Please Help! Suspected Zinc poisoning

[sunshineyarns]

So, I have 8 girls that are about a year and a half old. They have all been happy and heathly and wonderful until our Maran starting acting off the past few days. She stopped laying and wasn't leaving the nesting box.

I suspected that she was egg-bound, so we took a trip to the vet today, since her condition hasn't improved in the past 3 days. The vet discovered that she had a small screw in her crop, that she probably dug up from the depths of the Earth. So, the vet told us it could be zinc poisoning. We have done our reading since we have gotten home and I'm just wondering if anyone out there has had experience with this??

Her symptoms -- she is still eating and drinking some, when I pick her up and bring her outside. She will peck around a bit and drink some water, but then go back in the nesting box. She is fluffing up her feathers alot, preening alot and just seems like she is feeling down in the dumps. No eggs, no excited chicken... She is one of my absolute favorite hens ever and I would just be devastated to loose her. Especially since I just had my second miscarriage last week and just can't handle this right now.

What to do -- anyone has any success stories?? I did a bunch of reading and basically discovered some type of injection therapy to help remove toxins.. though I did discover a natural therapy involving lots of cilantro and pesto. I'm going to try to feed her some of this in the a.m. But, it seems like we could only make it better by having the screw removed (depending on how far along the toxicity is, and if that is even the case for sure). I'm just at a loss, as these girls are my pets, and family and I feel really helpless right now.

Help!!

 

[seabright]

I lost 2 hens to screws.

i dont know of any cure...i wont try to get the screws out it may kill her.wait till my mom comes may take 30mins or less .how long has she been this way?not sure on what to give her on the poison part. but there may be a way to keep her a live.

 

[seabright]

sorry aboat seeming hopeless she probly will be ok

.just wait my mom knows more aboat this stuff.

 

[sunshineyarns]

Thank you... so, she has been acting definitely off for 3 days, but now that we know something is wrong, she was spending more time in the nesting box even a few days before that. We just thought she was being broody. So, I would say she has been showing some signs for about 4-5 days, with the last 3 being super noticeable.

 

[seabright]

Hi, I'm the mom. Sorry about your hen and your miscarriage. I'm no vet , this is my disclaimer . But I would recommend that you give your hen some antibiotics in her water immediately. Terramycine that you get at tractor supply might work.Add some powdered cherry jello to the water to diguise the taste. We had a very similar situation with my favorite hen . She had screws in her crop . The vet showed us the xrays . We took her to an animal hospital with a vet that specialised in birds . The surgery was not successful and she died . But the blood tests that they later got the results back showed no signs of elevated zinc .This hen had some egg issues. Then she slowly stopped eating and then drinking . Later we had other hens that also started showing signs of being eggbound. We had a blood test that showed the one hen had an infection ,although without further tests which they unfortunatly did not do (even though I had asked them to)we dont know what kind of infection .Anyway this other hen looked like she might die.As soon as the vet called me back saying it was an infection ,I gave her an anti bacterial and she was better within 8 hours. I dont know if this rambling makes any sense to you . I at least wanted to let you know some of what we went through . Sometimes what you think is obviously the cause of the ailment, isn't what actually is wrong .So far most of our hens are still alive but I have to have them on medication almost continuously. The one that we lost with the screws in her stomach was my absolute favorite. We paid out a fortune to try to keep her alive with surgery.And it's very probable that the screws were not the actual problem with her. So you might at least try antibiotics or an antibacterial (harder to get ) like sulphadimethoxine (not rccommended for layers) .Again I'm no vet you might want to consult with one but this something that it wouldnt hurt to try and it just might save her . God Bless and I hope she will be ok.

