Orpie is sick!

[The Lazy Farm Girl]

My 3 y/o Orpington wouldn't leave the coop this morning. Unusual for her - she's usually chattering and tugging on my jeans begging for food. We brought her indoors and put her in the sick room.

Symptoms: Mouth breathing, hard crop, no appetite, droopy wings, didn't want to stand, poop has undigested greens, scratch (predominately wheat berries) and yellow urites (some of the yellow is semisolid), puffed feathers, no chatter. Her comb is bright red, though, and she's alert and looking around.

We did two coconut oil and massage treatments. Her crop softened it may have emptied; can't feel any food now, but it's squishy and still large. It doesn't smell sour. She expelled a lot of liquid and yellow poop. The poop has an odor that isn't really a sick odor, but it isn't a normal poop odor. Sorry I can't describe it any better than that.

We have some chlortetracycline powder from another chicken illness. Mixed that with a little Rooster Booster in water and syringe fed several droppers. Her water bowl has more medicated water in it. She isn't drinking much, so that's the reasoning for syringing her.

Her vent looks fine; no evidence of parasites.

Any advice on what else I can do for her would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

When was her last egg?

If she's not laid and should have, then I'd get 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 into her now, then once daily for a week.

Work on hydration, then see if she will eat some mushy feed.

A crop issue can be a symptom of something else going on, with all the mucous, yellow bits, urates, etc. in the poop, I'd be inclined to think she may have a reproductive issue. Whether it's Salpingitis, EYP, Cancer, etc., it would be hard to know unless you lose her and there's further investigation.

Giving the antibiotic is probably a good idea in case she does have some type of bacterial infection as well.

When was the last deworming?

 

[The Lazy Farm Girl]

When was her last egg?

If she's not laid and should have, then I'd get 300mg Calcium Citrate+D3 into her now, then once daily for a week.

Work on hydration, then see if she will eat some mushy feed.

A crop issue can be a symptom of something else going on, with all the mucous, yellow bits, urates, etc. in the poop, I'd be inclined to think she may have a reproductive issue. Whether it's Salpingitis, EYP, Cancer, etc., it would be hard to know unless you lose her and there's further investigation.

Giving the antibiotic is probably a good idea in case she does have some type of bacterial infection as well.

When was the last deworming?

Thank you for replying.

Calcium is on the to-give list. I was unsure about giving it on top of crop issues, but she should be good now since her crop has emptied at least some. I can't palpate anything in her belly.

Last egg is hard to say since we have more than one Orpington, but we did have a full complement of Orpie eggs in the past few days. All I can say for certain is that she didn't lay today.

We lost a hen to EYP last year. This doesn't follow the same pattern, but that's not to say she doesn't have it. I don't deworm without evidence of their presence.

I read that coccidiosis can cause yellow stool. The summer has been wet and warm, which apparentlyamakes for a favorable environment. I have Corid, but I'm unsure about mixing it with tetracycline. A number of digestive disorders were also listed as yellow-poo causes.

Again, thanks for your reply!