HELP! really not sure at ALL what this is?!

[harmesonfarm]

Not really all that great of photos, but i noticed some goopey cream/grey stuffs coming out of pickles' nose this morning!
Never really seen it before now, but the last little while she'll cough or shake her head when she's eating...I just figured it was the way she ate? But today i noticed her do it and have some bubbles come out of the corner of her eye!!

She tends to open her beak wide and kind of tilt the food back in. She's our biggest chicken, obsessed with food and still is! she's very active but we did find lice on her recently...could the lice have caused this or is it something else?

Hope the pictures are clear enough to see the stuff...
thanks in advance!

 

[Pork Pie]

It may be some kind of respiratory infection. Suffering from mites may have lowered her immune defences to the respiratory infection - particularly if its a virus (those of us who suffer from cold sores know that we are feeling down when they appear).

If veterinary advice is not an option, then you may wish to consider:

1. Adding vitamin supplements / electrolytes to drinking water and observing for a few days how things go.
2. Follow number 1 and also administer a broad spectrum antibiotic.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics is not something that is advocated by many BYC members (and i fully understand why), but i do not fall into that category.

Some respiratory infections are only as harmful as humans getting a cold, others a lot more serious. Assuming your flock survive and get over the illness, bear in mind that they may be carriers of the illness for life and will pass it to new flock members. It would be unwise to sell or give any of your flock to other chicken keepers in the future.

I'd suggest further reading on the subject as it can be complicated and there seems to be many overlapping symptoms that make a diagnosis at home very difficult.

I hope that other members will chip in and help further.

All the best
CT

 

[harmesonfarm]

Thanks CTKen, I'll look into respiratory colds, etc. is it my understanding then that once they have a cold, they will always have that virus contagious then with them? Should I assume that the other 5 have it also then as they have been exposed to it for an unknown amount of time?

We do have 8 new chicks that i'm hesitant to integrate into our older ladies flock as we are dealing with the lice and now potentially this...
We adopted these chickens from a farmer last late summer and to be honest they have had issues since then, one after another from the moment we got them from them...i believe they were very "hands off" on raising their chickens as well as anything to do with them really...

in hind-sight we probably should not have taken them but they were free and our first chickens so we didn't really know any better at the time.

It may be some kind of respiratory infection. Suffering from mites may have lowered her immune defences to the respiratory infection - particularly if its a virus (those of us who suffer from cold sores know that we are feeling down when they appear).

If veterinary advice is not an option, then you may wish to consider:

1. Adding vitamin supplements / electrolytes to drinking water and observing for a few days how things go.
2. Follow number 1 and also administer a broad spectrum antibiotic.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics is not something that is advocated by many BYC members (and i fully understand why), but i do not fall into that category.

Some respiratory infections are only as harmful as humans getting a cold, others a lot more serious. Assuming your flock survive and get over the illness, bear in mind that they may be carriers of the illness for life and will pass it to new flock members. It would be unwise to sell or give any of your flock to other chicken keepers in the future.

I'd suggest further reading on the subject as it can be complicated and there seems to be many overlapping symptoms that make a diagnosis at home very difficult.

I hope that other members will chip in and help further.

All the best
CT

Is the vitamin supplements / electrolytes and antibiotics something i can get at the feed store?
Thanks for the help!

 

[Pork Pie]

Not sure, but I would imagine so. I live in Kenya so I have no knowledge of what's available over the pond.

Ct