Chickens not walking, some have respiratory issues. What's going on?

[NaturalWitchery]

Ke

I don't really want them to breed, but it would be less of a hassle to let them hatch eggs than try to break them. The meanest hen of the bunch decided to go broody yesterday, and I have claw marks from both her and her rooster from trying to break her. Ow.

I finally decided to make an appointment with the one vet who sees chickens that has an opening. I've never had a good experience with them, and my usual vets discourage people from going to them, but desperate times and all that. They have an opening tomorrow. Unfortunately it's during the time that my cat has an appointment to get some stitches out of his mouth. I rescheduled the cat in exchange for the chickens. Fingers crossed for answers. Penelope's comb was very blue this morning. It starts out blue, then goes back to a normal color after she moves around a bit.

Keep us posted.
I hope it goes well and healing is quick!

 

[Lyris]

What is the medication? Did they tell you what parasite?
Birds combs can turn blue or darker during times of stress or excitement, and that's not a problem. If it's related to a problem then it can be an indication of not enough oxygen getting in the blood or circulation/heart problems. Can you post pictures of the eyes of birds that are blind or that you suspect are blind? Up close and in focus would be helpful.

This is the parasite medication. I asked him what kind of parasites and he literally shrugged and said he had no idea. (But they saw the parasites in her poop under a microscope?) this is the one Penelope absolutely hates with a passion. Penelope is still limping today. She didn't want to come out of the coop. She seems to be struggling to recover. Bunny made a full recovery in three days. I was hoping Penelope would be the same.

This is the antibiotic. It's a milky white substance.

Penelope let me get close-ish for her left eye. Not so much with the right thiugh. Is that good enough?

Big Bird is the one I'm sure is partially blind. He gets "lost" in the middle of the yard, or if he's six feet away from his Babies. He follows my voice happily enough. He struggles with depth perception though. Weirdly I think his vision is improving? Or he's learning to adapt. He didn't want to hold still for a picture but I did the best I can. (He's messy. He enjoyed a cantaloupe yesterday. I've been wiping it off as he will let me) it's his left eye if you are looking at his face from the front, or his right eye if you're him. He hates having that side pointed at you. I'll try again when he's less fussy.

He's also really goofy.

That's how he eats. He seems to be able to see out the bottom of his eye better than the top. He always holds his head up high to see.

 

[coach723]

Ok, panacur is a good broad spectrum wormer, so should be fine. I would just wrap her in a towel like a burrito, with her head sticking out. Pull down on her wattles and administer the dose. Give it in no more than 0.5 ml quantities and let her swallow in between until the entire dose is given, I see that it says to give 1.3 ml per dose so I'd let her swallow at least 3 times. If she's having trouble do a little less each time and make it 4 swallows.
Baytril is a broad spectrum antibiotic that works well for many things. So the meds are good.
For the parasites, regardless of type, they really can make birds very sick. They can weaken them, leave them open to other illness, cause reduction of absorption of nutrients leading to malnutrition and deficiencies which can appear neurological, and can cause secondary bacterial infection in the gut. So treating and controlling them is really important to flock health. When it's worms, some will bounce back very quick, others may take longer depending on the damage in the gut. Knowing what kind of parasite can help to determine how often you might need to worm, to prevent it resulting in major illness in the future. Different parasites have different life cycles. There are wormers you can purchase without a prescription so that you can worm your flock regularly if needed. Safeguard Liquid Goat wormer (fenbendazole) and Valbazen (albendazole) are probably the most common. I use them both. I worm every 3 months in my flock, I have a worm heavy environment (roundworm in my case). Some can do once or twice a year and that's enough. Every environment is different.
Thank you for the pictures of the eyes, I wanted to see if I saw any of the changes that are seen with Marek's disease, and I do not.
I might recommend that you trim the crest on the polish bird. For some birds it seriously impacts their vision. It can also cause irritation and infection if the feathers are getting in the eye. Some just trim with scissors, I've seen some put pony tail elastics in. Just make sure it can't be swallowed if it comes off! See if that makes any difference. The feathers will regrow at molt, so if it works, you will need to redo. I would finish the meds, and see how things go and what improvements (or not) you get, and then go from there.

 

[Lyris]

Ok, panacur is a good broad spectrum wormer, so should be fine. I would just wrap her in a towel like a burrito, with her head sticking out. Pull down on her wattles and administer the dose. Give it in no more than 0.5 ml quantities and let her swallow in between until the entire dose is given, I see that it says to give 1.3 ml per dose so I'd let her swallow at least 3 times. If she's having trouble do a little less each time and make it 4 swallows.
Baytril is a broad spectrum antibiotic that works well for many things. So the meds are good.
For the parasites, regardless of type, they really can make birds very sick. They can weaken them, leave them open to other illness, cause reduction of absorption of nutrients leading to malnutrition and deficiencies which can appear neurological, and can cause secondary bacterial infection in the gut. So treating and controlling them is really important to flock health. When it's worms, some will bounce back very quick, others may take longer depending on the damage in the gut. Knowing what kind of parasite can help to determine how often you might need to worm, to prevent it resulting in major illness in the future. Different parasites have different life cycles. There are wormers you can purchase without a prescription so that you can worm your flock regularly if needed. Safeguard Liquid Goat wormer (fenbendazole) and Valbazen (albendazole) are probably the most common. I use them both. I worm every 3 months in my flock, I have a worm heavy environment (roundworm in my case). Some can do once or twice a year and that's enough. Every environment is different.
Thank you for the pictures of the eyes, I wanted to see if I saw any of the changes that are seen with Marek's disease, and I do not.
I might recommend that you trim the crest on the polish bird. For some birds it seriously impacts their vision. It can also cause irritation and infection if the feathers are getting in the eye. Some just trim with scissors, I've seen some put pony tail elastics in. Just make sure it can't be swallowed if it comes off! See if that makes any difference. The feathers will regrow at molt, so if it works, you will need to redo. I would finish the meds, and see how things go and what improvements (or not) you get, and then go from there.

