Sick Hen - Lethargic, stands w/ eyes closed

[casportpony]

Hi - I don't have a way to weight her yet. If I assume she weighs 4 kg, it looks like (from your 0.5cc/kg) that I should give her 2 cc of the SafeGuard dewormer (100 mg/mL suspension). Is this correct?
She's still doing about the same - hanging in there, looking around some - mostly sleeping, but not walking around - sitting in nesting posture. She won't eat or drink on her own, but I'm keeping her hydrated and giving her yogurt and pediasure. Should I mix some dog food (canned) in with it?
Thanks so much!

If she weighs 4kg, that is the dose I would use. FWIW, it was recommended by my avian vet when I took a very sick bird in.

 

[casportpony]

This is a cut and paste from another thread that I replied to, but I thought you should have as much info as possible.

This is what I do when mine are sick:

• Bring inside right away.
• Weigh and record weight. I use a cheap digital kitchen scale from Target.
• Do thorough exam.
• Dust for mites/lice with poultry dust even if I couldn't see any .
• De-worm with Safeguard for Goats/Cattle (fenbendazole 100mg/ml) at the rate of 50mg/kg ( .5cc/kg) by mouth and repeat in 10 days.
• Place in box or plastic bin with access to food, water and heat.
• Once warm enough, if not eating/drinking, and crop is empty, tube feed Pedialyte. Once hydrated, tube feed baby bird food.
• *Maybe* give antibiotics.
• Watch closely for 24 hours.
• Weigh daily.

Read these on tube feeding:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/722041/how-to-t-feed-a-sick-chicken-and-give-subcutaneous-fluid
http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7933

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Hi - I don't have a way to weight her yet. If I assume she weighs 4 kg, it looks like (from your 0.5cc/kg) that I should give her 2 cc of the SafeGuard dewormer (100 mg/mL suspension). Is this correct?
She's still doing about the same - hanging in there, looking around some - mostly sleeping, but not walking around - sitting in nesting posture. She won't eat or drink on her own, but I'm keeping her hydrated and giving her yogurt and pediasure. Should I mix some dog food (canned) in with it?
Thanks so much!

I'm guessin' that a three-month-old light brahma doesn't weight quite that much ... all those feathers make 'em look far bigger than they actually are, and I'd bet she's closer to five pounds or so ...

​

Not that overdosing w/ fenbendazole worries me too terribly much, save for the dangers that killin' too many worms too quickly might present, but there's no point in calculating milligrams when you're guessing about kilograms (sorta like me asking you to estimate how many marbles it'd take to fill a bucket of an undisclosed size ~'-)

Rather than quoting the many studies all over again (here's a focused google search for that), I will remind that doctors have a tendency to over-medicate; that they 'shoot rabbits w/ cannons' as our good ol' family doctor puts it. To me? It makes the most sense to determine the minimum amount required to achieve the desire result ... when it comes to fenbendazole? That's 20 mg/kg of body weight, for three consecutive days.

 

[casportpony]

Wow, good catch! I skimmed right past the "~3 mo" part.

Amyhbass, find a way to weigh you bird, then weigh her daily! That will give you an idea if she's getting better or worse. Any weight loss would be a cause for concern. Go to Target or Walmart and buy a scale. If you cannot afford one, go find a vet and ask them if you can use their scale.

 

[amyhbass]

Well, she didn't make it. I did manage to weigh her - she had dropped to about 4.5 pounds (she was a full grown brahma hen, so she should have wieghed 8-9 pounds). I dusted her early today, and found that she was infested with lice when I checked her again later (the dead lice were clearly visible on top of her white feathers). I gave her the worm medicine (1 cc Safeguard suspension) this afternoon. She was really nasty with poop from sitting in one spot for a couple of days, so we wanted to wash her off a bit. We waited until this evening, set her in a dish tub with a couple inches of warm water, and were very gently rinsing her off underneath. She was doing pretty well and was alert and all, but then she just started spazzing and died. I guess the washing was just too much stress in her weakened state. I let her rest for hours between each thing, but she was just too far gone. What I think is that the lice (and possibly worms as well - don't know) weakened her enough that she became sick with some sort of respiratory disease, and it killed her. I will be dusting the rest of the flock tomorrow. Some of them are coughing a bit. Hopefully they will gain strength enough to get well on their own if I get rid of the lice. How often do you all dust your chickens? Do you do it twice a year, when you are worming them? - or more often? Again - thank you all for your concern and your helpful advice.

