A VERY SICK CHICKEN I NEED HELP!

[chicken tender lady]

Hello I am new to this forum but I have been reading posts and articles in the past couple months since getting my new flock of chickens. I really need help trying to diagnose what is going on with my sick chicken! To make a long story short. A few months ago I got six new hens I am new to being a chicken owner but I have learned a ton in the last few months of having them! I started having some issues right away after getting them! A few of them were molting, a few of them were feather picked as well as I had to take care of some pecking injuries right after getting them.

My hen that is very sick I had to take care of pecking injuries and when she grew her pin feathers back she would bleed so I would clean her up treat her with veteriycn and blue coat when she was around the rest of the flock. I was able to nurse her back to health and she ended up being okay for a while until last week.

She all the sudden wouldn't eat off the ground she would only eat out of my hand then she started becoming disoriented and I knew something was wrong. The problem is I can't afford to take her to the vet and where I live there is no avian vet around! So I've been trying to treat her myself reading articles online and post on here to figure out what is going on with her. She then became very lethargic and stopped walking I believe she has either temporary or permanent paralysis? She has a twitch also. A couple days ago too it seemed like she was convulsing like she was having a seizure? She seem to be experiencing neurological problems and I was even wondering if she was possibly brain dead? Everything I've been reading online sounds like she might have Marek's disease? I've just been going crazy trying to figure out what is going on with her and how I can best treat her at home! The rest of the flock seems to be okay so far she's the only one that is sick. She didn't eat for a couple days then I decided to do more research to see if I could put her on a liquid diet to try to get her to eat. So I did a mix of layer feed, bean and pasta, and scrambled eggs watered down I blended it in a blender and it became about the same consistency as a smoothie. I have to force feed her by opening her beak I've been doing this for about the last week or so I also have been giving her homemade electrolytes with an eyedropper. I have to force her everything. Also in the past I have been treating her for Vent Gleet. And now I've noticed she has yellowish green discharge coming out of her vent I've been trying to clean her as best as I can everyday without getting her too wet. Because I don't want her to get cold since we're experiencing cold weather where I live. I have her isolated from the rest of the flock and she just sleeps all day stays in her hen house. I noticed when I was feeding her yesterday she seemed a little more alert than she has been the past couple days. Even flapping her wings a little bit trying to get away from me. But when I put her on the ground her head is down she doesn't pick up her head or her neck and doesn't use her legs like her legs are limp.

I did read the article on here last week from a lady that experienced Marek's disease in one of her chickens and she said she treated her with hypericum. And she said it worked and not only did it save her chicken's life, it cured her from the disease. So I ordered some online I'm waiting for it to get here. It should be here in the next day or so I will try that next? If anybody on here has experienced anything similar or knows of any way for me to diagnose her without taking her to a chicken vet I would surely appreciate it! I also don't know what to do as far as should I keep treating her and see if she recovers? Or if she gets better? Or is it best just to put her to sleep or put her down? She doesn't really seem to be suffering like I said she just sleeps a lot and has labored breathing. I actually thought when I noticed her health declining I thought I was going to lose her. And every morning when I go check on the chickens I've been trying to prepare myself that she may not be alive the next time I see her. But she's still here. And although I would love nothing more for her to recover from this and survive I also don't know if it's humane to keep her alive when she has no quality of life! Also I'm not sure if this is going to be an ongoing thing or if I can continue to take care of her for weeks and months? Please any help would be appreciated! Thank you! BTW sorry for the long post.

 

[Eggcessive]

Could she have been injured by one of the other chickens? Is her head stuck down or limp? She does have neurological symptoms, which could be caused by Mareks, a head or back injury, or something else. Force feeding is not very safe. They can aspirate food and water and die. Tube feeding is easy enough to learn if her crop is emptying overnight normally. After this long a time, though, I would probably think about putting her down if I could have the state vet do a necropsy, to look for Mareks or another cause for symptoms. You could try giving vitamin E 400 IU and 1/2 of a human B complex tablet daily orally, just to see if there is improvement. If it turns out that she has Mareks, it could affect some of your other hens. So it would probably ease your mind to find out if it is not. There is no proven cure for Mareks disease. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this hard decision.

 

[chicken tender lady]

Could she have been injured by one of the other chickens? Is her head stuck down or limp? She does have neurological symptoms, which could be caused by Mareks, a head or back injury, or something else. Force feeding is not very safe. They can aspirate food and water and die. Tube feeding is easy enough to learn if her crop is emptying overnight normally. After this long a time, though, I would probably think about putting her down if I could have the state vet do a necropsy, to look for Mareks or another cause for symptoms. You could try giving vitamin E 400 IU and 1/2 of a human B complex tablet daily orally, just to see if there is improvement. If it turns out that she has Mareks, it could affect some of your other hens. So it would probably ease your mind to find out if it is not. There is no proven cure for Mareks disease. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this hard decision.

