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OG Anomaly

Songster
Jul 23, 2017
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350
177
WNY
Hi,
This is my first year having chickens. We have 8 white leghorns, all females, under a year old and they started laying early summer, this year. One is definitely not acting normal and I want to try and find out what's wrong with her / what I can do to help. We can't go to the vet. I'll try explain in detail and have pics as well. Thanks in advance for any help.

A few days ago, possibly a week, I noticed one of the chickens acting like it was colder than the others. She was kinda off away from the group, not far, but not as close as usual and sitting on a roost. She would occasionally shudder and had her eyes closed. I picked her up and at first she was shivering a little, but then stopped right away & she stopped and wanted to get down, so I let her. She wasn't shivering and she walked away towards the food and started eating. I've been keeping an eye for that behavior but didn't see it again until today. I also noticed that along with some black spots on her comb, she has small white-ish patches. I've looked into the black spots before and am pretty sure those are dry pox, but the white stuff... I dunno.
So, this morning when we went out, this chicken didn't really take off w the others & was hanging out by us. She did go get some water and I think she ate some feed. I saw her start to shiver & shudder sporadically and she was also more puffed up than the other girls.
I took some picks, while my son held her, and she was closing her eyes and just acting right, so we brought her inside to quarantine her. This is also when I noticed the raw looking spots on her ear skin/patch (? I don't know what the word is for that, lol).
We put her in a small dog cage we had (used for another hurt chicken situation) and gave her some meal worms- she didn't even bat an eye! She is drinking though. She pooped & it was very watery diarrhea. She's also sitting kind of weird. Like her head is in the dirt, but her tail is in the air. She's been in the cage well over an hour now and still hasn't stood up. When we took her out to add the waterer, she felt very hot to me and I'm sure she has a fever. She is also being very docile around us and allowing us to pet her and hold her without any fighting about it, our chickens aren't normally like that. We can hold them once in a while, but not for extended periods of time.
As far as I know, nothing has attacked her & I haven't seen her bullied or anything like that.
ChickCombSpotsEarSores2017wFlah.jpg ChickwCombGrungeBlkSpotsEarSores2017NoFlash.jpg ChiclenCloseUpEarMarksEyeClosed2017.jpg ChickenCombRlyCloseUpWhitePatchesBlackSpots2017.jpg ChickenSickwPostureAndPoopNov2017.jpg ChickenPoopNov2017.jpg
 
My guess would be that she has an impacted crop. The way is sitting suggests she is unbalanced and front heavy. When the crop is impacted with fibrous material, it clogs up the outlet to the digestive tract and the bird starts to become malnourished....They eat because they are starving but the food cannot go through their system and the crop gets distended and the contents may then go sour if a yeast infection sets in. A little fluid will get through as the bird moves.... enough to keep them alive for a while .... and you may see them wriggling their neck to try to adjust the contents. Eventually they become emaciated and die unless action is taken. Because they have very little food going through their system, they will struggle to maintain their body temperature, so that ties in with you saying she looked cold.
Feel her crop and describe what it is like. Does her breath smell bad? I'm going to guess her crop is large and squishy. If so, start gently massaging it.... some fluid may reflux if she has a blockage.... and see if she finds the massaging pleasant. She will also benefit from a heat source. What does her breast bone feel like? Does her keel bone feel sharp under her skin or reasonably well covered. Compare to your other chickens?

Come back to us with more information, when you have checked the above?
 
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Thank you so much for the help!
We felt 3 other crops and compared to those, hers is more swollen and is definitely softer/squishier.
I massaged her for a bit, while son was grabbing the other girls, and after comparison & putting her back in cage, she is standing up and eating crackers.
She does occasionally shake her head back & forth/side to side, then ends by contracting her neck in towards her body. I think that's what I thought was a shudder at first.
She's plenty warm and I did make a batch of electrolytes for her.
She didn't seem to mind the crop massage at all.
As for the breast bone...I don't know, maybe Leghorns are different, but I know our other birds are healthy, and all their breastbones seem sharp and defined to me and have always been like that, so I can't give any helpful info there.

Do I need to keep massaging her crop?
I'll look into this to see how if happens, but is there anything I can do/change immediately to stop this from happening again?
 

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