Tilhana
Songster
Hi everyone, I've been finding answers to my chicken-related questions on this forum for a while but I'm finally starting a thread because this is the first time I've been unable to find a satisfactory answer. This is going to be a long post because I figure the more details, the easier it is to answer a question. But feel free to skip to the recap of symptoms at the end if it's tl;dr.
About a week ago I noticed one of my hens, a roughly 12 month old copper maran, acting sick. She would sleep in the middle of the day - not normal catnaps but apparently deep sleep, with her head under her wing, and wouldn't even notice when I'd let them out in the afternoon to free range. She also started sleeping on the floor in the corner of the coop instead of on a perch.
After about 2-3 days of these behaviors starting I started to worry she was sick and separated her from the flock and put her in the "hospital box". It wasn't until I picked her up that I realized she'd lost a lot of weight; she seemed like only half the size of the other birds. For the next couple days she got worse - she'd just sleep in the box, barely ate or drank. She pooped all over the box, really wet, yellow poop that smelled bad. My sense of smell is really weak so I can't really be more specific how the smell compared to that of a healthy chicken pooping in a box...I just know I kept having to add woodchips.
After a day or two in isolation, I noticed she had a big wad of yellow pus in one eye. I did some research and thought it might be an eyeworm. I ordered Vetrx same day but while waiting for it to come I did some at home treatments: made a solution of a few drops of tea tree oil and peppermint oil in a olive oil to dilute it, and applied it the same way you'd apply Vetrx (to the roof of her mouth with a q-tip). Also put diatomaceous earth in her eye, and flushed out the pus with baking soda in water solution and by gently applying pressure with a q-tip to coax the congealed mass out.
I did all these things once or twice daily for about 2 more days, then switched from the home oil mixture to Vetrx when it arrived yesterday. During this time, I thought she might be improving a little. I started letting her free range while the other chickens were in the fenced-in run. She seemed to enjoy the sun, would wander around and eat some grass, picked at her grains occasionally, and napped in the sun the rest of the time. She did have some trouble walking sometimes, though. She'd walk like she was dizzy and kind of stumble to one side like she couldn't keep her balance. But this was only occasionally. At the time I suspected some neurological issues from the worm, or even a headache, but it could also have been grogginess or congestion or who knows what else.
When I cleaned out her eye though, no matter how much of the pus I managed to remove, there was always more in there. It came from underneath her upper eyelid, towards the front. There must have been a huge reservoir of it in her forehead or something, because I got out quite a bit of it this morning and there was still more in there, but I gave up because I didn't want to hurt her eye. I figured I'd flush it out again tonight once it had time to work its way to the front again. Also her eye underneath was cloudy. I still don't know that much about chicken anatomy - I know there's a third eyelid but where is it? Was it closed and that's why I couldn't see her actual eye? The other eye looked totally normal: iris, pupil, etc. But the inflamed eye was like a cloudy translucent orb with pus around it.
I thought she had at least a few days for the treatment to work. I didn't think an eyeworm could kill that easily, and she was still eating. But this morning I put her outside again and when I checked on her a few hours later, she was dead. Poor girl must have just keeled over. I'm glad her suffering is over but sorry I couldn't save her...now I'm wondering if my initial diagnosis was wrong. I guess it could have been coryza, but I didn't see any symptoms of a respiratory issue. Never saw her cough, or wheeze, or indicate any trouble breathing. Plus if it was coryza, I'd think the other chickens would be showing symptoms by now. So far I've seen nothing unusual with any of them. She also didn't scratch at her eye like they do with eye worms. Could it have been something else?
To recap, the symptoms I noticed were:
-reduced appetite
-extreme fatigue
-copious amounts of yellow pus in eye; eye sealed shut sometimes
-diarrhea(?)
-intermittent difficulty walking/balancing
And it was about 7 days, give or take, between the first onset of (apparent) symptoms and death.
I'm trying to figure out what this was, because I'm worried for my other 11 hens that lived with her. Additionally, I have 19 chicks in a brooder right now that I'm planning to eventually introduce to the flock. So if there's an endemic illness brewing in the flock I want to get it gone before I bring in young pullets in a couple months.
