Sick hen, lethargic, high fever

[Ohio peepers]

Hello, one of our girls got sick today. She kept closing her eyes and seemed lethargic. I checked her vent and did not feel an egg. She had very slight white colored watery discharge from her vent. She ate just a little bit of lettuce, she is not interested in drinking. I took her to the vet this afternoon. He checked her temp and it is 107.6 He said normal for a chicken is around 101. He said he could try an antibiotic but it might be viral and said the only antibiotic that chickens can really use is one that will make their eggs inedible for life. He suggested I try pedialyte to replace electrolytes and oregano or oil of oregano. I came home and gave her about 8 mL of water with a few drops of oil of oregano.

He said she seems to be fairly healthy otherwise, good weight and muscle mass, feathers/skin in tact (she is one of our higher up on the pecking order).

She keeps closing her eyes and wanting to rest (which yes a high fever feels awful!). He also suggested I massage her crop after giving her fluids which I did. Does anyone else have other suggestions? I am not soliciting medical advice and am not seeking it as we have already seen a vet but I don't know how many chickens he normally sees (probably not many).

Thank you!! Keep our Margo in your prayers if you will!

 

[azygous]

Just for you information, serious illness with an underlying cause from an avian virus can be treated with an antibiotic as long as the secondary infection is of a bacterial nature. It's the same as a person with cancer getting an infected wound being given an antibiotic. The cancer and chemo lowered the person's immune system so they were more apt to get infections. But we all know the antibiotic won't cure the cancer. Same with a chicken with a virus.

And while there is an egg withdrawal period where you do not want to eat her eggs, the antibiotic doesn't ruin her eggs for life. Vets may have special training and know a lot, but they don't always know much about chickens.

The vet also wasn't very helpful regarding her crop. If she has a sour crop (yeast infection), massage is not recommended as it can cause her to vomit and aspirate some of the fluid into her lungs. She could die instantly or later from pneumonia.

Of course, we can't diagnose your hen from out her in the internet zone, but we can gather information from you about your hen where we might be able to advise you on things you can try.

Illness coming on suddenly can point to a toxin or parasites, a bacterial infection, or a crop disorder. Here are some questions for you:

1. What does her crop feel like? Very full, empty, full and squishy, or full and hard and lumpy? Is there any odor perhaps like the smell of sauerkraut?
2. What has she been eating? Scratching for worms, digging around in a compost pile where there may be rotting food, scratching around under stored yard equipment that could be leaking fluids? If she's in a run or coop all the time, does she have access to grit?
3. What is your weather lately? Humid, warm, wet?
4. What is the soil like? Soggy and muddy? Any standing water with scum around the edges?
5. When was the last time she laid? Was she regularly laying? Good egg shell quality or does she have a problem with thin shells or shell-less eggs?
6. Does she make any crackling sounds when breathing? Any bubbling from her eyes or swelling around her eyes?
7. Look into her mouth. See any white or yellow scum or what might appear to be a mouth full of unswallowed food?
8. Is your feed stored in a dry place or is it damp and mildewy where you have the feed?
9. Any balance problems or trouble standing? Do her wings droop when she stands? How is her walking? Any sign of limping?
10. Is one eye a different color than the other with a pupil that is smaller or irregularly shaped?

Somewhere in your answers will be a couple of clues, so try to think carefully and answer each one. There's a good chance we can help you make your hen feel better.

 

[Ohio peepers]

Thank you for your help! I wanted to ask on here as I wasn't sure the vet knows a lot about chickens. I am an RN so I asked what antibiotic it is...it is the fluoride class...like cipro for humans. I did ask specifically when he mentioned the eggs and he said that they would be nonedible for her life. I told him that would be fine as she is a pet more than anything and we have 10 other layers.

1) Her crop has no odor. It is squishy and somewhat lumpy. The vet said it feels like grain in there. Our girls have access to outside in a pretty large area that we fenced for their safety. My daughter keeps it meticulous in there as we lost one of our favorites in February unexpectedly so we have been even more diligent with the girls.

2) she eats chicken feed, scratch grain and vegetables we throw out although I did give them some crushed up tortilla chips last night. They find worms and bugs outside too as well as grass.

3) It has been very wet here in Ohio. It's supposed to be getting warmer again this week. We had a couple of cooler days but last week we had some 80 degree ones.

4) The soil is damp from all the rain although they don't have standing water in their run at all.

5) she laid this morning. She has good shell quality. Some of our lower ended pecking order girls have thin egg shells sometimes but Margo was consistent as she always gets plenty of food being one of the upper girls.

