Sick Silkie

[ccttharris]

I have a 3 month ol Silke that is sick. She is lethargic, both eyes are swollen (partially shut), and now her droppings are green. Any ideas what may be wrong and how I might treat her?

 

[realsis]

hi sorry about your silkie. I have all silkies . this sounds like a respiratory illness to me. when my flock shows signs of respiratory illness I treat with tylan50. small birds 1/4 cc once daily in the breast muscle for 5 days. chick dose is one tenth of a cc given orally or in the back of neck once daily for 5 days.
large birds dose is 1/2 cc given once daily in breast muscle for 5 days. tylan50 is the antibiotic tylosin. its an excellent choice for respiratory symptoms. it had always been very successful in my flock. you can get the tylan50 at the feed store with the syringes. on the bottle of tylan it will say for cattle and swine
do NOT worry.MANY poultry owners including myself use Tylan50 with excellent results. when mine are ill I prefer to use injection as opposed to a water soluble antibiotic for a couple of reasons. one when they are ill they tend to drink less and with water soluble dose is contingent on amount drank. so dose is more consistent with an injection. secondly the injection gets into the blood stream faster than a water soluble dose. so it is in the body faster and at a more consistent dose. also dose is not dependant on amount drank. have you noticed any other symptoms with your bird? how is her breathing? is there any sound when she breathes? any mucus present? any sort of smell? is there any sneezing or coughing? usually swollen eyes are a symptom of respiratory issues. I do think tylan50 will help. when my youngest were 31/2 months old they developed sneezing and coughing with a small amount of mucus. I used tylan50 on them and their symptoms were gone before the 5th day. it does work very well. I really do hope this helps and I hope your silkie gets better soon! best wishes

 

[ccttharris]

Thank you so much for the info. I will check Tractor Supply to see if they have some Tylan 50. We went there this evening and picked up some Duramyacin-10 and started her on that.
I had been reading up on sick chicks on some of the threads and some had mentioned swollen crops. So I checked her for that and sure enough her crop is swollen and squishy. And she is still very lethargic. No smell, breathing problems or sounds, no coughing, sneezing or mucus. Really, no other symptom, except what I mentioned and now the swollen crop. I am new to chicken ownership and this is my first sick one. I just bought her this week and i am sure now, that she was sick when i got her. Unfortunately, I didn't know all the things to look for. But i am quickly learning with this sick little one. Poor little thing. I'm gonna do my best for her. I hope she pulls through.