txhall3
Chirping
Hello everyone, Lilah is my 6.5 month old Ameraucana ( or EE possibly) pullet. She is very sick. We had flooding in our area 2 weeks ago and everything stayed wet for a few days. Tuesday morning I went to take my small backyard flock some strawberries and she drew my attention because she had a very watery bowel movement and then emitted a high pitch keening cry afterwards. Watery stool is very normal for her but being in pain is not. I immediately took her into the vet. Fecal floats were negative for anything and xrays were inconclusive. I live in a rural area and NO ONE takes their chickens to the vet around here so they have very limited working knowledge. I have had to learn most things through my own research. They did see a mass with spotted mineralization in her abdomen but they are assuming it is her first egg being formed. They were pretty confident that she is not egg bound. They wanted to treat for parasites even though I wormed the entire flock of 8 pullets and 1 roo with Valbazen on Oct 13 and again on Oct 23. I had not seen any worms but this same chicken Lilah seemed thinner than I would like and lower energy. Everything in my research pointed to possible worms. She seemed to do better until this week. The vets sent me home with 3 doses of Panacur to be given 24 hours apart and I already had amprolium liquid. My flock is 6.5-7.5 months old now ( with the exception of my roo who is a month older). Other chickens seem fine.
I got her home and separated her from the flock and began treatment at noon on Tues. Nov 3 with .5 tsp/quart ( 2tsp/gallon) Corid V liquid. I also gave her a drench of .2 ml in 9 ml liquid. She only weighs 2 lbs 6 oz.
I put probiotics and vitamins/electrolytes in her water. She is having very frequent diarrhea with lots of water and it was faint blood but now is more pronounced. Every time she has a bowel movement she cries out. I was a nurse, a vet tech ( small animal-not chickens unfortunately), and have 3 kids so lots of experience with GI disturbances and it looks and sounds to me like an intestinal spasm. She is continuing to drink really well but her appetite seems to be decreasing. She isn't much interested in her feed but has taken various treats such as tomatoes, strawberries, kale, mealworms and a little bit of cooked white rice and crumbled crackers. I normally don't give them bread products or rice but I was hoping it may slow down her intestines a bit. I gave her a small drench again yesterday and today of .2 ml amprolium. She has had 2 doses of Panacur 24 hours apart. Though she is having a little more solids material in her stool the blood seems to be getting a little worse. She still is spasming after each one. I am concerned that she isn't improving after 48 hours.
Other info that may be helpful:
1. These chickens are very much pets who happen to lay eggs ( or will) so I interact with them quite a bit. My flock is 9 of 8 different breeds. I feed them H and H layer crumbles and they have access to oyster shell. They free range during the day in my big backyard and sleep in a coop at night. Bedding material is pine shavings with Coop Fresh/ Sweet PDZ. Treats consist of very little scratch- also H and H. Both feed and scratch are no soy no corn non GMO. Also fresh fruits and vegetable plus I have a flock block out there.
2. 2 weeks ago our are experienced major flash flooding. Everything was very wet for a few days and took a while to dry out. My coop run floor had sand but they had spilled quite a bit of food ( food was replaced 2 times a day if wet) and the food I couldn't rake up got moldy. Run also became pretty muddy because evidently I didn't have enough sand and our clay soil doesn't drain well.
** the chickens were only in the run for an hour maximum in the morning and maybe 30 min at night because I let them out immediately so they wouldn't be stuck in the muddy run.** I have since raked up the entire run floor, spread Sweet PDZ, put down 600 lbs of sand, and also a light topping of straw. All layered with additional Sweet PDZ. It is supposed to flood again this weekend.
3. This chicken Lilah is the youngest and very slow to mature. For a couple of weeks I was thinking she may even be a slow developing cockrel but xrays seem to confirm pullet. She has been thinner than I would like but at first wasn't too worried because all my pullets seem to be a little thin ( in my inexperienced opinion) in the teenage stage and began to fatten up once they started laying. Lilah has not laid an egg yet. For the last few weeks I have been bringing her into the house and giving her a small amount of dried mealworms and fruit ( mostly blueberries) to help give her a boost.
