Mystery illness about to claim a 3rd hen

[Red Horse]

At the beginning of June my husband found one of our hens so sick she couldn't get up and was getting attacked by other flock members. In the process of getting her out, we found another hen dead in the nest box. All that seemed wrong with the dead hen was she had a poopy butt, otherwise she was a good weight and looked fine.

The sick hen had symptoms that seemed to me like coccidiosis that hadn't been caught early enough (my husband does the chicken chores now and didn't know what to watch for). She had a very poopy butt, was very weak and pretty thin, very pale, white mucousy diarrhea, feathers ruffled and tail pointing down, lethargic and depressed. I started the flock on corid and her on drenches. She started acting way better in the first couple days. She drank water at first and I could tempt her with treats and mash, but after a week or so she stopped eating altogether and ended up aspirating on poultry cell and dying. I think she just got too weak to swallow.

3 weeks later, I have another hen with the same symptoms except she isn't pale. I DID see her looking pale last week but it was very hot... I put an extra fan in the run and she looked fine the next day. Now I'm wondering if she's been sick the whole time. I don't think she's going to make it through the night and I feel so bad, can anyone help give any ideas what this could be? I don't think I can save her but I don't want to lose any more, these were my first girls (all 3 years old) and it's breaking my heart.

 

[nuthatched]

I'm sorry to hear that.
What's their diet?
Have you ever wormed them?

 

[Red Horse]

I'm sorry to hear that.
What's their diet?
Have you ever wormed them?

Never been wormed, they get Purina flock raiser crumbles and occasionally some fruits/vegetables, maybe some oily fish when they molt.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

3 weeks later, I have another hen with the same symptoms except she isn't pale. I DID see her looking pale last week but it was very hot... I put an extra fan in the run and she looked fine the next day. Now I'm wondering if she's been sick the whole time. I don't think she's going to make it through the night and I feel so bad, can anyone help give any ideas what this could be? I don't think I can save her but I don't want to lose any more, these were my first girls (all 3 years old) and it's breaking my heart.

I'm sorry about your hen.

Can you post photos of her and her poop?

When was her last egg?

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Does she have any lice/mites?

It can be hard to know why one is in decline, so many things can happen with hens. Often it can be a reproductive disorder which is common.

You may want to take her aside, examine her closely for any indication of flystrike, injury, bloating/fluid in the abdomen, lice/mites, etc. and monitor her overnight. Offer some sugar water (1tsp sugar to 1cup water) or give her electrolytes to see if she will perk up.
If she's not laid an egg and should have, then also give her 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 now, then once daily for a week.

If she doesn't make it and you want to find out why she died, wrap the body in plastic and refrigerate it. Make arrangements to send the body to your state lab for analysis/necropsy, they will give you a report of their findings. You can look up your lab here https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...tkI1ooLYkHwQ7vAPizcWHEzR_nuXpS-EBB1fHrGYQ1zVL

Alternatively, if you are up to it, you can do an informal necropsy yourself, looking at the internal to see if you find anything. If you do this and wish to take photos, you can post them here on your thread and we'll try to help you with what you see.

 

[nuthatched]

Never been wormed, they get Purina flock raiser crumbles and occasionally some fruits/vegetables, maybe some oily fish when they molt.

With mucusy poops and anemia, I'd hove worming a shot.

 

[Red Horse]

I'm sorry about your hen.

Can you post photos of her and her poop?

When was her last egg?

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Does she have any lice/mites?

It can be hard to know why one is in decline, so many things can happen with hens. Often it can be a reproductive disorder which is common.

You may want to take her aside, examine her closely for any indication of flystrike, injury, bloating/fluid in the abdomen, lice/mites, etc. and monitor her overnight. Offer some sugar water (1tsp sugar to 1cup water) or give her electrolytes to see if she will perk up.
If she's not laid an egg and should have, then also give her 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 now, then once daily for a week.

If she doesn't make it and you want to find out why she died, wrap the body in plastic and refrigerate it. Make arrangements to send the body to your state lab for analysis/necropsy, they will give you a report of their findings. You can look up your lab here https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...tkI1ooLYkHwQ7vAPizcWHEzR_nuXpS-EBB1fHrGYQ1zVL

Alternatively, if you are up to it, you can do an informal necropsy yourself, looking at the internal to see if you find anything. If you do this and wish to take photos, you can post them here on your thread and we'll try to help you with what you see.

I'm sorry about your hen.

Can you post photos of her and her poop?

When was her last egg?

Is her crop emptying overnight?

Does she have any lice/mites?

It can be hard to know why one is in decline, so many things can happen with hens. Often it can be a reproductive disorder which is common.

You may want to take her aside, examine her closely for any indication of flystrike, injury, bloating/fluid in the abdomen, lice/mites, etc. and monitor her overnight. Offer some sugar water (1tsp sugar to 1cup water) or give her electrolytes to see if she will perk up.
If she's not laid an egg and should have, then also give her 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 now, then once daily for a week.

