Our silkie hen is 4-5 years old and started throwing up yellow-ish to clear liquid Tuesday (7/18) evening, wouldn't eat. Each day since, she has diarrhea (dark/clear), has eaten next to nothing, only a a few pecks of bread, tomato, and yogurt, which are things she normally would crave. We don't normally feed these things, but since she wasn't eating her crumble or any thing else, we got desperate. She has become pretty weak and a little wobbly on her feet, and doesn't move around much. She has no visible injuries. Wednesday afternoon, I took her to our avian vet who viewed microscope slides of her poop and crop content. She concluded no parasites, crop was clear/normal, no fungi, and she didn't feel any obvious lumps like turmors; she did indicate that she might not be able to detect things like a soft egg stuck, but I said she hasn't laid an egg in 6 months or so. She suspected there is some GI tract problem, maybe bacteria or she ate something toxic. She gave us a liquid antibiotic (Cipro) in case there is some bacterial infection and said slippery elm from a health food store may help relieve irritation. We've given her the antibiotic every 12 hours (AM & PM) since then, but silkie is not improving and we're hoping someone out there may have experienced this and have some info or advice. As good as our vet is, she doesn't always know things that the BC community knows. Other info, is her weight was a little light, but still normal, she is a free range bird with 11 other chickens that do not have symptoms. There are a three full-sized roosters on the property that do not like her so much, but she is good about avoiding them. She normally forages around the property all day and eats organic crumble and scratch, and there are a lot of weeds that might be toxic, there is oleander, but it's never been a problem for any of the chickens. Thanks!!!
