One hen dead and another has strange breathing??

[apetelo]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Partridge rock, unsure of age or wt, and a Buff Orpington mix, also unsure of age or wt. (both were given to us as adult hens and owner was unsure of age)

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Partridge rock was found dead in coop this am, no signs of sickness noticed. Orpington hen is molting, looks a mess. Noticed labored breathing tonight and an impacted? crop.

3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.

4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Mother gave them bread as a snack? could this have caused impacted crops?

5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.\\
Pellets, scratch, oyster shell and water are offered. Not exactly sure if the Orpington has been eating or drinking.

6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Will be watching this closely, but seems to be normal.

7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I have seperated her. She is in a small kennel in the house for the night, with no food and water. She was roosting when I noticed the labored/raspy breathing.

8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Would like to treat at home, but will seek a vet's help if necessary.

9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Sorry

10) Describe the housing/bedding in use
8x4 coop with pine shavings on dirt floor. Roosting ladder, but a couple of the naughty birds sleep in nesting boxes/on top of nesting boxes.

Last night when I went out to check on them, the Partridge Rock was in a nesting box during roosting time (very unlike her) I picked her up and put her on the roosting ladder. Normally she would kick and scream when I touched her, but last night didn't fuss at all. Didnt' think too much about it. I also noticed that she had pee'd and pooped in the nesting box. This morning she was found dead on the floor in the coop. I checked on everybody else (6 other hens), they all seem good, other than 2 NH reds that seem to be molting (one of them has possible wt. loss). Nothing abnormal noticed until this evening when found the Buff Orpington with labored breathing. Another thing that might be of significance. We are down to maybe 1 egg a day. During the good laying days of spring/summer we'd get 4-5 day from 7hens. Now, some days there are no eggs, other days 1 egg. Could this be related or the time of year???

Thank you so much for your help in advance.

 

[apetelo]

bumping, anybody please??

Also, wanted to update and add pictures. The Buff Orpington does NOT have an impacted crop, it was empty this am. Her breathing is still a little weird. In my opinion she is definitely in the midst of a complete molt. I have two NH Reds (both about 18mos. old) that may be in the beginning of their first molt. I am attaching pictures of both of them. The one that looks worse off definitely has a dulled comb color, I included a pic of that. Also their vent's do seem red/irritated. And, maybe of note. The Buff Orpington had lifted scales on her feet when we got her (didn't think too much of it, was a new chicken mommy), well it got worse, started bleeding, swollen, scales started peeling off. Thought she might have scaly leg mites so we tried the vaseline treatment for a while (this was all summer of 08), seemed better, but scales never went back to "normal" looking. Now, the 2 NH reds that seem to be "molting?" have these ugly scaly legs. Neither of them are bleeding, but not the soft legs of their mates. Could we have mites?? I am so confused. I feel like there are so many things that it could be. I spoke with a local vet this am, who doesn't see poultry but does have a lot of avian experience. He said it wouldn't hurt to start them on a course of terramycin. I am going to try and get a stool sample over to them to test for coccidia today. Do you think that they Partridge rock could have just been an old bird and that the others are just molting and I am overreacting? I fed them oatmeal this am. I put an opened pumpkin out for them (natural worming?), but they don't seem interested, do I need to process it somehow? I am planning to scramble up some eggs for them this afternoon.

 

[Cetawin]

Molting is very tough on them and I am sorry for the loss of your PR. The labored breathing would concern me for sure. I would take the stool sample over to the vet and have a full float test done on it to check for any parasites as well. Keep the girls fed on high protein stuff while they are molting and add protein such as the scrambled eggs and so forth. I cannot tell by the pictures about the legs. Check them for mites and such too. Pull the feathers apart and look on the skin, especially around the vent area.

Good luck with them.