Sick chicken, need advice

[algae75]

It would be best to feed layer feed only. Stop the whole corn and stop the sunflower seeds. Make sure she's not gorging grit.
You were given wrong advice about the wormers. You give Safeguard liquid goat wormer orally for 5 days to treat capillary worms and other types of roundworms. Then there is no need to give her Valbazen at all.
In the future if you use Valbazen, dosage is 1/2ml orally, then redose again in 10 days, and that's all. Valbazen will take care of capillary worms and other roundworms as well.
Use one wormer or the other, but not both at the same time, it's not necessary.

I didn't mean to imply that I gave both wormers at the same time, sorry. I gave the Safeguard first for 3 days in a row, she did get better and put weight back on. About a month later (my timeline might not be quite accurate because I didn't write all of this down like I should have) she was getting peckish again and not eating much. I assumed the worms again and used Valbazen for 5 days in a row instead of the Safeguard. I heard switching up wormers is good. There was no improvement this time so I dosed her with Corid for 3 days. Still no improvement, thus I created this initial post.

 

[algae75]

Well I have found something else out, finally. So Lizzie's crop for the past 3-5 days (that we know of) had been really squishy with a couple of gas bubbles. I have never had sour/yeasty crop in my flock before so just I didn't know. About an hour ago, feeling like there was nothing left for me to do, I figured I would try and get whatever is in her crop, out. I tried to massage her crop while holding her upside down to induce vomiting. She did not vomit and she was getting really worn out, so I stopped. When I brought her upright I smelled her breath by her beak and it smelled like rising dough! The only thing on hand that I had was Monistat 2% and Proviable-DC probiotics. I have read that the active ingredient in Monistat, miconazole nitrate, can help treat a yeasty crop in chickens and the probiotics don't hurt either. So fingers crossed!

 

[dawg53]

The miconazole should work for you. I used it recently on a hen that had sour crop and it cleared up in about 7 or 8 days.
Since she excreted a whole kernel of corn, it suggests that her gizzard might be impacted. Once her sour crop clears up and if she's still not eating much, try giving her tomato juice to drink. Continue giving it for a couple of days and hopefully it should get things moving again.

 

[algae75]

The miconazole should work for you. I used it recently on a hen that had sour crop and it cleared up in about 7 or 8 days.
Since she excreted a whole kernel of corn, it suggests that her gizzard might be impacted. Once her sour crop clears up and if she's still not eating much, try giving her tomato juice to drink. Continue giving it for a couple of days and hopefully it should get things moving again.

Thank you very much!

 

[algae75]

Yesterday I gave her about 2 tsp of coconut oil and massaged her crop. Her crop is large and doughy, when I massage it you can hear gurgling and yeasty smells come from her beak. I did this a 3 different intervals in the day. She is still getting the Monistat cream morning and night. She poop several 2 times yesterday and once this morning, all of which a neon green/yellow. I cant believe she is still alive. Besides the crop being doughy, I can feel some corn kernels and sunflower seeds in there (which she has not had access to in over 7 days). Her crop won't empty completely. She is also drinking Pedialyte (unflavored) on her own. Anything else I should be doing?

 

[PluckyJen]

How's your chicken feeling?
My girl is much better today. More colour in her comb and she had a go at the new pullets. So she was in trouble with mommy for that.

 

[algae75]

Update. 3 Mornings ago we checked on Lizzie and her large doughy crop had gone down, yay! I completed the 7 day regiment of Monistat so hopefully the doughy crop will not return. However she still has a couple of corn kernels and some sunflower seeds that will not emptyout of the crop. We have been tube feeding her 3 times a day (Kaytee Exact bird food) and she has green poops with yellowish urates. She has no interest in eating. I don't know if she has an impacted gizzard or not. Any ideas would be most welcomed.

 

[PluckyJen]

Update. 3 Mornings ago we checked on Lizzie and her large doughy crop had gone down, yay! I completed the 7 day regiment of Monistat so hopefully the doughy crop will not return. However she still has a couple of corn kernels and some sunflower seeds that will not emptyout of the crop. We have been tube feeding her 3 times a day (Kaytee Exact bird food) and she has green poops with yellowish urates. She has no interest in eating. I don't know if she has an impacted gizzard or not. Any ideas would be most welcomed.

