Wyandotte pullet presenting with weight loss, lethargy, and some raspy breathing

[bonjourbunnie]

Hello! I have a four, almost five month old silver wyandotte pullet who has rapidly lost weight and is acting lethargic. Her comb is pale and shrivelled, and she was shivering when I brought her in, despite it being 90+ here today. She had a few raspy sounding breaths as I was getting some Nutridrench in her, but it's not consistent. Most of her breathing seems steady and okay. She was acting a bit off, yesterday, but she's definitely worse today.

I have brought her inside to better monitor her droppings, so I should be able to give an update on those soon. **Update: her droppings are solid, but are green with urates and have a unique odor

She's eating and drinking okay. I have given her high protein crumble and chick starter, which is my go to for young birds who are under the weather, and she has scrambled eggs cooling down now.

Any ideas or suggestions on the next steps to take to help her out? I searched the forums but haven't found anything that fully lines up with her situation, so I figured I'd just ask to get her help asap while I keep looking through to see if I can't find a good thread to help.

 

[azygous]

Was this chick bought from a feed store, local breeder or hatched from your own flock? This is important.

The pale comb is a road sign pointing to an avian virus, specifically lymphoid leucosis. There is a chance she has a respiratory disease, and you should treat for that. You would need to buy this. https://jedds.com/products/amoxy-tyl?_pos=3&_sid=cb74b4579&_ss=r It will treat a number of things including Mycoplasma a common respiratory disease.

This will either make her better or do nothing at all, in which case it becomes more likely she has the avian virus.

 

[bonjourbunnie]

Was this chick bought from a feed store, local breeder or hatched from your own flock? This is important.

The pale comb is a road sign pointing to an avian virus, specifically lymphoid leucosis. There is a chance she has a respiratory disease, and you should treat for that. You would need to buy this. https://jedds.com/products/amoxy-tyl?_pos=3&_sid=cb74b4579&_ss=r It will treat a number of things including Mycoplasma a common respiratory disease.

This will either make her better or do nothing at all, in which case it becomes more likely she has the avian virus.

She was purchased at Tractor Supply as a few day old chick along with some other silver wyandottes. She's the only one in their little flock acting sick currently.

I am probably going to euthanize her today as she is no longer eating and seems to be extremely unwell. I haven't heard any raspy breathing since last night, but she's just sitting there proofed up and sleeping, even when I hold her. What should I look out for in her flock mates?

 

[azygous]

That is reassuring information. It cuts the odds of this being an avian virus. Get the med ordered and get her started on it. Hopefully, she'll pull through this.

 

[bonjourbunnie]

That is reassuring information. It cuts the odds of this being an avian virus. Get the med ordered and get her started on it. Hopefully, she'll pull through this.

Thank you! I certainly hope she does, too. I was hoping to be able to integrate them with our blue laced gold wyandotte flock (they're a few weeks younger) this week, but I will hold off on those plans until I'm sure everyone is okay.

 

[azygous]

Wise decision. If she does have an avian virus, you don't want to infect the other flock.

 

[bonjourbunnie]

An update for those curious;

I humanely euthanized her late this morning after she took a turn for the worse, and would no longer drink or eat, even when manually fed. She did not have any internal tumors that I could see, which rules out leukosis as I understand it, but did have a slightly impacted crop, and was incredibly thin. I am assuming they got into something while free ranging the yard this week that caused her decline. I will still be ordering the suggested antibiotics to have on hand, and will of course be closely monitoring her flock mates to ensure everyone else is okay.

As usual after losing one of my feather babies, I am very sad, and will be taking necessary steps to thoroughly inspect the yard they have access to for any potential culprits, to prevent this from happening again. She was a very sweet bird, and I am so sad that I won't get to see her continue to grow and do chicken things with her boisterous and nosey "siblings," and friends.

 

[azygous]

The necropsy organ to look at is the liver. In leucosis the liver is enlarged. If you found a normal liver, it pretty much rules out leucosis. A normal live is around two ounces. A leucosis liver can be much, much larger.

 

[bonjourbunnie]

The necropsy organ to look at is the liver. In leucosis the liver is enlarged. If you found a normal liver, it pretty much rules out leucosis. A normal live is around two ounces. A leucosis liver can be much, much larger.

It definitely seemed normal in size to me. I don't have a way to weigh it, unfortunately, but nothing about it seemed abnormal or unusually sized.

Thank you for your help and insights! I certainly wish I was able to help her more than to just alleviate her suffering.

 

[azygous]

Sometimes alleviating suffering is a courageous and thoughtful action. Some are afraid of making the wrong call and allow the chicken to die in their own natural time, but it's not courageous to do so, and the suffering is prolonged.

We often attach a time factor to an animal or human dying. Time is not a natural construct nor is it inherent to life. Sometimes a short life can be more meaningful than a long one, and certainly all life is a miraculous thing no matter the length or brevity.