Pullet with many issues, now with balloon crop + gasping for air?

[Olivia or Oliver]

Summary:

1. Recent issues that have been treated: Eye infections, tapeworm, eye worms, sour crop, green poop, and diarrhea
2. Ongoing issues: dry + wet pox, gas filled crop and gasping for air, left foot that keeps curling (I think physical injury)

I have an underweight pullet that's been battling dry and wet pox for weeks. Dry pox 3+ weeks, wet pox ~1 week. Dry pox lesions are finally starting to scab and fall off. Wet pox is relatively new but I periodically take out whatever visible lesions I see in the oral cavity. Not sure if there are more down the trachea or esophagus, but she’s eating so I assume esophagus is ok. Along with the pox she had tapeworms, eye infections, eye worms, (literal) sour crop, green poop and diarrhea, etc, but those are mostly treated and she is eating well and have been steadily gaining weight.

HOWEVER she has been constantly gasping for air for more than a week now. When she gasps I hear burpy/raspy sounds. At first it was only after she ate but now it's close to 24/7. I thought it was due to wet pox but it actually seems like it is due to some crop issue.

She is eating and pooping okay and her crop is emptying but her crop looks like a balloon and is full of gas all the time. When she eats, the crop is full of food mixed with gas. When she doesn't eat, it is just full of gas. If I gently massage her empty crop she will burp out a lot of gas and it will become flat, but 15mins later it will go back to the gassy ballooned state. Her breath seems okay, definitely not sour.


So far I've tried:
- Administering miconazole for more than a week. This worked for sour smelling breath in the past, but it's not working this time
- Massaging her crop extensively after administering olive oil, or ACV prebiotic drink, or yogurt, etc.
- Only feeding plain yogurt or egg in small amounts, along with probiotics and electrolytes. I still do this. I don't want to withhold food completely because she is still battling pox so I don't want her immunity to be affected (let me know if you think otherwise, happy to take suggestions).
- Putting on a crop bra. She gasps a tiny bit less at first, and then she freaks out about the bra and starts gasping more, I assume due to stress.
- Massaging her crop 20mins 3-4 times a day. I still do this.
- Giving her nitrofurantoin (this is the only antibiotic I have with me at the moment). Seemed to relieve the symptoms only on the first day? Maybe? I honestly can't tell whether it helped or not. My parents are sending me amoxicillin via mail so I'll switch to that tomorrow.


Today I was massaging her gassy crop like usual, and I noticed, at the very bottom of her crop, I feel like there are 3-4 grains..?… The thing is that I have not been feeding her grains since 5/30. Could this possibly be the cause of her gassy crop....?

Is it even possible for grains to not empty even though: 1) I’ve been massaging her crop for hours every day and 2) she’s been eating eggs and yogurt and pooping them out? Maybe I’m going insane and what I feel isn’t grains...? Should I try to vomit her? I don’t even know anymore, I’m so confused now.

Slow crop is understandable because I’ve been giving her so many medications (anti-parasitic, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, pain, antibiotics, antihistamine, etc..) to treat all the other issues she’s been having. Most were prescribed by the vet and others were given by me. At the moment she is only on the antibiotic that I gave in my desperate attempt to treat the balloon crop.


I’m really unsure as to what to do at this point. She is eating and relieving okay and even gaining weight, but her gasping with balloon crop has been getting worse and I'm afraid she will suffocate and die in her sleep. Any advice is appreciated, thanks

 

[Olivia or Oliver]

Updating this post for those having similar issues with their chicken. I gave her one of my (non-steroid) asthma medications, and 95% of her gasping has stopped and her crop has flattened down. It's been 10 hours, and she is still eating and drinking and relieving well. I will update the post in a few days to report the progress.


Below is what I gave to her. Use at your own risk.

In 1/2 cup of water, dissolve 1 montelukast sodium tablet (10mg) and 1 s-acetyl glutathione (300mg) capsule contents. Administer 1mL orally via syringe. Administer additional 0.5~1mL in 6 hours or as necessary.


Montelukast (Brand name: Singulair) is the asthma medication, and s-acetyl glutathione is just a supplement I've been giving her along with every medication to control hepatotoxicity/green poop.


Below is some literature I found on Montelukast in animals:

Montelukast is sometimes used to treat asthma in cats. It has also been tried to decrease inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and heartworm disease. The FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration) has approved this drug for use in humans but it is not officially approved for use in animals.

Here is another, specifically for birds:

Avian Case Example 2

Respiratory distress is a common presentation of a sick bird. Lower respiratory disease in birds is typically characterized by coughing, abnormal breathing sounds, open mouth breathing, increased respiratory rate, labored breathing, dyspnea, tail bobbing, and cyanosis and can have numerous etiologies [...] [...] [...] Other possibilities for treatment include medications traditionally used in humans with COPD, asthma, and allergies. These medications include bronchodilators (β agonists), such as albuterol, clenbuterol, or salmeterol, or leukotreine antagonists, such as montelukast sodium.

