Her comb and wattles are purply instead of red! she's sick

[sheeshshe]

and she's not acting right. she's acting a bit off and sluggish. what do I do?

ETA:

1) What type of bird , age and weight. Buff Orpington age not quite 1... will be one in June
2) What is the behavior, exactly. she's sitting around away from the others, she's just kind of laying around and she shakes her head every once in a while.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Just noticed it today... this morning I saw her sitting around. prior to this she was looking ok.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. the other chickens pick on her, she doesn't have feathers on the top of her head and they peck at her at times. (there were 4 originally and I added 2 more when they were about a month old and the younger 2 that I added which are only a month younger, never got 100% accepted I dont think cuz they pick on those two) so the flock leader likes to pick on her the most because she wants to be in charge as well.
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. nothing that I have seen. they've been doing the same things. as far as I know she didn't eat or do anything different. but she could have perhaps gotten into something she shouldn't have, she's that sort of way LOL!
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Yes she is eating and drinking.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I will have to isolate her and see.
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? none.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I would treat completely myself.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. if you need a picture of what she looks like I can get one after the kids are in bed.
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use pine shavings and there is straw in the nest box.




OK, um... I think maybe she is egg bound or something? her vent doesn't look good and it keeps moving like she is trying to poop or something and it is dirty all around it..

 

[Kittymomma]

Go to this link and follow the instructions. You're not giving us enough info to help you. About all I can say is with the purple comb she's at least somewhat oxygen deprived.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

 

[sheeshshe]

thank you

added more info

 

[Kittymomma]

Ok, First off you need to isolate her. This will help you figure out what kind of droppings she's having--good for diagnosing and if she is laying or not. Since you suspect she may be egg bound I'd stick her in a warm sink for 15 minutes or so, that can help relax the muscles so she passes the egg. While you have her in the sink feel around and under her vent and see if you can feel the egg.

Next you'll need to get her dried off and warm, surprisingly they seem to like to be blow dried--sue the low setting so you don't burn her. After that I'd take some petroleum jelly and lube just inside her vent as well as around it. That will help soften as well as lube and may help her pass the egg if that is what is going on. If she's not eating try giving her some scrambled eggs. Most of them like it and will eat those even when they're not interested in their regular food. Good luck with her and please update with any new info.

 

[sheeshshe]

OK thank you!!! I'll give her a bath in the morning.

she is eating so that is good. I went out there and gave her a piece of food to see if she would take it and she did. I'll go ahead and do what you said in hopes that it works! not sure how I'll isolate her though. hmmmmm... maybe my neighbor will let me use her rabbit cage?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
I have a large dog crate that I use for a chicken hospital, but anything that's big enough to put the chicken and food/water in and where you can keep the chook warm will work. I won't be back online until sometime after 5:30 p.m. pacific time, but I'll check in then and hopefully someone else will see your post if you need more help sooner.

 

[sheeshshe]

got an egg out and something yellowy too... but she's still sick. not sure if there is something else up? another egg? something else besides that? she smells gross.

 

[sheeshshe]

her poops are black and then there is a yellowy part, it is thick and yellowy like.

she is drinking a lot. a lot lot.


no improvement in the looks of her though. do I need to give her another one of those baths? does she have another egg stuck in there? does she have an infection ow? I dont know what to do!

 

[sheeshshe]

OK, so she's looking worse I think. she's laying down now where she was standing and walking around this afternoon and morning. she's been laying down for a while now. when she was standing her vent kept going in and out.

her comb and wattles are really purple now. I went to the chicken supply store and got some antibiotics to put in her water. she was drinking a ton earlier.... but now she's just laying around so who knows now.


I don't know what else to do here. but that is the update. she ate earlier too.

 

[Kittymomma]

It sounds like she had an egg break inside her. I haven't had that happen here yet, but I've seen on here where the is injectable pennisillen given IM in the breast. You may be able to get injectable pen-g at your feed store. I'll see if I can find the thread that had the dosage for you. The other thing you'll want to do is keep her somewhere dark/dim to try to keep her from laying for a few days. The big problem now is infection from the broken egg. I'd dissolve 1 1/4 of a 325mg asprin into a quart of water and give her that to drink. Hopefully the asprin will get the fever that I'm sure she has from the infection under control until you can get her the pen-g. I think the only other option is to cull her.

The antibiotics in the water will probably not be strong enough for this, but it was good thinking on your part.

Pen-g dosage is 1cc into the breast. Here's a link to a very infomative thread, I don't think all of it will apply to you, but lots of good information.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=258560&p=2