mean to you. If you plan on being long-time keeper, you should own all the above products anyways.

I didn't include "Corrid", but you should also have that stuff on hand too.

 

[Eggcessive]

How is the ventilation in your coop and run? During winter cold weather, it is good to prevent direct drafts, but have cross ventilation up high overhead roosts. Any ammonia odor, mold, or dust can cause respiratory symptoms. Look for any bubbles or foam in eyes, sneezing, or gasping. It is good that she is eating the moistened feed. That is how you can get more water into her. She doesn’t need corn or treats, just chicken feed, and you can add a little egg or canned cat food in small amounts. Make sure her crop is emptying overnight.

If you decide to worm her, use Valbazen 0.5 ml given orally and repeated in 10 days. If you use SafeGuard the dosage is 0.25 ml per pound given orally 5 days to treat most worms, or once and repeated in 10 days to treat only round worms. Neither will stay mixed in water, so the dosage would not be correct. It is best given orally directly into the beak or on a piece of bread.

 

[Zud]

Separate her and spend money to treat her...

Or cull her from the flock before it gets worse.

If you want to try saving her, it's going to cost you. For example, sounds respiratory due to the nasal discharge. Is she sneezing or making raspy breathing noises?

For respiratory, depending on the state that you live in, you may not be able to buy antibiotics over the counter anymore. It requires a vet prescription. $$.

Most people would suggest trying "Denagard". You can order it via Amazon for about $65.00. $$$. It helps with respiratory. You mix it in water. Some people use Tylan 50, or other kind of antibotics such as Premoxil. For Tylan, you do injections. Premoxil is powder and you mix 5g/Gal.

Also buy VetRX. It's like Vicks for chickens. Costs about $15-25. You rub the oil on their comb, wattle, nose area and wing area. It's for temporary relief. You can also put a few drops into their water. $$$$.

This time of year is also good for deworming your flock, just in case anemia (pale comb) is due to internal worms. Buy Safegard GoatDewormer bottle. It's a liquid bottle that is white milky bottle. You mix 3ML/1Gallon of water and have them on it for 3-5 days. $$$$$

Check for mites, have ivermectin on hand. You put drops on your chicken skin and it gets rid of mites. Mites can cause anemia. Check their vent area to see if you see lice eggs/mite eggs or tiny bugs. Can cost about $60.00 bottle. $$$$$-$

Lastly, you should on give your birds "Red Cell" once a while. It has tons of iron and other nutrients. People usually give them to their horses or goats. You can also give it to chickens. I mix some in a gallon water, then give it as their water source. You can also mix it into their feed by making it a mash (ferment feed style). $30.00/bottle. This, you should get if you own animals anyways. Helps improve overall vitality, especially roosters. $$$$$-$$

Try all of this, your chicken should get better. But then, the question is, is it worth the money to try to save her? How much does the chicken mean to you. If you plan on being long-time keeper, you should own all the above products anyways.

I didn't include "Corrid", but you should also have that stuff on hand too.

Thank you for this concise explanation of recommendations for each issue.

We did have an egg bound early in that required hormone suppression to save, which wasn't cheap, so while not ideal, we are aware that we'll constantly be having to make the choice of what is financially acceptable for us to treat our animals, and what that means to keep them from suffering.

I have been slowly building my first aid kit on an "as needed" basis, which is a terrible idea because we live in a major city with no feed supply or support for livestock (outside the very expensive avian vet) within an hour. Remedying that now. Best to have it on hand when it's needed.

There's no wheezing or sneezing so I'm starting with the wormer. The color in her comb seems better prior to.

Thanks again! I really appreciate it!

 

[kbroom]

Separate her and spend money to treat her...

Or cull her from the flock before it gets worse.

If you want to try saving her, it's going to cost you. For example, sounds respiratory due to the nasal discharge. Is she sneezing or making raspy breathing noises?

For respiratory, depending on the state that you live in, you may not be able to buy antibiotics over the counter anymore. It requires a vet prescription. $$.

Most people would suggest trying "Denagard". You can order it via Amazon for about $65.00. $$$. It helps with respiratory. You mix it in water. Some people use Tylan 50, or other kind of antibotics such as Premoxil. For Tylan, you do injections. Premoxil is powder and you mix 5g/Gal.

Also buy VetRX. It's like Vicks for chickens. Costs about $15-25. You rub the oil on their comb, wattle, nose area and wing area. It's for temporary relief. You can also put a few drops into their water. $$$$.

This time of year is also good for deworming your flock, just in case anemia (pale comb) is due to internal worms. Buy Safegard GoatDewormer bottle. It's a liquid bottle that is white milky bottle. You mix 3ML/1Gallon of water and have them on it for 3-5 days. $$$$$

Check for mites, have ivermectin on hand. You put drops on your chicken skin and it gets rid of mites. Mites can cause anemia. Check their vent area to see if you see lice eggs/mite eggs or tiny bugs. Can cost about $60.00 bottle. $$$$$-$

Lastly, you should on give your birds "Red Cell" once a while. It has tons of iron and other nutrients. People usually give them to their horses or goats. You can also give it to chickens. I mix some in a gallon water, then give it as their water source. You can also mix it into their feed by making it a mash (ferment feed style). $30.00/bottle. This, you should get if you own animals anyways. Helps improve overall vitality, especially roosters. $$$$$-$$

Try all of this, your chicken should get better. But then, the question is, is it worth the money to try to save her? How much does the chicken mean to you. If you plan on being long-time keeper, you should own all the above products anyways.

I didn't include "Corrid", but you should also have that stuff on hand too.

I don't even have my chick yet, but I'm trying to learn as much as possible before I get them. I've learned quite a lot already. I take Ivermectin myself, also hydroxcholorquine in the brand, Quercitin. I am going to get all these meds beforehand. I'm going to try to use Spanish Moss for bedding, as well. Thanks for the info, and I'm going to be looking up these products.

 

[Zud]

I don't even have my chick yet, but I'm trying to learn as much as possible before I get them. I've learned quite a lot already. I take Ivermectin myself, also hydroxcholorquine in the brand, Quercitin. I am going to get all these meds beforehand. I'm going to try to use Spanish Moss for bedding, as well. Thanks for the info, and I'm going to be looking up these products.

Keep in mind the expiration dates! If you have a place to easily access, you might not need some of it on hand. We're in a major city with nothing resembling a feed store for hours, so I had a lot of this stuff shipped and let other chicken keepers in this city know what I have in our first aid so they can pick it up locally from me in an emergency. Hopefully I don't have enough things go wrong to use it all before it expires.
Good luck!