Panting and not eating much...

[Sunshine Chick]

This is my speckled Sussex hen. She’s around a year old. She’s been panting for the past 3 or so days, and it’s gotten more noticeable since yesterday. It may have been going on longer, as at first I thought she was just struggling with the heat... but since yesterday it’s been unseasonably cold, so that can’t be it. I felt the other hens’ crops, and they were all full to bulging, while hers barely felt as though it had anything in it. She seems active enough, compared to the others. I didn’t notice her sitting down to rest more than the other hens, or anything like that. I pushed on her underside and rear around her vent, and it seems to feel the same as the other hens’.

UPDATE: early the following morning, her breathing is faster. Still panting. She definitely seems lethargic... I must not have been paying close enough attention when she was outside. Last night I brought her in since it’s been in the upper 40’s at night.

My hens have been on pasture, and have been for the past 3 days. Before that, they were allowed to free-range from late afternoon until dark. The rest of the time they were in an fenced-in mulched area. I feed layer crumbles, garden weeds, and table scraps. I supplement with eggshell and oyster shell, though for the past 3 days they haven’t had access to that. I need to get a feeder of that stuff out there, I just keep forgetting to.

What do you all think is going on? This is the first time any of them has had this problem.

 

[casportpony]

How's your hen doing?

 

[Sunshine Chick]

How's your hen doing?

She’s kind of worse... I saw that she had pooped worms... a TON of these little ones that were probably only millimeters long. They died almost right after she pooped them. So, I gave her safeguard. I used a friend’s reference for dosage... .23ml per lb, so I gave her 1 and 1/5 of a milliliter. I don’t have a scale, so I googled average weight of a speckled Sussex hen. I gave her one dose of that on day 31 (last Monday), and one more dose on June 3rd. A day or two after the first dose she seemed to be getting better energy-wise... she wanted to go outside and eat earthworms and bugs, and eggshells. She’d pace by the door until I let her outside. She showed no interest in chicken feed at all. I had been giving her her heavily diluted oregano and frankincense, but I switched to oregano mixed with frankinsence, thyme, and clove, after I found out she has worms. The entire time I was giving her raw milk by dropper every 3-4 hours.

So I gave her the second dose. She was already gaping when she breathed, if she was walking around a lot... or she was a bit stressed after I fed her by dropper... but now she’s doing it all the time. It’s not bad when she’s sitting still, but when she gets worked up I really worry for her... it’s like her comb and wattles start to turn grey/bluish... but then after she sits for a minute or two it goes back to normal.

I think she’s developed sour crop now. Which, worms can slow the digestive tract and cause that, right? Her crop feels full and squishy even first thing in the morning before she’s ate or drank anything. It’s been that way since Thursday night. Her breath had been foul since then, too. I believe it was Thursday when she stopped wanting to eat worms... I picked her up on Friday night and she was gasping so much... then liquid drooled out of her mouth. I tipped her forward and she puked a bunch of mucous-y water-y stuff that stank like her breath did. It wasn’t dark green. It was mostly yellowish, maybe yellow/green, and clear, I think. I massaged her crop and over the next half hour or so she puked up more of it, albeit a lot less at a time. There was a small, indigested beetle inside. Up to that point her poop had been green with white caps. Some solidness in there, some watery. No diarrhea.

So I started treating for sour crop. I haven’t fed her any milk or any other food at all, since Friday night... and I’ve kept her inside so she couldn’t eat worms or bugs, either. Though she doesn’t seem to have much interest in going outside now. I’ve continued giving her the oils. She’s been sleeping a lot more. Her crop still isn’t empty. I’m not sure what else to do... or what her problem truly is. I hope after her body cleanses the parasites she’ll feel better? I’m going to give her milk today even though her crop isn’t empty. Just a little, to help keep her strength up.

 

[casportpony]

Can you get a food scale and start weighing her daily?

 

[Sunshine Chick]

I can. What else can I do for her in the meantime?

 

[Sunshine Chick]

Her poop now is watery, and solid yellow-tan. I forgot to mention she makes a slight crackl-y sound when she breathes sometimes, too.

 

[Sunshine Chick]

She just died... she choked as she was puking up brown liquid...

 

[Karm]

I'm so sorry for your loss. This happened to us recently too. We sent our poor lady to UC Davis to get a necropsy and discovered it was "likely Marek's disease"

 

[Sally PB]

I'm sorry about your girl.