4. We also have 2 sebastopol geese that run around the yard with the chickens. They were wormed with Valbazen at the same time as the chickens.
I was expecting to see some improvement with the amprolium by now but she seems the same or a little worse. Could this be necrotizing enteritis? I don't want to stress her system but should I get her on antibiotics just in case?
This little one is my very favorite chicken, she has such personality, is extremely tame and pretty darn smart for a chicken. I am so worried and it would break my heart to lose her!
Any advice is so welcome! Thank you!
I got her home and separated her from the flock and began treatment at noon on Tues. Nov 3 with .5 tsp/quart ( 2tsp/gallon) Corid V liquid. I also gave her a drench of .2 ml in 9 ml liquid. She only weighs 2 lbs 6 oz.
I put probiotics and vitamins/electrolytes in her water. She is having very frequent diarrhea with lots of water and it was faint blood but now is more pronounced. Every time she has a bowel movement she cries out. I was a nurse, a vet tech ( small animal-not chickens unfortunately), and have 3 kids so lots of experience with GI disturbances and it looks and sounds to me like an intestinal spasm. She is continuing to drink really well but her appetite seems to be decreasing. She isn't much interested in her feed but has taken various treats such as tomatoes, strawberries, kale, mealworms and a little bit of cooked white rice and crumbled crackers. I normally don't give them bread products or rice but I was hoping it may slow down her intestines a bit. I gave her a small drench again yesterday and today of .2 ml amprolium. She has had 2 doses of Panacur 24 hours apart. Though she is having a little more solids material in her stool the blood seems to be getting a little worse. She still is spasming after each one. I am concerned that she isn't improving after 48 hours.Other info that may be helpful:
1. These chickens are very much pets who happen to lay eggs ( or will) so I interact with them quite a bit. My flock is 9 of 8 different breeds. I feed them H and H layer crumbles and they have access to oyster shell. They free range during the day in my big backyard and sleep in a coop at night. Bedding material is pine shavings with Coop Fresh/ Sweet PDZ. Treats consist of very little scratch- also H and H. Both feed and scratch are no soy no corn non GMO. Also fresh fruits and vegetable plus I have a flock block out there.
2. 2 weeks ago our are experienced major flash flooding. Everything was very wet for a few days and took a while to dry out. My coop run floor had sand but they had spilled quite a bit of food ( food was replaced 2 times a day if wet) and the food I couldn't rake up got moldy. Run also became pretty muddy because evidently I didn't have enough sand and our clay soil doesn't drain well.
** the chickens were only in the run for an hour maximum in the morning and maybe 30 min at night because I let them out immediately so they wouldn't be stuck in the muddy run.** I have since raked up the entire run floor, spread Sweet PDZ, put down 600 lbs of sand, and also a light topping of straw. All layered with additional Sweet PDZ. It is supposed to flood again this weekend.
3. This chicken Lilah is the youngest and very slow to mature. For a couple of weeks I was thinking she may even be a slow developing cockrel but xrays seem to confirm pullet. She has been thinner than I would like but at first wasn't too worried because all my pullets seem to be a little thin ( in my inexperienced opinion) in the teenage stage and began to fatten up once they started laying. Lilah has not laid an egg yet. For the last few weeks I have been bringing her into the house and giving her a small amount of dried mealworms and fruit ( mostly blueberries) to help give her a boost.
4. We also have 2 sebastopol geese that run around the yard with the chickens. They were wormed with Valbazen at the same time as the chickens.
I was expecting to see some improvement with the amprolium by now but she seems the same or a little worse. Could this be necrotizing enteritis? I don't want to stress her system but should I get her on antibiotics just in case?
This little one is my very favorite chicken, she has such personality, is extremely tame and pretty darn smart for a chicken. I am so worried and it would break my heart to lose her!
Any advice is so welcome! Thank you!