 

[amyhbass]

Oh - I see where you got the idea that she was about 3 months old - I said that I've had them about 3 months, but they were 7-8 months old when I got them... I think she was about 10-11 months old. The lady I bought them from said she ordered them from a hatchery when they were day-old chicks and had to get more than she needed because of the minimum order requirement and then raised them to about laying age before selling a few. Anyway, I apologize for the confusion about that.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Well, she didn't make it. I did manage to weigh her - she had dropped to about 4.5 pounds (she was a full grown brahma hen, so she should have wieghed 8-9 pounds). I dusted her early today, and found that she was infested with lice when I checked her again later (the dead lice were clearly visible on top of her white feathers). I gave her the worm medicine (1 cc Safeguard suspension) this afternoon. She was really nasty with poop from sitting in one spot for a couple of days, so we wanted to wash her off a bit. We waited until this evening, set her in a dish tub with a couple inches of warm water, and were very gently rinsing her off underneath. She was doing pretty well and was alert and all, but then she just started spazzing and died. I guess the washing was just too much stress in her weakened state. I let her rest for hours between each thing, but she was just too far gone. What I think is that the lice (and possibly worms as well - don't know) weakened her enough that she became sick with some sort of respiratory disease, and it killed her. I will be dusting the rest of the flock tomorrow. Some of them are coughing a bit. Hopefully they will gain strength enough to get well on their own if I get rid of the lice. How often do you all dust your chickens? Do you do it twice a year, when you are worming them? - or more often? Again - thank you all for your concern and your helpful advice.

Provided the water wasn't actually so hot as to cause heat exhaustion, there's no reason to think that bathing would do her any harm ...

Severe symptoms are indicative of severe infestation(s), if indeed worms are the cause. And, killin' so many all at once can often result in blockages, or an explosive release of protein from the dead/dying worms themselves. By dosing w/ Fenbendazole at 20 mg/kg over the course of three days, the dead worms are shed more slowly, yet still effectively eliminated. In the most severe cases, I've seen some that target w/ less effective treatments, so as to more slowly reduce the load, and then later treat w/ different dewormers, so as to remove any adults that survive, and all that have since hatched/grown.

Many suggest deworming bi-annually, and to coincide w/ periods of molting and/or winter (when egg production is reduced, so as to minimize the number of eggs wasted )-;~

 

[dawg53]

Well, she didn't make it. I did manage to weigh her - she had dropped to about 4.5 pounds (she was a full grown brahma hen, so she should have wieghed 8-9 pounds). I dusted her early today, and found that she was infested with lice when I checked her again later (the dead lice were clearly visible on top of her white feathers). I gave her the worm medicine (1 cc Safeguard suspension) this afternoon. She was really nasty with poop from sitting in one spot for a couple of days, so we wanted to wash her off a bit. We waited until this evening, set her in a dish tub with a couple inches of warm water, and were very gently rinsing her off underneath. She was doing pretty well and was alert and all, but then she just started spazzing and died. I guess the washing was just too much stress in her weakened state. I let her rest for hours between each thing, but she was just too far gone. What I think is that the lice (and possibly worms as well - don't know) weakened her enough that she became sick with some sort of respiratory disease, and it killed her. I will be dusting the rest of the flock tomorrow. Some of them are coughing a bit. Hopefully they will gain strength enough to get well on their own if I get rid of the lice. How often do you all dust your chickens? Do you do it twice a year, when you are worming them? - or more often? Again - thank you all for your concern and your helpful advice.

