Sitting on the floor of the chicken run...

[gcvmom]

Trying to spoon water into easy child's very sick Butterscotch

I started her on a sulfa drug in her water for the third time yesterday (was following treatment instructions for two other possible GI infection diagnosis's, and those didn't work, so am now trying a third protocol). Poor chickie has had the runs fir a while. easy child forgot to put the water and food in the coop last night when she locked up the birds. When I opened the door this morning, Butterscotch was laying down sleeping on the coop floor and didn't open her eyes (not normal). On closer inspection she looks severely dehydrated. So now I'm trying to get some fluids in her. She's taken a small amount and already her eyes look better, but if I can't get more in her and get her to eat some mash today, she may not make it. Not looking forward to the drama a dead chicken will incite in easy child...

 

[witzend]

Ah... I'm sorry.

 

[AnnieO]

When Weasel gets dehydrated we give her a bath. She's sooooooo skinny... It helps though because some soaks into her skin and some through her licking.

Can you do this with chickens?

 

[gcvmom]

Not sure if that's an option. She's got the strength to pull her head away now when I try to give the water or some mash dissolved in water, so I see that as a positive sign. I moved her into the tub so the other birds don't hurt her while she's weak.

 

[Star*]

I found her - chicken expert - maybe an email?


Firstly.. I need to know all the medication names and dosage and how you administered them please

First vet and second vets instructions to you

Worms.... isn't green droppings.. it is yellow or foamy yellow droppings... green is something totally different

Foaming eyes.. indicated that the problem was probably a mycoplasma infection along with something else

I need you to tell me everything you give them to eat..everything

If your feeding cut grass .. stop.. causes crop problems

Green droppings could be one of a hundred things.. but most likely due to not being able to get to food .. so starvation was the main problem.. and the green was undiluted bile

What has your weather been like.. some infections take off with certain weather conditions

How old was the bird that died
How old is the other sick bird
What are the droppings like of the sick bird

Will wait for your replies to my questions before I go further

Hang in there





Wondered if anyone can help me.
I had 3 healthy chickens back in March. Suddenly one began to fall over a lot and couldn't walk straight or for very long without lying down for an hour. Took her to vet who wasn't sure what it was but prescribed antibiotics and worming medicine. 2 weeks later she died. 2 weeks after this another chicken started same symptoms, went downhill quickly and I found her hidden in garden with diarrhoea and her eyes covered in foam. Found an avian expert practice and took her in. They did swabs of her poo and her eyes and prescribed different medicines. A week later she was still alive but I had been nursing her constantly and could see no improvement so my local friendly farmer came and 'dealt' with her for me.
Now left with 1 chicken she went broody so I got 2 fertile eggs from a friend and hatched out 1 chick 12 weeks ago. All seemed well.
Last week this chick became sluggish and had green diarrhoea. I got some ivermectin from vet and treated it. No change and this morning when I threw out some food it fell over as it ran and then just lay there asleep.
What is going wrong? No answers from vet. Has anyone else had this problem?
Don't want to get rid of this one but don't want it to suffer.
Any help would be great. Jane __________________
Sandy
http://happyhenhouse.proboards43.com
Help Support & Information Site for Poultry

 

[gcvmom]

Thanks, Star. I'll shoot a message to her and see what she says.

 

[flutterby]

Awww, poor chickie. Sending healing thoughts that she pulls through. Give easy child a hug for me.

 

[DammitJanet]

Are all the chickens sick? Or just one.

 

[gcvmom]

Just the one. Although one of the others has a messy vent, but those are her only symptoms (and that's how it started for this one).

She's still very tired, but is slowly taking water from me and her comb and eyes look better and she's fighting me more over the water I'm pushing I think that's a good sign. Hopefully tomorrow she'll have improved more. She has passed a few stools, so at least I know things are working.

Poor easy child is very worried. I'm not going to promise her anything -- I just keep telling her that I'm doing all that I can to help Butterscotch, but that she's very sick and if she's going to get better it will take a while. She was a little mad that I wouldn't take her to a vet... but I told her that there aren't any chicken vets around here, so it didn't make sense to pay a lot of money for someone to "maybe" be able to help her. I think she's accepted that. I hope.

