Sick Chicken, Please Help, Nothing is Working

[slm118]

She's a 4 month old olive egger, came from a hobby farm, not a commercial hatchery. Noticed she was staggering around like she's drunk. Couple days later her eye got goopy. Quarantined her, gave her 1ml Tylan 50 orally once daily for 5 days. Also used VetRx on her beak and under her wings and have been spraying the goopy eye with Vetericyn several times daily. Fifth day of Tylan was Tuesday, February 14; I read not to give for more than 5 days. She's eating well, drinking well, no sneezing/wheezing/coughing...but still off balance and eye so goopy its sealed shut. She's been quarantined a week, none of my other chickens are showing any symptoms at all.

Any suggestions?? I named her Otis.

 

[PD-Riverman]

She's a 4 month old olive egger, came from a hobby farm, not a commercial hatchery. Noticed she was staggering around like she's drunk. Couple days later her eye got goopy. Quarantined her, gave her 1ml Tylan 50 orally once daily for 5 days. Also used VetRx on her beak and under her wings and have been spraying the goopy eye with Vetericyn several times daily. Fifth day of Tylan was Tuesday, February 14; I read not to give for more than 5 days. She's eating well, drinking well, no sneezing/wheezing/coughing...but still off balance and eye so goopy its sealed shut. She's been quarantined a week, none of my other chickens are showing any symptoms at all.

Any suggestions?? I named her Otis.

How is her weight? If she is light/boney she is probably loaded with worms??

 

[Eggcessive]

Put some warm wet compresses on her eye while you hold her for a couple of times daily, and wipe off any drainage or crust. Apply Vetericyn eye gel or Terramycin eye ointment into the eye twice a day. What color is her nasal drainage if any? MG and coryza can cause the eye swelling and symptoms you are seeing, but other diseases can look similar if complicated by secondary bacterial infections. I would give the Tylan 50 twice a day 1/4 ml per pound of weight for 3-5 days. If there is pus in the eye or sinus, it needs to be squeezed or cleaned out. I would try to get some testing to find out which disease you are seeing, and if you contact your state vet, they can recommend where. Make sure that she is drinking well, or encourage that. Adding water to her feed, put a bit of plain yogurt in it for probiotics may help.

 

[slm118]

She's light, but she's not full grown...she appears to be the same size as the others I have of her breed. I'm not seeing any nasal drainage at all.

So it's okay to start another round of Tylan? I also have cephalexin for fish...its in 250mg capsules that are easy to open, it's just powder inside. She eats and drinks well.

 

[PD-Riverman]

She's light, but she's not full grown...she appears to be the same size as the others I have of her breed. I'm not seeing any nasal drainage at all.

So it's okay to start another round of Tylan? I also have cephalexin for fish...its in 250mg capsules that are easy to open, it's just powder inside. She eats and drinks well.

I am sorry but I do not know the size of the others-----How does her breast feel, does it feel boney or normal, with breast meat over the bone?? The reason I am asking is I had a rooster doing the same thing----would stagger like he was drunk, but would eat good. When I seen him staggering I went in his pen and caught him---he was almost like a skeleton. I put him down and caught a couple of his pullets----they were the same way, but not staggering yet. I started their 3 day wormer right then. In a few days he acted some better. In a month they all had gained a lot of weight.

I know there is Soooooo many things that can be wrong with chickens, just sharing what was wrong with mine that was acting the same way.

I would not start another several days of tylan50---That does not appear to be working. I would worm whether they got worms or not but that's me!!

 

[lilchickladyjr]

Can you take a picer of her

 

[Eggcessive]

The Tylan dosage was not enough, so that is why I would give more, but realize that if it is E.coli or other bacteria in the eye/sinus, that Tylan will not work. Vets have the big guns, but even with those, E.coli is pretty hard to treat. Cephalosporins are pretty powerful, but you would need to look up the dosage for chickens. There are many threads to read about removing pus from a chicken's eye/sinus.

I just found a dosage of 50 mg per kg (25mg per pound) given 4 times a day for Cephalexin. So since a little more is safe, if you have 250mg, you could safely give one packet mixed in plain yogurt well, and divided into 4 doses in a dropper or syringe daily. Does that sound clear? More research says it treats E.coli and coryza.

 

[slm118]

PD, she does seem bony. I can feel food in her crop, but as far as breast meat goes, she's not meaty at all. And she eats, she doesn't lack appetite whatsoever. What would you recommend for wormer? I've never had to worm chickens before.

 

[PD-Riverman]

PD, she does seem bony. I can feel food in her crop, but as far as breast meat goes, she's not meaty at all. And she eats, she doesn't lack appetite whatsoever. What would you recommend for wormer? I've never had to worm chickens before.

I would be at Tractor Supply or where ever you can find it when they open in the morning and get some wormer.

 

[Eggcessive]

Fenbendazole is usually given orally, undiluted since it is not water soluble. Give 1/4 ml orally per pound for 5 days which gets most all chicken worms including capillary and gapeworm. If given once and repeated in 10 days it will treat round worms, and cecal worms.