Sorry you lost her. External/internal parasites weaken a birds immune system to the point that they are susceptable to all kinds of diseases; bacterial, viral, or fungal. I recommend sevin dust to dust all your birds, redust them again in 7-10 days to kill nits hatched from eggs. Dust inside their coop, nests and roosts. Repeat again in 7-10 days.
As far as worming goes, it depends on your soil how often you should worm. If your soil is warm and moist most of the year, you may need to worm several times a year. I worm my birds once every 3 months or sooner, especially this past year with the 2 tropical storms we've had and afternoon storms. If you live in an area where the soil is cold mountainous or rocky, or very hot desertlike soil....you may need to only worm once a year. It all depends on your environment. I do not recommend worming during molt. The birds are already stressed during molt and use all their resources to regrow feathers, no need to increase stress. Some people still worm during molt, if you do, dont use fenbendazole/panacur. It will cause regrowing feathers to be blunted and crooked. The safest wormer on the market is valbazen (albendazole) cattle/sheep wormer.
Valbazen slowly kills all types of worms over a 3-5 day period of time. There's no need to worry about toxic dead worm overload using valbazen. Redose again with valbazen in 10 days after the initial worming to kill larva hatched from eggs.

 

[WhitWhit]

I am a newbie to chickens and to two yourng goat kids as well. The man I got the goats from said to take them to the vet in Chipley to be wethered shortly after Christmas which is when this act whould be done. Wouldn't the vet who sees goats know about chicken?. I know Chipley isn't that far of a drive from Dothan. It's a lil distance for me since I live on gulf coast. Anyway, I like going to Chipley since the nearest Tractor Farm Supply is where I like gettting supplies when I can. This thread has been very informative to me since I need to know how to worm and dust for lice/mites. I'm going to check my chickens for lice right not. I had just assumed they had no lice since they look really nice and healthy and I do examine throught their feathers on occasion. But the thourough check around the vents is what I haven't done. I currently have 3 4 month old bantam cochins and 4 four month old large chickens as well as 9 2-3 month old chick and 12 8-9 month old pullets, most of who have been laying eggs though not consistently yet. I am still afraid to worm them all but will do so after I thoroughly reread all this info on this thread again. I love BYC!

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Sorry you lost her. External/internal parasites weaken a birds immune system to the point that they are susceptable to all kinds of diseases; bacterial, viral, or fungal. I recommend sevin dust to dust all your birds, redust them again in 7-10 days to kill nits hatched from eggs. Dust inside their coop, nests and roosts. Repeat again in 7-10 days.
As far as worming goes, it depends on your soil how often you should worm. If your soil is warm and moist most of the year, you may need to worm several times a year. I worm my birds once every 3 months or sooner, especially this past year with the 2 tropical storms we've had and afternoon storms. If you live in an area where the soil is cold mountainous or rocky, or very hot desertlike soil....you may need to only worm once a year. It all depends on your environment. I do not recommend worming during molt. The birds are already stressed during molt and use all their resources to regrow feathers, no need to increase stress. Some people still worm during molt, if you do, dont use fenbendazole/panacur. It will cause regrowing feathers to be blunted and crooked. The safest wormer on the market is valbazen (albendazole) cattle/sheep wormer.
Valbazen slowly kills all types of worms over a 3-5 day period of time. There's no need to worry about toxic dead worm overload using valbazen. Redose again with valbazen in 10 days after the initial worming to kill larva hatched from eggs.

Dark Green = Something I failed to consider.
Fire Brick = Something I knew, and should not have failed to mention.
Medium Blue = Something that (believe it or not ~'-) I did not know ... I've seen no negative indications for Albendazole either, but I thought it was Fenbendazole that held top honors for safety, most esp. when treating very sick birds (proven safe to 1 full gram per kilogram, despite the mutation of feathers when administered during molt).