Need assistance with a lethargic ill chicken. Possibly respiratory problems, Wry Neck or something else?

[Persony Person]

Hello

My favourite chicken and the most adorable chicken that we have raised, developed some form of problem within the last couple of days. She is roughly 2-3 years old and is a hybrid bantam, with genes from various different breeds. Going to the vet is unfortunately not an option for us (Even though I would personally do this straight away if I could). We had another hen that died of a respiratory or heart problem roughly a month ago, but her's could be explained as she was always a slow chicken and had symptoms of cyanosis (purple comb).

But this is different, usually she is one of, if not the most lively and alert chickens that we have and has had no problems before this. Starting yesterday, she started showing signs of lethargy, closing her eyes, not reacting normally, her head often drooping into her crop area. Now starting today she has been experiencing this frightening head shaking, barely keeping her balance on the rare occasion that she does move as shown in the poor resolution video I have linked (Apologies for that), which made me think that this could be something like Wry Neck? None of the other chickens appear to be suffering any problems. She does have runny poo, which might indicate a bacterial infection? Also she is a puffed up chicken anyway, so it is hard to tell if there is an issue with her crop. Her comb is red meaning she is not affected by cyanosis, at least not yet.

If it was something like Mites or Worms, then we should have seen similar symptoms on our other chickens (and our 1 chick), as snails and slugs always manage to swarm into their living space and devour them like crazy, so this is not the case. One of the roosters was sneezing the other day, but again, should have seen more problems in the other chickens if it was something serious.

Food and drink wise, she was ok yesterday, but I have not seen her eat or drink today and I am pretty sure her condition is going to deteriorate.

Because I don't know the precise problem, and the vet is not an option, I have come here to seek advice. I am unsure of what path I should take to. She will resist any attempt to take her, so I don't want to put her under any significant stress before isolating her.

Any advice would be appreicated.

Front View:

Side View, Eyes closing:

Side View, showing the drooping:

 

[Persony Person]

She is currently sitting in the corner of the yard.

Any attempt at herself trying to move causes the intense head shaking that takes her a while to control. What ever this is, it is getting worse. Could it be signs of a sudden neurological condition?

A fly landed on her, it woke her up, but instead of taking a second to get it off like she normally does, it took her almost 20. Clearly struggling and in pain of some form. I don't think she will survive the night.

I don't want to try and pick her up and get a closer in-depth look at her because she will try to run away, and that could intensify, if not make the problem she has even worse.

This is really heartbreaking for me. My parents who refused to let her see a vet, who have significantly more experience than I do and are responsible for the care of our chickens, don't seem to care, which only adds to the aggravation.

Is it already too late to do something?

 

[Persony Person]

I guided her back to their coop. She could barely walk, constantly losing balance and falling over on her side and faceplanting while doing so, but she did manage to get back on her own with a little bit of guidance. She seems to have enough strength to survive the night, but she seems to be incapable of eating and drinking. She can't seem to move in a straight line anymore like she did earlier in the day as shown in the video.

I don't know how I am going to help her tomorrow. Her head is never still enough for me to attempt to assist in feeding her. She won't let me go near her without trying to flee in panic, possibly hurting herself in the process, especially if what is happening to her takes a turn for the worst in the night.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Well, if it's still able to flee away from your attempts at capturing it..... that could possible be a good sign that it's not a more serious debilitating disease such as mareks or coccidiosis? I'm no expert on this though, maybe someone else can chime in. I would try to syringe feed it though to keep it's strength up. Best scenario is a crop issue, though I doubt that is what it is with the neck drooping and all?

 

[JDChickChat]

I guided her back to their coop. She could barely walk, constantly losing balance and falling over on her side and faceplanting while doing so, but she did manage to get back on her own with a little bit of guidance. She seems to have enough strength to survive the night, but she seems to be incapable of eating and drinking. She can't seem to move in a straight line anymore like she did earlier in the day as shown in the video.

I don't know how I am going to help her tomorrow. Her head is never still enough for me to attempt to assist in feeding her. She won't let me go near her without trying to flee in panic, possibly hurting herself in the process, especially if what is happening to her takes a turn for the worst in the night.

If shes not eating or drinking I dont really see another choice but to pick her up and give her water with nutridrench, pedialyte or Gatorade and wet mash. Otherwise she will perish. I'm so sorry, sending love and prayers.

 

[Persony Person]

She did survive the night thankfully, but is still struggling.

We have ruled out the following:
A respiratory condition because she is breathing ok and there are no signs of cyanosis.
Wry neck because her chaotic head shaking seems to be semi-regular in it's pattern and she does not twist her's that extremely.
Crop issues because it feels normal.

What we haven't ruled out:
Sudden neurological condition to explain the chaotic head shaking and total loss of balance when she moves or is forced to move.
Bacterial or digestive problem to explain the diarrhoea.


She is now in a corner with her head constantly drooping down, shaking, possibly as a result of the pain she is experiencing. We picked her up once to give her some water upon where we succeeded.

As we keep our chickens as pets rather than for farming, our resources are limited somewhat. We plan to give her some liquidated/mashed up chicken pellets with a solution of Dioralyte (The UK equivalent to pedialyte), which should aid in combating the diarrhoea/digestive problem.

We have other things such as Garlic, lemon balm, ginger to use if the above method proves to be ineffective.

 

[Persony Person]

She is hanging in there, surviving another night and we think she is improving. Perhaps the Dioralyte solution had some effect.

She is still usually stationary, with her head drooping down with her eyes closed, but she seems to be a bit more mobile, with more cohesion in her movements, much better with her balancing issues. She managed to drink on her own (although with difficulty) which was a happy sight to see. But will still need help with food.

Her body is shaking a lot, though the chaotic head shaking that we observed in the past 2 days has toned down significantly, but it is still there. It looks like she is sweating from her comb, possibly hot, but thankfully we have a rare July cold spell here in my part of the UK, which can help in this regard.

Also the colour of her diarrhoea was a pale yellow/milky white. Not sure what this means exactly. From looking it up briefly, the only info I got was that it was Fowl Cholera/Typhoid, but it does not seem like that to me. We are pretty sure it is some form of bacterial infection of some kind, but not a respiratory issue.

Here is a video of her progress, again sorry for the poor quality in the first half, since outlook seems to reduce that for long clips in email from phone to PC. 0:00 to 2:44 shows her movement and 2:44 onwards shows her in her droopy state.

 

[Persony Person]

This is what her poo currently looks like. Have not observed this foamyness before now. Her diarrhoea does not seem to be stopping.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Hoping your hen gets better!
Tagging some of the experts, hopefully they can help you.

@casportpony
@Eggcessive

 

[Persony Person]

Her condition remains unchanged today. Not getting any better and hopefully not worse.
Her poo is still foamy, but is sometimes green instead of pale yellow.

She is drinking lots of the electrolyte water, much more than the other chickens are, but food is still a no go. I tried to isolate her and give her some of her favourite food (which happens to be cat food), but she seemed to be terrified of me, her head movements did not make any sense, sometimes looking at the ceiling of her coop upside down. She wouldn't eat anything. Feeding her is getting increasingly difficult, she keeps her beak closed so tightly that we would have to hurt her to force feed. At times she looks like she wants to eat, for example, trying to eat some corn, but she does not seem able to reach her head down far enough, which is confusing since she can do that for water.

She is still always shaking and still spending a lot of her time stationary, with her head constantly drooping, eyes closing.