Looking for any Hail Mary Ideas for my sick silkie while we wait to hear back from vet

[tcfoster]

Hi everyone. I seem to have been on here a lot with chicken emergencies. It's been an unlucky year for my flock. I have a 3 year old silkie hen Peanut, she just celebrated her 3rd hatchday last weekend. About a week ago I noticed she was uninterested in treats and we quickly isolated her because she is a PIGGY and I knew something was wrong. She was also not moving much and drinking a lot of water. I took her to an avian specialist vet last Thursday because in the past we have suspected that our flock might have MG and I didn't want to mess around and just needed to figure out what is wrong. They did a fecal float and ruled out worms and parasites. She has no mites or lice. No sour or impacted crop, no infected bumblefoot, no vent gleet. They did an x-ray and didn't see any metal (we were worried about acute lead poisoning), didn't see any internal laying or egg impaction. They did a blood test and we are waiting on the results, (unfortunately it may take another week) to see if she could have avian influenza, acute bronchitis, newcastle, mycoplasma gallisepticum, or mycoplasma synoviae. However this morning she is very weak and wobbly. She is continuing to drink water and we are giving her a plain water as well as a nutri-drench water and an electrolyte water, and she will drink from all 3. The only thing we have been able to get her to eat in the last 2 days is a few live earthworms. Which I know isn't good because of the parasite risk but at this point I'm willing to do that so she has some energy. I've tried giving her eggs, tomatoes, tuna, yogurt, apples, grubblies, all her faves, and she won't touch any of it. And of course I have regular feed and grit available for her. I'm waiting on a call back from the vet because I'm hoping that they can make sure we have ruled out coryza and cholera but wanted to throw this out to the BYC community - is there anything else that she could have that I'm not thinking of? Maybe internal laying that doesn't show up on an x-ray? Botulism? Marek's (even though she was vaccinated as a chick)? She hasn't laid an egg in about a week and a half and she usually is very reliable in that she will lay an egg every other day for about 2 weeks and then go broody for about 10 days. She's not broody and not laying.

Thanks in advance all. Hoping for a Hail Mary for my little Nut! Pic is of us on the way to the vet. It was a long drive and she did amazingly but had a lot more energy at that point (Thursday). Shout out to Bird and Pet Clinic in Roseville CA for taking great care of my baby.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Could be any number of things, unfortunately. Is she squatting or straining/vent pulsating? Did you feel between her legs: Squishy or hard?

I think botulism is very quick acting. Mareks can be a problem even if chickens are vaccinated. You say you suspect MG in your flock - does Peanut show any respiratory signs, bubbly eyes, lameness etc?

If you haven't yet, try making a wet mash with her food and see if she will eat that.

 

[Warrior Creek]

I’m so sorry. This time of year w heavy spring rains if down from cattle or poultry farms or flooding, e-coli is problematic.

E-coli is more problematic than most people think if you read about it. My bird was deathly ill for 8-10 days. Avian specialist thought salmonella, but didn’t make much sense. I’m in NC and she’s in PA. So she’s just doing a consult. My bird’s pooh was clean on fecal too

She’s an only bird and would have picked it up from me eating tainted chicken or wild birds.

My turkey had been roughed up by a puppy, so already had her on 100 mg IM of Baytril. Avian DVM sent me out for Oxytet, although I had started on 100 mg Doxycycline and Meloxicam, because she acted like she had a migraine headache.

i hated having that much antibiotic in her, but at the instruction of DVMs. She finally came off the porch today and so much better.

She didn’t eat a lot until today and had been walking away from her favorites too. The avian lady said yogurt would never be wrong. It’s all I could get down her for days to keep her gut motility. I added the Acidophilus, because I read it was ok and didn’t have bird probiotics.

I am a bird rookie and came here in desperation, but wanted to offer some hope and “say think of e-coli,” because I speak on water quality all the time and it is a huge problem. I don’t drink my water unless it goes through my coffee maker until after I sanitized my wellhead. I don’t know why I thought my bird could.

Private wells should be sanitized every spring with chlorine or crystals. It’s on every states Dept of Health and Human Services website under water quality. Or boil your water or consider bottled water for this particular bird until it feels better. Saying a prayer.

 

[Dom95]

Hi everyone. I seem to have been on here a lot with chicken emergencies. It's been an unlucky year for my flock. I have a 3 year old silkie hen Peanut, she just celebrated her 3rd hatchday last weekend. About a week ago I noticed she was uninterested in treats and we quickly isolated her because she is a PIGGY and I knew something was wrong. She was also not moving much and drinking a lot of water. I took her to an avian specialist vet last Thursday because in the past we have suspected that our flock might have MG and I didn't want to mess around and just needed to figure out what is wrong. They did a fecal float and ruled out worms and parasites. She has no mites or lice. No sour or impacted crop, no infected bumblefoot, no vent gleet. They did an x-ray and didn't see any metal (we were worried about acute lead poisoning), didn't see any internal laying or egg impaction. They did a blood test and we are waiting on the results, (unfortunately it may take another week) to see if she could have avian influenza, acute bronchitis, newcastle, mycoplasma gallisepticum, or mycoplasma synoviae. However this morning she is very weak and wobbly. She is continuing to drink water and we are giving her a plain water as well as a nutri-drench water and an electrolyte water, and she will drink from all 3. The only thing we have been able to get her to eat in the last 2 days is a few live earthworms. Which I know isn't good because of the parasite risk but at this point I'm willing to do that so she has some energy. I've tried giving her eggs, tomatoes, tuna, yogurt, apples, grubblies, all her faves, and she won't touch any of it. And of course I have regular feed and grit available for her. I'm waiting on a call back from the vet because I'm hoping that they can make sure we have ruled out coryza and cholera but wanted to throw this out to the BYC community - is there anything else that she could have that I'm not thinking of? Maybe internal laying that doesn't show up on an x-ray? Botulism? Marek's (even though she was vaccinated as a chick)? She hasn't laid an egg in about a week and a half and she usually is very reliable in that she will lay an egg every other day for about 2 weeks and then go broody for about 10 days. She's not broody and not laying.

