Hen not eating/drinking, lethargic - I'm getting desperate!

[KCNC06]

Okay....As stated in the subject...I'm getting desperate! My worm posting went through several possible issues (https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=294856) but...I just don't think we're making any progress.

Here's the symptoms and recent history as best as I can remember:

- EE Hen, hatched 05/09 - I'm fairly certain she's a McMurray's chick but we bought her locally

- Has been free to free-range since 09/09 and spends majority of day free-ranging around our yard with two other hens

- Started laying 1/24, laid an egg a day through 1/30 when we got 7 inches of snow

- After snow on 1/30, she stopped laying (as did one other hen, 3rd hen's production dropped off) and stopped free-ranging. Spent 1/30-2/8 hanging around coop

- 2/8 other hens started laying again, EE hen (Hawkface) was very interested in other hen's eggs, spent day sitting on other hen's eggs

- 2/8 evening - I found Hawkface sleeping under the coop, has been fairly unresponsive since then. Rarely gets up to move around on her own, quite unsteady on her feet, when she does get up to walk she almost staggers then lays back down

- She lays with her head down, face touching or practically touching the floor (current bedding is a sheet), back end sticking up a bit

I found worms in the poop of another chicken out in the coop, so I treated the whole flock with Wazine on Tuesday afternoon (2/9). None of the other chickens are acting sick, all are eating and drinking normally and most (if not all) the others are laying regularly again (we have a total of 7 chickens - 6 appear healthy).

I've only been able to get Hawkface to drink water from a dropper, and haven't been able to get her to drink more than 1-2 teaspoons since yesterday morning. I'm honestly quite surprised that she's still alive. I've checked her over several times for mites/lice and didn't see anything, but gave her a DE rub down just in case. We started to think she was broody since she had been sitting on eggs earlier in the day on Monday, but she spent all day in the coop today and didn't sit on the same side of the nest loft as the eggs let alone on any.

We're supposed to get snow again tonight, so I brought her back inside. I figured being warm would be better for her than freezing in the coop (even though we have a heat lamp, it's still cold out there!). I'm guessing that I'm probably too late to save her, which I've actually been thinking since Tuesday, I'm more concerned about the rest of the flock. Since Hawkface's symptoms came on so suddenly, I'm worried that I'm going to end up losing more.

From what I've described here, does anyone have any guesses as to what we're dealing with and what else I might be able to try? I've been pretty impressed with how well our flock has done so far, this is our first experience with birds and we haven't lost any yet. I'm guessing it's going to be a hard loss if she doesn't pull through. And now I'm sick...seem to have caught my husband's cold or something...I'm just exhausted. Ugh!

 

[purpletree23]

I'm sorry she is so sick. The symptoms are pretty general so it could be anything. Right now the most important thing is fluids. Give her Gatorade or anything with electrolytes. Pedialyte for kids works great too. Using a dropper drop the liquid on the top/side of her mouth a drop at a time. Let the drops roll into her mouth so she can swallow them. Don't go too fast or force her or she will get it in her lungs. Right now she needs fluids and I can't stress that enough.

Any other signs that something is wrong? Puffy eyes, stuffy sounding breathing or sneezing?

What was she fed before getting sick? Anything out of the ordinary?

Did you try to get her to eat 'treats'? Make her a scrambled egg, very well cooked pasta mashed up a little, bits of strawberry or chopped grapes? Grated apple works well sometimes too. Nothing salty or sweet or greasy or hard to digest.

Make sure she has access to water, keep her warm and in a quiet place and hope for the best. Sometimes when they get fluids into them they perk up.

Good luck


Please don't force feed....be patient and let her swallow whatever liquid you choose to give.

 

[usschicago1]

Im really really not sure about this one. I did some reasearch and it says most chickens can handle very heavy loads of worms without being affected, and death is rare. and by the way you describe it, yours seems awful. i would normally say start a tylan-50 treatment, but i think anymore meds would kill it. maybe start putting some vitamins and minerals in the water that your forcefeeding it.
Im so sorry
Goodluck

Keep Updatedc

 

[KCNC06]

I know! Her symptoms seem to be so random and general that I can't really match them up to anything I've been able to find. Which is, of course, why I'm so frustrated!

Up until Monday she was eating their normal feed - DuMor Poultry Layer Crumbles in the feeder during the day, and a small amount of Producer's Pride Scratch Grain mixed with the regular layer feed in the afternoon for a snack. I've been mixing DE in with their feed since November, not as much as I've read as the "recommended" amount of DE and started adding a bit of oyster shell to their feed in late December or early January.

Since Monday though, I haven't been able to get her to eat anything. I've tried chopped up hard boiled egg, tuna, oatmeal and canned corn. No interest, she turns her head away from me, closes her eyes and tries to lay back down. Her chest/breast area is a little, I don't know how to describe it, puffed out kind of. I tried feeling it a few times to feel if it felt hard like it could be an impacted crop kind of situation going on. I can't really tell what I'm feeling or what I should be feeling for. I feel something funny....but I can't tell if it's bones, feathers...or something hard inside that shouldn't be. Her feathers are REALLY dense and downy.

I've been trying to get her to drink water with Poultry Nutri-Drench. I've been giving it to her with the dropper, putting it on the outside of her beak and letting her lap it up. I think there's something about the Nutri-Drench that grosses her out though because she seems to drink plain water better than the water with Nurti-Drench. I squished up some egg yoke and mixed it with water a couple days ago and got her to drink some of that mixture, but that didn't last past two feedings.

When I gave her the Wazine, she probably only drank about 4-6 teaspoons of it, but she hardly passed any worms at all. Just a few tiny, super skinny ones. Nothing like the worms I saw in the other hen's poop that clued me in to the worms. She's been pooping, I just haven't seen worms like I expected to see.

And now it's snowing again. Last time it snowed we were stuck here for a couple days. 'Tis the joy of living on the edge of nowhere in NC. Not really an area that's prepared for snow to begin with, and we're definitely in an area that no one cares about.

Which is going to make it pretty darn difficult to get out anywhere to get anything else.

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
If it is an impacted crop this will Help:

http://sites.google.com/site/moodysbantams/poultry-health-1/crop-impaction

Goodluck with all the snow! and your bird!

 

[KCNC06]

Hmm....I think I'm going to try the water/olive oil. Other than not being 100% sure I'm feeling her crop, the other symptoms match up. I was able to get her to drink some pedialyte last night and again this morning. I also saw something else on here that said to try to give them a little bit of red wine for an impacted crop. She drank that down better than anything else I've tried giving her lately. I definitely hear a lot of "belly noises" when I'm able to get her to drink anything.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

The other hens started laying and she didn't. Since she spent all day on a nest and now lays "with her head down, face touching or practically touching the floor (current bedding is a sheet), back end sticking up a bit", could she be eggbound (needing to pass an egg, but can't).

 

[KCNC06]

I felt around on her again while trying to get her to drink some of the water and olive oil. I think the hard part that I felt before is her trachea though. What I'm assuming is her crop is very soft. The rest of her is softish too, except she's mostly bones. I'm back to thinking she's trying to die. I'd just like to be able to figure out why she wants to die and whether or not I need to be concerned with the rest of the flock getting the same mindset.

 

[KCNC06]

Whatever it was that was making her sick, she gave in to it last night. We had a little funeral for her this morning and started the pet cemetery at this house.