Pale Comb - Lethargy

[Lizzy733]

Hello All,

So, we've had a few warm days lately coming into spring and my Dorking hen (1 yr old), has been showing signs of being ill.

I'm thinking heat exhaustion\anemia at this stage, but it has lasted several days now with slow improvement, so wondering if it might be something else?

Pale Comb, depressed, occasional tail tucking, occasional panting and holding out wings, but getting around and eating fine. Stool is watery, but also has solids and urates - green, but likely due to dark greens being offered recently.

First noticed 4 days ago and have been supplementing with polyaide plus once a day for the last 3 days, which seems to be slowly improving comb color, but still acting lethargic and pale comb, even during cooler mornings.

Visual inspection - not seeing any signs of mites, but she is very densely feathered, so hard to inspect the skin thoroughly. Feather condition is good - not moulting. Appears to be laying still. Crop emptying normally.

Only one affected out of a flock of 6, but she is the lowest in the pecking order as well. Plenty of shady spaces and water available all day long. Have added a trough to one of the shaded areas to allow for wading if needed.

Fyi did find a dead rat in the run which had started to rot, but it was fairly intact, so not suspecting anyone scavenged it before I got it out.

Should it be taking this long to recover? Anything else it might be? I could drench the flock, but have never had issues with internal parasites thus far.

 

[sloanbychoice]

Didn’t you guys have a few pretty hot days recently? Still, I wouldn’t think it should take this long.
I hope someone more knowledgeable has something to offer.
Hope she gets better!!

 

[Lizzy733]

Poor girl is still unwell and has taken a turn for the worst - dropping weight over the last week, which she hid well under all that plumage.

One expensive vet visit and a raft of tests later, we've found she has tapeworms - apparently the drench I gave does not kill tapeworms - and coccidia numbers are spiking. Her anemia and weight loss is being attributed to that for now and hopefully it's nothing worse. Her liver and kidneys are stressed and her blood volume is very low, so she's on a drip and getting iron supplements as well as parasite treatment.

She started having trouble circulating oxygen while we were waiting on the vet, so she's spent a night in poultry ICU on oxygen and we're hoping she'll be on the mend enough to go home today with meds. :/ That is also being attributed to low blood volume.

Not sure what would have kicked all this off... Maybe the hot weekend, but still...
She's not vaccinated(not offered for non commercial and she was home-hatched). I did treat for coccidia as a chick, so assuming some trigger for all this. The vet is assuming blood loss through gi tract, but not apparent in faeces... Would tapeworms be able to drain that much on their own?

Fingers crossed she'll be on the mend after this. Really don't want to lose this girl.

 

[Lizzy733]

Poor baby is back home on meds and seemed okay yesterday, but just spent the first two and a half hours this morning listless with wryneck. Tube fed her gradually all morning then filled her fruit n veg bowl with water and gave her the juice from that for hydration and she's magically snapped out of it. Back to the vet we go in a half hour... Hopefully that's the worst of it.
She definitely has some necrotic enteritis, so we're hoping her guts aren't going to be too scarred from that. Should know in a few days if she'll be able to recover... Here's hoping.