Thank you! I'll try that for him. He's a Houdan so his feathers hopefully won't get into his eyes too much, but I'm planning on trimming them. With his sight issues I want to be sure he has the best vision possible. My goal now is to get him out from under the tarps he prefers and into the yard a bit. I'm glad it's not Merek's. I should be getting the medications for everyone today so hopefully I'll see improvement. Penelope really likes nutri drench so I've been giving that to her. I figure it probably can't hurt, and if it gets liquid into her that's a good thing.

 

[coach723]

Nutri drench is ok for a few days, long term it can cause diarrhea, it has molasses in it. Best of luck, hope things start to get better.

 

[Lyris]

Thanks for all the info guys! It seriously helped. I was able to get Penelope's medication down in record time. Then I spent $300 on medications for the rest of the flock.

I noticed an interesting thing while out with Penelope tonight. She still can't walk at all. My RIR is a very good, but firm leader. My rooster bows down to her command and avoids her and HER hens. (He rules over the bantams instead) The RIR is also a bit bossy. If I'm outside, she's right beside me taking whatever I have for herself. She kept picking at Penelope, which I figured was because Penn was on my lap and she wanted it. After a little bit I realized she was carefully picking off dirt and such from Penn, including her face. She was being too gentle to be after something shiny.

I finally let Penelope go, and, well, this happened.

Gretchen walked up beside Penelope and held completely still. Penelope leaned against her to clean. At times she was putting a lot of pressure on Gretchen so she could hold herself up. For once in her life Gretchen didn't move, didn't make a sound. She just held still so Penelope could use her as a brace to clean. When I left I expected Gretchen to follow me. Instead she sat down right next to Penelope and helped clean her face. Shortly after two other hens showed up and joined Gretchen in sitting.

I'm genuinely moved by Gretchen's kindness. She's always been a hot head. And to see the way the flock embraces Penelope and stays with her is so sweet. My rooster kept trying to attack her yesterday. Now the rooster is clear over on the other side of the yard and won't come over. I think my hens bullied him away from their injured friend. Way to go girls, I'll buy you a bunch of live mealworms as a reward.

 

[Lyris]

Should Penelope be showing signs of improvement yet? She has a very blue comb today and has no improvement walking. I'm used to my cats where they feel better by the next day.

 

[coach723]

I would give her more time. Patience is hard, but often they just need time.

 

[Lyris]

I would give her more time. Patience is hard, but often they just need time.

I figured. I just wanted to be sure. Like I said, I'm used to cats where they recover overnight. My other half dead chicken recovered completely super fast. Poor Penny is struggling. Can I give her anything to maybe help her recover? Electrolytes or vitamins? It's been 98f here. She's been by the water dish, but I'm not sure how much she drinks. My tiny rooster keeps trying to attack her so she tries to stay with her flock. Safety in numbers and all that. I have the rooster separated as best I can for the time being. He's not doing well. His bonded hen went broody for the first time ever and he doesn't know how to cope being alone. Also I think he sees her as weak and is doing the whole "survival of the fittest" bit.

 

[Chick-in]

Two months ago my chicks in the brooder got sick. No symptoms except sneezing. Nothing I did seemed to help. Somehow it spread to my main flock, and then spread like wildfire. Again the only symptom was sneezing. No eye swelling or discharge, no nose boogers, nothing. Ever since then one or two will randomly start breathing with their mouth open. Tiagard usually cures it, but it comes back as soon as they're off it. Now I have walking issues within the flock. The first chicken I assumed hurt herself jumping to a roosting bar. No problem, I adjusted the bars to the same level and lowered them. It took three days for her to fully recover. During that time I gave her electrolytes, baby aspirin, alternating nutri-drench and poultry cell. Two of the chickens showed up breathing through their mouths, so I added Doxy-Tyl to her syringe of medications. Yesterday a different chicken showed up hurt. Same thing. Limping, unable to stand. She also has what seems to be an eye infection. She keeps rubbing her eyes, and yesterday one was swollen. She had dirt all around it so I figured it was dirt and washed it. I have eye ointment in going to start applying to her today. I was just checking on her, and now my rooster is standing on one leg. He might also have a limp, but I can't be sure. If he does, it will take about 24 hours to really develop.

For the life of me I can't figure out what's going on. Unrelated illnesses? My neighbor fertilized their yard. Could they have possibly gotten some of the fertilizer? I think the limping started before the fertilizer, but I can't be sure. I don't know if the limping is even related to the sneezing. I don't think it is. My other flock shows no signs of lameness so far. I'm completely lost. Ideas?

I had similar issues many many years ago. I lost half my breeding stock and all of my clutches. The birds also started just dying without any symptoms. I got a necropsy done on a 9 month old hen and she had a combination of Cocci and Mareks. I believe the cocci became prevalent because of the immune diversion for the Mareks infection. Vaccinated hatchery birds made no difference in death rate vs my home stock either. Cocci treatment slightly slowed down the death rate.

I made a mix of chicken feed, coconut oil, coconut flour, echinacea, lavender, oregano, and Elderberry to feed them. It did help slow my fall out rate.

I didn't have vet RX available at the time. But some on the ears and beak is helpful.

If you press the birds chest to your ear and hear a click or gurgle, there's a serious respiratory issue. I did have a respiratory issue like that with Mareks.