Labored breathing, listless and miscolored comb *she died. Update*

[tracylhl]

I have a 7 month old barred rock who, when I went to check on the coop last night, was laying on the ground, inside, away from everyone, by herself. Her comb looked almost purple and she was having very labored breathing. I checked her over a bit (although I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for) and she seemed otherwise okay. I thought that maybe she was overheated. Florida is hot! I seperated her into my "ICU coop" where I have 2 other longterm residents and hoped she just needed to cool off and have a break. Last night, I gave her a vitamin/electrolite mix by syringe. This morning, she was walking a bit and came to get a drink but still looks the same. What do you think this is?

 

[faykokoWV]

There are so many things that can go wrong with chickens. read this post it and supply the information it recommends. This will help the experts give you better advice

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

 

[tracylhl]

Quote:
1) What type of bird , age and weight. Plymouth Barred Rock, 7 months, ummm... Haven't weighed them lately! She's hefty and full-grown, though. One of my more solid birds.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Sits on the ground breathing very laborously. Kind of slouched.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? 24 hrs.
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. No idea
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I've seen her drink. Not sure if she's eating.
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Can't be sure it was from her, but there was a stool that was solid, had a large amount of very yellow (what do you call bird "urine"?) stuff and then some poo and I *think* I saw some blood in it. Just found that a couple hours ago. It's possible it was from another injured bird I have, though. They're sharing the "ICU".
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Vitamins, electrolites.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I need to treat her here. Not going to the vet.
10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. Don't have one.
11) Describe the housing/bedding in use. sandy dirt base w/ coastal hay for bedding. She has free range between fenced yard and indoor coop. When I found her, she was sitting inside the coop.

 

[faykokoWV]

The first things i would look at are

1. Is she egg bound?
2. Is her crop swollen or distended? Does her breath smell funky? could be sour crop or impacted crop

Now, I am not an expert, but hopefully someone will chime in!

 

[Chicken Lass]

I just found out that my hen has pneumonia. She is having some issues breathing and also has the yellow poop. She also has worms of some sort, and the vet is going to confirm what kind in the morning. It sounds like your bird might have pneumonia too. The vet is going to give me an antibiotic called Tylan, and he said to keep my hen warm and away from drafts. I thought that she was eggbound. I'm certainly no expert, but it sounds like your hen has the same symptoms (mine doesn't have the purple comb though). She isn't very interested in food at this point, and was just laying around like yours. Hope this helps a bit!

 

[tracylhl]

faykoko - I've checked as best I know how for both of those things and so far, haven't found anything that would lead me to believe they are the problem. Those were the first things I went to and am afraid I missed something but crop soft, no weird breath, and vent looks fine.

Chicken lass - I have some antibiotic on hand. Sounds like maybe I should give it a try. I don't know how one gets pnemonia in 85 degree Florida spring, but if he symptoms sound the same, I'm thinking that at this point, it can't hurt to try some ABX. Thanks.

 

[faykokoWV]

sorry I haven't been more help

 

[tracylhl]

Quote:
No, you have! I'm sorry. I hope that I didn't come off as short or nasty-sounding. These were the first two things that I thought of too. I'm truly worried that one might be the case and I've missed seeing it somehow. In the meantime, I'm still struggling to figure out what's going on! I'm sorry, again, if I came off wrong.

 

[tracylhl]

She died. I thought that maybe I was missing a sign of being egg-bound or something so I tried to give her a warm bath. She jumped out after a couple minutes so I tried to examine her vent and underside again. I'm not sure what happened but somehow she ended up falling over, making a few sad little sounds, and then dying. I feel horrible about it. I wanted to be able to save this one. At the same time, I'm getting frustrated. I've lost 3 hens to different things over the last 7 months, I have 2 that have ongoing problems and are seperated and another that is acting weird the last couple weeks and was getting picked on so I had to seperate. I can't stand not being able to do more and have the knowledge to help them better. With that in mind, I'm considering disecting this one that died today a little bit. I want to see if she was indeed egg-bound. Is that morbid? I want to see if I can draw a connection between the symptoms and the problem next time and be able to help the next one.

 

[faykokoWV]

I would do the same thing.. especially with loosing others lately.

Have you thought about getting NPIP tested? They will come out and test for various diseases in your flock.


no you were short and I am sorry for your loss. I only wish I had more knowledge!