 

[seabright]

Hi again , I wanted to add that if you think your hen might be eggbound, your vet could probably give her a shot of calcium.This could possibly help. Also there is a calcionate syrup (sold for human supplementation) that you can give to your hen orally in a very small dose that is based on her weight. I still think you should immediately try terramiacyn(spelling ?) or sulphadimethoxine(not recommended for layers). Both of these are put out by the Durvet company.I think the dosage for the terramycine is one tablespoon per gallon of water.I think the dosage for sulphadimethoxine is a half a teaspoon per gallon of water . Either should be given with some cherry jello in the water to cover the taste of the medicine .The safest bet is to consult with your vet on the correct dosage and duration of treatment or call the Durvet company .I called the Durvet company in the past for the dosage, ect. but I have since lost the paper that I had written it down on .sorry . As far as the chelation therapy for the zinc poisoning goes, the avian veterinarian that we went to didn't even want to try on Gentle Hen (sick hen #2 that we took to the animal hospital with the avian specialist) because they said it would be extremely expensive and they were not sure at that time that she had even eaten any metal. Later on, the test on Blackie ( sick hen #1 - my favorite hen that died from surgery to remove the screws) showed no zinc poisoning . The metal items must have been made of some other type of metal. While Gentle Hen was at the animal hospital , they gave her calcium shots and hi potency parrot food (Harrison's ).She finally laid an oddly shaped egg.Then they sent her home with an oral calcium supplement and the parrot food .She seemed ok for a few days , then started to puff up again,and then not want to eat .Then the vet called and told me that she had some sort of infection.Like I said in my earlier post, within 8 hours of giving her medicine she seemed well again .She still lays an oddly shaped egg once in a while but other than that she seems ok . I hope this helps . God Bless

 

[sunshineyarns]

Thank you so much for all the info! Wow -- that gives me hope that maybe it isn't the screw in her crop. We looked up all about screws and found that they are often just plated with zinc, and the rest is stainless steel. Obviously the zinc would be enough to poison and kill a chicken though, so I'm hoping its not that (since removal doesn't seem like a viable option).

The vet did send us home with an antiobiotic called Baytril-Doxycycline. Its a liquid that I gave to her last night and mixed with some yogurt. She was in the nesting box, and I just closed the whole coop so she could eat in peace. Its just a 1mL dosage that they gave her based on her 5lb weight. Let me know if this sounds okay in terms of a medication. I looked it up on the medical page here and it said to hold her eggs for 7-14 days (the vet told me this too). So, I am aware of that issue...

This morning I haven't been really able to assess how she is doing yet, as one of my other chickens is in the same nesting box with her. I'm going to take her out in a bit, and try to get her to drink/scratch/eat a little bit. But, she definitely doesn't seem any worst. I'll let you know how she is doing in a bit!

Thank you, thank you Seabright.. your posts have given me some hope!!

ETA: I found a natural home remedy solution for chelation therapy (getting metal toxins out of body) on this page here: http://www.greenandhealthy.info/shop/heavymetalscreeningkits.html They mention its use on birds, so I'm going to give it a go. Its basically a fresh pesto you give them each day.. I have tons of cilantro in my garden, so why not! Sounds uber healthy for them anyways... and they would need such a tiny amount.

 

[seabright]

how is she doing?

 

[sunshineyarns]

So, an update on Ruby my Maran.... She is about the same. Still hanging out in the nesting box 24/7 and still eating a little bit/drinking a little bit when I take her out and try to get her involved. Fluffing her feathers alot, and making some different noises. I just came in from giving her her second dose of antibiotics, so I'm fingers crossed I see some improvement soon. I also just picked up the ingredients for the natural Chelation remedy and will see if that does anything. I'm going to give it to all the girls, since it just seems like a super mega dose of goodness.

When I take her out of the nesting box and put her with the others, she just pecks around a bit, fluffs a bit and then wanders back in the nesting box a few minutes later. I'm checking on her pretty much hourly and getting some food/liquids into her, so I guess that is the best I can do for now!!

If anyone has any other thoughts, please let me know...

 

[sunshineyarns]

I wanted to add too, that I sat outside and watched her for about an hour tonight.. I brought her out, and she actually stayed outside of the coop for about 20 minutes. She mainly just stood their preening and fluffing and scratching ALOT. Every so often she would flap her wings and make a screetch. I noticed the extra preening, fluffing of feathers but not sure if that is a clue to anything???