Hi guys,
About 4 months ago, I adopted/rescued two retired Isa Brown laying hens from a battery farm in Australia. They're between 18 months and 2 years old.
One of the hens is very healthy and always has been. The other (her name is Vally) has always been quite sickly. She came to me quite thin and with some minor diarrhoea. As ex battery hens, they would have had vaccines and medications for basically every disease/parasite imaginable.
I thought Vally's sickly demeanour would change after a couple of months given she now lives in a free range setting. She is in a flock of 4 other hens with access to a very large yard, shade and shelter, clean drinking water, high protein layer mash, and lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, and even daily treats like small bits of fish, meat and insects. All other 4 hens are totally healthy. While Vally is very energetic, always with the flock, eats well, drinks well, and lays well, she is constantly underweight to the point she almost feels emaciated. She also goes through stages of having very, very bad diarrhoea, before it settles down into more minor diarrhoea and this seems to be her 'normal' state.
I'm not sure if these symptoms are related but occasionally (maybe once every 2-3 weeks) she will have wet, rattling breath, but this doesn't seem to cause pain or discomfort to her and resolves within just a few minutes. She also seems to get hot very easily. On warm days she breathes through her mouth and holds her wings up to cool down, while the other chickens seem completely unfazed by the warmth. This morning when I checked them, she also appeared jaundice and that has me particularly worried.
The vets in my area have failed time and time again to diagnose problems with my chooks (we have no Avian specialists nearby). In the past they've just provided me with a cocktail of treatments to give and they haven't worked, so I'm tentative to take her to them.Just in case she is heavily worm burdened, I have provided her and the other chickens with wormer (they were all wormed approx 4 months ago) and given Vally coccidia treatment. I have access to broad spectrum antibiotics and antibiotics to treat peritonitis, but don't want to give these unnecessarily.
Does anyone have any ideas on what her problem may be?
Any advice would be amazing!
About 4 months ago, I adopted/rescued two retired Isa Brown laying hens from a battery farm in Australia. They're between 18 months and 2 years old.
One of the hens is very healthy and always has been. The other (her name is Vally) has always been quite sickly. She came to me quite thin and with some minor diarrhoea. As ex battery hens, they would have had vaccines and medications for basically every disease/parasite imaginable.
I thought Vally's sickly demeanour would change after a couple of months given she now lives in a free range setting. She is in a flock of 4 other hens with access to a very large yard, shade and shelter, clean drinking water, high protein layer mash, and lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, and even daily treats like small bits of fish, meat and insects. All other 4 hens are totally healthy. While Vally is very energetic, always with the flock, eats well, drinks well, and lays well, she is constantly underweight to the point she almost feels emaciated. She also goes through stages of having very, very bad diarrhoea, before it settles down into more minor diarrhoea and this seems to be her 'normal' state.
I'm not sure if these symptoms are related but occasionally (maybe once every 2-3 weeks) she will have wet, rattling breath, but this doesn't seem to cause pain or discomfort to her and resolves within just a few minutes. She also seems to get hot very easily. On warm days she breathes through her mouth and holds her wings up to cool down, while the other chickens seem completely unfazed by the warmth. This morning when I checked them, she also appeared jaundice and that has me particularly worried.
The vets in my area have failed time and time again to diagnose problems with my chooks (we have no Avian specialists nearby). In the past they've just provided me with a cocktail of treatments to give and they haven't worked, so I'm tentative to take her to them.Just in case she is heavily worm burdened, I have provided her and the other chickens with wormer (they were all wormed approx 4 months ago) and given Vally coccidia treatment. I have access to broad spectrum antibiotics and antibiotics to treat peritonitis, but don't want to give these unnecessarily.
Does anyone have any ideas on what her problem may be?
Any advice would be amazing!
