Hen limping , lethargic, watery poop.

[Ebony Rose]

Have you tried looking for alternate names of the brands that are listed perhaps they are available under different names? I thought way down south there it was supposed to be easier to find and buy medicines Sorry that that is apparently incorrect.

That's what I do here, learn from those that teach here on the website, then look up the products they recommend... then search for either those products, generics of those products, or human medications that closely match what those products are made of so that I can get some on hand...I tape white paper onto the packaging describing what the medicine is for (both for human use and for chickens and quail with dosing information for each species) I'm not a prepper... nope, not me...

I'll plan to do surgery tomorrow if I recover...took a pretty hard fall so I'm in no shape to work on lil red tonight.

So very sorry to hear that you took a tumble, hurts so much more at our age, and hurts for much longer... don't you think?

I have a incubator stuffed full of eggs to hatch

I've been so proud of myself today. I have been unable to locate an incubator in the whole city; I've been to EVERY feed store, and half the pet stores... simply not available at ANY price. Asked them to order one for me... no-can-do... **rolls eyes** So.... I bought a plastic tote, a clip on light fixture and 40 watt light bulb & thermometer. Was unable to locate a hygrometer (spelling?), the thermometer thing that tests humidity. I put a thin piece of cardboard on the bottom of the tote, put a plastic lid on top of that like a shallow dish, put a bit of water in it, added a sponge. Cut some hardware cloth and folded up the edges to make "legs" on all four sides of the hardware cloth, then spent about 3 hours adjusting how high to place the light over the box to get it to the right temperature. Pray for quail in 18 to 19 days please. My neighbor would like ten chicks, and if these hatch, I'll make a gift of them to my neighbor since I'm the one that gave them the quail itch!

Hope that you and your girls get to feeling better soon

 

[jsr5]

That's what I do here, learn from those that teach here on the website, then look up the products they recommend... then search for either those products, generics of those products, or human medications that closely match what those products are made of so that I can get some on hand...I tape white paper onto the packaging describing what the medicine is for (both for human use and for chickens and quail with dosing information for each species) I'm not a prepper... nope, not me..."

Sound like my kinda guy and I didnm't mean to demean you by implying you weren't smart enough to do that just some don't think about the alternate name or looking at active ingredients thing.

"So very sorry to hear that you took a tumble, hurts so much more at our age, and hurts for much longer... don't you think?"

Yes definitely on top of the injuries and illnesses that put me in the disabled column they some times put me down for weeks. don't think so this time but Im gonna know it happened for a few days.

"I've been so proud of myself today. I have been unable to locate an incubator in the whole city; I've been to EVERY feed store, and half the pet stores... simply not available at ANY price. Asked them to order one for me... no-can-do... **rolls eyes** So.... I bought a plastic tote, a clip on light fixture and 40 watt light bulb & thermometer. Was unable to locate a hygrometer (spelling?), the thermometer thing that tests humidity. I put a thin piece of cardboard on the bottom of the tote, put a plastic lid on top of that like a shallow dish, put a bit of water in it, added a sponge. Cut some hardware cloth and folded up the edges to make "legs" on all four sides of the hardware cloth, then spent about 3 hours adjusting how high to place the light over the box to get it to the right temperature. Pray for quail in 18 to 19 days please. My neighbor would like ten chicks, and if these hatch, I'll make a gift of them to my neighbor since I'm the one that gave them the quail itch!

