Vet visit and sick hen update

[lfoose]

The other day I made a post about my hen Penny that became sick rather quickly. Well after a couple of days of antibiotics in the water and no improvement, I took her to the vet. While he was very nice and said he has taken care of chickens before, I don't know that he was all that knowledgable. But then again, who am I to talk about chicken knowledge.

He seemed pretty confident that this was a virus and will kill her. But he he cleaned off her eyes and took some blood to be tested. I get those results in 10 days. In the meantime, I am to give her Doxycyline 2 x's a day for 10 days and hope she lives and it hasn't infected my other chickens.

The visit was $100. He did say though that if Penny showed improvement and the others became ill, he'd give me more meds w/o having to bring each one in for a visit.

I sure hope Penny gets better.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Well, that was certainly helpful...

If it IS a virus, antibiotics aren't going to do much...

for Penny's recovery and please let us know what the culture finds.

 

[lfoose]

My thoughts exactly!

When the vet talked about her possibly having a virust that could wipe out the whole flock, my husband and I looked at each other and both said, "figures". See if it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.

But, yes, I'll update on Penny's results.

 

[hencackle]

Have you heard of Sambucol, made from black elderberries? It is used for viruses and I don't see why it couldn't be used for a chicken with a viral infection. You can find it at a health food store and it tastes delicious, so I don't think it would be hard to get a bird to take a small spoonful.
Sambucol fights bird flu
Stephanie

 

[dlhunicorn]

If you decide to use this (the elderberry product) I would be careful on the amount (two or three drops would seem to me to be a "safer" amount all things considered)...
I did a cursory search on it and it would be better if you use the childrens formulation as this does not contain the zinc that the adult formulation does. As this is a well known dieuretic it would not be suitable for those birds that are drinking insufficiently and therefore where dehydration can be expected.