How to judge whether to put your chicken down...Need some advice from all of you please

[AlicesSilkies]

Hello fellow chicken lovers, i have been trying to write this for such a long time. Finally i have done it!

I have a 9 bantam chickens, and the lowest in the pecking order, (papillion) has been picked upon alot, first she had this wound on the side of her face:




But it has all cleared up now and everything was absolutley fantastic they were all getting along fine

Then 3 days ago i found her screaming in the house scratching her face, i took her out straight away and she was freezing cold i took her inside and then straight up to the vets she had 3 injections vitamin b 12, warm fluid, and antibiotics and she was beginning to look better. However she is going down hill;

She keeps scratching at her face (there is no cut or scratch there to make it itchy) and its driving her absolutley mad, and she has completley gone off her food.

I am not sure what to do anymore,because i am not sure if shes happy or has a decent quality of life, but then selfishly i would never want to put her down!!

Have any of you been in this situation, or have any advice!?

I would really appreciate it!

 

[Harry Rooster]

How terribly sad. I am heartbroken for you. I am like you, I wouldn't want to put her down either and I would probably keep trying until there was no hope at all. Maybe you could try feeding her by syringe (w/o needle) electrolyte water and yougart, and maybe you could put some kind of cream on the spot where she is scratching. Are you still giving her any antibiotics? Maybe the shots were not enough to last, and you might need to continue on an anitbiotic daily. I've been using Tetracyclie I got from the feed store, it's for infections, and I put it in the water. Mine have a respiratioy problem and I actually thought I was going to loose my favorite rooster (cockerel "Little Baby") He was really "knocking on heaven's door", that was about a week ago, and since I've been doing all these things he is well on the way to recovery and eating and drinking and even spoke to me today. When he got sick, it happened quickly and he went down very quickly, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, bad dirreha, swollen face and sinuses, couldn't hardley breathe, coughing, wheezing, mucas in nose and mouth and only just stood in one spot all the time, wouldn't respond at anything. So I said all that to say this, if he could come back to be almost normal from 7 days ago by my doing these things, your's I would think has a good chance for recovery, takes lots of TLC; if you can just find out something to relieve the itching symptom (they say on here that you can't just use anything, but a lot of people meds can be used, so just ask and someone can probably tell you what. I know you can use asprin for pain relief, don't remember how much but someone can tell you), and get her hydrated with some electrolytes so she can absorb the antibiotics.But you will have to give it to her by dropper or syringe (syringe works great), I can even do it all by myself without help. I'm kindof new to doctoring sick chickens, but I'm learning fast. The folks on here deserve all the credit for helping me. They told me exactly what to do, and what not to do. They are great. Just keep at it and someone will come along that knows a whole lot more than I do about this kind of stuff. Hope something I've told you helps. Decided I would try to help since no one has responded, and I know you are anxious to hear something from someone. Best of luck, hope everything works out for you (But I would think she needs regular doses of antibiotic until well) just ask everyone what they think about that.

 

[Harry Rooster]

I forgot to tell you, I once had a Dominecker hen that looked this bad or even worse from being attacked by my Bantams, and even though I didn't know anything about antibiotics for chickens or what to do for her, I took her and made a seperate pen for her and made her a warm place to stay, and she got better on her own after several days. Just make sure she stays very warm and keep her inside with comfortable place to lay. You are going to have to seperate her from the others when she gets well enough to go outside or they will kill her. If I hadn't rescued my chicken from her attack and kept her seperated until the day she died of old age, they would have killed her if they could have gotten to her when she got well.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Do you think she could have mites or an internal parasite? Or maybe something that got lodged in her wound before it closed? Or something caught in her eyelid or throat?
?

 

[seamouse]

I could not tell from your photo if your hen has a mop that interferes with her vision at all. I have a polish who's rather low in the order, and she does much better if I keep her feathers trimmed back so she can see really clearly what (who) is going on around her. -Rochelle

 

[AlicesSilkies]

She is just getting worse, she scratches her face all the time and she then goes ridgid and falls on her back and it is so difficult to watch, it breaks my heart.

My other chickens have accepted her back in to the flock, but they attack her when she has one of her fits, I have tried all the antibiotics and am now on to some organic homeopothy stuff, (i will try anything). But the thing is he face does not look itchy, i think it may have become a habit.

I am going to give it 2 weeks to see any improvment, because i think that she is having such a poor quality of life.

Has anybody been in this situation??

 

[dawg53]

She is just getting worse, she scratches her face all the time and she then goes ridgid and falls on her back and it is so difficult to watch, it breaks my heart.

My other chickens have accepted her back in to the flock, but they attack her when she has one of her fits, I have tried all the antibiotics and am now on to some organic homeopothy stuff, (i will try anything). But the thing is he face does not look itchy, i think it may have become a habit.

I am going to give it 2 weeks to see any improvment, because i think that she is having such a poor quality of life.

Has anybody been in this situation??

You think she is having a poor quality of life, yet you want her to suffer for 2 weeks to see if there's any improvement. You've tried all the antibiotics including a prior vet visit and you stated she is getting worse. End her suffering now and put her down.

 

[Frost Homestead]

I'm definitely going to have to agree with Dawg on this one. If she's suffering and not eating - put her down, it's an unfortunate situation, no one wants o cull a beloved hen but she doesn't sound like anything you've been doing is having any positive effect. poor thing

 

[AlicesSilkies]

The reason why i want to give it 2 weeks is because i dont want her to think i have given up on her and she really means alot to me, The thing is when she is not scratching she is sooo happy, just a little lethargic.

Thankyou for all of your support, i will let you know what happens

 

[Suzierd]

Have you checked in her eyes very super good for eye worms? They will scratch like crazy if they have eye worm. I would just treat for it and see if she improves.