yellow diarrhea, floppy comb, not eating, lethargic, sleeping a lot

[skippy1969]

Hi there

I have 8 hens and 3 have come down with something but all at different stages. "Blacky" has been on the perch now for 5 days and only moves when I take her off the perch. She is not eating but drinking when I give it to her. She has been sleeping a lot and has a yellow diarrhea and floppy comb.

Another hen "whitey" also had diarrhea and was lethargic for 2 days and today (day 3) she didn't come off the perch either and was sleeping most of the day and only drank water when I gave it to her. She didn't eat anything.

Third hen is fine and wondering around with the rest of the flock but also has watery diarrhea but seems fine otherwise so I'm not sure if she has what the other two have.

We did give them worming treatment few months ago but not sure how much they drank. I gave all of them yogurt the other day and last week. Today I put garlic in their water too which I haven't done for a long time.

We haven't had any rain for ages so the lawn is dead and they are only eating grain and whatever else they can scratch up. The soil is very hard to dig up so I don't think their diet is as good as it usually is.

Any ideas ?

Thanks
D

 

[Patch's Chickens]

One of my 5 ladies was acting this way and yesterday she passed. Her last 4 hours or so were spent having very labored breathing. I noticed when trying to separate her from her sisters that all of the feathers were off the back of her neck which I thought was odd at the time, but did not connect any dots. After doing some research last night, I believe she had botulism. It is so hard, being your own vet in these situations. I am religious about inspecting the scraps we give the girls and ours are in a large enclosure, they do not free range, but there is a persimmon tree and the rotten persimmons do fall in. I missed all of the advance warnings, or rather did not put them together. I feel just awful about all of this. Please, look up botulism and if you think it fits, there are several flushes people here have recommended. I have my girls drinking tetracycline water and will for the next week, just as a broad spectrum (and only available) precaution. I hope your ladies will be ok, we're heartbroken over here. Good luck.

 

[skippy1969]

Oh so sorry to hear about your hen that didn't make it.

Today "whitey" seems a bit better and has been free ranging this afternoon although he is moving slow.

"Blacky" is not looking good at the moment although she was eating yogurt yesterday and this morning but now she can't hold her self up now, very floppy and not eating or drinking. Her breathing has changed too. I've been force feeding her water this afternoon. Her comb has gone really dark.

I don't know if she will make it through the night or not. I'll do some more research and look into botulism - if she's still with us tomorrow I'll dash off and get some antibiotics - I hope it's not too late.