I posted a question on that site Star gave the link to, so we'll see if I get a response.

Does Tony have an words of wisdom, besides the chopping block? (This is a pet, afterall!)

 

[KTMom91]

We actually do have chicken vets around here. And cow vets, and horse vets...but I doubt you want to put a sick chicken into the car for a several hour trip.

Hope Butterscotch pulls through...hugs for easy child.

 

[Marguerite]

We've lost the occasional chook from a muscle-wasting disease. The chook would seem to be doing OK but getting weaker. Then they would suddenly go downhill fast, sometimes the first we knew was when we found a dead chicken. We even had one that literally fell off te perch - I was standing in the backyard near the chook house, and saw it fall. By the time I got to it, it was definitely dead. Bizarre.

But the ones that would suddenly go downhill - I could pick them up and they wouldn't struggle because they were too weak. I could feel their "drumsticks" and there was nothing to them, they'd lost so much muscle. A few times we had a long-term weak and sick chook, I put her near her own bowl of water and pile of pellets, she seemed to do OK and rally a bit.

But the biggest concern - chooks are a flock bird, and flock birds hide their illness for as long as they can. If the other birds realise one of their number is sick, they often attack or injure the sick bird. So if you have a bird so obviously sick, it's often too late to do much other than make it comfortable.

Isolating it from the others should make it possible for it to recover without getting "henpecked" and possibly not be so stressed. But easy child needs to brace herself for bad news. You're doing all you can, there's nothing more you can do, but it may be inevitable.

Water supply - you are changing it daily, aren't you?
A thought - do you have some rocks,s or extruded bricks? We've got half bricks, extruded (these are the ones with holes through the middle) and we put one in the square water bowl (4 L ice cream container). It allows the water to stay in a (heavy, can't be tipped over) bowl and for the birds to drink, but not accidentally drown in it. We had one sick chook drown in the water bowl - she became too weak to lift her head up. Her body was outside the bowl. I hadn't put in an extruded brick at the time, I wished I had. But if she was so weak that she couldn't lift her head out of the bowl, she might have been dead soon anyway.

We use the extruded brick in water bowl, when we have chicks. It stops the chicks from falling in to the water bowl and drowning. They can get themselves out onto the brick and get out safely.

At least you are giving this hen every chance.

Marg

 

[DammitJanet]

What antibiotic are you using on her? I would get a bag of that terramycin or whatever it is at the feed store and dose up the water in all the chickens. Wont hurt them. I think ivermectin is a wormer. Obviously tony isnt home while I am writing this...lol.

Go to the feed store. Ask them for chicken or horse antibiotics. They come in powder form. I think it is terramycin or tetracyclin.

 

[Star*]

You don't suppose she's got the pox?

 

[gcvmom]

I'm using a sulfa product that you mix in water. Already tried tetracycline and it didn't do much. Those two products are all my local feed store would recommend for using on poultry.

She's doing MUCH better today, though still not out of the woods. She's more alert, and actually stood up a few times, but she is VERY weak and has lost a LOT of weight. I've hand fed her some softened cat kibble that is very high-protein. She seems to like it but won't take it on her own yet. She also won't drink on her own yet and I have to use a medicine spoon filled with medicated water to dip her beak in. At least today she's drinking when I put her beak in. Yesterday she wouldn't even do that and I had to tip her beak back and nudge it with the tip of the spoon. Someone suggested enticing her with red foods like tomato... I may hit the market tonight and see what I can pick up to encourage her to eat more. Or, I may just make a cat-food smoothie and let her drink her calories!

She's still got runny, mostly clear poops, but there appears to be more white in them today -- likely from the little bit of food I've gotten in her. Thank goodness for shredded newspaper! I'm changing it several times a day to keep her dry. She doesn't feel hot anymore so I think her fever is gone. Her comb is now cool to the touch. Hopefully each day will see more improvement, but I can see this is going to be a long process.

Ugh. I shoulda been a vet!

Thanks everyone for the help

 

[DammitJanet]

Star...my flock did get chicken pox one time! LOL.

 

[gcvmom]

But the pox chickens get and the one humans get do not cross over, that is, you cannot catch pox from chickens and vice versa.