I honestly still don't know if the issue was respiratory or gastrointestinal. Seems that it can treat both issues. Again, use at your own risk, if you are desperate enough like me.

You can get the med online without prescription, from pharmacies that ship from overseas. I won't list them but just FYI, it is not very difficult to find them. It is not illegal (it is a legal grey area) if you are ordering less than a month's worth of non-controlled medications for personal use.

Hope this helps. I will post another update in a few days.

 

[dennisma1]

Updating this post for those having similar issues with their chicken. I gave her one of my (non-steroid) asthma medications, and 95% of her gasping has stopped and her crop has flattened down. It's been 10 hours, and she is still eating and drinking and relieving well. I will update the post in a few days to report the progress.


Below is what I gave to her. Use at your own risk.

In 1/2 cup of water, dissolve 1 montelukast sodium tablet (10mg) and 1 s-acetyl glutathione (300mg) capsule contents. Administer 1mL orally via syringe. Administer additional 0.5~1mL in 6 hours or as necessary.


Montelukast (Brand name: Singulair) is the asthma medication, and s-acetyl glutathione is just a supplement I've been giving her along with every medication to control hepatotoxicity/green poop.


Below is some literature I found on Montelukast in animals:


Here is another, specifically for birds:


I honestly still don't know if the issue was respiratory or gastrointestinal. Seems that it can treat both issues. Again, use at your own risk, if you are desperate enough like me.

You can get the med online without prescription, from pharmacies that ship from overseas. I won't list them but just FYI, it is not very difficult to find them. It is not illegal (it is a legal grey area) if you are ordering less than a month's worth of non-controlled medications for personal use.

Hope this helps. I will post another update in a few days.

I was interested in your asthma treatment...have a sick girl , not getting better after trying antibiotics and wormer. I usually have success with tylan 50 but not working here.. rest of flock is fine but she is wheezing away in the kitchen.
I have singular for myself , might give that a whirl.

 

[Olivia or Oliver]

I was interested in your asthma treatment...have a sick girl , not getting better after trying antibiotics and wormer. I usually have success with tylan 50 but not working here.. rest of flock is fine but she is wheezing away in the kitchen.
I have singular for myself , might give that a whirl.

I gave my chicken the above Singulair cocktail, once or twice a day, from Tuesday to Saturday, so I think 5 days total. It definitely significantly reduced (I would say almost stopped) her wheezing and she didn't seem to have any side effects besides some slightly watery poop. On Friday I actually thought she was cured but I stopped giving her the cocktail and she started gasping faintly again, although nowhere near what she was like Wednesday. So I gave her one more dose and stopped on Saturday. On Sunday she was almost completely fine. Also, the amoxicillin arrived in the mail on Saturday noon, so I've been giving it to her since Saturday afternoon. I think she honestly could have survived without the amoxicillin but I didn't want to take any chances.

I can't guarantee it will actually fix whatever issue your chicken is having, but for me, it definitely put a bandaid on the problem while she was fighting whatever issue she had with her body. The way my chicken was gasping for air on Tuesday/Wednesday, I actually thought she was going to die, so it really helped to have something that controlled her inflammation. FYI my chicken is less than 10 weeks old and she did not suffer from any major side effects. Her weight is is only 220g, so you may have to adjust the dosage for your chicken, if he/she weighs significantly larger. I don't think the weight-dosage relationship is linear here, so if your chicken weighs 1kg then I wouldn't start by dosing 5x times as much, I would probably start at 2x, observe how she is doing, and go from there.

 

[dennisma1]

I gave my chicken the above Singulair cocktail, once or twice a day, from Tuesday to Saturday, so I think 5 days total. It definitely significantly reduced (I would say almost stopped) her wheezing and she didn't seem to have any side effects besides some slightly watery poop. On Friday I actually thought she was cured but I stopped giving her the cocktail and she started gasping faintly again, although nowhere near what she was like Wednesday. So I gave her one more dose and stopped on Saturday. On Sunday she was almost completely fine. Also, the amoxicillin arrived in the mail on Saturday noon, so I've been giving it to her since Saturday afternoon. I think she honestly could have survived without the amoxicillin but I didn't want to take any chances.

I can't guarantee it will actually fix whatever issue your chicken is having, but for me, it definitely put a bandaid on the problem while she was fighting whatever issue she had with her body. The way my chicken was gasping for air on Tuesday/Wednesday, I actually thought she was going to die, so it really helped to have something that controlled her inflammation. FYI my chicken is less than 10 weeks old and she did not suffer from any major side effects. Her weight is is only 220g, so you may have to adjust the dosage for your chicken, if he/she weighs significantly larger. I don't think the weight-dosage relationship is linear here, so if your chicken weighs 1kg then I wouldn't start by dosing 5x times as much, I would probably start at 2x, observe how she is doing, and go from there.

