Worms? sick chicken quarantined. heat lamp?

[CathyRN]

Hi everyone....well we have our very first sick chicken. We have 9 pullets, all 6.5 months old. Never had a problem. They eat layena layer feed and free range all day long. I put poultry vitamins in the water daily. When we got home today, we gave the chickens treats and they all came running, all except one of our barred rocks. She just stood there, didn't really move, her feathers puffed out a bit. Not interested in the treats at all....We picked her up and brought her to the patio and inspected her. No mites or lice. Vent looks fine except for sticky poop on the feathers in back. Her crop looks a bit dry but fine. Eyes fine. My husband said he saw the beak drip a bit of water, but she's not having any breathing issues. Definately lethargic....moves slow....not really interested in eating or drinking. Poop is watery brown with some foam in it. We quarantined her outside in a big cage with her own food/ water (with vit/ electrolytes) and I made her a scrambled egg (she only ate 2 bites).

My question is: we have her quarantine cage right outside our patio door so I can check on her......I have the cage covered up with a sheet....and a big log in it that she is roosting on for the night. She is fully feathered, but she won't be in the coop snuggling with the flock tonight and its gonna be 47 degrees down here in TN. Should I just hang a heat lamp in there to keep her warm since she's by herself? (I still have one left over from the brooder).................

Thanks everyone. I am headed to TSC tomorrow morning to get treatment for the worms.....I read that Ivermectin 1/4 cc in a large chicken is enough to worm, but is that a one time dose? and how long do I have to wait to eat the eggs? (I heard 2 weeks).........I've never wormed the flock so maybe I should do all of them even if the other girls are not showing any symptoms ??

 

[kathyinmo]

With the sticky poop on the feathers near the vent, I am guessing it is mites or lice. Often times they are very difficult to see.

Here is an excellent thread with all the instructions for using Ivermectin, which is used for worming and also does kill lice and mites.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2525157#p2525157

 

[CathyRN]

Awesome this is great, thanks !

 

[CathyRN]

Well I am sorry to report we lost our first chicken today. 24 hours after symptoms noticed. After the quarantined chicken died we noticed that one of our other chickens was acting lethargic, not right. And our whole flock used to give us 7 eggs daily and now its been only 4/day........

so we quarantined the other chicken and I ran to TSC this morning got a whole shloo of meds......wazine, vitamins without iron, tetracycline. s/w the lady at TSC, recommended I put the tetracycline in their water which I did at the recommended dose. I put like 5 different medicated waterers around the yard. All of the ladies, now we're down to 8, are drinking like mad. They are so thirsty today. All are eating, except the quarantined chicken isn't eating much but she is drinking alot. The only symptoms I'm noticing is the lethargy, and watery brown / whitish poop......the white part is kinda foamy.

Can I do the tetracycline and wazine together in the water or should I just stick with Tetracycline for now ?? I looked at the poop picture chart, and it kinda looks like a wormy poop but no visible worms seen, its so hard to look at these lists off the chicken disease books and figure out exactly what your bird has. No vets around here to chickens, closest vet I think is in Nashville, about 2.5 hours away.........the TSC didn't have Ivermectin for chickens only cattle......

 

[theCandEs]

Oh, no! I'm so worried about this. I think my chicken is showing the same symptoms. I'm sorry for your loss.