Help please! Buff acting sick after introducing new chickens

[LaurenDickens]

Hi there, looking for some advice.

Our four year old buff is acting sick after introducing two new birds.

She had been a solo chicken for a while (I’ve always kept a small flock, never more than 3 at a time) and didn’t seem to mind, but we had recently built a bigger coop and run, and decided to get her some friends.

I introduced them slowly, kept the two new ones in a crate separate for 5 days before putting everyone together. The new birds seem completely healthy, no signs of worms. When they were all put in the coop together she was expectedly territorial and showed the younger birds quickly who was boss, but never too aggressively.

Now about a week since bringing them home, for the past few days she has not been acting herself. She’s slowly become completely disinterested in food, she doesn’t even want anything to do with mealworms which she’s usually crazy for. She was drinking fine (I’ve been putting electrolytes and nutri-drench in the water), but now that seems to be an issue as well. I can tell she’s becoming weak. It’s also hot as hell in Austin Texas right now.

Because of the lack of feeding, her poop is green, or just urates at times.

Her crop doesn’t seem to be emptying properly as well. She has spit up some of the little water she has in her crop.

Could it be solely the trauma or stress of moving into a new coop and the new birds? Too much change too fast? Should I just observe her and hope she comes around or could it be an illness that needs intervention?

I’m at a loss for how to help her. I feel horrible that she doesn’t feel well…she’s always been a resilient bird.

Any tricks to help me perk her up? Should I try force feeding her? I don’t want to stress her out further.

 

[2ndTink]

What color green is her poop? It is likely just due to her not eating, but really bright green can indicate another issue.

Heat could be an issue, or it is possible that the stress of adding new birds lowered her immune system enough to allow something to pop up.

Any change in symptoms or behavior over the weekend?

 

[LaurenDickens]

Hi @2ndTink thanks so much for your reply. It's not a bright green, but green typical of a bird that's not eating much/at all.

She declined since my initial post. Now the thing I'm most concerned with is her crop. It's not emptying properly and she's not interested in food at all because of it. I know she's getting SOME through, she pooped twice last night with lots of urates.

I have vomitted her yesterday morning and this morning, to try and build off on empty crop throughout the day. But it puffs up as soon as she starts drinking again.

I gave her miconazole 3 times yesterday, as well as an epsum salt flush and coconut oil in the evening. That definitely got stuff moving...she pooped about 20 minutes later. But her crop still felt like a balloon. I should add that I also put her in a crop bra, which she hates, but i do think it helps give her support, and encourages what little nutrients she's getting to move.

I force fed her egg and a mixture of yogurt, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and molasses. She continues to be very thirsty. I am putting electrolytes in her water.

She looked absolutely terrible last night, eyes closed and comb depressed. I was sure I would wake up to a dead hen, but she was actually standing up in her crate this morning and gave me a few coos as a greeting. She definitely seemed a bit perkier. I guess I'll stay the course and hope she turns a corner.

I have read that acidified copper can be helpful. I'll search my area and see if I can find any.

Any other tips are appreciated! I'd love for her to survive and show the new girls what's what.

 

[2ndTink]

I'm linking to @Debbie292d recent post with 2 wonderful links..

Post in thread 'Crop impaction/hard stuff in crop? Not improving after 1 week, desperate' https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-after-1-week-desperate.1627807/post-27802773

Those two links have a lot of crop info, I'm just dealing with my first crop issue with a silkie so I don't have solid advice with years of experience behind it. I did probiotics, flushes, Medistat, vomiting, then Acidified Copper Sulfate, some improvement with that, now corid and more probiotics. She's better but not 100% right still.

 

[LaurenDickens]

Thank you! Both of these have been very helpful.

Sometimes it feels like I'm throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. They are so fragile when they get this sick.

I just ordered some of the acidified copper sulfate and had it next day shipped. I hope she can hang on till then.

There was never any impaction as far as I could tell. So I am thinking that either the stress caused the sour crop issue, or something that the new birds carried with them. They both seem perfectly healthy though.

If she wasn't so week I would worm her. I don't suspect cocci, but I guess I could give her corid just to be safe?

 

[2ndTink]

Thank you! Both of these have been very helpful.

Sometimes it feels like I'm throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. They are so fragile when they get this sick.

I just ordered some of the acidified copper sulfate and had it next day shipped. I hope she can hang on till then.

There was never any impaction as far as I could tell. So I am thinking that either the stress caused the sour crop issue, or something that the new birds carried with them. They both seem perfectly healthy though.

If she wasn't so week I would worm her. I don't suspect cocci, but I guess I could give her corid just to be safe?

My opinion is corid should be safe.

They could have brought something, bacteria, virus, maybe a strain of cocci that she doesn't have resistance to?

 

[LaurenDickens]

Okay, just added some corid to her water, I found a place close to me that sells acidified copper sulftate, so i'll pick that up this afternoon.

Can I give her both corid and ACS at the same time? Or should I alternate in her water?

 

[2ndTink]

Make sure the ACS is for chickens and NOT for pools (ask my how I know this and no, I didn't buy it, two lovely ladies on here caught that and steered me straight!)

Yes, you can do Corid + ACS together, follow up with a lot of probiotics as the ACS kills off a lot of the good bugs too.

 

[LaurenDickens]

First doses of acidified copper sulfate and corid administered. She's not as interested in water anymore but I was able to get her to drink some. Not as much as I'd like. I'll try again later. She's just completely zapped of energy. Poor thing.

Syringed her a bit more yogurt molasses, cayenne, cinnamon, ginger, and garlic. Hopefully she perks up after some rest. Crossing my fingers she pulls through.

 

[LaurenDickens]

She made it through last night but she's still about the same with no improvement coming up on 24 hours with the corid and ACS in her water.

I'm having to syringe most of the water to her now.

Her crop seems better, but she's not pooping nearly at all, and when she does it's mostly brown liquid.

Maybe this is the bad stuff leaving her system?

I keep hoping she'll perk up but has yet to do so.

I force fed her some layer mash mixed with yogurt and water, formed them like dough into little balls that I put in her mouth. I called them "chicken nuggets" while I was feeding them to her.

She continues to struggle when I open her mouth to feed/water her, and I think that really tires her out. All she does now is lay down with her eyes closed Trying to strike the balance of getting her needed nutrients and making her further stressed/weak.

Anywho, that's the update.