Hen with reoccurring illness

[mattbhm]

Hi, I have a Polish hen that keeps getting sick. I think she is about 5 or 6 years old. She just wants to stand puffed up with her eyes closed. she was just fine yesterday running around digging and jumping on things.but this morning when I was letting her out of her coop she was quiet and slow. She ate her oatmeal (she loves oatmeal so I usually bring her out a tiny bit in the morning) and looked like she wanted to run around but then just stopped and puffed up. She laid an egg earlier this morning so she isn't egg bound. her poo is kind foamy and gooey. I have a picture of it that i can post if that would help.
The same thing happened back in May. She had the same symptoms but also wouldn't eat. She got better and was back to normal within a week. She did a similar thing in mid June and recovered. She is separated from our laying flock and has been since May. Any suggestions would be appreciated. She is a pet.

 

[sbhkma]

Is she eating and drinking? How is her crop-full, hard, empty, mushy? Does her breath smell off? Has she been dewormed and if so when and with what? How are her leg scales? Have you checked her vent for any sign of parasites or flystrike issues? What does her comb look like? Have you looked at the bottom of her feet to check for bumblefoot? And yes, pics of her poop and of her may be very helpful. Sorry your pet isn't feeling well. It sucks!

 

[Kiki]

Has she ever been wormed.
Please post the poop pics.

 

[mattbhm]

She is eating, and she is not thin at all. she drank very little yesterday and wouldn't drink by herself today. I don't think she has ever been wormed. Legs, vent, comb and feet all look normal. Here's a poop from this morning

 

[sbhkma]

I would get some fluid into her asap and then de-worm her. It would be pretty much impossible to drip enough fluids into her beak. Tubing is going to be the most effective way to re-hydrate her. De-worm the whole flock, not just her. I use Valbazen. .08 ml per lb and then re-dose in 10 days. Others will have more observations to add to this. Just what I see/recommend for what it's worth. What are your temperatures like?

 

[mattbhm]

Ok, I will work on re-hydrating her and then I will pick up de-wormer. It has been in the low 90°s the past couple days, and all the chicken coops are in full or part shade.

 

[sbhkma]

Low 90s sounds positively tropical to me right now Lots of fresh cool water helps. I change out my chickens' water bowls 3 times a day right now. Temps are around 105-107 with humidity hovering around 60%

 

[mattbhm]

She is doing a lot better this morning. She must have been dehydrated because almost immediately after I forced some water down her she started to perk up. I'm going to keep an eye on her and make sure she keeps drinking. I'm not sure why she wasn't in the first place as she had constant access to fresh cool water.

Thanks everybody for the help.

 

[sbhkma]

I would still recommend de-worming with Valbazen for all birds. Or even better, take a stool sample to the vet to see what the worm load is.

 

[mattbhm]

I still plan on de-worming them when I can get the wormer in a day or so. It has been pretty wet and nasty here so I was already thinking about worming them before this happened.