Sick Pullet-Never seen anything like this

[DantesInferno]

I have a little game bird, she's about fifteen weeks old and she got sick a couple days ago. Her feathers are completely fluffed out, she's unsteady on her feet, sleeps all the time, very cold, and every minute or so she stretches out her neck and 'yawns'. Her poop is normal, shes eating, and shes drinking.There's no coughing or sneezing and her poop is normal. I brought her inside when she began to look really bad. Is there anything I can do for her?

 

[ChicKat]

It sounds like your bird is really sick. If she is cold and ohio is cooling off...keep her comfortably warm....

If one of mine was "yawning", I would suspect gape worms...and deworm. Do you have a regular worming schedule?

If you want to talk to someone who will give you a call back -- for a charge of $25, you may want to talk to 'the chicken doctor' He is Dr. Peter Brown. You can contact him through this avenue. http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/

 

[DantesInferno]

Thank you, I was just able to figure it out from other posts on here. I got her some dewormer that we had already had, and I'd like to think she's looking slightly better. She's a darely little bird, and I wish I recconized it sooner. I hope she gets well soon.

 

[leadwolf1]

At 15 weeks, I wouldn't have expected an overload of worms. I would have expected Coccidiosis and that would have been how I would have treated. Corid in her water for 5 - 7 days.

 

[hokankai]

Gapeworm, absolutely. And hopefully you caught it in time! You can actually check by using a swab to swab the back of her throat and a flashlight and seeing if you can see thin red worms and/or blood in the back of her throat.

She may only be 15 weeks, but if she got a heavy initial dose then it doesn't take very long at all to get bad. It only takes 4-5 days for consumed larva to mature, and if the earthworms in your soil have a heavy gapeworm load then she'd have been to exposed to a lot of it.


Symptoms: classic "sick chicken" symptoms (fluffed out feathers, lethargy), coughing, weakness, closed eyes, emaciation, shaking the head, gasping with outstretched neck, wheezing, and bloody secretions in the trachea

Coccidiosis is a gastrointestinal parasite that wouldn't cause gaping and you would see changes in the stool, usually blood. I would deworm first and provide extra nutrition because deworming can take a lot out of them. I would keep her separated and confined while she's being dewormed because dying worms can be aspirated and kill her. She needs to be kept in a low-stress environment to prevent that from happening.

If symptoms persist after deworming (you should see a difference very quickly) and/or you find blood in the feces, then treat with Corid.

 

[DantesInferno]

I'm praying I did, and I'll be doing everything I can do for her, now that I know what's going on.

 

[leadwolf1]

Blood in the stool does not occur with every strain of Coccidia. It doesn't even occur often. Most cases of Coccidiosis will be fatal before blood is ever seen. If you wait to see blood, you will have dead chickens. There doesn't have to be a change in stool either. Again, your chickens could be dead before any changes in droppings are seen. That is the biggest mistake people make when dealing with Coccidiosis.

As for gapeworm. This is rare. Coccidiosis is very common. Especially this year that has been so hot.

OP if your bird continues to be sick after the deworming, treat with Corid. There are new strains of Coccidia effecting chickens that were not seen in the past. They are causing more symptoms in the chicken, the are deadly, and there aren't any changes seen in the droppings. These have been diagnosed by necropsy so there is no doubt as to what was the cause of death.

Gapeworm, absolutely. And hopefully you caught it in time! You can actually check by using a swab to swab the back of her throat and a flashlight and seeing if you can see thin red worms and/or blood in the back of her throat.

She may only be 15 weeks, but if she got a heavy initial dose then it doesn't take very long at all to get bad. It only takes 4-5 days for consumed larva to mature, and if the earthworms in your soil have a heavy gapeworm load then she'd have been to exposed to a lot of it.


Symptoms: classic "sick chicken" symptoms (fluffed out feathers, lethargy), coughing, weakness, closed eyes, emaciation, shaking the head, gasping with outstretched neck, wheezing, and bloody secretions in the trachea

Coccidiosis is a gastrointestinal parasite that wouldn't cause gaping and you would see changes in the stool, usually blood. I would deworm first and provide extra nutrition because deworming can take a lot out of them. I would keep her separated and confined while she's being dewormed because dying worms can be aspirated and kill her. She needs to be kept in a low-stress environment to prevent that from happening.

If symptoms persist after deworming (you should see a difference very quickly) and/or you find blood in the feces, then treat with Corid.

 

[ChicKat]

I'm praying I did, and I'll be doing everything I can do for her, now that I know what's going on.

Hi DantesInferno---

I'll say a little prayer for your chicken too. I hope that the wormer you used was one that will get into the bloodstream so that the gapeworms will be poisoned. Wazine is a wormer but it wouldn't help in this case. Best of luck!

 

[hokankai]

I'm aware that not all strains of coccidiosis cause blood in the stool. My parasitology professor did his Masther's research and thesis on coccidiosis in chickens and spent an entire lecture on it. Coccidiosis however does not cause respiratory symptoms, since the oocysts and sporozoites cannot survive in the respiratory tract.

Now, if the yawning was NOT a symptom and was just occurring when the OP noticed a problem, like the bird was trying to empty its crop, then I would suspect coccidiosis based on the lethargy. But if it is occurring at regular intervals and is a symptom I would look at diseases of the respiratory tract. I can't see the bird first hand, so I don't know what the yawning looks like.

Deworming only takes a couple days to treat and gapeworm can kill just as quickly as coccidiosis if she's near an obstruction...so it's up to the discretion of the OP what they want to treat first. Also, gapeworm prevalence varies by region and, just like coccidiosis, if it's in your soil then your birds are going to be exposed to it.

OP, here are some videos of chickens with really bad gapeworm and an overview of coccidiosis. Does she look like any of these? Also, what has the progression of her sickness been like? How long has she been sick?

 

[DantesInferno]

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She's looking alittle better since I dewormed her. I got her some meal worms, her favorite, and she perked up right away to get at them. She's looking pretty thin, but she looks like she's more awake and breathing better. She's a little fighter, no one in my family thought she would make it one more day. Thank you guys for your help.