Sick Barred Rock hen -- help!

[Nancerina]

I have an 8-month-old Barred Rock hen who is going downhill. Her signs/symptoms are:

• Waxy, grayish-tinged comb (no lesions like avian pox);
• Pale yellowish-white loose stools;
• Lethargic, standing in one place for long periods;
• Tail down;
• Not laying;
• Losing weight.
• Odd kinda sweet/foul odor.

Her eyes are clear, there is no nasal discharge, there are no signs of impacted crop or being egg-bound, and I see no obvious signs of mites or worms in her stool.

I guess the only good news is that there are some periods during the day when her tail is up, and she can still make it up & down from the coop in the morning and at night (about 3ft. off the ground).

Can anyone give me some advice? I really can't afford a $50+ vet visit, but I hate seeing her so miserable, and I don't want the other girls (2 RIR's) to catch what she has.

Thanks!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Does her crop empty - is it empty in the morning?
http://www.birdhealth.com.au/common_condition.html
last paragraph- notice this site is Australian not USA

http://www.ultimatefowl.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vent_Gleet
Could it be vent gleet?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vent-gleet-aka-nasty-chicken-butt


http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044
diagnosis charts at bottom - there is at least one that mentions foul odor

http://www.apa-abayouthpoultryclub.... SYMPTOMS FOR DIAGNOSING POULTRY DISEASES.pdf

Are the droppings foamy (parasites)?

 

[Nancerina]

Hey Flock Master --

Thanks for responding! No, it does not appear to be vent gleet, and her crop does empty. The droppings do appear to be foamy yellow.

Thanks for the excellent links (I have been reading through them for hours). So while none of the diagnoses fit her to a "T", I will probably try worming her.

We did just get her through a bout of Wry Neck by giving her scrambled eggs (vitamin E) and dandelion greens (natural source of selenium), so since this came on within a week of that, maybe she picked up something that way. The two Rhode Island Red girls seem healthy as can be, so I don't think it's anything infectious.

Thanks again for your insight, and I'll post the results.

 

[Nancerina]

9 month-old Sick Barred Rock Hen ( Markette)

The first thing Markette came down with was Wry Neck. My vet advised me to treat her with vitamin E & selenium, but I couldn’t find that combination anywhere except on-line, and I simply couldn’t afford it at the time. I opted for scrambled eggs & dandelion greens (a natural source of selenium), and within a week, the Wry Neck symptoms were gone.

Shortly after that recovery though, Markette went downhill again. Her signs/symptoms included:

• Waxy, grayish-tinged comb (no lesions like avian pox);
• Pale yellowish-white loose stools;
• Lethargic, standing in one place for long periods;
• Twitching of head;
• Tail down;
• Not laying;
• Losing weight.
• Odd kinda sweet/foul odor.

Her eyes were clear, there was no nasal discharge, no signs of impacted crop or being egg-bound, and I saw no obvious signs of mites or worms in her stool.
After some research, I decided to treat for worms/parasites. I used:

• Rooster Booster brand Multi-Wormer triple action (Smashed & added to scrambled eggs, since she wasn’t eating regularly & had dropped a lot of weight…she used to be the biggest/heaviest of the flock);
• ProZap Garden & Poultry Dust for mites (twitching of head);
• MannaPro Poultry Protector spray for further treatment of possible mites/fleas/ticks.

That didn’t quite do the trick. Her symptoms persisted. I did another rectal exam, just to make sure she wasn’t egg-bound, and noticed that her internal temp was high…I mean, really high. A temp-check with a rectal thermometer confirmed that – she was at 110-degrees (normal upper range is 107). In further research on BYC, one post mentioned Keflex/Cephalexin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic. (here, I should add that I’m an ex-vet tech, although avian medicine was never my strong suit. I’m also a recent cancer survivor, and have a boat-load of left-over miscellaneous meds stored in a box in the ‘fridge. I also had a left-over stash of 10cc syringes filled with sterile saline for chemo-port flushes [no heparin!]). Here’s what I did:

• Got a small square laundry detergent scoop (like one in OxyClean, well-washed);
• Emptied the contents of a 500 mg. Cephalexin capsule into the scoop;
• Added an equal amount of sugar to the Cephalexin powder (decided to do this after Markette fought violently against the “pure” mixture…Mary Poppins might have been on point about “a spoonful of sugar” making the medicine go down…);
• Removed the plunger from the 10 cc’s of saline, poured the Cephalexin/Sugar mixture into the syringe, replaced plunger & shook well. (The mixture will stay in “suspension”, will never fully dissolve, and will need to be shaken prior to each dose.
• Ideally, dosage should be 1cc every 6 hours, but (forgive me…) I’m just not up to getting up in the middle of the night to dose the chicken. I am in the midst of giving her 1-1.5 cc’s 3 times a day orally for a usual antibiotic course of 7 days.*
• Method of delivery: 1) cuddle chicken in one arm; 2) use syringe-tip to separate beak & use opposite thumb to keep beak open; 3) deliver meds gradually sublingually {under the tongue, as best you can, to prevent aspiration into lungs/choking]. Offer her & other curious chickens a treat afterwards. Grapes worked for me, and made subsequent treatments a lot easier…clever girls!!
• I also treated her dry, flaky, bluish-gray comb with NeoSporin triple-antibiotic ointment, and it made a significant improvement.
• I also added a dropper-full of “human” sublingual-vitamin B to the chickens’ water, just for good measure.
• *Alternative treatment: 1) Get a 10cc syringe from your vet; 2) Get a bottle of saline solution used for contact lens users; 3) Get some liquid fish penicillin from your pet store and prepare a similar solution/dosage to the one described above.

Markette is currently on day 5 of her 7-day treatment regimen, and while I can’t say she’s 100% just yet, she is =much= better. She’s eating, moving around the run, foraging, dust-bathing, and socializing with the other 2 girls (RIRs). She isn’t “tucking and running” so characteristic of her old Barred-Rock-self yet, and she has not resumed laying – okay, since she’s still in treatment – but her quality of life has certainly improved.
I have read reports that some hens never resume laying after such treatment, and the cost of treatment outweighs the value of the bird. As for me, Markette is a sentient being that deserves the care. Really…I forked out maybe $40 for her, but she’s a friendly girl and worth the effort. I’ll post an update later and let you know how she’s doing!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I am glad to hear she is improving.

If you really think the Prozap was needed, I would do another treatment with it at 7 days for mites and 7/14 days for lice if it were me. Boy that was a high fever!

 

[Nancerina]

Update:
Markette (the barred rock hen) is well again! It's been a long road, but the antibiotics worked, and she laid her first post-treatment egg today. Small, but perfect. WooHoo!

 

[Nancerina]

I guess I should add what I did:
On another post, I read that someone tried some Keflex that they had on hand.
I too, had some Keflex left over from a surgery last year, as well as some 10cc saline-filled syringes (long story, not necessary here).
So, I emptied the 50mg Keflex capsules, mixed them with the saline, and put the mixture back in the syringe. It stayed in suspension, so had to be shaken before each dose, but I gave her 1cc three times a day for 7 days. I also ended up adding a little sugar to the mixture, since the hen fought violently against the first few doses. It was never easy to dose her, but it was slightly less difficult with the sweet mixture.
I still don't know exactly what she had, but it must have been a bacterial infection since the Keflex worked (antibiotics don't help with viral infections).