Lethargic Hen, not egg bound

[uisceros]

Hi all! This is what I’ve been doing. Let me know if anything is wrong

• Giving sulfatrim pediatric antibiotic twice a day. It's been about 6 days of this.
• I gave her an oral drench of 10% Corrid for 3-4 days. I stopped this 1-2 days ago.
• She's resting in a dog crate inside. I would prefer to keep her with her flock, but it's been cold and rainy, and I don't want to stress her too much
• She was not eating, so I WAS syring feeding her, but having done some more research I learned that is dangerous. As of yesterday I've been tube feeding her.
  • I'm using Kaytee hand feeding formula with a dose of poultry cell, B12, and some nutridrench

Currently she's about the same. She's drinking, but not eating. She seems weak, but isn't hunched or lowering her tail. I will say she sounds a little congested, if that is possible. Like, her voice is odd. Pneumonia? MG?

One thing I didn't mention before was that she is closing one eye all the time. It doesn't seem irritated, but who knows. This issue has been going on longer than she's appeared sick though.

 

[uisceros]

Hi all! I just wanted to make a quick update on poor Ivy. Unfortunately she got very bad overnight one day (despite seeming to be a bit better earlier in the week), and I brought her to an emergency vet. We decided the kindest thing was euthanasia. I was able to get a necropsy done though.

I got the results back today, and it was not what I expected. Ivy was apparently filled with tumors - she had lymphoma that the vet told me was almost certainly caused by Marek's. Based off my previous losses (four birds died very suddenly a few months ago), she thinks that's what killed them as well.

The odd thing is that 90% of my birds are vaccinated. Of my original 12 birds, all but 2 were purchased from My pet chicken vaccinated. The other two I bought from my local feed store (I assume they were not vaccinated).

Now, I know I have Marek's in my flock (my Serama rooster died from it, but none of my Seramas are vaccinated unfortunately - I purchased them from a local breeder), but I mistakenly thought the big girls were safe since they were vaccinated. Bit of a stupid mistake, but I figure there's nothing I could have done regardless.

At least I know there was nothing I could have done for her or the others, and it was not due to something I did.

 

[Kiki]

Hi all! I just wanted to make a quick update on poor Ivy. Unfortunately she got very bad overnight one day (despite seeming to be a bit better earlier in the week), and I brought her to an emergency vet. We decided the kindest thing was euthanasia. I was able to get a necropsy done though.

I got the results back today, and it was not what I expected. Ivy was apparently filled with tumors - she had lymphoma that the vet told me was almost certainly caused by Marek's. Based off my previous losses (four birds died very suddenly a few months ago), she thinks that's what killed them as well.

The odd thing is that 90% of my birds are vaccinated. Of my original 12 birds, all but 2 were purchased from My pet chicken vaccinated. The other two I bought from my local feed store (I assume they were not vaccinated).

Now, I know I have Marek's in my flock (my Serama rooster died from it, but none of my Seramas are vaccinated unfortunately - I purchased them from a local breeder), but I mistakenly thought the big girls were safe since they were vaccinated. Bit of a stupid mistake, but I figure there's nothing I could have done regardless.

At least I know there was nothing I could have done for her or the others, and it was not due to something I did.

I am so happy to here you got an answer and thanks for coming back to update us.

Unfortunately the vaccine doesn't prevent the disease like most people think it does.

 

[Ladybird CA]

Sorry for your loss. Thank you for the update.

 

[uisceros]

I am so happy to here you got an answer and thanks for coming back to update us.

Unfortunately the vaccine doesn't prevent the disease like most people think it does.

Me too! It sucks that Ivy died, but I’m relieved that it wasn’t something I could have prevented. I did as much as I could.

It’s even more stupid because believe it or not, I have a MS in virology. You’d think I’d know that the vaccine isn’t perfect. I’m blaming my stupidity on it being an animal disease instead of a human one!

 

[uisceros]

Sorry for your loss. Thank you for the update.

Thank a bunch. Poor Ivy was a good little chicken. I’ll miss her.
I figured if someone else read this and saw similar symptoms in their birds it might be good to know the end result.

 

[BigBlueHen53]