Hen with vent problem and limp! *Pictures Please help!

[Lacy Blues]

I'll see if I can't find out what the name of that little pill was.

Got it! Hypericum.

 

[PsychoChicken]

I meant to write "I really hope it is NOT Merek's" I have 4 other chickens that have been exposed if it is. She only falls down on her side if I pick her up and set her down because she cannot use the bad foot. Once I set her up she doesn't fall over on her own. I can see a swelling at the joint where her fingers are and the bad foot feels warm while the good foot feels cool. That makes me think it is an infection and not a nerve thing.

My dad's girlfriend is a nurse and I am going to bring her a swab sample of the hen's vent tomorrow so she can look at it under the microscope.

 

[PsychoChicken]

Update: My nurse friend took a swab of her vent and looked at it under the microscope. She says it is definitely bacterial. The PH was 6.5 so that rules out vent gleet because no fungus could live in that low of a PH.

My other chicken still doesn't seem to be limping which makes me think she was just imitating the sick hen. I have them quarentined together and I am starting to think my second hen is not sick but I can't bring myself to separate them because I think the sick chicken needs her. I figure, if she hasn't gotten whatever this is yet by now (its been like 3 weeks) then she isn't going to get it.

I almost took my poor girl to the avian vet today but I couldn't get an appt. I think I have decided to start her on ABs and see if that helps. If she isn't improving from the ABs I am thinking I need to put her down. I have some Clindamycin on hand but I couldn't find anything on giving it to hens. I know it is used for staph infections.

When I came home from work today I checked her vent and there was a little bit of what might be a bloody substance running out. She still seems perky and she is eating ravenously and drinking. She can still poo although I can see it hurts her.

I think the might be a goner but I don't want to give up on her without trying ABs first. I decided to just give her some Clindamycin since that is the best I can do tonight. I hope it helps her.

 

[Hyline]

Keep trying the vet, and tell them it's life and death - it really needs to be the correct antibiotics and they will likely provide her with some pain relief too.

 

[Lacy Blues]

If you want to give her something to relieve pain and don't want to go the chemical route, you can give her blueberries. They are high in natural aspirin. They might not want them at first because of their dark color, but if you squeeze one into their mouth they will taste and see that it is good ! I give my large fowl about one tablespoon when they seem to have a problem with some sort of pain. I keep them in the freezer and only thaw a little when needed, that way I have them.

Be forewarned though, I told one lady about it when her chicken had a broken leg or something... after she got her to eat them, she wouldn't eat anything else! I thought that was amusing but I imagine it wasn't for her. Feed her the regular feed first and after she eats, teach her about blueberries. I imagine if that hen was mine, she'd have gotten mighty hungry before she finally ate her regular food!

 

[PsychoChicken]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Despite our efforts we had to put Elvira down today. We had her and ABs (flagyl) and I was giving her yogurt, vitamin E and extra protein plus doing warm soaks to try to loosen up the crud around her vent. I also gave her blueberries for the pain. At first she seemed like she was doing better, she got noticeably less stinky and she was holding her tail up more but then her vent started to look worse. It was more swollen and was getting clogged up. I couldn't get it to loosen up. I tried giving her a little honey in water to make it easier for her to poo but it was no use. Yesterday she was completely clogged up and I don't think she was able to poo at all. Her appetite and water intake went way down and this morning she barely got out of her crate. Poor girl. Her foot showed now signs of improvement either. We couldn't decide if it looked like nerve damage or if it was just an infection. It was clear she wasn't going to recover and she was in a lot of pain. I hope she is in a better place.

Now I just have to keep a close eye on the other one (Vampira). She has been with Elvira this whole time. She's underweight and she has been holding her tail down and sitting a lot. Her limp is gone (if she ever had one) but she isn't eating as eagerly as she used to. I wonder if she is just sad about Elvira dying. These past few days I saw her sitting down right up against Elvira and I realized she was doing it to support Elvira's bad leg. I guess I will just keep watching her closely for improvements. Her vent looks totally normal. Only thing is she should be laying by now and she still isn't. When I got her the guy told me she was 4 months old and and that was 4 months ago! I am going to keep giving them all yogurt + vitamin E and try to fatten Vampira up a bit by giving her extra treats. What's good for helping her put on weight?

My 3 other hens are about a year and half old and they all seem fine and happy as clams. They really like yogurt!

 

[larsonll]

I am thinking and praying for your other chicken.

 

[Lacy Blues]

You could try giving her cheese. It's high in fat but has lots of protein too. If they get diarrhea, cheese helps a lot... as do the blueberries. I found out this week that blueberries are anti-diarrheal! That came in handy because I had one of my better hens get sick this week. Extremely pale (scarily so!) lethargic, no appetite for food, only water, green watery diarrhea. I was so afraid I was going to lose her. She was fine last week and then withing the span of 1.5 to 2 days got got deathly ill.

