Pasty behind/ lethargic hen ||HELP||

[Aunt Angus]

The hard crop lump is likely related to her not drinking on her own. It's probably causing constipation, as well. All of these are good reasons to try the salts flush. If you can get a tubing kit from a vet, that would be easiest. They can show you how to use it, and if not, I will instruct you. Syringing the fluids into her crop would take much longer and wear her out.

Those chickens that appear not to be drinking should be given fluids any way you can. Dehydration will cause a chicken to be weak. Weakness affects appetite, and that can cause dehydration and starvation. These make the antibiotic impotent to help your sick chickens.

The bad smell can be related to fluids and solid material backing up and remaining in the digestive system too long. Making sure the chickens are all getting enough fluids is the most important issue you face. Everything else follows.

Makes so much sense. It's the same with all animals, people included. Hydration is the key to health.

 

[fatimastic]

You are clearly doing everything you can.

I'm wondering if the respiratory issue opened the door, so to speak, for a reproductive infection (or vice versa). Internal infections can cause crop issues. And bacterial imbalances can invite gleet. It's a vicious cycle.

How long has she been on the antibiotics?

We give her antibiotics here and there due to her already damaged respiratory system.
Her breathing gets better on sunny days and on rainy, she wheezes. But it is not ,per say ,weather related. Her condition, along with one other, fluctuates. And when we feel like they are worsening, we give them antibiotics for a 2 days.

Today her breathing was a tad laboured, but her lethargy was not normal, so we gave her a dose of antibiotic.

When they came to us as chicks, they got infected with CRD. My roo even lost his eye due to Coryza.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I'm not sure that using antibiotics on and off will help. I'm not an expert by any means, but I know my dr and my animals' vets always stress that we need to give antibiotics regularly for a course of several days in order to kill off the bacteria and not give it the opportunity to build up immunity to the antibiotic.

 

[fatimastic]

The hard crop lump is likely related to her not drinking on her own. It's probably causing constipation, as well. All of these are good reasons to try the salts flush. If you can get a tubing kit from a vet, that would be easiest. They can show you how to use it, and if not, I will instruct you. Syringing the fluids into her crop would take much longer and wear her out.

Those chickens that appear not to be drinking should be given fluids any way you can. Dehydration will cause a chicken to be weak. Weakness affects appetite, and that can cause dehydration and starvation. These make the antibiotic impotent to help your sick chickens.

The bad smell can be related to fluids and solid material backing up and remaining in the digestive system too long. Making sure the chickens are all getting enough fluids is the most important issue you face. Everything else follows.

We don't have any poultry vets here. When mh rooster's eye started having pus, we went to a vet claiming to be an expert in poultry. He instructed me to put powdered acid in his eye! Yikes! He even said that the pus would melt but chickens pus is different than ours. He didn't even know that.

I don't want to take my flock into the hands of a layman.

 

[fatimastic]

I'm not sure that using antibiotics on and off will help. I'm not an expert by any means, but I know my dr and my animals' vets always stress that we need to give antibiotics regularly for a course of several days in order to kill off the bacteria and not give it the opportunity to build up immunity to the antibiotic.

Should I treat them once a month?
We have a broad spectrum antibiotic, course of 3-5 days. We start that when they act a bit off.

 

[fatimastic]

The hard crop lump is likely related to her not drinking on her own. It's probably causing constipation, as well. All of these are good reasons to try the salts flush. If you can get a tubing kit from a vet, that would be easiest. They can show you how to use it, and if not, I will instruct you. Syringing the fluids into her crop would take much longer and wear her out.

Those chickens that appear not to be drinking should be given fluids any way you can. Dehydration will cause a chicken to be weak. Weakness affects appetite, and that can cause dehydration and starvation. These make the antibiotic impotent to help your sick chickens.

The bad smell can be related to fluids and solid material backing up and remaining in the digestive system too long. Making sure the chickens are all getting enough fluids is the most important issue you face. Everything else follows.

After giving her 9ml of water, her crop feels squishy and not rock hard.
How much water should I give her for flushing?

 

[Aunt Angus]

Should I treat them once a month?
We have a broad spectrum antibiotic, course of 3-5 days. We start that when they act a bit off.

That's a nice, short course! That's great! What antibiotic is it? I might ask my vet for it for my ducks!

I'd think the antibiotics would end the infection if you use it for the full course. I'm wondering now if it's not effective against what your flock has. But - again - I'm not that knowledgeable.

 

[fatimastic]

That's a nice, short course! That's great! What antibiotic is it? I might ask my vet for it for my ducks!

I'd think the antibiotics would end the infection if you use it for the full course. I'm wondering now if it's not effective against what your flock has. But - again - I'm not that knowledgeable.

Not sure if it is available where you live, but here you go. I don't know how antibiotics work...maybe their body has created more resistance towards them?
We might have to start new antibiotics, I suppose.

 

[azygous]

That's good that the water softened the mass. Keep that up. As long as you don't give more than around 100ml of water at a time, you won't overfill the crop. For flushing, stir one-teaspoon of magnesium sulfate into 100ml of warm water. Repeat again in around four hours.


If you decide to try another antibiotic, these are good for respiratory illness: erythromycin, tetracycline, or tylosin.

 

[fatimastic]

That's good that the water softened the mass. Keep that up. As long as you don't give more than around 100ml of water at a time, you won't overfill the crop. For flushing, stir one-teaspoon of magnesium sulfate into 100ml of warm water. Repeat again in around four hours.


If you decide to try another antibiotic, these are good for respiratory illness: erythromycin, tetracycline, or tylosin.

Should I add 1 teaspoon in 100ml or in one ounce?
I just gave her the salt solution, 30ml:1 teaspoon, in a go.
Her crop did not empty over night. But it was less hard this morning.
She is also more energetic. Enough to preen herself lightly.