Sitting chook

[sankeyst]

questions:

1. What type of bird, age and weight? 3 chooks : Fayoumis, Plymouth Rock, Isa Brown all about 4 years old. The Plymouth is unwell. They all are on their roosts during the day.
2. What is the behaviour, exactly? Sitting most the day and maybe she’s a bit more pale than usual but I could be imagining that. She also smells bad.
3. How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? I notice a few days ago
4. Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma? Not visible
5. What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation? Not aware
6. What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Water & feed
7. How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. slightly runny and stuck on her features around exit
8. What has been the treatment you have administered so far? We cleaned her
9. What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Love to treat ourselves
10. If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. See below
11. Describe the housing/bedding in use: They are in a metal coop, with straw bedding or leave and a large run with greenery.
12. General health: We have been using Diatomaceous Earth Powder, insect powder and avi vital in their water as we have been treating mites. There are also brush hanging around that we haven’t been able to move on. The Isa Brown has blood on her comb. They are all not laying anymore.

 

[Debbie292d]

questions:

1. What type of bird, age and weight? 3 chooks : Fayoumis, Plymouth Rock, Isa Brown all about 4 years old. The Plymouth is unwell. They all are on their roosts during the day.
2. What is the behaviour, exactly? Sitting most the day and maybe she’s a bit more pale than usual but I could be imagining that. She also smells bad.
3. How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? I notice a few days ago
4. Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma? Not visible
5. What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation? Not aware
6. What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Water & feed
7. How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. slightly runny and stuck on her features around exit
8. What has been the treatment you have administered so far? We cleaned her
9. What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? Love to treat ourselves
10. If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. See below
11. Describe the housing/bedding in use: They are in a metal coop, with straw bedding or leave and a large run with greenery.
12. General health: We have been using Diatomaceous Earth Powder, insect powder and avi vital in their water as we have been treating mites. There are also brush hanging around that we haven’t been able to move on. The Isa Brown has blood on her comb. They are all not laying anymore.

When you said she stinks and has stuff stuck to her butt, I'll bet she's got a yeast infection back there. It's called vent gleet. If that's it, she needs probiotics both ingested and on her butt. Greek Yogurt is great, or anything else you have probiotic. We have Hydro Hen here or there's other products. Some use raw ACV in the water too. Monostat is a cream you can put on her butt.

As far as blood on the comb, could she have cut it or scratched it on something or got into a riff with another hen?

 

[sankeyst]

When you said she stinks and has stuff stuck to her butt, I'll bet she's got a yeast infection back there. It's called vent gleet. If that's it, she needs probiotics both ingested and on her butt. Greek Yogurt is great, or anything else you have probiotic. We have Hydro Hen here or there's other products. Some use raw ACV in the water too. Monostat is a cream you can put on her butt.

As far as blood on the comb, could she have cut it or scratched it on something or got into a riff with another hen?

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m doing them.

I’ve set out chook up into a sick bay so I can monitor her eating and drinking and follow your suggestions. I’ve noticed she seems to not be able to keep her body upright and is panting even though she’s in the shade and the temperature is very mild. She does eat and drink sometimes when i lift it to her. Is there anything I can do for her?

How do I know if she’s so unwell she needs to be put down?

 

[Debbie292d]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m doing them.

I’ve set out chook up into a sick bay so I can monitor her eating and drinking and follow your suggestions. I’ve noticed she seems to not be able to keep her body upright and is panting even though she’s in the shade and the temperature is very mild. She does eat and drink sometimes when i lift it to her. Is there anything I can do for her?

How do I know if she’s so unwell she needs to be put down?

The only other thing I can think of is if the mites are still getting the better of her. What is the insect powder you're using? You may need something stronger. If it's got Permethrin in it or is Seven, then along with your DE should be getting rid of those.

If you think they're still on your chickens, there are stronger things you can use. Two I know of but never used myself are Ivermectin Pour On and Elector PSP. The first one you can get in farm stores. The second one I heard is on eBay and Amazon and is very expensive.

If you go the route of Ivermectin, I found the dosage on post #13 here. That stuff is also said to get rid of internal worms too, although it's not the best product for that, but still, might help if they've also got worms. There is a 2-week egg withdrawal, but that doesn't matter if they aren't laying anyway. I would do this for all of your chickens.

 

[sankeyst]

The only other thing I can think of is if the mites are still getting the better of her. What is the insect powder you're using? You may need something stronger. If it's got Permethrin in it or is Seven, then along with your DE should be getting rid of those.

If you think they're still on your chickens, there are stronger things you can use. Two I know of but never used myself are Ivermectin Pour On and Elector PSP. The first one you can get in farm stores. The second one I heard is on eBay and Amazon and is very expensive.

If you go the route of Ivermectin, I found the dosage on post #13 here. That stuff is also said to get rid of internal worms too, although it's not the best product for that, but still, might help if they've also got worms. There is a 2-week egg withdrawal, but that doesn't matter if they aren't laying anyway. I would do this for all of your chickens.

I’ve noticed we don’t always have the products available here in Brisbane. I’ve attached a photos of what we’ve been doing. She’s taking food and water from us if we feed her but still looks weak.

 

[Sussex19]

I’ve noticed we don’t always have the products available here in Brisbane. I’ve attached a photos of what we’ve been doing. She’s taking food and water from us if we feed her but still looks weak.

I have found that product not to work well for mites. I know of a lot of people that use it, but for me it doesn't work. I suspect they have developed resistance to it.
One can get permethrin online here in Australia (sold for putting in walls and stuff, not for livestock; but its the same thing) and I have found that to work a lot better.
Ivermectin is sold for cows in most farm shops, and the dosing is the same as for cows and should be on the container. (it just needs some working out, because chooks are so much smaller then cows) Use a small syringe to get the right amount. You will find some people say use a certain amount of drops, don't do that as it is to inaccurate; get it right!

 

[Sussex19]

Oh, and mites live in the coop not on the chook. You don't say how you have been treating them, but if you are just treating the chook and not the coop you aren't doing anything. If the coop is made of wood, or anything else with cracks in it, you need to pull the whole thing apart and track down where they are living.

 

[Debbie292d]

I’ve noticed we don’t always have the products available here in Brisbane. I’ve attached a photos of what we’ve been doing. She’s taking food and water from us if we feed her but still looks weak.

I would definitely keep up the vitamins and try find permetherin or Ivermectin but check that post I linked for dosage.

You could try feeding her some scrambled egg yolk with a small amount of molasses or honey mixed in just to try to give her a little boost.

I hope she starts improving!