This is what I did for her: Mar 5: She wouldn't eat, not even hard-boiled egg yolk at first (which tells you exactly how sick she was) so I brought her indoors in a big tupperware tub with a wire top and clipped on a small wattage light bulb for warmth. Rather than pump her full of antibiotics, I force fed her some yogurt.

Mar 6: She ate her egg yolk in the morning but by 4:30 she hadn't eaten anything else. Fed her more yogurt.

Mar 7: More yogurt in the morning. ... then I thought, well, she won't eat so I need to do something to her water so she's actually getting some benefits. I had a protein drink mix that I mixed into her water to at least get some nutrition into her. This recommended 1 scoop to 1 cup water. Her little waterer holds about 1/2 cup and I mixed a whole scoop into it. Then in the afternoon, she started eating her egg yolks. She drank about 1/2 of her protein drink the first night. Gave her more yogurt before bed.

Mar 8: More yogurt. Then I remembered that alfalfa is an appetite stimulant so I made her some alfalfa tea (1 tsp dried alfalfa to 2 cups water and let it steep for about 30 min). I mixed half water w/half alfalfa tea to make her protein drink the next day and also stirred in some yogurt. For food, just hoping she'd be interested, I gave her a chopped hard-boiled egg with some shredded cheese (to slow down her digestion and boost her protein). That evening I noticed she had picked out the cheese and eaten it, so I brought her some more. She ate that too. I mixed in some of her normal food to see if she would eat that yet. She just picked out her favorite parts. I checked on her at 11pm to find that all of her cheese and protein drink were gone. Gave her more cheese and more protein drink. I brought her a spoonful of yogurt and put it in her dish. She wolfed it down! Then, thinking about all the cheese she had been eating, I brought her a spoonful of applesauce. I didn't want her to now become constipated! I gave her half of the spoonful and put the rest into her water. The natural pectins in apples feed the beneficial bacteria in yogurt. Before I went to bed I noticed she looked a lot better. Her color was returning and she was more alert.

Mar 9: More yogurt and applesauce. I offered a hard boiled egg chopped and she picked out the whites and some cheese. Keeping tabs on her droppings, one out of 3 that morning had a bit more substance than the others prior to it. She didn't eat much this day. In the evening her lay pellets and egg yolks were still in her dish so I finally mixed some yogurt all through it and left it for her to eat by morning, hopefully. I looked up diarrhea to see what foods curb it and I found that blueberries do. So, I added about 4 blueberries, cut up, into her food mixture. She was curious (which is always good) and decided to try them. Well, she liked them well enough to eat several pieces.

Mar 10: When I got up, her food cup was empty and her protein drink was gone! So I gave her more of all of the above, plus a spoon of both yogurt and applesauce. She started eating right away. More in the afternoon and by bedtime, it was almost all gone. When it was lights out, I put more cheese and a spoonful of yogurt in her dish so she'd have it early in the morning. I got up this morning to an empty dish!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am with her progress. Her color is fantastic, she is no longer cold (or afraid of me for that matter), she is very alert and she chats with me when I come into the room.

I will continue this treatment until her droppings are absolutely normal. They're still wet, she had one this morning that was nearly perfect. I didn't add blueberries to her food this morning and this afternoon when I returned home from the house of God, her droppings were quite wet again. Blueberries to the rescue. We'll see but I have very very high hopes that she will pull through.

One other thing I should mention that I really don't believe did any good and one other that I believe did help, but in reciting all that I did, I should say it all. I only had Tylan as an antibiotic and though she showed no signs of respiratory trouble, I was desperate. I only have Tylan 200 so I only gave her 1/4 cc at a time. Mar 6 and 7, I gave one shot each evening. Mar 8, I gave her shots both morning and evening. Since then, she hasn't had any shots. It could have been the alfalfa tea.

The other thing mentioned was prayer. I definitely have been praying for her. Psalm 138:8 says that the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. In other words, the things that I am concerned about, he will take care of. I believe this with all my heart and rely heavily upon him for without my chickens, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I dearly love them all!

Now, this girl is not out of the woods yet, but she's on her way.

 

[PsychoChicken]

Update on Vampira. The other hens aren't bothering her too much but she still stands apart from the flock. She is holding her tail down and sitting still but she seems to be a little bit better. Still she isn't eating much and her poo is green. I have been bringing her up to the house to give her food but she doesn't pig out on it like the other chickens would. I ordered some AviaCharge 2000 today and I am hoping that might give her a boost. I have been giving her quinoa and yogurt with vitamin E.

 

[klmclain1]

The only thing I can think of is that your other girl had a bacterial infection of some kind... right? I'd be leaning towards an antibiotic for your girl that's still living. Penicillin IM x4 days, 1/2cc. I'd push any proteins right now - soft scrambled egg, canned cat food, etc.