Vaguely Sick Chicken - So Frustrating!

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

If her crop was full last night, and empty this morning, I would put her back out with the flock today to see if she eats and is less depressed. That is just my opinion, but use your own judgement. Rather than giving seeds and oats, I would put out the usual chicken feed, and mix some in a pan with water. Mine usually all attack that at once.

I might do that. I'm just worried that I won't be able to tell if/how much she eats if she's with the others. Her crop was only full because we made focused efforts to get her there, and it wasn't easy. She won't go for the wet mash (that's how I discovered she was off to begin with... She's usually a mash eating machine). The weird thing is she did her normal territorial displays when the mash was out, intimidating others from the bowl but then wouldn't eat it.

She pooped again, normal color but a little on the wet side. She ate corn kernels, meal worms, and sunflower seeds but none of the good stuff (feed).

I have a vet coming to the house tomorrow to look at her. She said just focus on making sure she eats anything (within reason) as long as it's something to keep her from shutting down in the meantime. Fingers crossed we get some answers.

 

[Eggcessive]

Will she eat scrambled egg or tuna? My sick chickens will eat those, even with a poor appetite. A vitamin might be useful as well. B Complex (not B12) 1/4 tablet daily can help. Poultry NutriDrench or similar is good too.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

Will she eat scrambled egg or tuna? My sick chickens will eat those, even with a poor appetite. A vitamin might be useful as well. B Complex (not B12) 1/4 tablet daily can help. Poultry NutriDrench or similar is good too.

No scrambled eggs, we tried that yesterday. I will try tuna this afternoon. I put some rooster booster in her water (I don't have b complex on hand). On the fence about bringing her out. I want her to be happy but I also want to know exactly how much she's eating and whether she's got something contagious.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

She is now having mostly watery light green diarrhea. It bears some similarities with what our BO pullet was going through some months ago, but the interest in food is a bit lower in the current case. The BO's stool samples had come back clear, but we put her on Amoxycillin and Corid and she ended up fully recovering. It was a long, slow, progress though. I'm wondering if it could be related...

I wish chickens could speak (in human English)! It's so hard when they're suffering and you don't know what to do to help them.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

@Eggcessive @Kiki it was bumblefoot. Both feet. Said it might be causing all the systemic issues but poop looked okay and no signs of egg binding or anything. Vet soaked, drained, and booted. We'll need to soak and change bandages 2x daily. Should I also give fish mox (amoxicillin) as a second line of treatment?

 

[Soy Milano]

I donno, you could play around with the chicken symptom checker tool and see what it gives you - http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php

 

[casportpony]

I donno, you could play around with the chicken symptom checker tool and see what it gives you - http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php

Why do you keep posting that?

 

[casportpony]

She is now having mostly watery light green diarrhea.

Can you post some pictures of her poop? Can you start weighing her daily?

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

Can you post some pictures of her poop? Can you start weighing her daily?

It ended up being bumblefoot. It was causing her pain and her appetite dwindled. I noticed when I can't keep her crop full she gets the runs but when I get her eating her poop returns to normal. Hoping she pulls through! The vet removed the plugs but her feet still look sore. Meantime I'm getting her to eat extremely watery mash regularly and changing her dressing every day.