Prolonged Sickness

[PoultryPedia]

With an internal fungal infection, chickens can slowly starve to death, even when they're eating alright, because the fungi eat up some of the food and then the chicken's system doesn't get the food. Also, the fungus can cause holes in the walls of the guts which I believe makes digestion not work so well, plus some of the feed seeps out into other parts of the body.

I had three hens starve to death of this (One was the one in my avatar. I miss her.). Two of them I nursed carefully for months. Toward the end it was frequently hard to get them to eat, but a lot of the time they ate alright.

It was so baffling, but I'm glad now I know about Oxine if I ever again encounter that problem in my chickens.

 

[BraveLilChicken]

Thank you for your advice! It sounds like perhaps there is still hope for her... if the illness hasn't progressed too far... What is Oxine? I will do research and hopefully something will help her... An update: she is still eating and resting.

 

[PoultryPedia]

There's some info about Oxine on the "Fungal Infections" page on the site linked in my sig below.

 

[BraveLilChicken]

Quote:

There's some info about Oxine on the "Fungal Infections" page on the site linked in my sig below.

Thank you so much! I went to the website, and the symptoms almost directly match what is happening to her... I will look into purchasing Oxine... how long should the Oxine treatment go on?

 

[PoultryPedia]

I don't know for sure myself.

I'm guessing a week or so. You might ease her into it a little (give slightly lower dose at first) to try to prevent too massive a fungus die-off right at first--That might be a little hard on her system.
Please let us know how it goes!
There are a few other places you can get Oxine, too, if you surf the web a little, if you want to see if there's anyplace closer to you for quicker shipping.
Best wishes

 

[PoultryPedia]

I hope your hen has been doing alright?

I thought I'd pass on another possibility I just learned about--Avian Tuberculosis.

Birds eat well, but progressively lose weight & get weak. One common sign of that is clumps of white urates / poops / diarrhea on the feathers on their behind. Has she shown that symptom?

 

[BraveLilChicken]

There is poop around her vent, but not any white urates to my knowledge... I have been giving her Oxine for almost a week now, and she has not improved. I am wondering how long I am going to let her suffer with this illness before I have to put her to sleep... I don't know what else to do.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Have you had a fecal done on her for worms??

 

[PoultryPedia]

I am sorry to hear the Oxine hasn't helped. That's very disappointing. Maybe she has a condition that isn't a fungal digestive problem.

What color are her poops? If she has Lymphoid Leukosis, they are often bright green & (if I remember right from a rooster I had) even the watery stuff around the poop was quite bright green. If a bird isn't getting enough food through their system, they can have green poops even if otherwise healthy, though, because the bile gets concentrated.

I am sorry she is so ill, and I know it is hard trying to figure problems like this out. And painful deciding if or when to put a bird down if it's suffering too much. I feel sympathy for your hard struggle.