Apologies for the poor quality of the video.
The video is of a hen that we are currently caring for while her owners are away, she has been noticeably ill for around 4 days.
History - this hen has been under some stress for a while due to an infestation of ants in her home coop that her owners have been finding difficult to manage. She came to us 1.5 weeks ago (with her three sisters) for respite, however the move most likely increased her stress temporarily due to the change in environment + our four hens picking on the new arrivals (even though they are sisters - separated as pullets)
We live in a hot arid environment (central Australia), but there has been a significant increase in humidity, and some rain in the last couple of weeks. Their bedding and food however have remained dry. Their coop is filled mainly with eucalyptus mulch and they free range 6 hours a day.
They are fed on a mix of free range layer pellets, seed mix, scraps from the kitchen and free range.
Signs - first thing we noticed was that she was being separated from the rest of the group. She then became quite ill seemingly very suddenly with closed swollen eyes, noisy labored breathing, and is very weak/ lethargic. She also has very watery green diarrhea.
She is able to stand and walk, but mostly just stays in one place with her eyes closed and her tail and head down.
Her noisy breathing gets worse when she drinks and eats or when we medicate her (liquid meds)
She is still drinking and eating small amounts without assistance, but is losing weight unless we supplement with sub-cutaneous fluids.
She has no discharge from the eyes or nostrils.
She has no neurological signs
All of the other hens in the flock seem fine and are not showing any signed of illness.
Treatment so far - we are treating her with anti parasitics (ivermectin and fenbendazole), a broad spectrum antibiotic, anti inflammatories, and warmed sub-cutaneous fluids.
After four days of this treatment, she has shown no signs of improvement, but also has not deteriorated. So we are pretty sure that is is a viral infection of some sort - possibly with a secondary bacterial infection.
At this stage we are wondering if it is Infectious Bronchitis, and so we plan to continue the current treatment for 1-2 weeks to see if she rallies and fights it off on her own.
I'm keen to hear from anyone who has seen infectious bronchitis and can either confirm our rule out our suspicions, OR from anyone who has other ideas about what this might be.
The video is of a hen that we are currently caring for while her owners are away, she has been noticeably ill for around 4 days.
History - this hen has been under some stress for a while due to an infestation of ants in her home coop that her owners have been finding difficult to manage. She came to us 1.5 weeks ago (with her three sisters) for respite, however the move most likely increased her stress temporarily due to the change in environment + our four hens picking on the new arrivals (even though they are sisters - separated as pullets)
We live in a hot arid environment (central Australia), but there has been a significant increase in humidity, and some rain in the last couple of weeks. Their bedding and food however have remained dry. Their coop is filled mainly with eucalyptus mulch and they free range 6 hours a day.
They are fed on a mix of free range layer pellets, seed mix, scraps from the kitchen and free range.
Signs - first thing we noticed was that she was being separated from the rest of the group. She then became quite ill seemingly very suddenly with closed swollen eyes, noisy labored breathing, and is very weak/ lethargic. She also has very watery green diarrhea.
She is able to stand and walk, but mostly just stays in one place with her eyes closed and her tail and head down.
Her noisy breathing gets worse when she drinks and eats or when we medicate her (liquid meds)
She is still drinking and eating small amounts without assistance, but is losing weight unless we supplement with sub-cutaneous fluids.
She has no discharge from the eyes or nostrils.
She has no neurological signs
All of the other hens in the flock seem fine and are not showing any signed of illness.
Treatment so far - we are treating her with anti parasitics (ivermectin and fenbendazole), a broad spectrum antibiotic, anti inflammatories, and warmed sub-cutaneous fluids.
After four days of this treatment, she has shown no signs of improvement, but also has not deteriorated. So we are pretty sure that is is a viral infection of some sort - possibly with a secondary bacterial infection.
At this stage we are wondering if it is Infectious Bronchitis, and so we plan to continue the current treatment for 1-2 weeks to see if she rallies and fights it off on her own.
I'm keen to hear from anyone who has seen infectious bronchitis and can either confirm our rule out our suspicions, OR from anyone who has other ideas about what this might be.
