Unkown problem/very poorly hen, any advice appreciated...

[purpletree23]

Does she have pin feathers in place of the feathers that are falling out or is there just a small hole where the feathers were?

If she doesn't have pin feathers she might have botulism. Did she get into wet or moldy feed or into a compost pile? If yes you might want to search for botulism. There is a flush made with molasses and then you reintroduce food soft foods and work your way up to 'regular' chicken food.

threehorses had a wonderful post about it. She gives step by step instructions.

 

[kellybelly]

Hi,
there are pin feathers so I am guessing that the feather loss is normal moulting.

She seems to have gone downhill a bit more. Today I fed her some Yakult (probiotic yoghurt drink) mixed with oatmeal and she gobbled it up. after she had a rest I tried to set her outside with the others and when she tried to walk she fell over and couldnt "right" herself. I brought her back in the house and cuddled her for a bit. She, for the first time, held her beak open and kept it like that for a minute. She didnt seem to be trying to catch her breath or anything like that, she was just holding it open. I put her back in her box and she closed her beak after another minute or so. She is sitting in the box with eyes closed now. Is the "open beak" a symptom of something?

As I mentioned earlier, I was concerened about mouldy pellets in the run..maybe she ate some and that is what made her sick? We do not have a compost pile but one day I saw one of our other girls running around with something big and strange in her mouth, I chased her and found it was a portion of a dead frog! I got it away from her but I suppose chickens can find weird things hidden in corners of a garden...This happened after Winnie was already sick so that particular frog was not the issue but just an example of how they could find yucky things...

I am going to speak to a different vet today and if they have no ideas I may try the "flush"...

If it was botulism, could it go for almost 2 months? Are there other illnesses which can go on for that long?

 

[Nif]

My hens catch and eat frogs often...they have never acted sick after wards. Just a little protein snack!
I would keep Winnie in, and I don't think it would hurt to give her a little flush. Did you find the thread on that?

Here's threehorses remedy:

1/8th a teaspoon (or less) of molasses
1 teaspoon of applesauce (I Buy babyfood applesauce and freeze the rest in pieces in a ziplock for later use)
1 teaspoon plain yogurt
a little honey (1/2 teaspoon or so?)
Just enough very hot water to stir with an liquefy the honey and molasses before adding other ingredients.
Just enough crumbles when, stirred with other ingredients at the end, makes a "fluffy" and slightly moist mash when allowed to set a couple of minutes.​

 

[kellybelly]

HI, Thanks so much for "recipe". I did see a post about a "flush" but that seemed to involve putting a tube down her throat and pouring the mix down and said it was quite dangerous. Is that what this receipe is for? Seems like it would be too thick. Sorry if that sounds stupid...

I forgot to mention on my previous post that her poo is now very green. I am going to do some "research" to see what that may mean but any advice about that would be great...

Thank you,
Kelly

 

[Nif]

Sure, thanks to threehorses, she's the mastermind. I haven't had experience with green poop.
No, that is not a stupid question! I don't think you need to force feed her. Just mix it up and let her eat it by herself.
If she doesn't want to eat it, if you hold it up for her she might become interested and peck at it.
I am pretty sure that you are to mix all that stuff up together with crumbles for them to peck at.
Do that today and then tomorrow I think you are suppose to do the same but take out the molasses. The molasses is the cleanse part. The other things help bring the stomach bacteria back to normal.

 

[kellybelly]

Hi,
Ok, I gave her the mixture yesterday evening. She ate all of it. She seemed to have an improvement for a few minutes because she stretched her head up to look at us over the box she is in and did that for a few mins.

This morning, she looked the same as before. I gave her the mix again, this time without the molasses, she ate almost all of it. I put her back in the box and she could barely stand, she kept falling over. Oddly, her head is not as crooked as it has been. She does not hardly any water from me and I havent seem her drink it on her own.

There is poo in the box, runny and an orange-ish colour with some white. I can see some minor specks of red in it too.

Her vent area has always been clean but today I see there is some poo around there but I guess this could be because she is in a fairly small box and has probably sat in it. I know this sounds weird but I did notice that the vent itself is a sort of dark grey colour??

Should I keep giving the mixture? without the molasses? Should I give her any other food as well as the mix?

I am sorry to take up so much of your time here.............

Kelly

 

[Judy]

I suspect the odd poo colors are mostly a result of what she has/has not been taking in. Green poo has more than one cause but can often be just bile from not eating enough. The red flecks might well be cecal poo. The white is probably just their version of urine.

What bothered me about this report is the bad smell. That is a red flag for coryza. I am certainly no expert, nor a vet, so this is just a suggestion for something to research.

I wish you well.

Oh, perhaps these sites on poo will help a bit:

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=poos&action=display&num=1158478320

The second site has a tremendous amount of information on chicken illnesses. I'm sure you can find info on coryza there.

 

[kellybelly]

Hi, thank you for the info and links. I will save the links because there is so much excellent info in there.

after reading about coryza, I dont think that is what she has because she has no nasal issues, no "disharge", no breathing problems and no eye problems. she does seems to have some swelling to her comb which she has had since the begginning of all this trouble but the other symptoms of coryza are not at all apparent.

I will keep this in mind though just in case those symptoms begin...Thank you so much.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
I have no idea what to make of the swelling in the comb, or the bad smell, then.

What about worms? Have you wormed her?

I must agree I would be suspicious of her eating something that is not good for her, too.

If I were you, I would PM threehorses or dlhunicorn with a link to this thread.

 

[happi752]

it sounds to me like to poor thing has a fracture in her neck. If this is the case, she will not get better, and will eventually die. Would be better if you put her out of misery.

Depending on where in the neck the fracture is, it could pinch nerves that affect ability to balance, hold head up, see, poop, lay eggs, could even cut off blood supply to different parts of her body such as her vent, which would then make it then look grey.

the fracture itself will heal over time, but it will not correct the problems she is having and as it heals the healing could cause worse symptoms or even more symptoms.

Also with a fractured neck, it could cause her reproductive system to not function properly, and an egg could rot inside of her and cause the bad smell and kill her slowly and painfully from massive infection.