6)No wheezing or crackling sounds with inspiration or expiration

7) The feed is in a dry place. I just bought some recently and my daughter just opened it last week. Our girls live inside of our barn that we closed off part of it to make a coop for them. I told the vet there are 4 windows that get plenty of airflow too.

8) The vet showed me in her mouth where the epiglottis is as he said to make sure when I feed her with the syringe that I place it behind the epiglottis to prevent aspiration. I also looked into her mouth when I was feeding her and it looked normal.

9) She isn't walking much but stands ok. she droops her wings some though. She just looks exhausted poor thing.

10) Her pupils look pretty normal but she keeps her right eye closed almost all the time (this just started today). There is no swelling or sign of injury in the area either.

I just researched abx for chickens and it looks like amoxicillin is acceptable. Is that correct? I have a ton of amoxi on hand!

Thank you again for your expertise and help!

 

[azygous]

Thanks for being so thorough in your answers. We can rule out reproductive issues. That's a big relief as most of the time, treatment of infections in that system have a low rate of success.

We can't rule out a crop issue, and it sounds as if she could have one. You need to verify by withholding food and water overnight and in the morning until you check her crop. It should be flat and empty. If it is unchanged from its lumpy condition, she could have an obstruction that needs treating.

The wet, warm weather could be causing a population explosion of coccidia. These are protozoa present in the soil all the time. Your chickens are resistant to them as long as they are in good health and the coccidia don't become a burden in their intestines. You could take a fresh stool sample to the vet and ask for a fecal float test for parasites. It would show a coccidia count if this is your hen's problem. If she has intestinal worms, it will show that, too. For a little extra cost, you could have them run a gram stain for bacteria. You would then know if you need to treat with the amoxicillin.

If this hen is positive for coccidia, it would be wise to treat the entire flock for to be safe. It does no harm if they aren't coming down with coccidiosis since the treatment is merely a thiamine blocker to interfere with the life cycle of the protozoa.

Get some liquid Corid as soon as you are able and mix it to the ratio of two teaspoons to one gallon of water. However, if you plan to have a fecal done, don't treat until after you've collected the stool sample. Time is of the essence. Chickens can die from this and it can cause necrotic enteritis which is a bear to treat successfully. Mix the Corid fresh each day and treat for five days. This should be the only water the chickens can access. Don't give any vitamins during this period. Wait a week and treat again for five more days to get any new coccidia hatch.

You should see improvement in a couple days. You may also be treating a crop infection depending on how you find her crop in the morning. I'll check back here first thing in the morning for your report and we'll go from there.

 

[Ohio peepers]

Axygous, thank you so much! Margo slept in a box in my bedroom Thursday night. I had to get up early Friday morning to go to work. I woke in the night and touched her back holding my breath that she would still be alive, she made a soft noise to let me know she was still with us. I got up extra early so I could give her water/electrolytes with a syringe (my teenagers would be home all day to care for her). To my surprise she was standing with both eyes open and much more feisty! Her waddles seemed much cooler. She ate the lettuce I offered her and then had a large wet stool (normal color, maybe a bit more green). She then had another stool. I woke up one of my kids before I left so she could continue feeding and monitoring her. Took her out to free range supervised and she did great! She looked completely normal. I went out to visit the girls this morning and Margo was very talkative, eating/drinking normally. Whatever it was seems to be over and she is back to her bossier self. Thank you so much for the info on coccidia. I am still learning much about chickens (we have had these girls for almost a year and they are our first flock). I am going to get the medication you suggested to have on hand just in case. I have been told chickens die quickly often once signs/symptoms of illness begin so I was afraid we would lose her.

 

[triciakay]

Hello, I have a sick chicken with similar symptoms so I wanted to answer these questions and see if you could help me out. I’d take her straight to the vet but I haven’t found one near that will even examine a chicken.

1. Her crop feels full and squishy. I didn’t notice an odor.
2. What has she been eating? She has free range of our yard so she scratches around for anything she finds. Sometimes we give them access to the compost pile, last time was a few days ago. Both hens like to go in our storage shed where the mower is and hang out under our older RV. They spend a couple hours under the RV daily. Our yard has lots of very small rocks, so I didn’t think I needed to put out grit. We’ve had the chickens since April.

3. What is your weather lately? Weather is always humid and warm/hot. We got some rain for about two days last week.

4. Our yard is a mix of grass and hard dirt. There was some mud last week when it rained but the puddles dried up pretty quick, so no standing water.

5. She laid yesterday, one end of the egg was slightly softer and pointy. She has laid quite a few days in a row, which isn’t like her. She’s not a good layer. She skips days, has been known to lay from the roost, or outside of her nest, sometimes has very soft shells, sometimes has weird shells that don’t even resemble shells to me, and loves to eat her eggs.

