What is up with this hen????

[girlsrule]

OK, my 4+ year old new hampshire hen has had quite a life, I cannot figure out what is going on with her now.

In March she had a impacted crop which was sucessfully treated with acidic foods, massaging, vomiting, food withholding, and house living. She returned to the coop, began laying again and was fine. Two weeks ago the following began:

Crop bloated, but with fluid only, lasted a few days, then resolved.

Seems weak, hangs out in one spot, moves slow, at times feet are curled, legs weak and wings flop.

Seems not to think of eating or drinking unless it is put in front of her, then will eat and drink.

Falls asleep while standing.

Painfully thin, crop is usually non existent.

Closes one or the other eye at different times for extended periods.

Constantly comes to the screen door to come in house, and then sleeps in her house basket until someone decides to put her out.

Droppings are mostly liquid with some watery white and minimal green.

Comb at times shrivelled and pink, but then returns to red and full

Contradictions to this:

She is as beautifull as ever with shiny feathers, clear eyes not a mite or other to be seen.

After laying in her basket like death itself will got out and trot along with the others.

When I'm convinced she will be dead in the morning wakes up looking happy/healthy, just slow.

Have I just created a monster who thinks she should live in the house and be hand fed by my children and watch tv and be petted all her life????

Is this residual from the crop issue in March???

Is she just old????

Any ideas would be great - everything I look up seems not to match all her symptoms.

 

[girlsrule]

oops

 

[threehorses]

First, can you tell us what exactly she's eating? Also include, please, all things like granite grit, oyster shell, etc.

Is she laying regularly when this happens?
Does she have any waxy exudate or redness around her vent?
Does she have excess calcium bumps on her eggs to show she's getting enough calcium?
Does she free range?
Has she ever had access to any wet feed, anything mildewy, wetted hay, etc?

I suspect that she might be having issues with fungus. The slow crop certainly indicates a possibility of Candida (yeast/fungus) overgrowth. Candida in its pathogenic form is a fungus, and fungal mycotoxicosis can show itself in slight paralysis or curling toes. So can vitamin B deficiency.

I would also want to rule out a calcium deficiency, which might be tied in with fungus as birds who have mycotoxicosis also tend towards oil vitamin deficiency/non-absorbtion. That would include the very important vitamin D which has to do with egg laying.

Her behavior reminds me of a hen who is almost egg bound who finally passes the egg and trots off.

They may all be tied in together.

What I would do would be a two week treatment based on symptoms as of course without a vet it's not likely that we can give a true 100% diagnosis online. But the treatment will NOT hurt and certainly might help.

First, I would start her back on a good probiotic or yogurt. Yogurt might be a plus as it's vitamin D fortified. I would also at least put her on polyvisol vitamins. (Which vitamins did you use before with her?) Alternately, you could do cod liver oil, vitamin E supplementation with selenium (see below), and a B complex vitamin or brewer's yeast. for the vitamins.

I think the polyvisol is the safest option and provides A, D, E, and some B. You could add brewer's yeast to that or the B complex without fear or overdoing anything. I would at least do that - one week of daily treatment, one week of tapering off.

I would not go simply with a vitamin/mineral in the water. For the water, I would use organic apple cider vinegar again at the rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. Do that for a week, taper off the following week.

For this week, make sure she's eating mainly the crumbles or laying pellets again and easily digested foods like boiled (not scrambled) egg yolk (not whites), perhaps some cooked oatmeal but very little (only to hide something like vitamins or yogurt), but mainly a good laying feed. dampen it if you must.

Are you feeding her many grains in her diet? What's her full diet in fact?

Polyvisol - buy the non-iron formula. I bought mine at Walmart int he vitamin section. There you can also find B-complex vitamins, E vitamin capsules 400-700 IU with selenium LESS THAN 50 MICROgrams. (Micrograms are listed as ug, not mg.) You might find cod liver oil to use alternately to polyvisol but at least bbuy the polyvisol.

The polyvisol will go directly in the beak, 3 drops daily for a week then taper off. The E/selenium can be feed in addition to the polyvisol by slitting the capsule's end and giving drops in the beak. The B complex vitamin (or brewers yeast) you will make into a powder and use in a quickly eaten wet mash. If it's a small amount of mash, and really something she likes (mashed egg yolks for example) you might be able to hide the E in it as well.

If you use the cod liver oil it's 2 drops twice a week, still do the E/sel daily, still do the B daily. NO polyvisol in this case. Do one week - taper off. Still use yogurt and OACV.

E is helpful for neurological support and healing and selenium is important to that if you use the right kind. B is for some forms of paralysis like curled toes. AD in the cod liver or polyvisol are other oil-vitamins that are deficient in birds who have fungal issues. (Soured crop creates fungal issues. If the bird didn't relapse, I wouldn't worry about it. But a relapse indicates that she might have the yeast/fungus.) D is particularly important if she havin gto work hard to make egg shells - maybe they're not firming up quickly enough inside of her, thus her nest struggle.

That's my recommendations. It could be she's not absorbing stuff as well because she's older - just needs a little help. Remember that four years of the usual parasites means her gut is scarred and less able to absorb nutrients through the scarred tissue. These hens often also need more supplemented calcium (oyster shell) and more attention to the related D vitamins in healthy birds, much less those who were exposed to fungus systemically and possibly have a latent oil vitamin deficiency.

 

[girlsrule]

Hi, wow that's a lot!!!

OK, she has not been laying at all since these symptoms arose. And prior to that only about once a week, but nice looking eggs.

She eats layer pellets. They are free ranged anywhere from 2 hours a day to 8 hours. They have a road gravel, ash, sand mix in the large run. I add oyster shell to the food. They are given fresh fruits and veggies. A scratch mix or oatmeal very sparingly ( usually only to bribe everyone into the run if we need them to go home).

They have never had any wet things on my accord, I clean the run of any left over treats immediately after feeding, food and water changed daily, runs raked. It has been a very very wet spring and summer here in NH (record breaking) so perhaps when roaming she is getting in to something, but honestly she spends most of her time on my deck or watching tv.

After the original crop impaction in March I did feed her yogurt for several weeks. I can give her more.

I have never added any vitamins, but I will start that - I thought that between the free ranging, etc. they would have access to all they needed but I am very new to this. Have had chickens for only 1 year.

If it was a vitamin, fungus problem wouldn't I be seeing this in everyone else?? Or maybe just because she is weakened from the crop issue?

Thanks so much - I have six girls but honestly with all the togetherness after the original crop impaction I must admit she is my favorite!!

 

[koontzfarm]

We have an 8 week old chick with an eye problem. The eye is swollen & has white drainage, that kinda looks like the white of a softly boiled egg. Can't tell if it is between the two eyelids or actually on the eye itself. We have been using Gentamicin Sulfate Ophthalmic Solution USP,0.3%, about four drops daily in the eye. We have the VetRx coming in Friday. Just wondering if there was anything else that we could do to help her.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Can you possibly start a separate thread and PM me with the link? I'll respond there to 'bump' your thread. We'd like you to get your own separate good help, and let this thread stay as it is so both people get customized health.

thanks.