Please help with hen.

[ChickenChaser9]

Thanks very much. Crossing my fingers she's better tomorrow.

I hope so too. Do let me know things go. Best Wishes.

 

[Plinky]

News on Plinky. She seemed to be doing quite well. Staying with the others, eating a lot. I've been giving cider vinegar in their water plus separate sav a chick electrolytes and probiotics. Plain organic live yogurt. But when they go in to roost, the others have nice full crops and Plinky's is almost empty. One night it felt squishy. Tonight there was just a hard ball about the size of a walnut. I had tried separating her in view of the others so that she could eat her fill of yogurt in the evening, but she kept trying to get back to the others instead of eating. She felt very light when I picked her up and kind of cold. I have been looking at their poop and have seen no worms though I know that's possible. Plinky's poop seemed kind of dry. All ideas appreciated.

 

[ChickenChaser9]

I Don't have any great ideas. Quarantining her might be best even if she doesn't like it until you know she is eating right and getting healthy.

 

[Plinky]

Update on Plinky-
As the other hens (3) are all fine, and a trail separation seemed to make everyone agitated, I had just been pulling Plinky out of the run and giving her yogurt/chick crumble/mashed egg and trying t observe more what happened with her poop and crop.
I noticed that at the end of the day her crop is not full. At most it has a little walnut sized mass in it or a slightly larger softer feel if I have given her some yogurt mix. In the morning where she has "roosted" (she stays on the floor of the coop) there is usually a lot of poop.
Obviously something is not quite right with her crop/digestion.
Friday I took her to a vet that sees chickens. along with a stool sample. He checked her over, said indeed she was too thin but admitted he didnt have a clue as to what was wrong. Stool results today- no worms. Poop very dry though.
Researching further, I am convinced that she has a partially blocked gizzard. I also found another vet who is a "bird" vet. Before going and paying for another visit, I decided to try this: this morning I pulled her out and put her in her own cage. I gave her a mix of natural whole yogurt, a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of molasses and a couple of tablespoons of chick crumble all mixed together. And water/water with save a chick probiotics and electrolytes. When she finished that I gave her plain crumble. After about four hours she had not pooped in the cage. I then put her out in the run with the other chickens. While I was carrying her to the run, I felt her crop and some liquid flew out of her mouth! After about a miinute in the run she pooped brown semi-liquid stuff with some harder lumps. Is this the effect of the molasses?
As I was looking closely at this poop. I noticed that where they have scratched particularly deeply in the ground, there are some bits of green plastic an inch or so long! like disintegrated netting from when the lawn was installed! I am sure they are scratching these up and eating them. Since the coop is moveable, I am going to move it and the surrounding run later today.
Would a molasses flush using the molasses in the water be a good idea for all (even though they seem fine for now)?
Is it ok to mix molasses in with food? How much?
What else can I do for Plinky?
Comments welcome. Thank you.

 

[Plinky]

forgot to mention! This is somewhat tangential, but has to do with her health: even though she is thin and something's not right. I believe Plinky laid her first egg yesterday and I missed it when I closed them in for the night. This morning I found a brown egg about the diameter of a quarter and almost perfectly round! Yesterday only one of the brown egg layers laid, but by noon today both did, so I don't think it was one of them, besides they have laid perfectly formed and sized eggs with yolks from the start a little over a month ago! Last week someone laid a yolk with no shell and I though perhaps it was Plinky.

 

[ChickenChaser9]

I wish I had some good ideas for you here but I am not sure what is the cause of her issues. It COULD be a lack of calcium that lead to the shelless egg but if she is getting Yogurt that seems unlikely. That being said the best way to get her more calcium is to crush up the eggshells with the mashed egg and let her eat that too. If you already are doing that I would pretty much rule out a calcium deficiency. Eating plastic is obviously not good for chickens. If that is the problem though then her symptoms should subside in the next couple of days if you moved their coop to an area where they cant eat plastic. Her vomiting water is NOT related to molasses. The only times I have personally seen that was when my chicks were suffering from a Vit E deficiency but other illnesses related to the crop/digestive tract could cause that and I would assume that eating plastic could induce such a symptom but again I am just guessing here. I cant see how anything you have done so far would have adversely affected or made worse, Plinky so I am at a bit of a loss here.

 

[Plinky]

Well if anyone is following the Plinky saga, here is an update. I took her to another vet today. He really spent some time examining her and talking to me and trying to figure out the problem without me spending hundreds of dollars (blood work would be $300!). She weighed just over 3 pounds! She's a 6 months old Brahma so from what I read she should be at least 6 pounds. The poop I brought in was so dry he decided to give her fluids. Decided to do a comprehensive fecal check as a first possibility then consider x-ray.

I kept her in a cage for the rest of the day and fed yogurt/chick feed/olive oil/ molasses.

in the afternoon she finally pooped and I scooped it up and took it in to the vet.

Now Plinky is in the basement in a large box. Hopefully I will hear from the vet in the morning and know how to proceed.
In the meantime I'm going to keep trying to keep her hydrated and getting some nutrition so she doesn't go downhill any further and trying to keep things fluid and oiled so perhaps things will move out.

He listed the possibilities as:
worms
coccidiosis
blockage/impaction of gizzard or elsewhere from ingestion or congenital
some kind of metabolic or other problem

If anyone has any other thoughts (garlic, turmeric, warm epsom salt baths...) I appreciate them.
I am also afraid that she will be missing her coop-mates- I don't want her stressed for this, but I want her to survive!

 

[ChickenChaser9]

Well if anyone is following the Plinky saga, here is an update. I took her to another vet today. He really spent some time examining her and talking to me and trying to figure out the problem without me spending hundreds of dollars (blood work would be $300!). She weighed just over 3 pounds! She's a 6 months old Brahma so from what I read she should be at least 6 pounds. The poop I brought in was so dry he decided to give her fluids. Decided to do a comprehensive fecal check as a first possibility then consider x-ray.

I kept her in a cage for the rest of the day and fed yogurt/chick feed/olive oil/ molasses.

in the afternoon she finally pooped and I scooped it up and took it in to the vet.

Now Plinky is in the basement in a large box. Hopefully I will hear from the vet in the morning and know how to proceed.
In the meantime I'm going to keep trying to keep her hydrated and getting some nutrition so she doesn't go downhill any further and trying to keep things fluid and oiled so perhaps things will move out.

He listed the possibilities as:
worms
coccidiosis
blockage/impaction of gizzard or elsewhere from ingestion or congenital
some kind of metabolic or other problem

If anyone has any other thoughts (garlic, turmeric, warm epsom salt baths...) I appreciate them.
I am also afraid that she will be missing her coop-mates- I don't want her stressed for this, but I want her to survive!

Apple Cider Vinegar is good for the digestive tract diluted into the water. Vitamin supplements can also be purchased but the important part is keeping her hydrated. As long as she is eating and drinking you are not likely to lose her in the immediate future. Coccidiosis is common but also easy to treat as are worms. The other issues are rather more tricky. Best wishes for Plinky's speedy recovery.