Illinois...

[ChicagoClucker]

we have had a chick since December that at first seemed a failure to thrive now I'm not sure.

It has grown slowly but steadily. She has never been thin before but has not even finished feathering and part of her underside is naked. She has in fact had quite a lot of breast meat.

At this age she is about the size of an average 8 week old chick. Despite this she has been completely healthy. She is a chocolate cuckoo English Orpington. At this point I feel sure it's a pullet although her small size and such could of course make a cockeral develop slower.

Mid last week she began holding one eye slightly closed. We looked and it appeared okay but we did treat it with terramycin opthalmic ointment. By Friday her eye was extremely swollen and she wasn't eating or drinking on Friday that we saw. Because of this we immediately pulled her into the house.

We began supportive therapy including force feeding water and electrolytes and then Friday night after we had rehydrated her with a syringe we did the same with feed.
Her eye in spite of the treatment had become massively swollen and ulcerated. Her eye was shut but not goopy on Friday and Saturday. Saturday she showed a little interest in drinking on her own and even in wanting the syringe of feed. She had been very lethargic on Friday so I was thrilled.

She has no symptoms of respiratory illness that we've seen and now has her bad eye open. It was extremely hot to the touch on Friday and especially Saturday. We have been giving her shots of tylan 50 in addition to the eye ointment.

There is no smell. Her bad eye appears to have some scar tissue or something on the lower half of it and I'm wondering if she was injured somehow or of this is a symptom to an illness that we need to worry about.

Her other eye is now also being treated (completely separate so as not to cross contaminate it from the other) as she is holding it partially closed. It is not swollen nor red, hot, or oozing either. The first eye is still swollen and very red but not so hot as it was. I am worried she may have been having such trouble because she was half blind from her eye and that is why she rapidly lost a lot of weight between last Wednesday and last Friday.
She is being fed a soaked wet show bird game bird starter for the high protein level with a small ammount of applesauce in the mix for ease of eating. I mix this up and then handfeed it to her with a spoon. I mix it very moist to supplement her water intake as she isn't currently drinking on her own she has problems finding it.

Two of her hatch mates have died in the last month or two from unknown causes. Both very large healthy chicks. One had no symptoms we saw until she was suddenly dead. The other was unable to stand but not paralyzed and rapidly lost weight but continued to eat and drink until the end. Neither of them had any respiratory or eye involvement.

We have never had any experience with Marek's disease, but it doesn't seem to fit to me. Help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Also none of the rest of the flock have any symptoms of anything going on. Also the rest of the juveniles she was raised with are entirely healthy and active.

Sorry to hear about your poor chick. I have read that sometimes chicks that end up with Cocci, slow down or have stunted growth. I actually had that happen with my gold lace chicks. The female even though treated and seemed to be doing fine, didn't grow like her brother did, or the other chicks.

And as per her eye, sounds like you have the bases covered with the eye ointment and Tylan 50. My guess would be a eye or sinus infection. Hope she recovers.

 

[Faraday40]

@chickendreams24
Sorry to hear about the poor little orp

I'm not an expert, but I found this link to be helpful. (At least it may give some ideas of things to research further.)
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

As I am learning via my sister, much of medicine is guessing & testing/treating. She seems to be stable enough to begin some of the testing to look for internal bleeding. They couldn't run many tests because her body was shutting down. Today she can have clear fluids!

 

[Faraday40]

The docs found that my sis has an ulcer. That can be treated. She's breathing on her own & got moved out of ICU. Sugar level is slightly high but under 150! (Was over 800!) She ate her 1st solid food meal last night. She cannot walk or even stand, so PT starts today. No one knows what caused her kidneys to shut down, but they seem to be working again. At least we're moving in the right direction.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

The docs found that my sis has an ulcer. That can be treated. She's breathing on her own & got moved out of ICU. Sugar level is slightly high but under 150! (Was over 800!) She ate her 1st solid food meal last night. She cannot walk or even stand, so PT starts today. No one knows what caused her kidneys to shut down, but they seem to be working again. At least we're moving in the right direction.

