Sick Hen, ~9mo/o acting lethargic and has yellow diarrhea

[azygous]

What is your location and climate? It can have direct bearing on considering some health issues over others. Knowing this information can help us help you with more pertinent advice that we wouldn't have come up with otherwise.

 

[Axil]

I am in Connecticut it's pretty cold here in February and we've had a fair amount of rain lately. Drainage isn't great in their run, but i put a heavy layer of dried leaves over it so standing water is a rarity. When it warms up i plan on regrading the whole thing so it drains properly.

As for the poo, i got a picture when it happened again. I'd just given her a bath and while blow drying her butt, it must've loosened stuff up because it shot about 6 inches and landed..... right in the fresh bowl of food i'd just set down.

It smelled pretty much like the liquid that comes from her beak, which is also black. She certainly hasn't had anything dark to eat, i had just assumed it was part of the whole sour crop deal. If it is indicative of internal bleeding is there anything i can do about it?

Man today has been an emotional roller-coaster.

 

[azygous]

That's green bile. Not to worry. It just reflects her lack of food intake.

Thanks for the clue to your climate. I was wondering if coccidiosis could be a possible factor. It's probably too cold for that to be a concern.

You can increase the frequency of the miconazole to three times a day. I suggest you do. It's like when oncologists are treating an aggressive tumor my throwing a lot of radiation at it at once to try to weaken it. Do this for the next two days and let's see if there's any improvement.

 

[Axil]

thank you for the quick reply, that's such a relief that her droppings aren't indicative of another serious condition.

I will up her dosage to thrice daily. By the way, is there a particular method for opening a chickens mouth? The first dose was easy as she was so weak she would let me manipulate her however i wanted. This morning she let me know she wasn't happy, but eventually took it. I've been sort of massaging with my thumb and forefinger at the base of the beak until it opens

 

[azygous]

Your technique of prying open a beak is as good as any I can describe. Chicken jaws are strong like alligators when they're closed, but once you get them open, it's easy to keep them open with a finger slipped into the side. (Thankfully, we don't need to deal with chicken teeth on top of everything else.)

If she thrashes around a lot when you are trying to treat her, it helps to wrap her up in a towel to confine wings and feet, which are the weapons chickens rely on to free themselves from trouble they find themselves in. This in itself seems to calm a chicken.

 

[Axil]

thanks. I will try the towel trick next time. I got the dose in her, but she is pretty sure i'm not a real doctor. I gave her some regular layer pellets because even in the yogurt she tries as hard as she can to just eat the pellets. My chickens are weird, they only want pellets. When they were first old enough to go outside they loved the occasional worm we threw at them. I even watched in horror through the mesh as a small frog was picked into little pieces and devoured. Then within a month when i'd throw a worm in there they would look at me like i'm an idiot.

She doesn't mind them soaked though, in fact she still seems to prefer smaller bits. So I dissolved them in that electrolyte solution and she emptied the bowl. I've been spacing out the feedings by at least an hour to avoid her crop overflowing. Should i be worried about over feeding her, or is more better so long as she isn't allowed to gorge all at once?

 

[azygous]

Chickens with a crop disorder self regulate their food intake to account for the lack of room in their crop, appetite is greatly constricted. Food is something a chicken can go quite a while without. Water is the most crucial thing to be sure your patient is getting plenty of.

Chickens have their food preferences just as we do. And some will be inclined to eat everything and anything and as much as they can get. Like some of us.

Let your hen select what she wants to eat.

 

[hayley3]

Your technique of prying open a beak is as good as any I can describe. Chicken jaws are strong like alligators when they're closed, but once you get them open, it's easy to keep them open with a finger slipped into the side. (Thankfully, we don't need to deal with chicken teeth on top of everything else.)

If she thrashes around a lot when you are trying to treat her, it helps to wrap her up in a towel to confine wings and feet, which are the weapons chickens rely on to free themselves from trouble they find themselves in. This in itself seems to calm a chicken.

HaHa "chicken teeth"...yeah one less thing to worry about!

 

[Axil]

Update:
My hen is eating and drinking and looks to be back to passing yellowish watery poo. She is eating her regular layer feed now without needing to soften and crush it. I switched when she started picking through the mash to find the most solid bits. She received a total of three doses of the monistat yesterday, and I gave her one this morning.

My concern now is her crop does not seem to be much different than when this whole ordeal started. When i picked her up to check no her today she felt well enough to jump off my lap. When she landed she "Drooled" a bit more of the sour fluid. It's mostly clear now rather than grey. I know Azygous's mentioned that if the crop won't empty after two days of treatment it is indicative of of comorbidity.

I'm wondering if there is anything else I ought to be doing to try and clear this up. Would olive oil be beneficial in helping clear a blockage further down the digestive track? Should i give her more warm baths, or place a heating pad under the crate to encourage things to move along?

I don't think i can afford a vet bill. Here in CT you pay over $100 to walk in the door, and xrays are several hundred dollars... Oh, you want actual treatment? that'll probably add another 0 to your bill.

 

[Axil]

Oops, forgot to add a couple pictures i took this morning. She spends about half her time laying down like she is in the pic. She often has her crop resting on the top of that 2x4 in front of her, perhaps it gives her some relief? The other half of the time she'll be standing. If I move her food or water she will walk after it which is an improvement over her first day where she didn't even want to stand more than a few seconds.