Thanks in advance all. Hoping for a Hail Mary for my little Nut! Pic is of us on the way to the vet. It was a long drive and she did amazingly but had a lot more energy at that point (Thursday). Shout out to Bird and Pet Clinic in Roseville CA for taking great care of my baby.

Hi there! I’ve actually had a 1 year old buff orphington who started acting odd this week as well. Similar symptoms and not interested in food/treats and not drinking much water. We brought her to the vet bc she started laying down in the day and was extremely lethargic. Also stopped laying. At one point it became difficult to open her eyes and she almost passed. We syringe fed her nutridrench and hydro hen to which helped incredibly so.
We had a ton of tests done and X-rays which they ruled out most things and came to the conclusion she has an internal infection. She said there was no way to 100% know unless we did another $300 sonogram and at that she said it may not show up.
The vet believed it was peritonitis. And that these were all the same symptoms. ( I was extremely worried about mereks as well) And that during her attempt at egg laying the yolk exploded in the oviduct and became infected. The vet prescribed her 2 medications and we are on day 4/5 of the antibiotics. She doesn’t look a ton better but she had improved noticeably. Taking treats, eating feed and a little more active. Still having a tough time getting her to drink water.
I’m not sure how close you are with the vet but maybe you could ask if it’s a possibility?
sorry I can’t help more!
If you need a name of the medication it’s: Carprofen ( for the pain) and Trimethorprim (the antibiotic)

 

[tcfoster]

Thank you so much all for your replies. Peanut didn't make it and we took her for a necropsy at UC Davis. Unfortunately they do think it was Marek's. I got her from my local feed store and thought she was vaccinated. I'm attaching the preliminary necropsy report in case anyone is interested in reading it.

 

[tcfoster]

Hi there! I’ve actually had a 1 year old buff orphington who started acting odd this week as well. Similar symptoms and not interested in food/treats and not drinking much water. We brought her to the vet bc she started laying down in the day and was extremely lethargic. Also stopped laying. At one point it became difficult to open her eyes and she almost passed. We syringe fed her nutridrench and hydro hen to which helped incredibly so.
We had a ton of tests done and X-rays which they ruled out most things and came to the conclusion she has an internal infection. She said there was no way to 100% know unless we did another $300 sonogram and at that she said it may not show up.
The vet believed it was peritonitis. And that these were all the same symptoms. ( I was extremely worried about mereks as well) And that during her attempt at egg laying the yolk exploded in the oviduct and became infected. The vet prescribed her 2 medications and we are on day 4/5 of the antibiotics. She doesn’t look a ton better but she had improved noticeably. Taking treats, eating feed and a little more active. Still having a tough time getting her to drink water.
I’m not sure how close you are with the vet but maybe you could ask if it’s a possibility?
sorry I can’t help more!
If you need a name of the medication it’s: Carprofen ( for the pain) and Trimethorprim (the antibiotic)

Thank you for replying. How is your girl doing?

 

[tcfoster]

I’m so sorry. This time of year w heavy spring rains if down from cattle or poultry farms or flooding, e-coli is problematic.

E-coli is more problematic than most people think if you read about it. My bird was deathly ill for 8-10 days. Avian specialist thought salmonella, but didn’t make much sense. I’m in NC and she’s in PA. So she’s just doing a consult. My bird’s pooh was clean on fecal too

She’s an only bird and would have picked it up from me eating tainted chicken or wild birds.

My turkey had been roughed up by a puppy, so already had her on 100 mg IM of Baytril. Avian DVM sent me out for Oxytet, although I had started on 100 mg Doxycycline and Meloxicam, because she acted like she had a migraine headache.

i hated having that much antibiotic in her, but at the instruction of DVMs. She finally came off the porch today and so much better.

She didn’t eat a lot until today and had been walking away from her favorites too. The avian lady said yogurt would never be wrong. It’s all I could get down her for days to keep her gut motility. I added the Acidophilus, because I read it was ok and didn’t have bird probiotics.

I am a bird rookie and came here in desperation, but wanted to offer some hope and “say think of e-coli,” because I speak on water quality all the time and it is a huge problem. I don’t drink my water unless it goes through my coffee maker until after I sanitized my wellhead. I don’t know why I thought my bird could.

Private wells should be sanitized every spring with chlorine or crystals. It’s on every states Dept of Health and Human Services website under water quality. Or boil your water or consider bottled water for this particular bird until it feels better. Saying a prayer.

Thank you so much for replying. How is your turkey doing?

 

[Myrshine]

Chicks at the feed store aren’t vaccinated unfortunately.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Chicks at the feed store aren’t vaccinated unfortunately.

Some are, some aren't.

 

[tcfoster]

Chicks at the feed store aren’t vaccinated unfortunately.

Oh interesting! I just figured they would be. Thanks