Weird Chicken Movement - Gapeworm, other??? Video included

[tulie13]

This is a video of our chicken, who has been sick with coccidiosis and possibly clostridium. After anti-coccidiosis meds and antibiotics, she developed sour crop. Her left eye keeps wanting to goop/crust shut, and she started doing this weird series of movements several days ago. We thought maybe gapeworm, but no evidence of gapeworm by looking down her throat or swabbing with a Q-Tip. Any ideas???

She's not eating much, but does like to pick at the green stuff in the yard (as shown in the video). Mostly we are shoving Nutri-Drench down her throat, and also water. We have stopped flushing the crop at this point because it isn't re-bloating any more (no more big squishy crop/gassiness). She does have some stones/gravel in her crop that we could never get out, but other than that, her crop seems to stay mostly empty the last couple of days.

There is a small bump behind her left eye, I can try to get a picture of that if anyone thinks it may be related. All of the flock is ALSO having issues with a pox outbreak - I believe it's DRY fowl pox, as there has been no evidence of lesions in the mouth, on this chicken or any of the others. They all have the classic beige lesions on the comb/wattles that turn black over time. However, there are some that look like they also have a black scabby structure on their beaks in places - I didn't think pox could do that???

Everyone else in the flock has perked up to the point where they come a-running when I go out there, to see what I have brought them. This girl is still having a rough time.

Any thoughts/ideas would be helpful.

 

[KMHunter]

Poor girl! She looks like she really doesn't feel well. She looks like she has more than one problem going on, but I am not an expert. I hope someone with more experience come on this thread and has some good advice. Do you have her isolated? I would definitely start by separating her from the flock and make sure you get water into her. And try her favorite treats to maybe get her to eat something.

 

[tulie13]

Thanks - replying to this with a title change and a little "bump". I really don't want to lose this one, too.

She sleeps a lot, and doesn't eat much, but she was more interested in the pellets this afternoon...

 

[JakRat]

are they seeing a vet? have they suggested polyvisol baby vitamins? not sure if that would work, but it might be something to ask about.

 

[tulie13]

Quote:
There is only one vet in the area that might even consider seeing a chicken, I have been working with a vet from Univ. of FL remotely with pics and video.

I have been giving the Nutri-Drench, which is the "chicken version" of the Poly-Vi-Sol. I have ordered a ton of stuff from Jeffers Vet Supply for these birds, the first problem I had to deal with was the coccidiosis outbreak and several went down fairly quickly with that. This is "the aftermath", and the last chicken that just plain looks like she feels like crap.

The vet from the Univ of FL called me this morning, and he thinks that she "wants" to scratch that eye but is afraid to, as she may have done that once and it hurt really badly.

Her crop is now hard like a golf ball, instead of a big soft squishy tennis ball, so I think we are now PAST the sour crop. I just have to get that stuff moving - gave her some Kickin Chicken Omega 3 oil supplement, figure it will lube that junk up AND give her some good nutrition/calories. She will also be getting green stuff (weeds - she really loves them!) and Nutri-Drench and of course, water. I'll give her some pellets later, but she doesn't seem to be very interested in them, mostly throws them around.

She's my "problem child".

I think she's going to make it - this morning her comb color looked better, more rosy red than purplish red. And she was up and about without me having to go in the coop and get her off the roost. She's still a little slow moving, and has lost weight (all of them have!) but I think she's going to make it with just a little more TLC and hopefully no more "extreme measures" (injections, crop flushing, etc.).