6. No cackling sounds or discharge from eyes.

7. Don’t see any unswallowed food. She does have a bit of black/brown tiny spots on her bottom, inside beak, maybe dirt? I don’t know.

8. Feed seems dry and fine. It’s humid here but the food doesn’t show any signs of being damp or exposed to water.

9. She doesn’t seem to have great balance right now, as she’s leaning forward and dozing off every few minutes? It seemed like she almost fell but it could have been that she jerked awake. Her wings don’t seem to be drooping. I can’t tell about her walking bc she’s not walking. Anywhere I put her, she stands still.

10. Eyes are hard to check bc she is insistent on keeping them closed right now. I was able to get her to open them for a second, they seem the same color with same sized pupils.

She had similar symptoms a month ago after we got some rain. She felt warm, wanted to stand in the water bowl, had diarrhea (some green) and didn’t want to eat or drink. She just stood still and I think she was panting. She was fine by the next day, after giving her electrolytes and apple cider vinegar water.

This time, she feels very warm so I put her in a tub of water and she kind of laid down. Her head kept drooping so I was afraid she’d fall asleep in the tub, so I took her out. She was standing and laying with
tail up or straight out, and she seems to be contracting the muscles in her back end. Tail looks like it’s pulsing up and down.
She wants to lay down and she can hardly keep her eyes open.
She didn’t lay today, it’s past her time.
Please help if you can!

 

[azygous]

Hello, I have a sick chicken with similar symptoms so I wanted to answer these questions and see if you could help me out. I’d take her straight to the vet but I haven’t found one near that will even examine a chicken.

1. Her crop feels full and squishy. I didn’t notice an odor.
2. What has she been eating? She has free range of our yard so she scratches around for anything she finds. Sometimes we give them access to the compost pile, last time was a few days ago. Both hens like to go in our storage shed where the mower is and hang out under our older RV. They spend a couple hours under the RV daily. Our yard has lots of very small rocks, so I didn’t think I needed to put out grit. We’ve had the chickens since April.

3. What is your weather lately? Weather is always humid and warm/hot. We got some rain for about two days last week.

4. Our yard is a mix of grass and hard dirt. There was some mud last week when it rained but the puddles dried up pretty quick, so no standing water.

5. She laid yesterday, one end of the egg was slightly softer and pointy. She has laid quite a few days in a row, which isn’t like her. She’s not a good layer. She skips days, has been known to lay from the roost, or outside of her nest, sometimes has very soft shells, sometimes has weird shells that don’t even resemble shells to me, and loves to eat her eggs.

6. No cackling sounds or discharge from eyes.

7. Don’t see any unswallowed food. She does have a bit of black/brown tiny spots on her bottom, inside beak, maybe dirt? I don’t know.

8. Feed seems dry and fine. It’s humid here but the food doesn’t show any signs of being damp or exposed to water.

9. She doesn’t seem to have great balance right now, as she’s leaning forward and dozing off every few minutes? It seemed like she almost fell but it could have been that she jerked awake. Her wings don’t seem to be drooping. I can’t tell about her walking bc she’s not walking. Anywhere I put her, she stands still.

10. Eyes are hard to check bc she is insistent on keeping them closed right now. I was able to get her to open them for a second, they seem the same color with same sized pupils.

She had similar symptoms a month ago after we got some rain. She felt warm, wanted to stand in the water bowl, had diarrhea (some green) and didn’t want to eat or drink. She just stood still and I think she was panting. She was fine by the next day, after giving her electrolytes and apple cider vinegar water.

This time, she feels very warm so I put her in a tub of water and she kind of laid down. Her head kept drooping so I was afraid she’d fall asleep in the tub, so I took her out. She was standing and laying with
tail up or straight out, and she seems to be contracting the muscles in her back end. Tail looks like it’s pulsing up and down.
She wants to lay down and she can hardly keep her eyes open.
She didn’t lay today, it’s past her time.
Please help if you can!

Due to her egg history, she may be having internal egg problems. It can make a hen feel very sick. Pain is involved, and it exhausts a hen. I would bring her inside, install her in a crate with a thick absorbant towel under her, and provide plenty of water. But most important, start her on an oral calcium supplement such as calcium citrate for humans with vitamin D.

If she has a blockage, you won't see any cecal poop but lots of watery discharge from the vent. If it's still very hot, she could use electrolytes in her water.

If this is ongoing, instead of continuing to post here, please start your own thread so as not to confuse readers on this one, and we can help you much better. Mention my tag line and I will be alerted to your new thread.