Skinny, foul poop, sick chicken

[MLG1900]

Hello all, I am in need of some help with my sick chicken. She is a barred rock and will be 2 in the spring. I noticed a several weeks ago that she was super skinny. I picked her up and she was light as a feather and her breastbone is so prominent and I do not feel any breast muscle at all. I noticed she has watery foul smelling poop. No blood noted. No obvious worms noted. A few days after I noticed the water poop, I noticed she passed some solid corn too. Not digested at all. Another reason I noticed she was sick was because I found her sleeping on the coop floor. I thought for sure I would find her dead the next morning but she has been hanging on for a couple weeks like this. She is eating and acts very hungry and also is drinking. I just noticed this week that her feet / toes looks swollen. No visible scabs that is seen in a typical bumblefoot. So after searching this website I started tried worming her with pour on ivermectin 1 week ago. Second dose will be this coming Sunday (14days later). I also switched all the chicken feed to flock grower 20% protein to help gain weight but also lots of chickens are still molting. I also tried giving Tylan50 about 1/2 cc on a piece of bread daily. She got 3 days of it last week. (I read someone said not to give more than 3 days) I took her inside today to soak her feet. I didn't notice any scabs but the swollen toes / feet had white under the skin. I took a sterile 27ga needle and punctured her skin on her toes (right foot) and pus came out immediately. I realized that I was not getting it all so I used a larger 18ga sterile needle to make the puncture larger and lots of pus was expressed. When I tried to do this to her other foot (left foot), she seemed to be a lot more uncomfortable, squirming and crying like I was hurting her. I tried to make a few punctures and was able to squeeze pus from the other foot as well but not nearly as much as the other foot or even what I think might be present. Her 1 toe on her left foot is so swollen that it won't even bend. But all her other toes are bending. So, after squeezing out what I could I applied blue kote and prid drawing salve then covered in vet wrap. Also, gave her another 1/2 cc of tylan50 on bread. Anyone have any other suggestions? Are the feet and digestive issue 2 separate issues or related? I sure would like to save this girl since she has been hanging in there for several weeks now. I don't mind caring for her and buying medicine but I am not willing to spend hundreds of dollars at a vet.

 

[azygous]

Your girl has some serious issues. Not having the benefit of lab tests on tissue samples and feces, I can only guess. But it may be those feet are seriously infected with staphylococcus, and she quite possibly also has E.coli in her intestines.

She needs a long round of a broad spectrum antibiotic, perhaps as long as three weeks of amoxicillin.

She also has scaly leg mites. That could be how the staph entered her blood stream and infected her feet so badly.

She needs long soaks of her legs and feet in Epsom salts. Then cover her legs and feet with castor oil. That will take care of the leg mites. I would continue to soak her feet in the warmest Epsom salt water possible just this side of being hot, at least once or twice a day. Test it with your hand. If it burns your hand, it's too hot. But get it as hot as you can without burning her feet.

You mentioned something to draw out the infection in her feet? Something like sugar poultices or raw potato strips plastered on her feet can help draw out the infection.

To be sure she doesn't have crop issues on top of all this, have you felt her crop? Is there any sour, vomit smell coming from her beak? Check the crop in the morning and at night. If it's full in the morning, she has a problem. Then you need to decide if the crop feels squishy or hard. It wouldn't surprise me if she also has a crop disorder in addition to the bacterial infections.

You can get amoxicillin from an aquarium store. Fish-mox is good for chickens, too. 250 mg once a day, or divide the pill in half and give morning and at night.

 

[bluebird]

Your girl has some serious issues. Not having the benefit of lab tests on tissue samples and feces, I can only guess. But it may be those feet are seriously infected with staphylococcus, and she quite possibly also has E.coli in her intestines.

She needs a long round of a broad spectrum antibiotic, perhaps as long as three weeks of amoxicillin.

She also has scaly leg mites. That could be how the staph entered her blood stream and infected her feet so badly.

She needs long soaks of her legs and feet in Epsom salts. Then cover her legs and feet with castor oil. That will take care of the leg mites. I would continue to soak her feet in the warmest Epsom salt water possible just this side of being hot, at least once or twice a day. Test it with your hand. If it burns your hand, it's too hot. But get it as hot as you can without burning her feet.

You mentioned something to draw out the infection in her feet? Something like sugar poultices or raw potato strips plastered on her feet can help draw out the infection.

To be sure she doesn't have crop issues on top of all this, have you felt her crop? Is there any sour, vomit smell coming from her beak? Check the crop in the morning and at night. If it's full in the morning, she has a problem. Then you need to decide if the crop feels squishy or hard. It wouldn't surprise me if she also has a crop disorder in addition to the bacterial infections.