 

[SomeChookLover]

Do you know what breed she is? And more importantly is she a polish or silkie or some other breed with a large tuft of feathers on her head?
They’re much more likely to have vaulted skulls (a hole in their skull) so can very easily get brain damage.

I have a chook with brain damage who has quite similar symptoms that I’m currently working to improve. (She’s not really eating, very lethargic and disoriented and has a dirty vent. She also doesn’t seem distressed or in pain at all)
There doesn’t seem to be much online so I’ve done my best to get as much information as possible if you think it’s possible she’s brain damaged.
It does sound like it could be mareks, so keep an eye out for other symptoms like blindness and paralysis, if she was flapping her wings that’s a good sign.
Also how long has she been unwell for?
With mareks the chicken will usually pass on within 3-4 weeks assuming they don’t starve or have anything else happen first, so if she seems to be living a while I’d definitely start looking into different potential causes.

 

[chicken tender lady]

Could she have been injured by one of the other chickens? Is her head stuck down or limp? She does have neurological symptoms, which could be caused by Mareks, a head or back injury, or something else. Force feeding is not very safe. They can aspirate food and water and die. Tube feeding is easy enough to learn if her crop is emptying overnight normally. After this long a time, though, I would probably think about putting her down if I could have the state vet do a necropsy, to look for Mareks or another cause for symptoms. You could try giving vitamin E 400 IU and 1/2 of a human B complex tablet daily orally, just to see if there is improvement. If it turns out that she has Mareks, it could affect some of your other hens. So it would probably ease your mind to find out if it is not. There is no proven cure for Mareks disease. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this hard decision.

Hi eggcessive, I'm not sure if she was injured by one of the other chickens? I guess it's possible? Yes her head is stuck down. Yeah I was thinking the same thing she could have neurological problems! Thanks for letting me know about force feeding. It's not really something I want to be doing but I felt was necessary because she wouldn't eat or drink on her own. I will take tube feeling into consideration. I agree with you she's not really showing a whole lot of improvement and I may need to out her down. I may look into a neocripsy but not sure if I can afford it? I also would love to consult with a vet to find out what's going on with her but I can't pay hundreds of dollars for that. Im thinking she has Mareks or lymphoid leucosis? Which if it's lymphoid leucosis I heard it only lasts for about a month? Thank you for the friendly advice and for your help! I will take it into consideration! Also thank you for your sympathy! I have grown quite attached to her and to all of my hens! She was actually one of my favorite hens! So sweet and so friendly! I love them all so much! So it will be hard if I end up losing her or have to put her down!

 

[chicken tender lady]

Could she have been injured by one of the other chickens? Is her head stuck down or limp? She does have neurological symptoms, which could be caused by Mareks, a head or back injury, or something else. Force feeding is not very safe. They can aspirate food and water and die. Tube feeding is easy enough to learn if her crop is emptying overnight normally. After this long a time, though, I would probably think about putting her down if I could have the state vet do a necropsy, to look for Mareks or another cause for symptoms. You could try giving vitamin E 400 IU and 1/2 of a human B complex tablet daily orally, just to see if there is improvement. If it turns out that she has Mareks, it could affect some of your other hens. So it would probably ease your mind to find out if it is not. There is no proven cure for Mareks disease. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this hard decision.

Could she have been injured by one of the other chickens? Is her head stuck down or limp? She does have neurological symptoms, which could be caused by Mareks, a head or back injury, or something else. Force feeding is not very safe. They can aspirate food and water and die. Tube feeding is easy enough to learn if her crop is emptying overnight normally. After this long a time, though, I would probably think about putting her down if I could have the state vet do a necropsy, to look for Mareks or another cause for symptoms. You could try giving vitamin E 400 IU and 1/2 of a human B complex tablet daily orally, just to see if there is improvement. If it turns out that she has Mareks, it could affect some of your other hens. So it would probably ease your mind to find out if it is not. There is no proven cure for Mareks disease. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this hard decision.

Do you know what breed she is? And more importantly is she a polish or silkie or some other breed with a large tuft of feathers on her head?
They’re much more likely to have vaulted skulls (a hole in their skull) so can very easily get brain damage.

