I'm back with the same chicken. Loss of appetite, mouth discharge. Frostbitten feet??

[Rooster_Tyranny]

Can't believe I'm back here so soon. Same chicken, 15 weeks old now I believe. WCB Polish. I noticed something was wrong today when I came out at noon and she hadn't even left the coop. Her tail is droopy, and she's standing idle, her eyes are half closed (tho that could just be because of the crest) and discharge is coming out of her mouth. What bothers me the most is that she is making this continuous high pitched clucking noise, which leads me to believe she's signaling she's in pain. I offered her food and water but she barley touched it, all she seems to want to do is stand idle. Her vent is clear but she has poop stuck to her feathers. Since she's so young she hardly has wattles but the wattles don't seem swollen or discolored in anyway. She's in a dog crate right now while I'm debating what to do.

On another note, it may be possible some of her toes have frostbite. My coop is decently ventilated, and it has only barley gotten into freezing temps. Two of her toes are swollen and it looks like blood is under the scales? And one of her toenails seems to have broken and is bleeding a little bit on the end.

I think she may have some kind of respiratory infection, but I'm apprehensive about diagnosing because so many symptoms overlap with other diseases, plus I don't want to start throwing money and antibiotics here and there. My family has been so supportive with this chicken but I think they may be losing patience.

Thank you all again for putting up with my ignorance. I don't have time right now but I will post pictures of her foot. And anything else you ask for.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't think your situation is ignorance, it may be inexperience.
Tell us about where they sleep - dimensions of building, number of birds, dimensions of all ventilation(at night), bedding, etc..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Can you share a few pictures as well? Sounds like she's got a lot going on which often isn't a good sign or outcome unfortunately.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Her tail is droopy, and she's standing idle, her eyes are half closed (tho that could just be because of the crest) and discharge is coming out of her mouth. What bothers me the most is that she is making this continuous high pitched clucking noise

Two of her toes are swollen and it looks like blood is under the scales? And one of her toenails seems to have broken and is bleeding a little bit on the end.

Photos would be very much appreciated. The whole chicken, face and feet/toes, poop.
Can you look inside her beak for any plagues, lesions or canker - if you see anything inside the beak, please take some photos of that too.
If you have video of her noises, that would be good too - upload to youtube, then provide us a link.

Also in addition to providing information asked in the previous posts, can you answer some questions, that would be helpful too
What do you feed her? (including treats)
Does she have a source of grit?
Does she have problems within the flock - getting picked on/chased away from food, etc.?
Feel her crop and tell us what that's like - is it hard, soft, squishy, empty, full, does her breath smell bad or sour?

Sorry to ask all the questions, but the more information we have the better we are able to make suggestions.

 

[Rooster_Tyranny]

Thank you all for the responses! I have taken a bunch of pictures and videos and I'll upload them once i get back from the dentist, gotta have two fillings . She's still acting the same way, no sign of depletion yet. I'm really puzzled.

 

[Rooster_Tyranny]

@oldhenslikedogs @Wyorp Rock @ChickenCanoe This is gonna be a really long post.
I'm back. My coop is 6/4, and I have six chickens. They were all raised together from day old chicks. For bedding I use a mixture of cedar chippings and this special "odor free" hay I found at the farm store, i used up all the chippings so now it's just the hay. For food I give them non medicated grower crumbles, and pretty much the only treats I've given them are mealworms and walnuts I crack open for them. I did take a blunder where I fed them layer mash for a while because I had ran out of grower feed and didnt want to get a 50lb bag and then not use all of it. But I realized that that was a bad idea and promptly switched them back, they probably went a week on layer mash.

They have a spacious run so I don't usually provide grit since they can get it on their own, I do sprinkle a little in their feed dish sometimes, since I have a little extra. Yes she does have problems within the flock, she is the bottom of the pecking order, they peck at her sometimes, and she has a small bald spot on the top of her head. I've never seen any of them chase each other from the food, for chickens they all get along remarkably well. However she never roosts with the other chickens at night and occasionally they poop on her tail feathers, I think that's because she can't see how to get up there. I did trim her crest feathers but I guess I haven't trimmed the right ones(?). I'm a little afraid to do it again because she really doesn't like it.

There's more though, a couple weeks back when I let them out she seemed awful. I'm not going to tell that whole story again and instead I'm going to give you the link to the thread. But in short, almost died from malnutrition, used her back to health, been feeding separately for a while. And I've switched from feeding her separately and I've increased the feed intake I'm giving giving the flock and that seemed to work, full crop every night. I suspect the other chickens kicked her out when the food started getting low, and I never witnessed it because I don't stick around that long. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ings-and-eyes-everything-in-the-book.1283383/

But wait! There's more. She as a chicken has always seemed very "off" even when I thought she was healthy. I suspect she may have neurological problems. She's very slow, she eats and drinks normally but when she's not doing that she's lying down. For a while she did this "ticking" thing with her head where she would slowly turn her head to one side then it would snap back. Hasn't been doing that since the food incident though. The coop has a ramp and she never goes up it at night and I have to lift her in. Maybe this is all just because of vision problems though? Did any of you have polish chickens that acted like this? I also think she has a slight leg problem (this poor chicken). Before when she was sick I put her up on my arm to roost and she fell off it (it was only like a 3 foot drop at most) and she couldn't use it for a while. She would shuffle awkwardly and just lay down all day. She had one day of rest and after that she was walking on it again, but I think she still has a slight limp. She takes a big step with her left leg (the one I suspect to be injured) and then a short step with her right leg (because she's putting weight on the bad one), but maybe I'm just overthinking it.

Pictures and ventilation talk will come in another post. Still trying to figure out the youtuber thing. If you managed to get through all of this thank you.

Edit: One more thing, whenever I try to pick her up she gets really mad. Like more than usual. Maybe this is because something inside her is sore?

 

[Rooster_Tyranny]

The pictures I emailed to myself still haven't come in.. I'm about to lock them up for the night, should I bring her inside?

 

[Rooster_Tyranny]

Pictures came in!

She doesn't seem to want to lie down, just to stand idle. The two twos I'm worried about are the middle one on the right foot (closest to camera) and the far left one, if that makes sense.
Just tucked her in and she's still doing the exact same thing.

Here are the pics for the ventilation. I have a metal roof and there's space between the "pinnacle" of the roof (I'm sorry I'm terrible with words, it's the second pic), and there's nothing underneath the bumps on the metal shingles (3rd pic) so air can escape through. And some space between the door and the wall.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Cedar shavings shouldn't be used, they can give off noxious fumes, I would remove them ASAP. Does she have a vaulted skull? Is her vision obscured? I will need to read your other thread to answer more.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Polish can be odd birds sometimes. They can often get pecked by others in their crests which can cause brain damage. I once had a silkie that got pecked and ended up slow, and with obvious brain damage. I had to help her daily. Yours could be a similar situation, otherwise Mareks comes to mind. Mareks cause tumor to grow and push on nerves which than causes paralysis, and various other neurological issues, so if she continues to worsen that would be my thoughts.