Thanks I crushed up a singular and mixed some powder with some yougart. I'm giving her a bit every few hours.. Just an FYI that I did find tylan 50 online no rx from valley vet about 10 days ago. Ironically I was just stocking up because my old batch was way past the date and I was making do with pigeon antibiotics. And then two days later one of my barred rocks got sick. Go figure.

 

[dennisma1]

Updating this post for those having similar issues with their chicken. I gave her one of my (non-steroid) asthma medications, and 95% of her gasping has stopped and her crop has flattened down. It's been 10 hours, and she is still eating and drinking and relieving well. I will update the post in a few days to report the progress.


Below is what I gave to her. Use at your own risk.

In 1/2 cup of water, dissolve 1 montelukast sodium tablet (10mg) and 1 s-acetyl glutathione (300mg) capsule contents. Administer 1mL orally via syringe. Administer additional 0.5~1mL in 6 hours or as necessary.


Montelukast (Brand name: Singulair) is the asthma medication, and s-acetyl glutathione is just a supplement I've been giving her along with every medication to control hepatotoxicity/green poop.


Below is some literature I found on Montelukast in animals:


Here is another, specifically for birds:


I honestly still don't know if the issue was respiratory or gastrointestinal. Seems that it can treat both issues. Again, use at your own risk, if you are desperate enough like me.

You can get the med online without prescription, from pharmacies that ship from overseas. I won't list them but just FYI, it is not very difficult to find them. It is not illegal (it is a legal grey area) if you are ordering less than a month's worth of non-controlled medications for personal use.

Hope this helps. I will post another update in a few days.

Just as an FYI, I did singular in yougart over 3 days ( after hen had been struggling to breath for a week) plus a few shots of albutural to the beak in same time period.. I also upped the oral tylan 50 to .4, 3 times a day. After 10 days of gasping , she is now fine. I'm not saying the asthma meds saved her, but it did no harm . But I'm glad I didn't give up. I thought for sure she was a goner . Every night I figured she would die.

 

[Olivia or Oliver]

Just as an FYI, I did singular in yougart over 3 days ( after hen had been struggling to breath for a week) plus a few shots of albutural to the beak in same time period.. I also upped the oral tylan 50 to .4, 3 times a day. After 10 days of gasping , she is now fine. I'm not saying the asthma meds saved her, but it did no harm . But I'm glad I didn't give up. I thought for sure she was a goner . Every night I figured she would die.

Thanks so much for the update - you have no idea how happy it made me to read that Glad to hear your treatment worked, whichever it may have been. Just one thing to note - be very very careful about administering albuterol to chickens because albuterol is a corticosteroid, and birds are known to be very sensitive to steroids. Either way I'm so happy that she is okay now and please post updates if any other symptoms arise in the next few days so I can keep note as well.

 

[dennisma1]

Thanks so much for the update - you have no idea how happy it made me to read that Glad to hear your treatment worked, whichever it may have been. Just one thing to note - be very very careful about administering albuterol to chickens because albuterol is a corticosteroid, and birds are known to be very sensitive to steroids. Either way I'm so happy that she is okay now and please post updates if any other symptoms arise in the next few days so I can keep note as well.

Yeah still fine. I am so pleased. I have nursed sick chickens with respitory issues before, but never for this long and with hen so alarmibgly . I'm glad I hung in there. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Hotsplenda]

Just as an FYI, I did singular in yougart over 3 days ( after hen had been struggling to breath for a week) plus a few shots of albutural to the beak in same time period.. I also upped the oral tylan 50 to .4, 3 times a day. After 10 days of gasping , she is now fine. I'm not saying the asthma meds saved her, but it did no harm . But I'm glad I didn't give up. I thought for sure she was a goner . Every night I figured she would die.

How did you administer the albuteral? I have a very sick girl I desperately want to help feel comfortable. She was on oxygen and the X-ray shows a lot of white in her lungs. Hoping to get her better but want to try and make her comfortable in the meantime.

 

[dennisma1]

How did you administer the albuteral? I have a very sick girl I desperately want to help feel comfortable. She was on oxygen and the X-ray shows a lot of white in her lungs. Hoping to get her better but want to try and make her comfortable in the meantime.

She was gasping so I just put my hand around her head/beaK to cover her eyes (kind of like a tube out my hand).then just puffed it at her. At this point hen had seemingly been on deaths door for a more than a week, so I figured nothing ventured nothing gained. She's still alive and fine!