Ill Chicken..Help Wanted!!! FINAL UPDATE :(

I would hold off on the fruits; let her feed get nutrition in her, please. As for the yogurt, do you have any other probiotics?

I'll stress again: sometimes birds won't eat the things that are good for them. Or even eat. If they're anemic (she is) you have to find ways to get the food in them.

If you have acidophilis capsules or can get some from the grocer or druggist, you can mix one of its contents with just enough water to make it a paste and literally put that in the side of her mouth. It's a small amount of paste = she won't aspirate it. You could try that with even a half the capsule, and the other half (if she doesn't take the first half) mix with water til liquid and drop in her mouth like meds.

Otherwise, please give her mostly her feed - very little fruit which is nice for water, but I'm understanding that she's drinking, right? She needs richness of nutrition badly. That's why she's weak. She's anemic and needs very rich nutrition to build up her blood. No dilutions.

I'd also keep her up for quite a few days, at least two, until her nutrition catches up with her.

Killing the lice doesn't rebuild the blood unfortunately. She'll be weak for at least another day or two.

Good for treating all the premises! That's awesome. And yes - the ivermectin kills nearly every work except tapeworms. Generally, you shouldn't have to reapply the ivermectin for another half year since you've treated the premises. It's that strong. It doesn't reside in them that long, but for worming twice a year is pretty normal for ivermectin here.

You'll only need to if wild birds bring in fresh batches of lice/mites. So pick up your birds often and check carefully, very carefully, especially around their neck area and vents.

A number of other wormers require followup - like wazine. But this is quite different.
 
Thanks Nathalie so much, couldn't have done it without u, she is eating and drinking plenty so that's great, the water should be pure? I have a solution I add, this is what it reads: Poultry Drink, a liquid feed supplement to maintain good condition and appetite in poultry. Anaysis per Kg - protein nil, oil nil, fibre nil, ash 1%, sugar 16%. It also says: phosphorous 4000mg, iron 1000mg, potassium 80mg, manganese 65mg, copper 50mg,
Hope that makes some sense to you!
Will remove the fruit, and will the ivermectin kill the new louse when they hatch from the eggs of existing louse?
Thanks again!
 
UPDATE

So, they've been treated... what now?
The other 3 are fine, should start laying again soon,
She is not fine, not even close. I keep her indoors mostly in a roomy basket with food and water, I have barely seen her eat today and she does not have many droppings and they seem tiny compared to the other two. I'm not going to let her give up and will pour the food into her if I must. She drank today then threw it back up. NOTE: She has not stopped eating and drinking but it has reduced massively.

How long till the ivermectin she has been given has killed the louse?
She received it yesterday (Monday 29th July, around 11.30am)
 
Thank you for your kindness.
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I wish there were more I could do actually - like test the bird's blood to see what's up from the inside, etc.

Ivermectin is a 1-2 day kill max. When they drink, they die. So you shouldn't be seeing any living ones on her. Unless they are feather louse, which only eat the feather protein and thus wouldn't be effected by the ivermectin. (They would, however, be effected by the dusts so you probably shouldn't see any of those either.)

Her crop - is it emptying? Or does it keeps its contents. What she threw up - was it food? Was it sour? Is she getting probiotics? (Yogurt, acidophilis capsules, etc).

It wouldn't be surprising if she has a soured and static crop from the stress of the whole ordeal including the worming. But it could be from something else. Add to that anemia as she's still not retaining food at this point. Her droppings, are they dark or bright green what there is of them? What color are the urates (the normally white part)? Dark, almost forest-green, can indicate bile as the bird isn't eating much but is still excreting bile. Are there any worms in the droppings (dead from the worming)? Does her abdomen feel thin or heavy to you in the back? Near the vent?

When was she wormed before this (sorry for asking what is probably a repeat-answer), or was she? Did the vet do a fecal at all to see if she had worms before he gave her the ivermectin? Did he at all feel that she might be wormy, and if so any indication of 'how wormy'? There is a slight possibility (emphasis on slight) that she had such an infestation of worms that they're having a hard time passing. I'd like to know if there were any worms in the crop contents possibly? Usually worms are located further back in the digestive tract - the intestines. But if there were worms, a heavy infestation, you would possibly be seeing dead worms passing with the feces now.

Until we have an answer, you probably should make sure the food she eats is very easily dissolved. It would not hurt to give her organic apple cider vinegar in her water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon of water to help acidify the contents of her gut and add good bacteria. This may also help to dissolve foods that are there and hopefully prevent bacteria/yeast from thriving if she's holding foods until we get more info.

