Difficulty diagnosing this illness in my hen

[kirichicken]

Video:

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Isa brown, 1.8 years old


2) What is the behavior, exactly.
- Lethargy, introversion (not broodiness)
- Not eating or drinking very much
- Sneezing after eating, difficulty swallowing
- Difficulty breathing
- Often closes eyes during the day and naps, but is woken up by difficulty breathing
- Body heaving, as if its having difficulty breathing, particularly during sleep and naps
- Randomly sneezes
- Puffed up feathers
- Stands or sits in corner, doesn't participate socially
- Laborious and slow movements
- Droopy wattle


3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Probably 4 months. It looked like it was getting better after 2 months but then started getting worse.


4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Minor diahorrea but otherwise they are behaving normally. Less egg laying than is typical for isa browns of this age.


5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No. Other hens in the flock aren't bullying her either.


6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Unsure where this disease originated from. We live in the suburbs with no other poultry owners around. Perhaps wild birds are spreading disease.


7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Bird has been eating and drinking far less than usual. Mostly prefers fruit to the layer pellet everyone else eats.


8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Diahorrea poop, before it was runny and white. Now its more like normal poop except in small chunks.


9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I given it piperazine (an anti wormer) and oxymav-x (described as a broad spectrum antibiotic) with no changes in her health detected.


10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I need to figure out what medicine she needs to take.


11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
Pictures and a video at the end of this post.


12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
They roost on a perch, over a plastic sheet that is cleaned daily.

Video link:

Pictures:

(the black dots on her feathers are just small bits of poop)

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Yes. She is definitely distressed. There are a lot of things that could cause such behavior. I can only guess some things.

1. CRD (chronic respiratory disease) comes to mind as one possibility. It's often caused by a bacteria passed from mother to egg (Mycoplasma gallisepticum) though most hatcheries should be on top of it. It causes in essence chicken asthma. You can never eradicate it. Treat acute phases with antibiotics (which you did with no improvement). It often comes and goes with weather and stress changes. I've had some luck putting elderberry in the water to support the immune system and feeding garlic mash. Hmmmm....next thought.

2. Are you using DE (diatomaceous earth) as a parasite deterrent? I'm not a fan of DE because it is very irritating to the lungs of chickens (and humans...look up industry literature on silicosis). Your hen looks distressed in breathing. Check the premises for things, such as DE, or cedar shavings which are known to cause toxic inhalation, that could be causing it, or anything with lots of dust. Solution is to remove the irritating agents.

3. Most likely cause...probably the fact that Isa Browns, and all other fast and high laying hybrids, are notorious for internal ovarian cancers due to genetically selecting them for high hormonal laying. Does she have ascities? (Fluid build up in the abdomen). She may be straining to breathe because she has internal fluid build up due to cancer or liver failure or an internal tumor. If this is the cause, she will slowly waste away unless you really want to spend some bucks and have a vet check her out and do surgery.

My guesses. I'm sure others will chime in as well.

LofMc

 

[kirichicken]

Im not using DE or any mite dust. Only thing I can think of which might be irritating her airways is chicken poo fumes or pollen from spring, but she was sneezing during winter anyway.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Im not using DE or any mite dust. Only thing I can think of which might be irritating her airways is chicken poo fumes or pollen from spring, but she was sneezing during winter anyway.

The sneezing and lethargy could be a virus, but it should have cleared by now, which leads me to suspect CRD again, which is chronic, but you might have noticed a more intense stage first.

I'll link a good article on respiratory diseases (mostly viral and bacterial). I think you've passed to a more chronic condition so I doubt viral, but a lingering bacterial might play into it. Also, we haven't thought about a fungal infection. Any mold around the place?

I'm sorry she is struggling. I wish I had an easy fix.

LofMc

https://www.rangioravetcentre.co.nz...nts itself,in extreme cases unfortunately die.

 

[kirichicken]

Thank you for the advice anyway. I was hoping someone had a definitive answer. Ill try again with the Oxymav-b to see if it does anything.

 

[Eggcessive]

First, I would feel of her lower belly between her legs under her vent to see if it is enlarged with fluid/water belly and compare it to other hens. Fluid can build up in the abdomen from a reproductive disorder, cancer, or heart failure. It can be drained with an 18 gauge needle after disinfecting the site. Eventually water belly is fatal because of the cause, but removing fluid may give temporary relief and ease breathing.

Also, check her crop every morning to see if it is normally emptying overnight. If it is full and firm or squishy in early morning before eating, she may have a crop disorder. Tell us how it feels. It looks full in the pictures. What do her droppings look like? Pictures are helpful.

 

[kirichicken]

Anyone else have a good idea of what it is?

 

[kirichicken]

Her crop is empty. Belly increasingly swollen. Will try to suck out the fluid using a syringe. Better than the alternatives.

 

[kirichicken]

Hi everyone. I tried to drain the fluid from her belly while someone else held her down on her side. I didn't realise she would struggle to breathe during this and she suffocated while I was trying to remove the fluid.

An autopsy revealed that she had a massive amount of yellow clear fluid inside her abdominal cavity, maybe 750mL. I suspect some issue caused fluid to build up inside her belly and in the later stages of her disease it overflowed to her belly. I wouldn't have been able to drain this much fluid even if she didn't suffocate. This is likely the reason why she struggled to breathe, the fluid compressed her lungs.

This seems to be an issue thats happened a few times in my flock and I'm wondering what may have caused it. I didn't see any broken eggs or unborn eggs or anything of the sort inside her, nothing blocking her airway, intestines seem to look normal (im not sure what healthy intestines are supposed to look like). If anyone has an idea let me know.

Rest in peace my dear chicken.