Chickeneering
Chirping
- Apr 17, 2021
- 27
- 16
- 56
Yet another unhappy chicken discovery today 
I have a ~1 year old frizzle bantam cochin hen that seemed perfectly well up until I saw her this morning and noticed that her comb had congealed blood on it, and she was walking around like a bird with sourcrop or in pain--head tucked in, lots of sitting, breast sinking onto the ground. I isolated her with food and water, unable to find any exterior injuries or any signs of illness. The only thing I had noticed that was at all weird was that a few days prior she was standing outside by herself, looking fine, but just standing there.
A few hours later today I noticed she was becoming more immobile and made her drink some water. She was starting to stiffen, couldn't stand, and her eyes were glazing, but as I looked closely at her face, I saw many tiny, tiny white mites (never seen this kind before, except on dead birds) crawling all over her. I immediately went to get the poultry dust, and as soon as I returned, she went into her death throes.
Necropsy showed a liver with little yellow-white dots all throughout, and cutting open the liver showed a larger cheesy mass inside. The bile duct seemed huge to me for the size of the bird and liver (more appropriate for a 15lb rooster than a 2 lb bantam). There were some blood-spots in the wall of the large intestine, and the inside lining of the gizzard was blackened in places. Everything else looked relatively normal, but she had no eggs near ready for laying (the largest yolk was maybe 12mm across). I checked my other birds for mites and found none, and none are displaying these symptoms.
I haven't wormed in a while, so could it be parasites? I looked up the liver speckling on the internet and came back with possible spotty chicken liver bacterial infection, but I'd like to confirm with you all, based on the other symptoms/photos. Thanks!
I have a ~1 year old frizzle bantam cochin hen that seemed perfectly well up until I saw her this morning and noticed that her comb had congealed blood on it, and she was walking around like a bird with sourcrop or in pain--head tucked in, lots of sitting, breast sinking onto the ground. I isolated her with food and water, unable to find any exterior injuries or any signs of illness. The only thing I had noticed that was at all weird was that a few days prior she was standing outside by herself, looking fine, but just standing there. A few hours later today I noticed she was becoming more immobile and made her drink some water. She was starting to stiffen, couldn't stand, and her eyes were glazing, but as I looked closely at her face, I saw many tiny, tiny white mites (never seen this kind before, except on dead birds) crawling all over her. I immediately went to get the poultry dust, and as soon as I returned, she went into her death throes.
Necropsy showed a liver with little yellow-white dots all throughout, and cutting open the liver showed a larger cheesy mass inside. The bile duct seemed huge to me for the size of the bird and liver (more appropriate for a 15lb rooster than a 2 lb bantam). There were some blood-spots in the wall of the large intestine, and the inside lining of the gizzard was blackened in places. Everything else looked relatively normal, but she had no eggs near ready for laying (the largest yolk was maybe 12mm across). I checked my other birds for mites and found none, and none are displaying these symptoms.
I haven't wormed in a while, so could it be parasites? I looked up the liver speckling on the internet and came back with possible spotty chicken liver bacterial infection, but I'd like to confirm with you all, based on the other symptoms/photos. Thanks!
