Sick chicken, what should I do?

[Eden83_haaretz]

Don't know what she might have, please help. For a couple of days she's been lethargic, fluffing her feathers, not eating much (although I grabbed her this morning and her crop was full even, felt like hard grains); the other day I saw her with some diarrhea; she seems dizzy too. It's been colder but they have their provisional chicken coop (with windows for ventilation).
The chickens forage although we give them grains to eat (for about a week we haven't been able to give then nothing but cracked corn). All the others seem alright, no strange behavior other than an occasional sneeze; their poop looks normal, some a little more runny than others.

My husband worries it might be salmonella or coryza. I wanted to isolate her, but in the past the animals we've isolated died and he doesn't want to. People around here never really take care of their animals with vaccines and the like, which is quite annoying (but mostly it's poor ignorant people that are used to some animals dying everyonce in a while... Yeah).
Unfortunately our chickens aren't contained so birds also drink from their wateters; very conscious that disease spreads even more if this happens, but we haven't had the funds to make them a proper run .

Any ideas what she might have, they have been vaccinated in the past against Newcastle, chronic avian cólera and septic avian cólera. Any other vaccines I should administer? Had thought of one against salmonella. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[hopeshark45]

From what i read in the first paragraph, it could potentially be worms.

 

[hopeshark45]

Try feeding her with a bottle.

 

[hopeshark45]

like, maybe a syringe thingie, look up some methods of deworming, and start one as soon as possible.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

For a couple of days she's been lethargic, fluffing her feathers, not eating much (although I grabbed her this morning and her crop was full even, felt like hard grains); the other day I saw her with some diarrhea; she seems dizzy too.

What do you feed, including treats?
Do you provide grit for your flock?

The facial swelling could be due to infection from respiratory illness, injury/peck or possibly a bug bite. Does it feel hard or soft?

I'd flush the eye with saline, press on the swelling, see if any firm pus comes out. Look inside the beak for lesions or canker. You can put eye ointment in the eye to see if that helps.

Crop not emptying overnight, you will want to address that. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Work on hydration then offer a bit of wet feed. Poultry vitamins that contain E and B1 may be helpful for the balance issues.

As for vaccines, no idea what else you would want to give. Most are given at hatch, if any. The most common one given here in the U.S. is for Marek's (at hatch) but it's not by any means perfect, birds can still become infected by the virus get sick and die.
A lot of people don't vaccinate for anything, instead they focus on clean water, appropriate feed, keeping coops/runs relatively clean and managing parasites.

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

Sounds like you don't feed your flock any formulated pellets or crumble? Obviously a lot of the world doesn't buy special chicken food for their birds, but cracked corn and grains aren't a balanced diet for chickens (not enough vitamins and protein), so if that's mostly what they are eating that could be a problem.

If she's not eating much and has a constantly full, hard crop that sounds like a crop impaction and I'd read through Wyrop's link above.

If she's not eating much but her crop is emptying overnight she might have a respiratory infection. If you notice any nasal discharge or trouble breathing I would look into getting some tylan/tylosin.

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

What do you feed, including treats?
Do you provide grit for your flock?

The facial swelling could be due to infection from respiratory illness, injury/peck or possibly a bug bite. Does it feel hard or soft?

I'd flush the eye with saline, press on the swelling, see if any firm pus comes out. Look inside the beak for lesions or canker. You can put eye ointment in the eye to see if that helps.

Crop not emptying overnight, you will want to address that. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Work on hydration then offer a bit of wet feed. Poultry vitamins that contain E and B1 may be helpful for the balance issues.

As for vaccines, no idea what else you would want to give. Most are given at hatch, if any. The most common one given here in the U.S. is for Marek's (at hatch) but it's not by any means perfect, birds can still become infected by the virus get sick and die.
A lot of people don't vaccinate for anything, instead they focus on clean water, appropriate feed, keeping coops/runs relatively clean and managing parasites.

The usual treats are corn tortillas, little papaya/watermelon/orange (very sporadically), sometimes I'll give them cooked rice or cooked oatmeal (also very sporadically.
The feed is usually for game birds (it has corn, barley, sorghum, wheat, dried peas, whole sunflower seeds). The person we usually buy it from didn't have any so we bought the cracked corn and tomorrow plan to buy everything else to mix it up ourselves.

The facial swelling is soft, tried pressing it and nothing came out nor did go down. Did not find lesions in her beak. @

We gave her a dewormer and enrofloxacin just before she went to bed (this was the second dose; spaced out by six hours).

Will check tomorrow if her crop emptied out if not will follow your advice; tomorrow we'll get vitamins. BTW is it ok if we give her wet cat food?

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

Sounds like you don't feed your flock any formulated pellets or crumble? Obviously a lot of the world doesn't buy special chicken food for their birds, but cracked corn and grains aren't a balanced diet for chickens (not enough vitamins and protein), so if that's mostly what they are eating that could be a problem.

If she's not eating much and has a constantly full, hard crop that sounds like a crop impaction and I'd read through Wyrop's link above.

If she's not eating much but her crop is emptying overnight she might have a respiratory infection. If you notice any nasal discharge or trouble breathing I would look into getting some tylan/tylosin.

Tried feeding them crumble but they'll just ignore it.
They free range so they eat grass, clover; crickets, spiders, seen them eat frogs, the ocasional country mouse and snakes even XP.

I'll definately look into the crop issue (I'll go buy the coconut oil) and I think what we gave her is for infections.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You can give a little wet cat food to entice her, but long term it's not the best option.

Keep us posted about her crop.
I'd try placing a warm compress on the lump beside her eye to see if that helps loosen any material. Antibiotics are good for treating a multitude of symptoms, but they will not dry up pus in chickens.

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

You can give a little wet cat food to entice her, but long term it's not the best option.

Keep us posted about her crop.
I'd try placing a warm compress on the lump beside her eye to see if that helps loosen any material. Antibiotics are good for treating a multitude of symptoms, but they will not dry up pus in chickens.

OK so yesterday I massaged her crop and it felt like it emptied. She had a bit more energy. Yesterday night I checked up on her and her crop was full and hard again so today I went to check her, it was slightly less full so I massaged again. She pooped watery, slightly foamy, green and white. Gave her electrolites and massaged again, it seemed like it emptied again; then I locked her up where she could rest, without food and after a couple of hours the crop seemed full and hard again. So whar should I do?