If she doesn't make it and you want to find out why she died, wrap the body in plastic and refrigerate it. Make arrangements to send the body to your state lab for analysis/necropsy, they will give you a report of their findings. You can look up your lab here https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry...tkI1ooLYkHwQ7vAPizcWHEzR_nuXpS-EBB1fHrGYQ1zVL

Alternatively, if you are up to it, you can do an informal necropsy yourself, looking at the internal to see if you find anything. If you do this and wish to take photos, you can post them here on your thread and we'll try to help you with what you see.

I seriously can't believe she's still alive this morning. She's a little more alert too. She made her way across the hutch at some point and drank water early this morning, her neck was pretty wet. She did that yesterday afternoon too, but when she's done she just kind of lays down on the dishes because she's too weak to move away from them again. She hasn't eaten in the 3 days that we've had her out, I can't tempt her with anything, so no poop... just water with some white in it. We got 1cc poultry cell in her yesterday afternoon and another cc this morning.

She's been quarantined since we found her. She hasn't laid in over a year according to my flockstar app... the one we lost before her was also a golden comet and didn't lay anymore either. The one that died before we knew she was sick was a Barnevelder that never really laid much. She doesn't have any bloating/swelling or feel like she's got liquid on her abdomen. The day before yesterday she did have clear liquid come out of her flat, empty crop though, it leaked out of her beak and splashed on the ground when I leaned over with her. They've been on corid for almost a month, which I've found to give them sour crop in the past, so I put some probios in her water and it hasn't happened again.

No flystrike, her butt wasn't as bad as her sister's was so we haven't washed it yet since she's so weak, but we did give the last one a bath/blowout because her rear end just smelled like straight ammonia. There had been a lot of undigested feed in what was stuck on that bird as well. Don't see any evidence of mites on this girl and she has good color.

We tried to get her into the vet yesterday to see about having her put down and take her body to the ODA, I really didn't want her to suffer all weekend like her sister did. The Vet was supposed to call us back and never did, so we finally called 2hr before close only to find out he left for the day. His receptionist did get him to call us from home and he said they can't diagnose anything from the body if she's been dead more than 2 days, so now we're stuck trying to keep this sweet bird alive long enough to fridge her body so we hopefully don't lose anyone else to whatever this is. It would be great if we didn't have to lose her and could just get someone to take blood and fecal on Monday.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She hasn't eaten in the 3 days that we've had her out, I can't tempt her with anything, so no poop... just water with some white in it.

The day before yesterday she did have clear liquid come out of her flat, empty crop though, it leaked out of her beak and splashed on the ground when I leaned over with her. They've been on corid for almost a month

Oh I'm sorry.

It sounds like she may be on her way out like the others.

Corid should only be given for 5-7days, so you may want to stop the treatment.

It can be very hard to know what's happening. At 3yrs, sometimes they can begin to fail for various reasons, but reproductive disorders can be common, so she may have something going on there like Cancer, Salpingitis, EYP, etc. Perhaps kidney failure and/or something going on with the liver too.

I'd work on hydration, trying to keep her comfy and see how it goes.

 

[Red Horse]

Oh I'm sorry.

It sounds like she may be on her way out like the others.

Corid should only be given for 5-7days, so you may want to stop the treatment.

It can be very hard to know what's happening. At 3yrs, sometimes they can begin to fail for various reasons, but reproductive disorders can be common, so she may have something going on there like Cancer, Salpingitis, EYP, etc. Perhaps kidney failure and/or something going on with the liver too.

I'd work on hydration, trying to keep her comfy and see how it goes.

Now that I'm home with her all day today I'm seeing how much she's drinking and she's really thirsty (still not eating). If the only other bird that died was my other comet, I might think they had some reproductive issues popping up around the same time being the same age but the dead Barnevelder is really stumping me. I'm thinking she probably does have some organ failure at this point with all the drinking but I wish I could figure out why. I'll nix the corid and try some electrolyte.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Now that I'm home with her all day today I'm seeing how much she's drinking and she's really thirsty (still not eating). If the only other bird that died was my other comet, I might think they had some reproductive issues popping up around the same time being the same age but the dead Barnevelder is really stumping me. I'm thinking she probably does have some organ failure at this point with all the drinking but I wish I could figure out why. I'll nix the corid and try some electrolyte.

It's good that she's drinking.

After she's hydrated, see if she will eat a bit of wet mushy chicken feed.

Unfortunately, I've found that while yes, hybrids/production birds like Golden Comets, Isa Browns, etc., do seem to be prone to reproductive issues, so do what we think of more of heritage type breeds as well. I do think breed/genetics play a roll. Over time, especially hatchery birds have also been bred to produce more eggs to keep up with demands of their keepers, etc. Sadly, just about any laying hen breed nowadays often succumbs to reproductive problems.