Does anyone have any thoughts or follow up questions? I appreciate any expertise that anyone's willing to share! This is only my third year raising hens and I'm still learning new things all the time.
About a week ago I noticed one of my hens, a roughly 12 month old copper maran, acting sick. She would sleep in the middle of the day - not normal catnaps but apparently deep sleep, with her head under her wing, and wouldn't even notice when I'd let them out in the afternoon to free range. She also started sleeping on the floor in the corner of the coop instead of on a perch.
After about 2-3 days of these behaviors starting I started to worry she was sick and separated her from the flock and put her in the "hospital box". It wasn't until I picked her up that I realized she'd lost a lot of weight; she seemed like only half the size of the other birds. For the next couple days she got worse - she'd just sleep in the box, barely ate or drank. She pooped all over the box, really wet, yellow poop that smelled bad. My sense of smell is really weak so I can't really be more specific how the smell compared to that of a healthy chicken pooping in a box...I just know I kept having to add woodchips.
After a day or two in isolation, I noticed she had a big wad of yellow pus in one eye. I did some research and thought it might be an eyeworm. I ordered Vetrx same day but while waiting for it to come I did some at home treatments: made a solution of a few drops of tea tree oil and peppermint oil in a olive oil to dilute it, and applied it the same way you'd apply Vetrx (to the roof of her mouth with a q-tip). Also put diatomaceous earth in her eye, and flushed out the pus with baking soda in water solution and by gently applying pressure with a q-tip to coax the congealed mass out.
I did all these things once or twice daily for about 2 more days, then switched from the home oil mixture to Vetrx when it arrived yesterday. During this time, I thought she might be improving a little. I started letting her free range while the other chickens were in the fenced-in run. She seemed to enjoy the sun, would wander around and eat some grass, picked at her grains occasionally, and napped in the sun the rest of the time. She did have some trouble walking sometimes, though. She'd walk like she was dizzy and kind of stumble to one side like she couldn't keep her balance. But this was only occasionally. At the time I suspected some neurological issues from the worm, or even a headache, but it could also have been grogginess or congestion or who knows what else.
When I cleaned out her eye though, no matter how much of the pus I managed to remove, there was always more in there. It came from underneath her upper eyelid, towards the front. There must have been a huge reservoir of it in her forehead or something, because I got out quite a bit of it this morning and there was still more in there, but I gave up because I didn't want to hurt her eye. I figured I'd flush it out again tonight once it had time to work its way to the front again. Also her eye underneath was cloudy. I still don't know that much about chicken anatomy - I know there's a third eyelid but where is it? Was it closed and that's why I couldn't see her actual eye? The other eye looked totally normal: iris, pupil, etc. But the inflamed eye was like a cloudy translucent orb with pus around it.
I thought she had at least a few days for the treatment to work. I didn't think an eyeworm could kill that easily, and she was still eating. But this morning I put her outside again and when I checked on her a few hours later, she was dead. Poor girl must have just keeled over. I'm glad her suffering is over but sorry I couldn't save her...now I'm wondering if my initial diagnosis was wrong. I guess it could have been coryza, but I didn't see any symptoms of a respiratory issue. Never saw her cough, or wheeze, or indicate any trouble breathing. Plus if it was coryza, I'd think the other chickens would be showing symptoms by now. So far I've seen nothing unusual with any of them. She also didn't scratch at her eye like they do with eye worms. Could it have been something else?
To recap, the symptoms I noticed were:
-reduced appetite
-extreme fatigue
-copious amounts of yellow pus in eye; eye sealed shut sometimes
-diarrhea(?)
-intermittent difficulty walking/balancing
And it was about 7 days, give or take, between the first onset of (apparent) symptoms and death.
I'm trying to figure out what this was, because I'm worried for my other 11 hens that lived with her. Additionally, I have 19 chicks in a brooder right now that I'm planning to eventually introduce to the flock. So if there's an endemic illness brewing in the flock I want to get it gone before I bring in young pullets in a couple months.
Does anyone have any thoughts or follow up questions? I appreciate any expertise that anyone's willing to share! This is only my third year raising hens and I'm still learning new things all the time.
