Vet says it is Trachitus but medcine is not working...any help?

[firehog]

I got that spelled wrong but my chicken is quite old (8) and she developed a yellow pus-like growth at the back of her throat and keeps trying to wretch up a clear sticky mucous like material.

I took her to the vet and she diagnosed her with Tracheitus and gave me two types of medicine to squirt down her throat . She told me it must touch the fungus to get rid of it, the medicine is not delivered through the bloodstream.

This poor chicken just hates getting treated twice daily with 2 syringes of this but with the meds almost gone, I noticed the growth or fungus had grown so much it almost shuts down her throat altogether.

Yesterday, in an act of desperation I had to go in with a sterile tiny screwdriver and scrape as much of the gunk out. It was obviously very painful for my chicken but she can at least swallow and drink now. I had to force feed some small pieces of steak down her to get some protein in her. I hate to hurt this dear old girl but I love her and don't want her to die.

I spent over $100 on the vet visit and can't really spend much more since the vet told me the chicken is very old and at the end of its life span already but I still would like to help her live a little longer.

Does anyone know of any medicine I can buy over the counter that would kill this fungus or deaden the pain around the area if I need to scrape more of it off in the future? Thanks.

 

[casportpony]

How does your vet know it was fungal? If it really is fungal, call back and ask for fluconazole instead, that is a better anti-fungal, IMO.

if it's not fungal, it could be canker or pox.

-Kathy

 

[chooks4life]

I'd be feeding her raw garlic, freshly minced or crushed, personally. Even topically it's a powerful antifungal, antimicrobial, antiviral (etc) medicine. A clove or two per day would help. It needs to be freshly cut or crushed before she eats it though, to get the best effects. You could mix it with something else she likes to eat if she's not keen. It may interfere with medication though. Most likely it wouldn't, but the possibility exists, so awareness is necessary.

Also, chickens aren't well suited to eating steak. For a protein boost I'd give her a raw or hardboiled egg, or something similar.

Lumps of red meat are difficult for their bodies to break up and process, and can cause excess fermentation and toxicity due to being so hard for them to digest. Mostly, they won't show a problem, but some die from it. An already weakened chicken should probably not have steak, to be on the safe side.

Best wishes and I hope you find a solution.

 

[casportpony]

Forgot to mention that fluconazole does enter the blood stream and that it is available OTC in Canada as Canesoral and in the US you can get it for tropical fish without a prescription, but it's probably easiest just to have your vet call it in to a pharmacy.

-Kathy

 

[firehog]

Thanks for the advice. The chickens really do love meat though, I buy discounted meat of all cuts and slice it up thinly and they go nuts for it. I have been feeding my sick chicken live earthworms too but she is so sick I need to open her beak and get the worm started before she will continue swallowing it. Her breath is just horrendously foul though. Garlic would be a huge improvement in breath odor so I will try the garlic.

 

[firehog]

Thanks, I will go to Petsmart and look under the fish aisle for this medicine. My girl is still alive but very sick and hardly weighs a pound. She would have died weeks ago if I did not force feed her and bring her in to the warm house every night. I have to "operate" on her every other day, scraping the yellow rubbery like clumps that are attached to the back of her throat.

 

[casportpony]

Thanks, I will go to Petsmart and look under the fish aisle for this medicine.  My girl is still alive but very sick and hardly weighs a pound.  She would have died weeks ago if I did not force feed her and bring her in to the warm house every night.  I have to "operate" on her every other day, scraping the yellow rubbery like clumps that are attached to the back of her throat.

Which medicine are you talking about, there are many...

-Kathy

 

[Eggcessive]

Your hen sounds more like she has canker or wet pox, since those are the only 2 diseases I know of with yellow cheesy patches in the throat. Flagyl / metronidazol / fishzole is the treatment for canker, and wet pox is a virus so antibiotics don't work. I would talk to the vet about that. http://www.avianweb.com/canker.html
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/154/trichomoniasis-canker-frounce

Here is a thread with canker and the treatment: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/835495/growth-in-chickens-mouth/30#post_12288481

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: While chooks certainly do love animal protein, they're not physically equipped to cope with red meat unless it's finely minced or of a size a chicken could tear off a corpse by itself, which is pretty tiny. But, if she's not dead yet, I'd guess you're probably chopping them small enough. It's not ideal though for a sick chicken because it's not a complete protein. Eggs are better. But, as always, do what you believe is best, and of course what works for one may not work for another.

Earthworms you may want to skip. My chooks will not touch them, and they can carry a lot of things you don't want to inflict on a chook.

If her breath is horrendously foul, it may be that the meat chunks are breaking down in an unhealthy way inside her, fermenting in a way that would be making her sick and doing further damage. That'd be the usual outcome from a chook eating too-large lumps of red meat. (Very fibrous and takes a lot of digesting). But that's possibly not the issue at all, it could be that growth making the stench.

"Trachitis" is a cover-all term which can be used interchangeably for many things. Plenty of vets are given the professional advice to never say they don't know what's wrong --- "invent something if necessary" --- as are plenty of doctors. (Obviously, I'm not saying to distrust or disregard all professionals, nor am I saying that they're all unethical, or anything like that... But if the vet is no help for whatever reason, you need to find the real issue and the real cure by yourself).

I would at least try giving her raw freshly minced garlic regularly. It's antiviral and a whole long list of other medicinal things... It can effect almost miraculous cures when all else fails.

It really does sound like wet pox to me, but of course I can't say for sure. Eggcessive's links may help. Best wishes.