OH goodness. I really hope you get a reply on helping Lizzie. She's been thru alot. Just wanted to say I'm thinking of your baby.
Harriet is much better our side. Back to being cheeky and pecking at the pullets. Tut tut.

 

[algae75]

Well incase anyone has been following the thread, we put Lizzie down today. Her breathing became labored and you could tell she was done. After putting her down we decided to do a necropsy on her, we wanted to find out as many answers as we could. We started with the crop since we thought that was the problem from the start. She had last night's tube feeding still in there (we have been tube feeding her 4 times a day with Kaytee Exact baby bird food), sunflower seeds & and corn kernels (last time she had access to that was well over 2 weeks ago), and a small glob of hay. I immediately felt awful, thinking this is what caused an impaction. The sunflower seeds and the corn I felt when massaging her crop but I could never feel hay, let alone a small glob of hay. We continued on with a full necropsy. The gizzard was fine, had grit in it, kernels of corn, and some broken up bits of grassy matter. The liver was wrong. We have butchered many a meat chicken so we know what healthy chicken livers should look like. Lizzie's liver was a weird brown color covered in spots. And then I saw it, or I should say them. She had 2 lash eggs in the body cavity and several more backed up in the oviduct. Fairly certain these were taking up space in the body cavity thus cutting off the normal flow of food through the intestines and basically backing everything up in her. I feel terrible that this happened to her but I feel a tad bit better that there was really nothing that I could've done to save her. Lizzie was a Rhode Island Red rescue that we adopted in late Sept. She layed about 3-4 eggs when we had her then stopped. I thought she was slowing down because of fall/winter approaching. Her appetite became depressed and she had pooped out a roundworm so I treated her for that. Shortly after treating for worms she was feeling better and back to eating normally. Her lack of egg production I had chalked up to the season and still recovering from being wormed. When reading about lash eggs, I found in a thread on this form that one lady will not raise red sex linked chickens anymore because of all the reproductive problems (lash eggs included) she believed to be associated with RSL chickens. I don't know if this is true or not I just wanted to present all of this information for others that may read this thread.

 

[PluckyJen]

Well incase anyone has been following the thread, we put Lizzie down today. Her breathing became labored and you could tell she was done. After putting her down we decided to do a necropsy on her, we wanted to find out as many answers as we could. We started with the crop since we thought that was the problem from the start. She had last night's tube feeding still in there (we have been tube feeding her 4 times a day with Kaytee Exact baby bird food), sunflower seeds & and corn kernels (last time she had access to that was well over 2 weeks ago), and a small glob of hay. I immediately felt awful, thinking this is what caused an impaction. The sunflower seeds and the corn I felt when massaging her crop but I could never feel hay, let alone a small glob of hay. We continued on with a full necropsy. The gizzard was fine, had grit in it, kernels of corn, and some broken up bits of grassy matter. The liver was wrong. We have butchered many a meat chicken so we know what healthy chicken livers should look like. Lizzie's liver was a weird brown color covered in spots. And then I saw it, or I should say them. She had 2 lash eggs in the body cavity and several more backed up in the oviduct. Fairly certain these were taking up space in the body cavity thus cutting off the normal flow of food through the intestines and basically backing everything up in her. I feel terrible that this happened to her but I feel a tad bit better that there was really nothing that I could've done to save her. Lizzie was a Rhode Island Red rescue that we adopted in late Sept. She layed about 3-4 eggs when we had her then stopped. I thought she was slowing down because of fall/winter approaching. Her appetite became depressed and she had pooped out a roundworm so I treated her for that. Shortly after treating for worms she was feeling better and back to eating normally. Her lack of egg production I had chalked up to the season and still recovering from being wormed. When reading about lash eggs, I found in a thread on this form that one lady will not raise red sex linked chickens anymore because of all the reproductive problems (lash eggs included) she believed to be associated with RSL chickens. I don't know if this is true or not I just wanted to present all of this information for others that may read this thread.

Ahhh I'm so very sorry you lost Lizzie. Made me heartsore the instant I saw the thread pop into my email. Thinking of you.
Makes me more alert now with my girl not laying for so long too.