hen opening month closing eyes and stretching neck while breathing

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azygous said:
Your hen is very sick. I see from her photo she's suffering from a likely respiratory disease and an advanced case of scaly leg mites. For starters.

Where and under what circumstances did you acquire these chickens? Do you know how old they are? Have they laid any eggs since you've had them? What does their poop look like?

I'm being inclusive of all your chickens because they all may be suffering from these things plus internal parasites and possibly lice.

Besides providing the additional information, we need to see photos of the other chickens and poop, especially from this hen. Here's a quick read to bring you up to speed on crop issues, which it doesn't appear to be the issue with this hen, however. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
Click to expand...



Thank you for your response. We first got 6 older hens then three weeks after that we 4 younger hens(2 to 3 years old) this hen is one of the young hens. We have had them all for about 3 months. About 3 weeks ago one of the young hens(she's a different breed from this one) had a really poopy butt and was moving slowly. I put DE in their pellets and apple cider vinegar in their water. She is doing much better now. All the other chickens a happy. A friend gave me telracycline because I sent her a video and she thinks it's a respiratory problem. I gave some to her through a dropper last night and this morning. She's wheezing louder this morning than yesterday. Yes I think they have all laid eggs.

Here is her yesterday morning with two of of outher chickens. The white chicken was the one I suspected to have worms.


I'm editing to add that she does not want to come out of the coop today. Not eating or drinking. What can I give her? And it has been rainy her for the last couple of days.
 

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Where did you get these chickens? Was it a swap meet, private farm, Craig's List, etc? If you visited a farm to get the chickens, what were the conditions like? Did it smell bad of chicken droppings? Did you notice the overall condition of the chickens? Messy, broken and tattered feathers? You may have bought a respiratory virus that will live in your flock forever and very likely imported worms and external parasites.

Another possibility is that by importing these adult chickens from another locale, they are in the process of being infected by coccidia, a soil parasite, in your soil that they have no resistance to, coccidia varying by species in different locales.

Your first task is to learn to handle your chickens so you can examine them and treat them. Use treats to call them to you. Use a signal device such as a clicker or rattle or whistle or a word they can associate with the treat. Use the same signal each time. Very soon, just using the signal will get the chickens to come to you. You shouldn't need to chase and grab. Gradually, encourage their trust by holding the treat close to your body until the chicken is comfortable with the closeness, then begin stroking their throat and breast. Picking them up will be much easier with this trust.

Here's a list of things you should be treating:

1. Scaly leg mites. Heavy castor oil or soaking in spinosad.
2. Internal parasites
a. worms - use an all purpose wormer such as Safeguard
b. coccidiosis - use Corid
3. Respiratory disease - use the tetracyclin for the symptoms, but expect the disease to present symptoms when the chickens are stressed.
4. Confirm any crop issues by examining all your chickens first thing in the morning before you let them access food or water. Read the article I linked to.
5. Clean and treat the foot wound by soaking in Epsom salt water and use an antibiotic ointment on the wound. It may need to be bandaged with Vetrap to keep it clean.
 
azygous said:
Where did you get these chickens? Was it a swap meet, private farm, Craig's List, etc? If you visited a farm to get the chickens, what were the conditions like? Did it smell bad of chicken droppings? Did you notice the overall condition of the chickens? Messy, broken and tattered feathers? You may have bought a respiratory virus that will live in your flock forever and very likely imported worms and external parasites.

Another possibility is that by importing these adult chickens from another locale, they are in the process of being infected by coccidia, a soil parasite, in your soil that they have no resistance to, coccidia varying by species in different locales.

Your first task is to learn to handle your chickens so you can examine them and treat them. Use treats to call them to you. Use a signal device such as a clicker or rattle or whistle or a word they can associate with the treat. Use the same signal each time. Very soon, just using the signal will get the chickens to come to you. You shouldn't need to chase and grab. Gradually, encourage their trust by holding the treat close to your body until the chicken is comfortable with the closeness, then begin stroking their throat and breast. Picking them up will be much easier with this trust.

Here's a list of things you should be treating:

1. Scaly leg mites. Heavy castor oil or soaking in spinosad.
2. Internal parasites
a. worms - use an all purpose wormer such as Safeguard
b. coccidiosis - use Corid
3. Respiratory disease - use the tetracyclin for the symptoms, but expect the disease to present symptoms when the chickens are stressed.
4. Confirm any crop issues by examining all your chickens first thing in the morning before you let them access food or water. Read the article I linked to.
5. Clean and treat the foot wound by soaking in Epsom salt water and use an antibiotic ointment on the wound. It may need to be bandaged with Vetrap to keep it clean.





There was a lday on Facebook about 5mjns away from our home who had backyard chickens and they decided they didn't want them anymore. We took 4. I'm not sure how many she had. There was a rooster there that was picking on all the hens. They all looked rough when we got them. Im not sure what the conditions were besides them not being free range. Thes are looking better though. They are all acting normal and happy as well. The sick chicken doesn't really like me touching her but will let me because I have been handling her more now.

I started worming them with dE and ACV about 3 weeks ago. I'll look in to the other things. Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.
Click to expand...


Picture of this morning




She just died. I will be watching the flock closely.
 
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She appeared to be very sick. I'm sorry you lost her, but not surprised. You should probably treat your remaining chickens for coccidiosis immeidately or risk losing them as well. Get some Corid from the feed store. Time is critical.
 
azygous said:
She appeared to be very sick. I'm sorry you lost her, but not surprised. You should probably treat your remaining chickens for coccidiosis immeidately or risk losing them as well. Get some Corid from the feed store. Time is critical.
Click to expand...


It came on so fast. I feed and water them twice a day and spend a couple of hours in the yard with them every evening while my son plays in the yard. Everyone (besides the hen that died) is chipper and happy when this morning. I will treat them all for what she possibly had. I didn't get a good photo but there was a red line on her tongue. What could that mean?
 
Not sure what the significance of the red mark on the tongue would be, even seeing a photo of it.

Cocciciosis is my first strong guess as to what killed this hen. And if it is correct, then your whole flock will be trying to fight it off. Coccidia are protozoa in the soil and they enter a chicken most often by dirt and grit contaminated with feces from infected chickens, but an overload in moist warm soil can infect directly.

It will go undetected until chickens start acting sick, sort of a tipping point that is reached. The parasite takes up residence in the intestines and it goes through its life cycle. Corid in the chickens' drinking water will interrupt this cycle and they will then die off. The good news is if the chickens survive, they are then resistant to that species of coccidia.

Get some liquid Corid and mix two teaspoons into one gallon of water each day. Withhold vitamins until after treatment is completed. You need to treat for five days, with one week off, then another five days treatment to get any new ones that have hatched after the first round.

But after that, your chickens probably need worming, and to be treated for leg mites. Look for lice on them by inspecting the skin around the vent. You would see them crawling around. Nits might be glued to the feather shafts. You need to treat with permethrin poultry dusting powder. DE won't kill them.
 

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