Glad to hear she is doing a bit better. I hope they find out why her kidneys shut down, that is very scary. I would insist they find out why they did before she is sent home. Sending more prayers.

 

[Faraday40]

Glad to hear she is doing a bit better. I hope they find out why her kidneys shut down, that is very scary. I would insist they find out why they did before she is sent home. Sending more prayers.

Thank you, everyone, for all the continued prayers.

My sis is on Medicaid. The hospital does not take Medicaid, but the ambulance just brought her to the nearest hospital. She was never even admitted. This morning she was moved out of ICU. Now that she's stable, the hospital began looking into getting her transferred tonight or tomorrow to another hospital . Once there she should get PT & hopefully more testing to find & treat the initial cause.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Well the new incubator arrived a couple of days ago. I had to install the circulating fan and the egg turner and motor. Ran it for 2 days, I have 3 thermostats in various spots and it seems to hold very even heat for a Styrofoam incubator. My older Styrofoam Bator always had cold spots. So since I don't have high hopes for my cuckoo eggs (candle and tossed more than half) I loaded up the new Bator with Orp eggs.

 

[Faraday40]

any silver laced orp eggs???

 

[ChicagoClucker]

any silver laced orp eggs???

I am hoping

I guess I will see if I have to trim butts or not. I haven't set up the breeding pen yet, so if there are any fertile eggs from them, they will either be pure SL or split to black. Which I planned on doing anyway to improve my line. I have seen my SL roo mating 2 of the SL girls, and those 2 stick by him now, so I am thrilled about that and the other 2 girls might give me splits to black, so that would work out nicely. My only problem is I am unsure on my pure black, mottled and splash eggs, they all look alike. So they could be in there also. Need to set up the breeding pen.

 

[chickendreams24]

@chickendreams24

Sorry to hear about the poor little orp

I'm not an expert, but I found this link to be helpful. (At least it may give some ideas of things to research further.)
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

 As I am learning via my sister, much of medicine is guessing & testing/treating.  She seems to be stable enough to begin some of the testing to look for internal bleeding.  They couldn't run many tests because her body was shutting down.  Today she can have clear fluids!

Thanks the little Orp is okay so far she's holding her own. The swelling in her eye has gone down a ton but it still might be blind and it's still pretty red. Idk what else to do but continue treatment. Oddly it's almost as though a thin layer of her eyeball is coming off. Idk how to describe it and it could just be pus from the infection. That's probably what it is as the swelling is going down more and more and and her eye looks more and more normal.

She's very sweet. We'll keep fighting for her. In all of our research we haven't found anything that seems to match up and give us answers. I really think it's got to be an injury or something.

The docs found that my sis has an ulcer.  That can be treated.  She's breathing on her own & got moved out of ICU.  Sugar level is slightly high but under 150! (Was over 800!) She ate her 1st solid food meal last night.  She cannot walk or even stand, so PT starts today.  No one knows what caused her kidneys to shut down, but they seem to be working again.  At least we're moving in the right direction.

Glad to hear she's doing better! Sounds like a good hospital and keep us up to date. Prayers as always continue.

Thank you, everyone, for all the continued prayers.

My sis is on Medicaid.  The hospital does not take Medicaid, but the ambulance just brought her to the nearest hospital.  She was never even admitted.  This morning she was moved out of ICU. Now that she's stable, the hospital began looking into getting her transferred tonight or tomorrow to another hospital .  Once there she should get PT & hopefully more testing to find & treat the initial cause.

 

[Justso]

Boooooo!
One of my Jersey Giants "pullets" looks like a roo.

Of the four black bantam cochins, two roos and one possible, and the pullet looks like it won't be fully black.
Still waiting for the olde English pair to decide what they are, I may keep both anyway. The brown leghorns are stunning.Almost sorry I'm keeping only one of them!