Prolonged Sickness

[BraveLilChicken]

Hello,

I have 5 Colombian Wyandottes that are approximately 10 months old. 4 of them are beautiful, hardy birds that are currently laying. The 5th one, Fiona, used to be one of the most active birds of the flock, but many months ago, in about mid-October to early November, she was struck with some strange illness that still persists to this day.

While all of the other chickens are laying eggs and have bright red combs and wattles, Fiona's comb and wattles are pale and small. She is painfully thin, and when I pick her up, she is nothing more than a bag of skin, feathers, and bones. She spends her days lying down and resting and refuses to go outside the coop.
She walks with a strange waddle, as if her legs hurt to bend or move. We have wormed her many times with Wazine and Valbazen, and given her another medication meant to treat coccidiosis. Despite all this, she has not improved. She eats and drinks often, and her feces are not watery, bloody, or full of worms. I cannot let her go on sick like this, and I am in need of help to identify what is afflicting her... please help!

 

[Suzie]

I hope somebody with more experience can chime in - I sincerely hope it isn't Mareks...maybe look up symptoms to see if you can identify if her behaviour is typical of the disease.

Suzie

 

[BraveLilChicken]

I went and checked on Fiona, and she doesn't seem to be exhibiting the symptoms of Marek's disease... her eyes aren't blue/grey in color, she can stand, but the majority of the day is spent lying down and resting. If she has to walk in order to reach food or water, she takes short, shuffling steps. I also noticed that her bottom is covered in feces; not necessarily diarrhea, just a lot of poop, probably because she's unable to stand and move away once she's pooped.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Has she been checked for internal laying? A strange gait can be a clue to that.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Maybe lymphoid leukosis?

Or an internal fungus? There's info on fungal conditions on my site linked in my sig if that would be helpful.

I'm sorry she's been struggling. It's hard to watch & not know the cause or how to cure it.

 

[chkn]

My guess is that she's an internal layer but check her abdomen. Is it bigger than the other girls? You could start her on an antibiotic right away and decide what to do from there.

 

[chkn]

Actually, I was also going to say that the internal layer usually has a messy bottom. Part of it is because they don't eat enough and part of it is because there is so much swelling. If she's got a big, watery abdomen (that is right beneath the vent to between the legs) then that's a giveaway. You can do the antibiotics and then think about draining her if necessary. In the meantime, you should be pulling her aside each day and try to fatten her up with some goodies.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

But also, absence of a messy bottom doesn't rule out internal laying. My EE was always clean, but ended up with peritonitis due to internal laying.

 

[dawg53]

Try giving her Vitamin B complex. Crush a half tablet into powder and add it to 1cc/ml water and give to her orally twice daily for 5 days and hopefully it will help her.
Additionally, give her chopped boiled egg or scrambled egg mixed with buttermilk to eat for 5 days, not yogurt.

 

[BraveLilChicken]

I gave her a warm bath today and clipped away the feathers around her bottom that were too crusted with poop to clean. I then dried her with a blow dryer on low. She's now isolated from the others. She eats almost constantly and just sits near her food bowl. I highly doubt it's internal laying; when she was wet and her feathers parted, I could see her bones jutting through her skin... her abdomen is not swollen or bloated in any way.

How could a chicken that eats so much be on the verge of death from starvation? Do you think it's a worm or worms? Her poop is watery... I'm going to try worming her tomorrow... I also noticed that when she stands, her knees point towards each other, like they're bowed inward. I feel so helpless!