Is it blackhead??? (With pics)

Bobbiisgood

Hatching
May 11, 2020
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1
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Im very new to owning chickens.
I have one red 2.5y/o red hen named Henrietta who has lived in this house's backyard her whole life and three black 1y/o hens, big Bertha, little Bertha and the Baby, that I got roughly two months ago.

I noticed that some of the black ones were spending extended periods of time in their coop after laying around the 3rd of the month.

On the 7th I noticed henrietta my oldest and sassiest was acting droopy, standing by herself by the fence. I separated her and started giving her vetRX, electrolytes, garlic water and 2 tbsp ACV per gallon. I had already been giving all my chickens a tbsp acv and garlic cloves in their water before that.

After that they all began acting droopy, lethargic, having diarrhea, decreased water and food intake, Little Bertha being noticeably worse than big Bertha and the baby. I moved little Bertha and henrietta to their own hay filled cardboard boxes in the garage and let big Bertha and the baby stay in their coop (though in hindsight I should have separated everyone). I found that big Bertha and the baby were acting broody. Puffed feathers, trying to sit on the food bowls I placed near them to try to get them to eat, pecking when you reach to feel their crop. I started them all on corid water using 5ml per half gallon because at this point they were all having loose poops.

I then contacted the woman i got the chicken from and she told me its definitely not coccidosis as they are free range and always have been and that we should start denagard. We ordered some on the internet.

Henrietta and little Bertha weren't eating or drinking on their own, not yogurt or canned cat food either, and were getting weaker and weaker I saw many places online saying I should feed them with a syringe.

After we attempted this Henrietta began making gurgling sounds and coughing and we realized with more research we has accidentally aspirated the poor girl through ignorance. In the next couple days she developed a cough, runny nose and bubbles around her eye. I believe she caught pneumonia and since little Bertha was in the same room as her I treated both of them with injections of LA200 starting on the 18th. Henrietta bounced back after that and when let out in the yard even scratched and pecked like a normal chicken however after the treatment her comb flopped over halfway to the side. Her poop began to get firmer and more normal also.

We were waiting for the denagard to arrive when I looked at big Berthas huge single poop in the morning and saw and wriggling round worm. We began treatment with safeguard equine dewormer gel for all 4 on the 24th.

At one point while giving the Baby her dewormer gel I think she vomited on us when we picked her up to hold her on her side (it was dark). I thought it smelled kind of sour. Big Bertha has also had a crop that has felt like a half full water balloon one morning.

On the 28th I inspected under their wings because they were cleaning themselves a lot and I found lice (they cant catch a break). I used gordons permethrin10 diluted sprayed on their butts and under their wings, cleaned out their coop, bought cages for all of them to replace cardboard boxes and get big Bertha and the baby out of the coop. Poured boiling water in the cracks, let dry, sprayed interior with permethrin10 solution, let dry, dusted with DE, filled with pine shavings.

When picking up the permethrin10 at tractor supply the lady who helped me chatted with me about my chickens a little and was confused that the woman I got my chickens from would tell me it couldn't be coccidosis based on little Berthas watery yellow poop. She told me I should treat for cocci cautiously as sick chickens can be very weak after not eating.

We had used our bathroom scale to attempt to get a weight of our two sickest chickens and had dosed them on both La200 and safeguard based on Henrietta being 3 lbs, treating for 4lbs to be safe and little Bertha being 2 lbs, treating for 3 lbs to be safe. Planning to try the corid treatment again I picked up a kitchen scale to get an accurate weight. Little Bertha weighs only 5.6 oz and Henrietta is only 6.4 oz.

I read kathy's instructions on corid dosing for chicks and other chickens for .2ml per 2.2 lbs and a drop per chick. Since little Bertha and Henrietta are being the most difficult when it comes to drinking I decided to dose them each with a little less than .1ml which was around 3 drops I feel like.

That was last night, the 30th. Little Bertha began breathing heavy with her eyes closed and her little cheeks near her beak were puffing up with air everytime she exhaled. I put to use my vetRx by warming it up and rubbing some on her beak and neck, brought out a pot of boiling water to help her breath and turned on a red heat light over her just hoping she makes it through the night.

This morning little Bertha is breathing a little less heavy and I've got a hot plate keeping the water/vetRx steaming underneath her. I went out a little bit ago and LB was even standing and took a sip of corid water (mixed at 5ml per .5 gal).
Henrietta has her eyes closed and is resting mostly today but I feel like it might be the proximity to the heat lamp? Her comb is still flipped and possibly pale.

I'm really hoping it's not blackhead, I somehow just found out about it last night on here and it definitely sounds possible.

It's been 25 days of sick chickens.
 
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Little Bertha, my sickest.
 

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Henrietta. Slight discoloration on comb :(
 

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I guess I'm wondering if I should continue corid and/or add metronidazole for the protozoa from the roundworm that I know for a fact 2 of 4 of them had. I hope everyone's having a great day and your chickens are busy and happy!
 

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