Chicken peeps - need your advice

[Abbie.S]

Well, the red hen that was lethargic/depressed died overnight. I still have no idea what was wrong with her. The onset of her illness was about 2 weeks ago, a few days into which I started treating the entire flock for coccidiosis. She was perking up after about 5-6 days and then nosedived the last 24-36 hours. No one else is showing any of the same listlessness or inactivity she was. I checked her over a couple days ago pretty thoroughly for mites/lice/anything else I could observe on her, nothing.

I’ve pulled the corn, so they just have the Poulin crumble right now. I’ll continue to do some research into feeds and see if I can’t get them switched to something with more protein and not so heavily corn-based.

[Mosey_2003]

I’d open the red hen up and look around inside, but I’m kinda weird like that.

Sounds like a good deworming and delousing would be good first steps, at least rule it out. You can dip or spray them with permethrin for lice and mites. You can also use ivermectin in the same way as flea spot-on, but ivermectin is one of those that they claim you need a lifetime withdrawal of the eggs. Frontline spray also works.

[Simkie]

I’m very sorry about your red hen it’s always hard to lose them.

With the problems in your flock, and the number of birds lost, a necropsy could be really insightful. Your state vet hospital might offer then inexpensively. I really encourage you to Google around and see if you have a similar service. Keep the hen in the fridge (or just safe from other critters, if your outside temps are fridge temps) and take her in.

If you can share where you are, I’ll help you poke around for this sort of service.

[Abbie.S]

Thanks, Simkie. I just feel so badly that I have no idea what was wrong with her.

I’m in NW Vermont. I have a vet friend who might be willing to do the necropsy for me, I was actually thinking about reaching out to her first before looking elsewhere.

[Simkie]

@Abbie.S

I’m in NW Vermont. I have a vet friend who might be willing to do the necropsy for me, I was actually thinking about reaching out to her first before looking elsewhere.

That sounds like a great idea! I’ll poke around and see if I can turn up any subsidized poultry necropsy in VT for you, too.

Okay, here’s the state lab for Vermont:

https://agriculture.vermont.gov/animal-health

Nothing on this site about necropsy, but if your friend is unable to take a look at your hen, give these guys a call and see what they say.

For reference, here’s the CT program:

Home | Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

I think it’s something like $40–super reasonable for the info. I’d think you should have something similar in VT.

[Abbie.S]

Thanks, Simkie! I sent vet friend a message, her response was “I’d be happy to do it but I pretty much have no knowledge regarding chickens”. This is unfortunately the same response I’ve gotten when I inquired at local veterinary offices regarding getting a chicken looked at. They’d offer to look at a hen but didn’t really have much to offer except to do basic lab stuff like fecal smears, etc.

I’ll contact the VT Dept of Ag, that was actually vet friend’s suggestion as well.

[Simkie]

I spoke with my horse vet about my chickens, and I was really surprised to hear they weren’t included in her food animal rotation–she would have had to take an exotics course to cover them. Crazy, huh?

Good luck with the ag department! I hope they’re able to help. Keep us posted! If they can’t necropsy, it might still be worthwhile to have your friend take a look…a lot of the big bad things leave pretty obvious evidence. It doesn’t take an avian expert to recognize a fatty hemorrhagic liver or a really infected ovaduct, for example

[Abbie.S]

That’s pretty much exactly what I was hearing - any large animal vet didn’t do poultry, and the small animal vets around here are typically only cats, dogs and small mammals. There is one vet that does exotics but she’s a one-woman show and isn’t taking any new clients.

[aregard]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

Speaking of eggs… are you sure they aren’t eating them?

Or hiding them? Many chickens who have large options (i.e., not confined in a fenced area) lay their eggs in hidden spots.

[Mosey_2003]

@Simkie

I spoke with my horse vet about my chickens, and I was really surprised to hear they weren’t included in her food animal rotation–she would have had to take an exotics course to cover them. Crazy, huh?