Hope that you and your girls get to feeling better soon

I sure hope they hatch alright for hygrometers try tobbacco stores that sell higher end cigars they will have them they also will have devices to manage humidity. usually they are dumb devices that target 67% but some have a short range of humidities they will attempt to maintain. Personally I got mine inexpensively off e bay it was from china had not so great instructions but has been hatching eggs wonderfully since had it. first batch of nine all nine hatched have done bigger batches since by hand turning instead of letting it turn them and they have hatched at as good a rate as anyone ever gets. hope that helps a bit. also have you considered a broody to hatch eggs? They say silkie hens will steal any eggs they can find and hatch em. wonder if they can hatch quail eggs? Good luck with your hatch.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Thanks for the tip on hygrometers. Purchases online are a gamble here. Shop for item, order it, pay for it, pay shipping to US address, pay shipping to Panama, pay customs, duties, and then CROSS YOUR FINGERS AND PRAY that it is released from customs and isn't stolen along the way. Out a lot of money when your order never arrives, and there's no recourse. I had a computer 'vanish' like that a couple weeks before Christmas some years back, and it had made it through customs; someone at the freight company got it..I have their signature as receiving the package... and then it vanished. Mind you now, they STILL expected payment for the shipping and customs fees...
Haven't seen any silkies here, I recently bought four chicks, was told they were kikiriki, they're not... they're what they call "finos" (bantams of unknown parentage). I'm fine with bantys though, bought one male, three female chicks. I wanted a rooster for them, but also wanted a SMALL rooster for my three production red hens; they're so much happier with a boyfriend, but the rooster I had (and ate) was 'un mal novio' (a bad boyfriend), he was young and VERY aggressive, to the degree of balding hens and huge gouges under the wings (holes). Hoping that a tiny boyfriend will shower them with TENDER affections and rooster dances. I want the girls to be larger than him to discourage him getting too cocky...LOL.
We have very high humidity here, and average temperatures between mid 70's to low 90's Fahrenheit both day and night year round. It's currently 74F and 88% humidity. (10:30pm local time).

 

[jsr5]

you either need to travel or have friends that travel to bring things back for you. Not sure how all that works. I have only left the country once and nobody bothered me either direction as a soldier. hope you have the best. sounds like with your humidity and temps you could just set em out on the table and watch em hatch

 

[Ebony Rose]

I'd given my neighbors a dozen quail eggs (to eat), and they reported back that they were unable to eat them as they had started to develop (less than one week old, and as you said, sitting on the table). Led me to believe that a DIY incubator could very well work I'd spent two days in a taxi going from store to store and shop to shop in an attempt to buy a 'real' incubator, to no avail.

 

[jsr5]

Hoping that a tiny boyfriend will shower them with TENDER affections and rooster dances.

Talk about cute rooster dances my two silkie roos are regular don Juans with the cutest dances. Shame they arent available they would love your climate. My wife wants to travel and we have a decent camper now maybe I can load my my girls and drive down Bring you some silkies and stuff betcha some of the roads and trails between here and there would give the poor girls shaken baby syndrome. You would have to come in to the camper to visit that kinda weather would melt my old butt .

 

[Ebony Rose]

LOL! I don't even have an air conditioner, and limit the use of my fan to the hottest month of the year (This month).

You would have to come in to the camper to visit that kinda weather would melt my old butt .

I'm a tropical flower Would be a rough ride for ya though, the roads aren't bad here, but I've heard horror stories about border crossings... and then there's the customs and immigration at each border crossing, with a vehicle & animals it could be a hair-pulling experience... and don't even think about trying to pay for speedier processing, they consider that a bribe and if they've got a wild hair up their gazoo, could mean jail time! From your neck of the woods, would involve Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then finally Panama, that's a whole lot of border crossings. Let me know if you're coming Don't get me wrong, I love being here, but it's obvious that 'We're not in Kansas anymore', and I had the sense to take an airplane to get here!

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Jsr5, your hen sounds like what mine is going through right now. I’m wondering if it’s a seasonal thing- you know how certain bacteria are more prevelant at certain times if the year in certain climates. (I freerange my flock)

With mine, I had three guesses- a broken bone (one of my hens, not sure which one took a dive bomb off the perch the one night I came in to check on them). Egg bound (she wasn’t straining, but I noticed her tail was down and she hadn’t laid in a few days) or some sort on infection/virus/parasite..... yeah I know, that’s hardly whittled down much, but it does break up possible scenarios.

She’s pooping the mealy green poop, with lots of water in it, large white well formed urates. Sometimes the fecal matter is liquidy . It also smells bad- worse than regular chicken poo. Stanky. The one time she pooped I smelled a rotten egg smell, but this odor is different from this bird” poop smell. Smelling sulfur when a hen poops is not a good sign...I think it could be egg yolk peritonitis.