I have a chook with brain damage who has quite similar symptoms that I’m currently working to improve. (She’s not really eating, very lethargic and disoriented and has a dirty vent. She also doesn’t seem distressed or in pain at all)
There doesn’t seem to be much online so I’ve done my best to get as much information as possible if you think it’s possible she’s brain damaged.
It does sound like it could be mareks, so keep an eye out for other symptoms like blindness and paralysis, if she was flapping her wings that’s a good sign.
Also how long has she been unwell for?
With mareks the chicken will usually pass on within 3-4 weeks assuming they don’t starve or have anything else happen first, so if she seems to be living a while I’d definitely start looking into different potential causes.

Hi SomeChookLover, I think she's a White Leghorn. She hasn't laid one egg since I've had her so I think she might be past her laying age? I'm not sure how old she is but I suspect she's an older hen. She's definitely not a Polish or a silky. BTW, I didn't know that about silkies and polish hens! I will keep that in mind! I'm so sorry to hear that your dealing with a sick hen that has possible brain damage! I suspect maybe that's what happened with my hen too! Yes I'm still trying to do as much research as I can to figure out what she may have because like I said in my post I can't afford to pay for an avian vet! I suspected when she was unwell that she may have become blind but I'm not too sure? And I feel she does have temporary or permanent paralysis in her legs she won't stand up.

I feel like she's been unwell for quite some time since I've had her which has been a little over 3 months however she took a turn for the worse about 2 weeks ago. That's when I decided to isolate her and then a few days after I started Force feeding her and giving her water with an eye dropper and electrolytes.

Just a quick update I started giving her hypericum there are the Melt Away tablets because I read in another post on this site that another lady that had a sick hen said it cured the Mericks disease and she ended up making a full recovery. So I'm trying this as a last Stitch effort. She's been moving around a little more a little more active however still not standing and walking on her own and I'm still having to force feed her and give her water in the eye dropper. She also still sleeps most of the day. She's lost a lot of weight she's just basically skin and bones. So if she does recover from this I'm trying to look in the ways for her to gain some weight quickly to regain her strength. I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point I may still have to put her down if she doesn't make some improvements pretty soon! This is heartbreaking for me because I've grown quite attached to her she's one of my favorite hens so sweet and so friendly!
Thank you for the friendly advice and I hope your hen recovers soon!

 

[SomeChookLover]

Thanks! Dealing with sick chickens is always distressing, I hope you’re coping ok.
If she’s a leghorn while it’s less likely, she could definitely still have a brain injury (unfortunately it’s unlikely she’d recover if this is the case.) One thing is that if she wasn’t laying (probably old age like you suspect. You can use her crest and wattles to check though) it could be due to brain damage as well. My hen stopped laying after her first injury but was still fairly normal. After what I’m assuming is a second injury she started to get worse.
If you think she might have gone blind try looking at her eyes to see if anything’s unusual. I also use a test where I scatter some food or something of interest on the ground and see if they react. (if she’s fairly unresponsive though this mightn’t help)
You can try giving her some sugar water and chick feed (unless it’s medicated feed) to help her put on weight. (It’s what I’m currently doing for my hen and it’s working fairly well.) and even give her some more human foods after making sure nothing else would be dangerous.
Also if you haven’t already I’d check her for lice, mites, scaly leg, worms or any other parasites that might be affecting her. If there’s anything else I can think of I’ll be sure to tell you. I really hope your hen gets better soon! Wishing you all the best.

 

[chicken tender lady]

Hi SomeChookLover, Thank you. Yeah I'm dealing okay thanks for asking! Yeah you're right it can be distressing and time consuming! I didn't think that she could have a brain injury? But I guess that might have been possible. Yeah I tried to get her to eat on her own but she would refuse food and water so that's why I had to resort to force feeding her. And I didn't really care to do that either but I felt it was out of necessity to give her some nutrition! Thanks for all your advice I will definitely keep that in mind for next time I deal with a sick hen! Unfortunately I have some sad news to report my hen ended up passing away yesterday! I don't know if she died in the middle of the night on Thursday early morning or the night before but when I went out to check on the chickens yesterday morning she was gone! So needless to say I'm pretty heartbroken! She was such a sweet and friendly hen I will never forget her! But I'm so glad I got to spend her last days with her and hopefully I gave her a good life! I'm so glad I took pictures and videos of her before she passed away it's something that I will hold on to forever! BTW, I'm glad to hear your hen is starting to recover hopefully she continues to get better! ❤

 

[SomeChookLover]

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re hen passed. She sounded like such a wonderful chook. I’m sure you gave her a great life. Chickens always bring so much joy, it’s truely awful when they have to leave. I’m glad you have some memories and photos of her.I hope you’re coping ok.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. A necropsy can be very affordable in some states, but you would need to call them and keep the body cold until it is done. Here is a list of state vets to call, especially if you have another chicken that has symptoms:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html