Sick Chicken w Pics, I've no idea what's wrong

[OG Anomaly]

On prevention I'll risk jumping in without reading everything since you told me you were putting hay in the run - you will want to consider if any of your birds are consuming long strands of the hay, rather than just scratching through for bits and pieces. That is because long fibrous strands can form a mass in the crop and are difficult to pass leading to impaction or sour crop. I believe this is correct, @casportpony ? @rebrascora ?

Thank you, I will keep that in mind. we haven't gotten the hay yet, I was just looking for it. Maybe I should skip it tho..

 

[casportpony]

How does her poop look this morning?

 

[casportpony]

I don't pretend to be an expert at chicken ailments but I agree the poop is concerning, especially the dark one and I agree that one looks like blood.

My question is....in one pic I can see there are meal worms and oyster crackers on the floor of the cage. Why not offer only layer feed? Since the poop doesn't look good, it would make sense to me to just go to with the basics of commercial feed only and fresh water with some electrolytes added. Not suggesting doing that will fix everything but certainly isn't going to make anything worse. Also, with commercial feed only, they don't need grit to move it out of the crop. Keep the diet simple and see if that helps improves the poop?

 

[OG Anomaly]

Have you opened her beak to check for wet pox (diptheric form) inside the mouth?
Is there some white fuzz on her beak in the first pics? or is that an artifact or my bad eyes? In that same pic the black spots look more like dry pox than the ones I saw earlier, but that may not be related to her current problem.

No, I have not, but I will check.

 

[OG Anomaly]

To address a couple of your other concerns - The black spots on her comb look like peck marks to me. The white-ish patch that you see, imho, is where her comb flops over - my W. Leghorn has a similar whit-ish patch where her comb folds over, take a look at your other girls, I suspect you will find a similar patch if they have the folded over combs like this one. The ear, looks like her normal coloring to me as well.

Crop issues can be a symptom of an underlying condition like worms, Coccidiosis, infection and reproductive disorders. If there is any way to get a fecal sample tested that would be a good idea.

I agree with @casportpony the poop is concerning. I'm not sure what course of action that she was going to suggest, hopefully she has been in contact with you through pm, but I would be inclined to at least start to treat with Corid for Coccidiosis. It could be that she has infection and needs antibiotics, but which one it's hard to know. Since she is hanging in there, the Corid is mild and won't hurt.

Also, maybe I missed it, but you haven't mentioned when she last laid an egg. If she is like mine, she's a prolific egg layer, so she may be have a reproductive problem as well, or has not laid due to other things going on.

Getting the crop to empty/function is important, you may find this article very helpful on that http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments

Thanks so much, I will certainly check out that link. I will also check the other girls for that big white patch at the base of her comb...she does have little ...patches? of white stuff on her comb and that was what concerned me first, then I saw that big one. I will try to make a pic that I can draw arrows on & that way I can pinpoint things.
I'm just going thru and reading everyone's responses, then I'll do a quick update, then get back to trying different stuff, she is better today tho!


Keep her drinking and see how it goes. Please keep us posted.

 

[Jessica Thompson]

You can basically give her breakfast and give her scrambled eggs sugar water and plain yogurt this will perk her up

 

[OG Anomaly]

Are you sure you are understanding the condition chart correctly? I am really struggling to imagine a leghorn being any more than 2 even on a good day.... Just to be clear, it is not the crop that the chart is referring to but the breast muscle either side of the keel bone.... you may just have really plump leghorns, but that is pretty unusual.

If it is her crop which is still sounding likely to me, I would massage for 10 mins 4 or more times a day to try to break up the contents. I agree that there may be something else going on with perhaps an infection in her gut but since she seemed to perk up a little after that first massage, it is worth continuing and can only be beneficial as long as she seems comfortable with it. If her crop is blocked/slow then giving her any medicine orally is not going to help much.
Only give her homogenous sloppy food (no more crackers for now)..... pellets or crumbles soaked in warm water until they are all broken down and you can add a little olive/vegetable oil and maybe a bit of scrambled egg. Concentrate the massaging from the bottom of the crop upwards to break up any sediment and gunge that may be causing a blockage.

I will look again, I was a little confused by the chart, on where, exactly, I was supposed to look. Can you tell from the pic I posted of her on her back? Or wouldn't that count because then gravity would pull the flesh towards her back?
Thank you for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it.

I did massage her for a bit last night and just checked her crop. It is smaller and definitely not squishy anymore. Actually, now it feels hard.

Her poop looks much better too. I will get a pic asap.

We also did give her pellets, but didn't soften them up, I will do that.

She's extremely dirty from all the wet poop and really needs a bath (never given a chicken a bath before, lol). I hate using the newspaper in her cage, but we're out of bedding, at the moment, we'll be getting more today.

 

[OG Anomaly]

We don't normally feed them only crackers & meal worms, lol, we were just trying to see if she was interested in eating anything at all. They usually only get treats 2 or 3x a week.
What you say does make complete sense we did add electrolytes to her water and gave her regular pellets and after massaging her crop and that next nasty po, she's ben doing much better.
Thank you for taking the time to help

 

[OG Anomaly]

Have you opened her beak to check for wet pox (diptheric form) inside the mouth?
Is there some white fuzz on her beak in the first pics? or is that an artifact or my bad eyes? In that same pic the black spots look more like dry pox than the ones I saw earlier, but that may not be related to her current problem.

I have not, but I will!

 

[OG Anomaly]

That looks like it has blood in it:
View attachment 1194341

That's what I thought too.
But then this morn, it looks much better! So, idk...smh