TinaRew
Songster
My olive egger, Gertie, is about 18mos the old. About a month ago we started having issues with her - lethargic, losing weight, not eating much if at all and excessive thirst when she would drink. She started molting but seemed a bit extreme compared to the others. She was also having diarrhea only pooping urates it seemed. Her comb even started to shrivel up some, I believe from dehydration.
Per recommendation, we started her on Corid around that time thinking maybe coccidiosis. I was also syringing her electrolyte water and egg yolk since she wasn’t interested in anything except black soldier fly larva. She started to improve and we put her back with the other 2 girls we have (she’s not being bullied).
She started acting more like herself, eating and drinking, though still not eating a ton… she’s still very skinny. And not interested in her previous favorites. When she’d get her supervised free ranging time, she’s scratch and peck and eat then. Now though she was seemingly a bit improved, we noticed her comb started to start turning purple but would go back to normal when she was in warmth for any period of time. But even the other day around 65 degrees outside, she was still purple a bit being outside. So, thinking maybe this is a mite or work issue (though I don’t see them and have checked, but have suspected depluming mites in another hen), we gave her the first dose of ivermectin 5 days ago.
Fast forward to yesterday, she’s seeming very weak and lethargic. We removed her from the others and I checked her crop this morning, that while small because she’s not eating very much, felt hard and was still there. I syringe a little olive oil and massaged. Put her back in the cage with only grit and electrolyte water. She ate some grit and I checked on her an hour later and her crop now feels more squishy.
No respiratory issues, her eyes, nose and ears are clear. Poop is still loose but looks better than it did a few weeks ago when it was all urates. She only pooped once last night. She did poop a very black tar type poop about a half hour ago - not sure if that’s from the oil, or cecal or what. Everything else looks fine other than just being very skinny.
I’m not sure if we are dealing with impacted crop, or sour crop or something else! I have ACS - does that work for both issues? Would it hurt to give it? What would you do? We love and adore this girl, she is more pet to us than anything else and has always been my top hen. Now she just seems very sick. Any advice of what you would do?
Per recommendation, we started her on Corid around that time thinking maybe coccidiosis. I was also syringing her electrolyte water and egg yolk since she wasn’t interested in anything except black soldier fly larva. She started to improve and we put her back with the other 2 girls we have (she’s not being bullied).
She started acting more like herself, eating and drinking, though still not eating a ton… she’s still very skinny. And not interested in her previous favorites. When she’d get her supervised free ranging time, she’s scratch and peck and eat then. Now though she was seemingly a bit improved, we noticed her comb started to start turning purple but would go back to normal when she was in warmth for any period of time. But even the other day around 65 degrees outside, she was still purple a bit being outside. So, thinking maybe this is a mite or work issue (though I don’t see them and have checked, but have suspected depluming mites in another hen), we gave her the first dose of ivermectin 5 days ago.
Fast forward to yesterday, she’s seeming very weak and lethargic. We removed her from the others and I checked her crop this morning, that while small because she’s not eating very much, felt hard and was still there. I syringe a little olive oil and massaged. Put her back in the cage with only grit and electrolyte water. She ate some grit and I checked on her an hour later and her crop now feels more squishy.
No respiratory issues, her eyes, nose and ears are clear. Poop is still loose but looks better than it did a few weeks ago when it was all urates. She only pooped once last night. She did poop a very black tar type poop about a half hour ago - not sure if that’s from the oil, or cecal or what. Everything else looks fine other than just being very skinny.
I’m not sure if we are dealing with impacted crop, or sour crop or something else! I have ACS - does that work for both issues? Would it hurt to give it? What would you do? We love and adore this girl, she is more pet to us than anything else and has always been my top hen. Now she just seems very sick. Any advice of what you would do?
