pullet - Betty - in need of your emergency help

[3barredrocks]

Hi

i'm new to having chickens and i have three barred rock pullets.. about 4 - 5 months old. they are free rangers and also have a lovely roomy, dry and clean coop. they have lots of fresh water and ,are fed high grade pullet pellets as well as some occassional spinach leaves from our organic garden.. they were doing really well until two days ago one of them started to look ill... i believe they are all from different broods and she is a couple of weeks older than the other two...

she was hunched up and fluffed out like she was cold, she was lethargic, not eating, drinking a lot of water, and opening her mouth a bit weird after drinking, and had greeny/white runnyish poop.

yesterday i tempted her with some organic yoghurt and gave her an epsom salt bath and dosed her with olive oil as in this website: http://hencam.com/henblog/2011/02/the-epsom-salt-cure/

i checked for lice and mites around her vent and under her wings but none found

i don't know if they've been wormed so i wormed them today with aviverm in their water. they definitely had roundworms as i can see them in the poop they passed today. i feel she's gone downhill a bit more.. closing her eyes, not eating and not drinking much now. her poop is still greeny/white and runnyish. she is still walking and roosting on the perch tonight with the others. i looked inside her mouth for lessions, cankers or any sign of gapeworm but found none.

today i read about checking her crop. it felt squishy so i gently massaged it and it kinda went away. while i was doing this she was opening her beak a lot and closing her eyes.

there's no discharge from her eyes. no coughing or sneezing, no paralysis and her vent is clean

this evening she was kinda rasping, a little gurgly and gaping her beak a lot. like this

i checked her crop again but it was flaccid (she's not eating remember), not blown up and squishy like before. i administered some yoghurt by syringe.

any advice? i'd love to save Betty but i'm at a loss to know what to do next and am a bit sad

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

Check out these links and see if you recognize anything
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/?topic=17568.0
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/06/natural-treatments-for-sour-crop.html

It sounds like sour crop but if it is flat now then she should be able to eat.

 

[cafarmgirl]

How long have you had them? Since they were chicks or did you get them recently? If they are new to your property then coccidiosis is always a concern.

Worms are also a concern since you did see a lot of worms pass after you gave the Aviverm. That is not a wormer I'm familiar with so I don't know how it works and if it's capable of causing a fast worm die-off which could result in dead worm toxicity to the bird if heavily infested. That could make her feel crummy for a few days after worming. They will need a follow up deworming in 10 days, you might want to consider using something like Safeguard or Valbazen.

 

[3barredrocks]

Hi

thanks for your replies... i read about sour crop as i initially thought that was it... though emptying her crop by massaging it hasn't helped.. she still isn't eating and is opening and closing her beak and is raspy breathing.

we've had them for about 6 weeks, and as i said, they've been great... rascally, full of energy and enjoying their run.

 

[3barredrocks]

hi. your flow chart sounds great Hollywood Chickens, but i don't really want to put my email address up on the forum because of spammers etc....

any other options?

also i wanted to ask, when i gently knead my chicken's crop it kind of goes away.. is this normal?

she is eating a little now and i'm still syringing yoghurt into her but she's still opening and closing her beak. any other thoughts?