HELP!!! What is this??

[daisyag13]

Day 42 update:

Well, kinda discouraged today. Her crop was doing well, and then yesterday it started back with emptying slowly. And just after I had managed to meet my 4 egg yolks a day goal! Upped her monistat to 3 times daily. She didn't eat a lot yesterday, but she was drinking on her own and drank a lot. She's had a LOT of very runny greenish poop last couple of days. I was hoping she was just flushing out her all the toxins in her system or that the antibiotics were making her poops runny and the green from not eating enough, but now second guessing that. Today I've been able to feed her decently well, but her crop is still slow. I ordered some Nutrical to give her that is even more calorie dense than just the egg yolk. I'll add this as a supplement to her feedings when it comes in this weekend.

Her comb still looks about the same. I thought her face swelling was looking better yesterday, but then today it looks worse. The spot near her right eye is pushing her eye lid out of alignment.

Her foot I've actually been able to work on the last several days some. I'm starting to see a correct foot shape now with defined toes. However when I went to soak her today, I noticed her middle toe had turned purplish black. ARGH! Not a good sign. There's no way I wrapped it too tight, so thinking this is necrosis setting in. It still has blood circulating to it, so I don't know. Her leg is really swollen and the spots there are pretty big. They haven't gone down in size at all and I even had wrapped them with sugardine to see if I could draw out the infection. No such luck. The color hasn't worsened though. Her good foot still has a smallish spot on her toe I've been putting betadine on. But I see a few red spots on her leg now. Another not good sign. These pics were taken before I removed more pus:

Her belly spots are about quarter size now, but have been for awhile. They look very much like the breast blister from earlier on. I still betadine these twice daily. They don't seem to be getting better nor worse.

She's pretty weak when I soak her, or she's just tired. Her big heavy crop was basically pulling her over in the tub today as she likes to just sleep there. I had to help hold her up for most the time, or she would just wedge herself in the corner and prop herself up on the sides of the tub. But in her crate, she stands on her own, preens, and walks to her water, so I dunno. Maybe the water is just soothing and relaxing.

With all these discouraing symptoms today and with being on enrofloxacin for almost 10 days now, kinda wondering if I'm seeing the writing on the wall....

 

[Bawkbok]

She seems to be really struggling. You are giving it a valiant effort to help her. Sometimes our best efforts cannot fight off the infection / illness / disease that wracks the body systems. Follow what's in your heart; whatever you feel is right.

 

[daisyag13]

Yesterday Day 44 update:
Well a sad update today, but knew it was coming. Poppy passed early yesterday afternoon. She had gotten really weak the last 2 days, but was still showing good signs such as drinking on her own and preening. We managed to drain her crop Friday night in hopes to clear it out since nothing was really moving through her system anymore. Tried to flush it (which she drank the epsom salt water all on her own), but the next morning nothing had changed and was still full of the water from the night before. I think her system was just shutting down, and we were already preparing for euthanasia. But I guess she wanted to go on her own terms. We're just glad she's not suffering anymore.

We did learn a lot from this experience, and here are some key takeaways that I'd do different next time (for those reading for educational purposes):

1. Take care of any rodent issues IMMEDIATELY! My hubbie is convinced this is what caused such a dramatic case of bumblefoot to begin with. I will definitely continue to keep a close watch on the rest of the flock from now on, but we're convinced a rat bite probably caused this to escalate so quickly because I do look the flock over when I feed them snacks several times a week. I had put out some glue traps but to no avail so I finally got the snap rat traps. The 5 gallon bucket with water method probably would have worked if we'd used a taller bucket (hubbie just grabbed a bucket he had on hand but wasn't actually as tall as a normal 5 gallon). I know it trapped him once but since it wasn't tall enough, he managed to escape. I have the rat traps baited and set to prevent any future occurences (obviously in places where the chickens can't get to).

2. Do preventative treatments for sour crop when giving antibiotics such as ACV or ACS water and powdered probiotics. Now know to give the probiotics at least 2 hrs after giving antibiotics. I also just read about papaya and started her on that yesterday morning but was too late at that point. I'd definitely start with that for any digestive issues and was wondering why I hadn't heard of it before. Read nothing but glowing reviews on it and how it was the only thing that worked for really tough cases of sour crop. Would also flush her system as soon as I suspect a crop issue.

3. I think I would try suctioning out her crop sooner so it doesn't stay inflated for so long and cause pendulous crop either. It was very easy to just use the same tube and syringe that I feed her with and pull stuff out instead of pumping stuff in.

4. Would closely monitor weight and caloric intake to ensure her weight stayed up so she'd have the strength and energy to fight off the disease. Learned to use egg yolks and Nutrical for high density calories in a smaller amount to help when dealing with crop issues. I would also add some grit to her feed that I'm tubing or torpedo feeding bc she did eat some feathers that could cause problems or blockages since she's not eating grit on her own. It was offered as free choice in her crate, but I doubt she ever touched it.

5. I don't think I would've done anything different with her foot except probably start with longer soaks from the beginning. The longer soaks really helped to soften up the tough pus areas. If I had done longer soaks twice daily, maybe I could've started working on her foot sooner. However, I think we were as aggressive to treat her foot overall as we possibly could with her not eating. I will definitely get some wonder dust as Clucktown had suggested. Did some quick research and it is safe to use on chickens and would probably work better to stop the bleeding than corn starch.

6. Would also do better about setting up a secure enclosure outside for any sick patients, and I actually already have something in mind. The outside time suggested by Alinas and Bawkbok really seemed to pick her spirits up, and if it was bigger would give her a better chance for some exercise as well. I really wanted to let her go outside one last time before she passed, but we were too late.

A long, and tiring past month. Rest in peace Poppy.