I was pretty turned-off when my ex horse vet, when I asked about seeing chickens (I was thinking in case I needed an antibiotic or fecals) said, “Chickens? Haha, you’re funny. We don’t treat chickens, if they’re sick chop their heads off.”

Like, I get it, but damn.

[Abbie.S]

So I was able to drop the dead hen off at the state ag lab, which lucky for me was local. I did not expect to get the results back this quickly but they emailed me this morning saying the necropsy showed two notable things - one was fluid around a slightly enlarged heart which indicated heart failure, the other was “deep red veining along the dorsal aspect of the duodenum, indicating mild to moderate overgrowth of cocci, likely secondary to the cardiac issues noted”. This actually made a lot of sense since I had started treating her for coccidiosis and she’d started getting better only to go downhill again after about 5-6 days of treatment.

So chances are there is nothing I could have done as the primary COD was cardiac-related. It makes me feel a bit better, at least in the sense that I don’t have to worry about what killed her spreading to the rest of the flock.

Now I’ve got two of the Black Australorps with sinus infections/URI’s, one that’s looking pretty poorly. I spent last night watching Youtube videos on how to give sub-dural injections to chickens and have Tylan-200 ordered and on its way, so hopefully that will take care of that. That group is still in quarantine and has been treated for mites/lice. I can’t wait to get all these girls back to good health, it’s certainly been a tough stretch these last few weeks.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I’m sorry for all your trouble. Chickens are usually relatively low maintenance. We’ve had them for ten years and the biggest source of loss we’ve had is Germanshepherditis. The girls get out of the yard and he ‘plays’ with them.

I think you’ve gotten some great advice on protein and deworming (we do it twice a year in our subtropical environment). Only thing I would add is to clean regularly and make sure they have grit and calcium. Hope things start looking up soon.

[Simkie]

Glad you were able to get an answer! Sounds like you have a solid plan on getting the others healthy. Hope this is the last of your chicken troubles

[Abbie.S]

Well, we’ve got another hen who looks to be on death’s doorstep, or not far from it. This is one of the Australorps that is quarantined. She has been fluffed up and depressed looking for about a week. While I’m waiting on the Tylan-200 to arrive I dewormed her. I am relatively sure she’s stopped eating, she picked at some cabbage I threw in there yesterday but it was half-hearted at best and I’ve not seen her scrounging around or at the feeder in days.

We started force-feeding her this morning with a mash I made up out of their layer crumble. Her manure is liquid and green, which I think means it’s mostly fluids and bile. She does not have an impacted or sour crop that I can tell, so her illness is still a mystery. I’m hoping basically forcing food into her a few times a day will help her bounce back - it seems like once their appetite drops they won’t seek food on their own even if they start perking up.

[anon81364900]

Honestly, I’ve never once had a chicken recover once it gets sick & depressed. I would probably dispatch her rather than the stress of treatment.

[anon81364900]

I’m not at all surprised that vets are not trained for chickens. There are very few people willing to pay for vet care for an animal that costs $2.50. They’re the farm equivalent of goldfish.
We give our hens a high quality home, but when they get sick we dispatch them humanely withut hesitation.

[Abbie.S]

This is what I feared. I think if I’d been able to get to her sooner she might be a different story but anything getting sent through the mail right now is taking forever. My husband and I were talking last night about whether we should continue to try and get treatment/food into her or just give her a humane end.

[RacetrackReject]

Is it possible she’s egg-bound? Sometimes they have an egg get stuck and it can kill them. I believe they do warm bathes to try and help the egg come out. I know that lethargy, depression, being fluffed up, and penguin walking are some of the symptoms.

[LilRanger]

I don’t know what to do about the ill hen, but just as a general pick me up, chickens love yogurt, and I feel like more probiotics probably doesn’t hurt them. I gave mine fresh yogurt when they looked poorly, and it seemed to help. Well, it didn’t hurt them. Just and FYI.

[Abbie.S]

I don’t think she’s egg-bound. I can’t feel anything when I palpate her abdomen. I’d also expect she’d have expired by now if she were egg-bound, they don’t usually last more than a few days.

I’ll try the yogurt, that’s a good idea!