Chicken sick
I have a 1yr old Orpington hen who has been unwell for about 6weeks now.
When she first came to me as a pullet, she had coccidiosis and worms… both treated. She was laying well until 6wks ago when she laid a a fairy egg and then a soft shelled egg.
She developed a fever and stopped eating. Her poop has always been somewhat loose her whole life but I noticed what looked like eggy material in her loose stools. I suspected egg yolk peritonitis so I gave her a one week course of ciprofloxaxin. I also dewormed her again at that point. She got better in 3-4 days and was back with the flock by day 7.
Just 6 days later, I saw she was lethargic again and not eating, so I brought her inside. She had a fever again and her poop still had the egg like stuff. Gave her oral augmentin but she didn’t seem to get better even at day 7. Then gave her 3 days of intramuscular ceftriaxone. She appeared to get better and started eating corn, chopped greens and some chopped up boiled egg yolk.
Thought things were looking up but after 3 days, she stopped eating again. Fever didn’t come back but she was very lethargic again. She has her eyes closed all the time and moves very little. I gave her a shot of depoprovera to stop ovulation as I thought it might be the EYP still active. I changed the antibiotics back to ciprofloxacin too.
About 5 days later, she took a bit of corn again but just for 2 days and then it’s been downhill since then.
I have been syringing honey water with amino acids into her every 2-3hrs. I try to get some nut milk or diluted boiled egg yolk in but I don’t think she gets anything more than 10ml of it the entire day. She still drinks on her own but seems to swallow a lot of air. I have to burp her intermittently by massaging her crop.
Her poop is literally just green water now. Strangely, it doesn’t smell at all. A week ago, she developed wry neck with spasms. Seems like she’s too weak to bring her head up. She doesn’t seem to have a swollen belly and her pupils look fine. She can stand if it weren’t for the wry neck causing her to lose balance.
I really don’t know how she’s still alive after these 6weeks. I live in a city in the tropics. She used to free range in a sandy backyard along with my other chooks. Around the same time she got ill, I had a roo suddenly become pale and passed very quickly… but he never acted unwell… just his comb turned orange over 7-10days and the day before he passed, he was still eating and pooping as usual.
I haven’t brought her to the vet because there really isn’t any competent chicken vet around here. Backyard chickening is a fairly recent hobby in my area. For the same reason, I don’t trust anyone to euthanise her competently and humanely too.
I would really love to know if there is anything else I can do for her and what really is the matter with her.
@azygous would appreciate any wise insights you may have to offer.
Thanks!
I have a 1yr old Orpington hen who has been unwell for about 6weeks now.
When she first came to me as a pullet, she had coccidiosis and worms… both treated. She was laying well until 6wks ago when she laid a a fairy egg and then a soft shelled egg.
She developed a fever and stopped eating. Her poop has always been somewhat loose her whole life but I noticed what looked like eggy material in her loose stools. I suspected egg yolk peritonitis so I gave her a one week course of ciprofloxaxin. I also dewormed her again at that point. She got better in 3-4 days and was back with the flock by day 7.
Just 6 days later, I saw she was lethargic again and not eating, so I brought her inside. She had a fever again and her poop still had the egg like stuff. Gave her oral augmentin but she didn’t seem to get better even at day 7. Then gave her 3 days of intramuscular ceftriaxone. She appeared to get better and started eating corn, chopped greens and some chopped up boiled egg yolk.
Thought things were looking up but after 3 days, she stopped eating again. Fever didn’t come back but she was very lethargic again. She has her eyes closed all the time and moves very little. I gave her a shot of depoprovera to stop ovulation as I thought it might be the EYP still active. I changed the antibiotics back to ciprofloxacin too.
About 5 days later, she took a bit of corn again but just for 2 days and then it’s been downhill since then.
I have been syringing honey water with amino acids into her every 2-3hrs. I try to get some nut milk or diluted boiled egg yolk in but I don’t think she gets anything more than 10ml of it the entire day. She still drinks on her own but seems to swallow a lot of air. I have to burp her intermittently by massaging her crop.
Her poop is literally just green water now. Strangely, it doesn’t smell at all. A week ago, she developed wry neck with spasms. Seems like she’s too weak to bring her head up. She doesn’t seem to have a swollen belly and her pupils look fine. She can stand if it weren’t for the wry neck causing her to lose balance.
I really don’t know how she’s still alive after these 6weeks. I live in a city in the tropics. She used to free range in a sandy backyard along with my other chooks. Around the same time she got ill, I had a roo suddenly become pale and passed very quickly… but he never acted unwell… just his comb turned orange over 7-10days and the day before he passed, he was still eating and pooping as usual.
I haven’t brought her to the vet because there really isn’t any competent chicken vet around here. Backyard chickening is a fairly recent hobby in my area. For the same reason, I don’t trust anyone to euthanise her competently and humanely too.
I would really love to know if there is anything else I can do for her and what really is the matter with her.
@azygous would appreciate any wise insights you may have to offer.
Thanks!
