Wet Looking Necks on MY Buffs

[baha54]

I lost one buff a few weeks ago and she just emaciated and showed no symptoms of disease but now i have another one but she has the wet look around her neck, and now thinking back i remember the one that died had the same as well what is this? and more importantly how do i treat it?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Are they loosing their feathers? Could you give a more detailed description and/or a picture to help us?

It could be they are molting. Sometimes new feathers coming in do have a wet look to them.

Or it could be something else...

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Wet necks can be from them wiping their faces as they preen if they have nasal drainage I have read.

Maybe that's it, maybe not.

I hope you find the answer.

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Have you checked them for mites?

 

[baha54]

I wish i could give u more detail and a pic but i have no more details than to say yes they are loosing feathers which could be moulting and i cant give a pic since i dont have a phone with a camera. all i know is she does come out and eat but then returns to the coop to sit in a corner all by herself. she seems not as plump either , we all know buff orphingtons are plump birds. there is no sign of drainage coming from her nose either. so i cant give u more details than that at this moment. but i lost the other one just a few weeks ago and dont want to loose this one. i cant seem to get anything else from the internet either. i cant believe no one has seen this.......it just seems like a wet neck but it cant be from rubbing and cleaning herself. I hope someone out there has seen this. I am so upset, i just increased their running area and they have a beautiful coop. I just dont know what i am doing wrong .......these birds were healthy boogers for the longest time and now i just dont know what is up. pls help. thanks,

 

[baha54]

i went and checked on the specific chicken once again this afternoon to see if i could see any physical symptoms, none, other than to say that her chest area feels deflated and she looks like she is loosing weight or not getting any nourishment but she is eating and she does not have mites, does this help anyone out there to assist me. i also checked her beak for mucus and none found...........that is about all i can say at this point. pls help.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Hmmmm... have you wormed them? Try worming with some Ivermectin and see if it helps. You'll need to pick up some syringes to give them a dose. There is a chart online that gives the dose for chickens - I can't remember what it is right off the top of my head.

To help her "fatten" up, you may want to supplement with more scratch grains and an electrolyte powder in their water. Keep them quarantined just in case it is something contagious.

ETA: What are you feeding them? What are their ages?

Another possibility could be cocci. After worming, give them some Sulmet antibiotic in their water (dosage is on the back of the bottle).

 

[baha54]

no i have never wormed them but i will go and get the medicine and feed it to them. i do feed them scratch and pellets which are purina and we get them greens and get whole wheat bread which they snack on and now with the cold weather they also get hot oatmeal which they love. thx for the info.

 

[Ondine30]

I have seen the wet looking neck problem that you are describing. I think it is a symptom of infection. I had a bird that had an eye infection and she has the wet neck appearance that you are describing. I think it's just the chicken is greasy/oily as a result of fighting the infection, if it progresses you will probably start to notice an odor as well. We are currently treating a chicken with an eye infection with Terramycin eye ointment and are seeing positive results. Don't be too upset, these things happen and your probably not doing anything wrong. I hope you figure out what the cause of the illness is. With the first sick chicken we had (again with the eye infection) we used we terramycin but it didn't work and then we used an injectable antibiotic and it seemed to work but once we stopped, the infection returned. We then tried Sulmet and did not have great results. I think she was too far gone. At that point we decided to stop treatment becaues we felt like we were battling the inevitable and sure enough she died. So sad, she was the sweetest bird. With this chicken we are just going to use the Terramycin and hope it continues to work. Just like humans, some chickens are just more able to fight off infections. It can't be great to use all those antibiotics bc eventually, whatever your fighting may become resistant. Based on that, we have made the decision that if the eye ointment doesn't work we will not pursue using the injectable. I do have a friend that had very positive results with Sulmet after one of her chickens was injured by a dog. I think the other poster may be onto something with the worming comment. Good luck and don't be hard on yourself! I've bet you've gotten sick plenty of times and it wasn't anything you were doing wrong, sometimes these things just happen.