Mystery Illness? Help Needed!!

[Jburr]

Hi BYC
I am new to this forum although have used it in the past for advice but never needed to post.

Unfortunately I have a strange issue with one of my hens. I have 2 Black Australorps both of which are around 25 weeks(1 cock, 1 hen) that we hatched from an incubator. 2 days ago when doing the rounds I found our first egg this good news was fairly short lived as later that evening when shutting them away I noticed she was just laying in one spot.

I did not think much of it at first and though maybe she was just resting or a little tired from the process of laying. The following morning i noticed she was in exactly the same spot, whenever you tried to move her she seems very off balance and uses her wings and head to support herself. I removed her from the coop and brought her into the house and gave her a good look over, at first I thought maybe she was egg bound for some reason as she was huddled to the ground like a broody hen and her tail was pulsing, so gave her a boost of calcium and checked her over but can feel no egg, not even inside the vent. After ruling that out i then turned to looking at parasites or deficiencies and have basically treated her to the best of my ability with a boost of vitamins, minerals, Medicated feed and coxoid.

Her symptoms are strange, in her self she seems fine, good colour to her come, bright reactive eyes, eats, drink's and poops ok, although her poop has been really smelly! found no evidence of blood or anything of that nature in her poo and if anything they have been pretty normal in appearance( solid with urate cap), some slightly runny (they are the ones that really smell!) but I'm assuming that is just a cecal poop?
The only thing i have noticed is they have been rather on the large side, but i think that is because she is not going as frequent??

In herself she seems ok, she simply cannot stand, walk or balance and seems to be panting whenever she does move!! there are no signs of injury to her head, checked for mite, bumblefoot, sour crop, egg bound and all sorts but i can't seem to put a finger on it, none of the treatment I am giving seems to be making a huge difference although it may still be early days, I just have no clue of what it could be, out of all the years I've had chickens i have never seen this before. My only other though was possibly Mareks? but she does seem a little to healthy to fit the bill for Mareks?

If anyone has experienced this before please could you shine a light on it for me as i am out of ideas!! in the mean time i will continue treating her as i am in the hope she will pull through!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and i thank you in advance!
Josh

 

[Myrshine]

Does sound egg bound. Has she pooped recently? Does it look normal? Birds can also bob their tails when they’re unable to breathe or are having trouble balancing.

 

[Aapomp831]

An eggbound hen will walk like a penguin and pulse their tail up and down repeatedly. They also will not be able to poop, certainly not large ones. To double check you can insert a gloved finger carefully into the vent and look for an egg.
The panting to me indicates that she is in pain - you didn’t mention it being hot where to are. Separate her; she may have hurt her hip / foot / ankle jumping off a roosting bar or in a squabble over a nesting box. I would put her in a small dog crate still in the coop with the others where you can observe her further. Vitamin deficiencies can cause chickens to walk off balance; I would offer her some vitamins, do you have any NutriDrench? Also check her crop - observe if she’s eating or drinking. I would take food and water out of the crate overnight and check the crop first thing in the morning to make sure it’s emptying overnight. Thoroughly check her for parasites. If you conclude that she has twisted a joint and is in pain, keep her isolated in a small crate where she can’t move around much and has a chance to heal. You can even offer half of a baby aspirin - she should peck it right out of your hand.

 

[Jburr]

An eggbound hen will walk like a penguin and pulse their tail up and down repeatedly. They also will not be able to poop, certainly not large ones. To double check you can insert a gloved finger carefully into the vent and look for an egg.
The panting to me indicates that she is in pain - you didn’t mention it being hot where to are. Separate her; she may have hurt her hip / foot / ankle jumping off a roosting bar or in a squabble over a nesting box. I would put her in a small dog crate still in the coop with the others where you can observe her further. Vitamin deficiencies can cause chickens to walk off balance; I would offer her some vitamins, do you have any NutriDrench? Also check her crop - observe if she’s eating or drinking. I would take food and water out of the crate overnight and check the crop first thing in the morning to make sure it’s emptying overnight. Thoroughly check her for parasites. If you conclude that she has twisted a joint and is in pain, keep her isolated in a small crate where she can’t move around much and has a chance to heal. You can even offer half of a baby aspirin - she should peck it right out of your hand.

