Seabright unwell--need advice

[Meredith_in_France]

I have one Seabright--a miniature hen--who seems to be having breathing problems. It looks a bit like hiccups without any sound (these hens are pretty quiet anyway). She does still eat and groom. But she keeps opening her beak in a pronounced way that is not normal. I don't know what is wrong or what to do. We have two other bigger hens (a Peking black and a mystery mix) who are both broody and staying mainly in their coop--so the Seabright may feel a bit lonely. She hangs out with me and the cats.

Any ideas?

 

[chickensioux]

Can you hear anything when she breathes? What do her poops look like? What is she eating? What kind of bedding?

 

[Meredith_in_France]

I can hardly hear anything when she breathes--perhaps a little "eh" sound.

The bedding is freshly mown lawn grass--which they always seem to like.

Our 3 hens roam around--we're in the countryside and we have 5 cats around. I feed them crushed corn, oats and as special treats sometimes crushed walnuts (her favorite thing), wild birdseed mix (which includes sunflower seeds and other seeds), and also I have to admit I give her crushed madelines (a kind of soft cake). She likes to drink milk occasionally. I've tried to look for her poos today but they are very small and not that frequent--but I did notice that her anus had a bit of white poo on it which I'd never noticed before. She has gone into the coop as it's almonst 7pm but she still seems to be doing the gasping kind of breathing....

I've had her for about 3 years. I don't know how old she was when she was given to me. She has always had the same diet, so I'd be surprised if it was that. But I've never had any of the hens wormed.

She did have a strange eye problem about 2 months ago. She looked unwell (hunched in the daytime and static) and she had something that looked a bit like soap suds coming out of her left eye. I googled that and couldn't find such a symptom anywhere. I spoke to the vet who seemed to have little experience of poultry. She gave me some antibiotic which I mixed into her milk. I don't think she got much down her but it did clear up....

She's a pet and I'd like to do whatever I can for her. Maybe I have to find a vet experienced in poultry...

 

[chickensioux]

I suppose you could try and deworm her. If you do, use Ivomec or something that gets most worms including gapeworm. Research gapeworm and see if her symptoms sound like that. Deworming won't hurt if she does not have them but worth a try. Is she still laying?

 

[Meredith_in_France]

Yes, I'll try the deworming. Thanks for the tip on the product. Don't know if I'll find that one in France.
Spoke to a French neighbor who is a farmer and he didn't give me a lot of hope and said I should be careful that
the other hens don't get whatever she has....Seabrights don't lay many eggs--they are mainly decorative--though she
used to lay an occasional egg--but no eggs this year. Is that a sign?

 

[chickensioux]

Regarding laying, I was just trying to figure her age. Most stop laying or slow way down around 4-5 yrs. I'm not sure with the banties tho'. I will have to look that up and see if there is a difference in full size hens and banties.

From what I can find, banties and full size hens pretty much are the same in the egg laying dept. Most chickens lay best between the ages of 1-4 and then progressively slow down.

 

[Meredith_in_France]

So this morning she was still alive! I went to the vet and got a deworming pill. We had to weigh her (she weighs about 560 grams!) and get a pill down her throat. The Vet also gave me an antibiotic in a powder form that you mix with water. But with the other two hens and 7 cats, I can't leave this around for all the animal kingdom to drink....So we used the turkey baster to give her some drops. (I must get an eye dropper.) Dosage seems a pretty inexact science!!

She ate a bit afterwards--so that looked hopeful.

Catching her isn't easy and we were as stressed as she was at giving the medication.
We're supposed to keep up the antibiotics for 10 days.

The vet also said that one shouldn't eat the eggs of hens on medication for a month.

As far as the deworming goes, are you supposed to find the poo and examine it??

Gee, what fun pets are! ;-)

Still, I love all my animals and I see you have quite a menagerie too. Sounds nice!