She pants a lot. She wasn’t off eating the first few days, but now she’s not eating so much as she first was. She eats, but today I noticed she’s rapidly losing weight. What alerted me to her being sick was that she was limping. I found her on a nest. Then later that night she was under a bush and could not get to the coop for the night by herself. When I brought her inside that evening, her legs sprawled out as did her wing. She has good use of them now, but still sits mostly. She will get up and move about her large cage to get food and water. I hear her getting up to eat even during the night. This is all what’s happened since Sunday... the last 5 days.

What I did for her was give her an epsom salt wam bath for 20 minutes after giving her a half of tums tablet (calcium) in some yogurt. I put my gloves finger up her bum to feel for an egg but felt nothing too indicative of egg binding. I also started giving her 1/2 baby aspirin for pain. I didn’t see improvement, but noticed her one leg (the hock part) felt warm and swollen and after doing some searches I found similar symptom match for fowl cholera..or something like it that is treated with sulfatimides. I had Sulmet (antibiotic sulfatimide) on hand and decided to treat. The next day she looked better and later even laid an egg. It’s been about 3 days of Sulmet in the water...she looked better but not sure I can say she looks ok now... she’s panting again and despite her eating relatively a good amount I noticed she’s lost a lot of weight.

So this evening, in case it’s worms, I treated her with Valbazen, 1/2 cc.

So difficult to know what to do. I’ll be following this thread. I’m sorry your sweet hen is sick. Hopefully something can be figured out and help them recover.

I want to say though... it’s true I think your bird has a bit of bumblefoot, but I don’t think that’s what’s making her sick. I wouldn’t attempt the surgery until this other stuff clears up. Birds can live a long time without being affected by the bumblefoot infection- at least that’s what my vet told me. You don’t want to give her body anymore stuff to deal with. At least not now. (I know, that advice coming from someone who just wormed her bird while she’s sick...I kind of feel I had to at this point, to try.)

 

[jsr5]

It does sound very much like my problems and I think I have found signs of one or some of my other birds poop-ing like that . so I dunno. with all thats going on today and feeling down from yesterday still I doubt she will get much more than dosed water and feed today as well as her cell mate. I listed her a normal weight at the beginning but have since noticed her breast is concave so she is underweight and no reason for that unless she either hasn't felt like eating or hasn't been making it to the feeder which has feed all the time for them

 

[jsr5]

Ok I've rehabed from my fall. And Lil Red has been dosed with antibiotics, had neosporin treatments nearly daily on the foot pad while I waited for the duroderm stuff and got all my ducks in a row. Today I got her out and cuddled a while then we had a nice long (20) min epsome soak. Then we covered her up good put her on her side and I went to work on the swollen foot pad. It started bleeding almost immediately I tried a spit closer to the center and the same. I read it should not really bleed if it does I"m cutting good flesh. so I stopped. took more pictures which are to follow. I'm thinking maybe a foot and ankle injury or somthing now. We have all vetrycin neosporin and durodermed with vet wrap and surgical tape. think of the ankle I put the tape on in a manner that would kinda help support the ankle. When I went back out to check on her she was up eating and actually standing to do it so maybe it is more ankle than foot.

Above is the top of the foot and front of the ankle notice the pick coloring on the side of the ankle towards the back.
Below is the pad of the foot after I cut it. note the black spots have left the earlier place I cut to remove a black spot has healed. Still very puffy compared to other foot.

Below is the back of the ankle Just above the back toe I'm holding it out of the way for the picture another veiw of the lighter pinkish coloring.

Also to note to evaluate her ability to be with her flock I took her out one day last week. thurs or fri. and put her in coop near food and water and just checkoed on her like every ten minutes. She ate and drank well then other than one squable with a barred hen that I broke up she pretty much just lay in the doorways getting sun or catching the breeze. Then towards evening she hobbled back up to the house and sat by the brooder like she was waiting on me to put her in. Which I did and gave her more food and water and some worms for a treat and turned the heat lamp on for her as it was cooloing off towards evening and I didn't know if she was stressed bad from the day or not. she looked ok and like she was enjoying it but the anxiety of being back in a flock injured may have been why she came up. Anyway further opinions welcomed.