1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Black Australorp, 8 months, lost weight within the last week
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
My Black Australorp, Greta, came down with an eye issue last week. She had no symptoms other than keeping it closed (no obvious wound, no oozing or redness, no symptoms of respiratory illness) so were thinking that it was a poke-in-the-eye scenario and kept an eye on her (no pun intended). She's started opening it, slowly, and by this morning it was vacillating between fully open and halfway open. But we've got way bigger problems now.
I noticed that she was hunkered down, away from the rest of them, this morning after breakfast. When I came out and the others came running, they started pecking at her, violently. So I separated her and noticed that not only has she lost quite a bit of weight, but her crop was completely empty. So I fed her on her own and she ate with great gusto. That's the only good news of my day. From there she stood in a sun beam (still out of the reach of the others) and when I tried to reintroduce her she was immediately and violently attacked again. So I brought her in because she was low energy as well. By the time I got her situated in her sick corner, she had lost use of her left leg (her left eye was the problem earlier). She went from walking around to lame in less than 3 minutes, and I'm not exaggerating. She can no longer stand. Her left foot is hot (feverish) but her right foot is cold (as I would expect having just been outside.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
See above
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
We have had one Marek's casualty with a young (4 months old) Black Australorp, a little over a year ago. The others have been unaffected - at least so far and keeping my fingers crossed.
My gut feeling on this is Marek's. If so and it's anything like what happened last time, it will proceed very quickly and she'll likely be dead by morning. If it's some kind of infection that went from her eye to some sort of systemic thing, maybe we've got a chance? I have amoxicillin on hand...
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. See above. Until today she seemed to be eating fine, but her weight loss tells me otherwise.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Her poop this morning was completely normal - brown, pile, not runny, etc.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Other than feeding her separately from the others and bringing her indoors, that's all I've done so far. She's resting now on a heating pad in her sick corner, awake, but immobile.
10 ) 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? Our vet is not an option. If there is a possibility that this is some sort of infection that started in her eye and has moved systemically, I can treat with antibiotics. In fact, I'm about to go ahead and do that so I don't waste any time.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. NA
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use the coop is sand, the run is dry sandy dirt and dry leaves. The coop is cleaned daily, the run every 2-3 days.
Black Australorp, 8 months, lost weight within the last week
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
My Black Australorp, Greta, came down with an eye issue last week. She had no symptoms other than keeping it closed (no obvious wound, no oozing or redness, no symptoms of respiratory illness) so were thinking that it was a poke-in-the-eye scenario and kept an eye on her (no pun intended). She's started opening it, slowly, and by this morning it was vacillating between fully open and halfway open. But we've got way bigger problems now.
I noticed that she was hunkered down, away from the rest of them, this morning after breakfast. When I came out and the others came running, they started pecking at her, violently. So I separated her and noticed that not only has she lost quite a bit of weight, but her crop was completely empty. So I fed her on her own and she ate with great gusto. That's the only good news of my day. From there she stood in a sun beam (still out of the reach of the others) and when I tried to reintroduce her she was immediately and violently attacked again. So I brought her in because she was low energy as well. By the time I got her situated in her sick corner, she had lost use of her left leg (her left eye was the problem earlier). She went from walking around to lame in less than 3 minutes, and I'm not exaggerating. She can no longer stand. Her left foot is hot (feverish) but her right foot is cold (as I would expect having just been outside.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
See above
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
We have had one Marek's casualty with a young (4 months old) Black Australorp, a little over a year ago. The others have been unaffected - at least so far and keeping my fingers crossed.
My gut feeling on this is Marek's. If so and it's anything like what happened last time, it will proceed very quickly and she'll likely be dead by morning. If it's some kind of infection that went from her eye to some sort of systemic thing, maybe we've got a chance? I have amoxicillin on hand...
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. See above. Until today she seemed to be eating fine, but her weight loss tells me otherwise.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Her poop this morning was completely normal - brown, pile, not runny, etc.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Other than feeding her separately from the others and bringing her indoors, that's all I've done so far. She's resting now on a heating pad in her sick corner, awake, but immobile.
10 ) 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? Our vet is not an option. If there is a possibility that this is some sort of infection that started in her eye and has moved systemically, I can treat with antibiotics. In fact, I'm about to go ahead and do that so I don't waste any time.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. NA
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use the coop is sand, the run is dry sandy dirt and dry leaves. The coop is cleaned daily, the run every 2-3 days.