Raspy and thin chicken with flaking skin?

[Bzrzad3]

I have 4 rescue battery hens in my flock at the moment. They're Red shavers, and are pretty well. Besides this one. She might have some sort of lung problem? Every time she breathes it's raspy. She's thinner than the others, and has slightly flaking skin at the base of her feathers.

I'm not sure it's Marek's, since the others don't seem to have it, but she also has one "weird" eye. I'll provide pictures. Right now she's in an isolation cage away from the others. I administered some antibiotics months ago (augmentin) but that didn't work either (we might have been eating antibiotic eggs though).

 

[Rugbygainz]

Sounds like a respitory issue, and the flaky skin could me mites or lice, do they have dry sand to wash themselves in? A simple eye drop could help her one eye but since you say one eye is weird and she has raspy breathing she probably has a respatory issue. If she is thinner this could be from mites or lice. If it is a respiratory issue she probably need antibiotcs. If she is getting too thin syringe feed her 1-2 times a day to make sure she doesnt become too weak.
Check her legs for any abnormalities as mites like to go there.
Also check to see if she pecks at herself or itches herself.
If it is some sort of mite or lice you could pick up a product to deal with this

Big up that you got yourself some rescue chickens, I have always planned to do this in the future.

Hope this helped abit I know i wasnt very specific

 

[Bzrzad3]

..

They dust bathe in a small section of pretty dry dirt in the paddock. But it's really just this one that has a lice problem. She may have leg mites too again; we tried dunking her legs in engine oil to suffocate the mites, but they still persist. Dish washing liquid maybe? Poisonous enough. She hasn't got any wounds on her leg yet, but there's over grown scales.

With the respiratory issue, we tried antibiotics... Which one specifically? As I said in the first post we gave her some augmentin, but it didn't seem to work As for the eye drops, would it simply be medication? Human eye drops?

 

[Rugbygainz]

yeah for eye drops the simple human ones are fine as long as they arnt specific ones. The ones for basic eye cleaning or dryness should be good. U can also use vaseline to suffocate the mites, otherwise any specific anti lice and mite poweder/spray should work.
As for antibiotics, they are each specific to a certain respiratory disease. I have read alot that people suggest tylan, I would do some research into this because I am not too experienced with this antibiotic but i do know that this is a go to antibiotic for upper respiritory diseases.
Do you have some vet rx? as you could put this on her nose and under her mouth and under her wings until she gets the treatment.

 

[Rugbygainz]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/eye-drops-saline.600863/
I actually found an article that may help you.

 

[Bzrzad3]

..

Would it be possible she would have inhaled too much dust that made her breathing raspy?

 

[Rugbygainz]

Thats always a possibility. If something like tylan doesnt help that could be the case but the fact that her eye is closing makes it seem like an illness.

 

[Rugbygainz]

I had something like that with a horse of mine once so we needed to mix water into all his feed to reduce dust from the hay. I cant remeber if the vet gave him any medications for this however.

 

[Bzrzad3]

Thats always a possibility. If something like tylan doesnt help that could be the case but the fact that her eye is closing makes it seem like an illness.

Her eye isn't closing. The pupil is contracted constantly, which concerned me for marek's- but it was only in one eye. We're going to get some mite powder so the mites won't last long. I dropped several drops of salty water into her eye (which probably made no difference), but it could just be dust in her lungs :C

 

[nminusyplusm]

She may be thinner in part due to her scissor beak, poor thing. You might want to feed her mash which will be easier for her to eat so she can put on weight.