Loss of feathers, tucking head

[bgpacker]

I'm new to the chicken world so I have lots of questions. But right now I have a sick 10 week old black australorpe pullet. She tucks her head under toward her belly and then backs herself up in a corner. I noticed this 2 days ago and have now seperated her from the rest of the flock. Now she has pulled all the feather out of her belly and her neck. I also noticed that she has a "blister" between her neck and her right wing. She is eating and drinking and has solid poops. Also she seems to be blind. She doesn't acknowledge me until she hears me step toward her. I have used my hand to tap toward her eyes without a blink. I have some pics and will try to post them when I figure out how. She is eating purina start and grow nonmedicated feed as she was vaccinated for coccidia and mereck's disease from the hatchery. None of the other birds have shown any signs of this. What could it be and how do I treat it? Thanks

 

[CMV]

This blister- is it filled with fluid or air?

 

[bgpacker]

Its hard to tell, but it appears to be air. Its a bad pic! Sorry!

 

[bgpacker]

Here are some of the other pics.

This is what she started doing.

Now she's pulled all the feathers out of her neck and belly.

 

[CMV]

Get some Poly-Vi-Sol into that girl ASAP. Poly-Vi-Sol can be given as much as needed because the body will flush out any excess. That posture makes me think she might have a vitamin deficiency. I am no expert on dosing with fat soluble vitamins, but I believe some Vitamin E might also be helpful. You can just snip the end off a regular 400 iu cap and feed her the contents of it. Be careful using this, though, because an overdose of this does not get flushed out by the body. I think she also might have a ruptured air sac if that blister is filled with air. You are going to need to bleed the air out from under her skin. A small sterile syringe should be inserted obliquely into the blister after cleansing the puncture site with alcohol. You can carefully draw out the air. You may need to do this several times over the next few days as the blister re-inflates. If you keep removing the air, hopefully the air sac will heal and the blister will go away.

Keep us posted.

 

[bgpacker]

Well today was bad

She went down hill fast! I took her to a person who knows about chickens as the "blister" had tripled in size. The guy told me she had a hole in her lung. I'm a vet tech so I took her to work with me and the vet (who doesn't deal with farm animals) said the same thing. Before I could do anything else she passed away
Thanks for your help though.