Hi and thankyou for the replies.

I have checked internally for the presence of an egg but found nothing, plus she is pooping fairly consistently, she is eating and drinking fine.

We are in currently coming out of winter here in the Uk, temperature ranging from 0-12c, We have however just gone through a week of snow and -7c temperatures but they have a nicely sheltered coop and plenty of warm bedding and i have not noticed any signs of chill (Huddling etc)

I have her separated at the minute but kept in a crate, she is currently in the house as it means i can keep a close eye on her.
I don't have any nutri drench but i have been supplementing her with nutri drops, I give here around 2ml morning and night but like i say she is drinking and eating consistently so i do struggle to believe this could simply be a nutritional issue as they are fed on a good quality layers pellet.

When you say a baby Aspirin what mg would you recommend? and would you dissolve it in water or just crush it and mix it with her feed?

Thanks again for the replies!

 

[Aapomp831]

Hi and thankyou for the replies.

I have checked internally for the presence of an egg but found nothing, plus she is pooping fairly consistently, she is eating and drinking fine.

We are in currently coming out of winter here in the Uk, temperature ranging from 0-12c, We have however just gone through a week of snow and -7c temperatures but they have a nicely sheltered coop and plenty of warm bedding and i have not noticed any signs of chill (Huddling etc)

I have her separated at the minute but kept in a crate, she is currently in the house as it means i can keep a close eye on her.
I don't have any nutri drench but i have been supplementing her with nutri drops, I give here around 2ml morning and night but like i say she is drinking and eating consistently so i do struggle to believe this could simply be a nutritional issue as they are fed on a good quality layers pellet.

When you say a baby Aspirin what mg would you recommend? and would you dissolve it in water or just crush it and mix it with her feed?

Thanks again for the replies!

Half of one of these...
I mention vitamin deficiency because I know that B3 deficiencies can cause lameness. I’m thinking your hen may have sprain or something.

 

[Boobumpbeanbear]

Hi,
I have a cockerel that is doing exactly the same thing, when he tries to stand he stumbles about, his head falls forward and he gasps for air and he holds his wings out for balance.
We have him in the house, hes been treated for worms, lice/mites and had vitamins and we have used a sling but he just doesnt want to improve. Its been 4 weeks now. Hes fully alert, eats and drinks but he hasn't crowed at all.
If anyone has any ideas on whats wrong with your hen, maybe its the same. I'm running out of ideas but I don't want to put him down if I don't have to, especially as he's so alert.

 

[Jburr]

Hi,
I have a cockerel that is doing exactly the same thing, when he tries to stand he stumbles about, his head falls forward and he gasps for air and he holds his wings out for balance.
We have him in the house, hes been treated for worms, lice/mites and had vitamins and we have used a sling but he just doesnt want to improve. Its been 4 weeks now. Hes fully alert, eats and drinks but he hasn't crowed at all.
If anyone has any ideas on whats wrong with your hen, maybe its the same. I'm running out of ideas but I don't want to put him down if I don't have to, especially as he's so alert.

Hi
I know exactly what you mean, it is so frustrating as they in themselves seem to be fine, what is also strange is that for my hen it seemed to come on very quickly!
Sound very much the same with what your experiencing, we have tried everything we know but it doesn't seem to make any difference even more annoyingly she is the nicest hen we have!!

Keep an eye on this thread, hopefully there may be something that could help us both, and if i find anything out before hand ill be sure to post it on here!

 

[Jburr]

Thanks again for the replies!


Half of one of these...
I mention vitamin deficiency because I know that B3 deficiencies can cause lameness. I’m thinking your hen may have sprain or something.

Thankyou! I shall look at getting some of those and see if that helps her!

I Have also picked up some nutri-drench so am going to try her on that swell to see if makes any difference.

 

[Boobumpbeanbear]

Thank you, yes with ours it was very sudden too, I initially thought he had hurt his leg jumping off a roost or something but I have never found any injury, swelling etc. He does tremble now when he manages to stand for a short time which I hadnt noticed him do before if that means anything.
I really hope you can fix your hen, its so sad when they get sick and you have no idea what to do to treat them.