Also, if her system is slow, the addition of a small amount of applesauce baby food (1/2 teaspoon) can help cleanse the system to keep things moving, and the pectin will help feed the good bacteria of the gut which are probably compromised by this whole stress issue and certainly are if the crop is sour. Maybe that will also encourage her to eat more?

On the length of effectiveness: ivermectin in cattle is effective for sucking mites for 14-28 days after being given. However, as it's not labeled for poultry in non-veterinary use, I'd have to look to see if there's anything specifically for poultry.

Anecdotally, people use a 14 day withdrawal period for meat/egg consumption. So if you go by that, one can assume (not scientific) that it's possible for 2 weeks to pass with activity for new hatches.

That's an assumption until we get something more concrete, really.
 
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FINAL UPDATE

So, the bigger two are looking great, really strong, buff and elegant.

The smaller one died some time today, in my room, in the cool. Her louse where dieing but i guess she just couldn't go on, she didn't give up easy though and put up a hell of a fight, i'm proud.

I would like to say thank you for so so many people that contributed towards this post, i would not have gotten so far without you all. Special thanks to Nathalie Ross who was with me from the start and shared everything she must know and I am so grateful, Thank you.

I ask one last question on this post,
When u found her she had collapsed, was not breathing and unfortunately it didn't look like the death where you die peacefully in your sleep. Her chest under her head has seemed to swell up a lot, anyone know anything about this?

Thank you all again.

Toby Jarvis
 
Bless her heart. I guess the stress of the matter must have just taken too much of a toll from her. She did try valiently, and your care was awesome. I'm very sorry to hear that you have lost her. But I'm equally relieved to hear that the other seems to have recovered brilliantly.

Thank you for showing her the mercy of your care in her last moments. You are a blessing to your flock.

As for your question, do you think that her crop was filled? With something? Or did it seem that there was air there, or liquid, or what type of swelling?

Then again sometimes when chickens are dying, their neck structure arches in a way that you never see in a live healthy bird. Kind of like an S where the arch of the neck could possibly look like a swelling. Does that better describe it? Unfortunately, few deaths look peaceful - even if the bird has already passed, there are often death "throes" as the body still moves around. It's quite distressing and I'm sorry that you either saw it, or saw the results of it. I'd tend towards the neck-arch in my guess, not being able to actually see her, pending you describing more about it if you want to pursue that part of the discussion.

In the mean time, I am honored to have been part of the team of people who really were pulling for you and trying to help. Carry what you've learned from this so that you will now know more about it, how to prevent it (lots of checking the birds carefully by hand - in the form of spoling them), and hopefully never have to deal with it again.

Cheers to you, Toby - and your flock.
 
The S does describe it, I doubt it was filled with food or liquid, she was so thin and barely ate over the final days.
It may have been air. I suppose we'll never know.

I have learned new information thanks to you, I will use it and pass it on.

Will most likely bury her tomorrow.
I have been looking into adopting ex-battery hens for a while and will be hopefully looking to get some soon.
Best of luck with your flock! They're lucky!
 
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I suspected it was the S-situation. Unfortunately, I've seen it enough times that when you said the description, I saw it formost in my mind. Likely she was not at all aware when this happened.

You're very very kind about my 'luck flock'. Thank you. I'll give my chickens some extra hugs in memory of your girl tomorrow.

By the way, before you adopt battery hens, please take some time to read up on what to expect. Also if you do, make sure they weren't vaccinated with any live-virus or modified-live-virus vaccinations for Laryngeotracheitis. (That was hard to type). Sometimes birds vaccinated with the live-type or modified live vaccines can pass it to your birds and they'll get the active form, which is a dreadful disease. So making sure ahead of time can save some potential heartbreak.

I don't see why any battery farms would currently use this, but it's possible. It's just good t be armed with the facts ahead of time.

I just did a google search and found an amazing array of articles. I'd link them, but I'm sure if you do the same you'll find the ones that most apply to your case and suit your taste. But if you haven't visited it yet, I'd highly recommend http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ .

Take care, and I hope to see you around on the boards with your sweet flock.
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Toby, so sorry to hear this news. My heart aches anew for you and your chick. We'll just pray and believe that the others with continue to do well and to thrive with no more illness.

As I sit here typing I have a sick chick on my lap, trying hard to get her well too.

Have a good day tomorrow,
Posey
 

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