You can get amoxicillin from an aquarium store. Fish-mox is good for chickens, too. 250 mg once a day, or divide the pill in half and give morning and at night.

x2

 

[Eggcessive]

Does your hen limp or have difficulty walking? It is hard to know sometimes what the cause of swollen toes and feet are, since it can be from bacterial arthritis ( mycoplasma, staph, E.coli, and others.) Gout also can be a cause. If the joints of the legs are also swollen, then mycoplasma (MS) could again be considered. Bacterial arthritis can also be associated with coop bedding problems, with certain types of bacteria in the droppings. I would make sure the bedding is changed from time to time, and add clean pine shavings frequently to keep it dry and fresh. If you give antibiotics, use probiotics or a small amount of plain yogurt to keep the gut bacteria healthy.

 

[MLG1900]

Your girl has some serious issues. Not having the benefit of lab tests on tissue samples and feces, I can only guess. But it may be those feet are seriously infected with staphylococcus, and she quite possibly also has E.coli in her intestines.

She needs a long round of a broad spectrum antibiotic, perhaps as long as three weeks of amoxicillin.

She also has scaly leg mites. That could be how the staph entered her blood stream and infected her feet so badly.

She needs long soaks of her legs and feet in Epsom salts. Then cover her legs and feet with castor oil. That will take care of the leg mites. I would continue to soak her feet in the warmest Epsom salt water possible just this side of being hot, at least once or twice a day. Test it with your hand. If it burns your hand, it's too hot. But get it as hot as you can without burning her feet.

You mentioned something to draw out the infection in her feet? Something like sugar poultices or raw potato strips plastered on her feet can help draw out the infection.

To be sure she doesn't have crop issues on top of all this, have you felt her crop? Is there any sour, vomit smell coming from her beak? Check the crop in the morning and at night. If it's full in the morning, she has a problem. Then you need to decide if the crop feels squishy or hard. It wouldn't surprise me if she also has a crop disorder in addition to the bacterial infections.

You can get amoxicillin from an aquarium store. Fish-mox is good for chickens, too. 250 mg once a day, or divide the pill in half and give morning and at night.

Yes, I was sure I would find her dead about 3 weeks ago when I noticed her sleeping on the floor. But she keeps hanging on. I had noticed her squirting watery poop earlier but didn't think anything of it because it was still pretty hot outside and figured she was just drinking a lot. Does the ivermectin help with leg mites? I didn't realize she had leg mites. I have seen pictures online and didn't think any of my chickens looked like them. But I do see now some raised scales after you mentioned it. Thank you. I was reading a few posts about the clostridium, coccidiosis, etc. And was wondering if she had some type of gut infection going on. Just wasn't sure what to treat with. I will order some fish mox right away and continue soaking her feet. I did not notice any odors from her mouth today. It seemed that her behind is what stunk the most. But I will check the crop also. Thanks again.

 

[MLG1900]

Does your hen limp or have difficulty walking? It is hard to know sometimes what the cause of swollen toes and feet are, since it can be from bacterial arthritis ( mycoplasma, staph, E.coli, and others.) Gout also can be a cause. If the joints of the legs are also swollen, then mycoplasma (MS) could again be considered. Bacterial arthritis can also be associated with coop bedding problems, with certain types of bacteria in the droppings. I would make sure the bedding is changed from time to time, and add clean pine shavings frequently to keep it dry and fresh. If you give antibiotics, use probiotics or a small amount of plain yogurt to keep the gut bacteria healthy.

Yes, she is limping now. That is what made me notice her swollen toes / ankle. For as much pus as I drained today, I would think it has been infected for a decent amount of time but only noticed the limping this week. I use pine shavings in the coop and clean it out ever couple of months after reading about the deep litter method. The run gets pretty muddy and dirty though because it is not covered and because of this I try to let them free range outside the run. So, it is possible that germs were picked up from the dirty run also. I did start using some probiotics (kefir) last week after starting the tylan50. Thank you for your comments!

 

[azygous]

Chickens can be very tough and recover from some pretty serious ailments. Let's hope this patient is determined to keep on living.

However, you need to be alert to her reaching a point where everything has become too much for her to deal with. You will know she's reached that point when you see her give up eating, give up talking to you, and she will only want to crouch on the floor with her eyes closed and her tail held down low and flat.

When you see those signs, it means the pain has become so stressful that the chicken can no longer deal with it. That's when you need to end it for her.

As long as she's talking, moving around with her tail held high, and she's bright-eyed and has an interest in eating, you will know she has plenty of fight in her and the pain isn't so bad that she can't function.

About the leg mites, yes, the Ivermectin has probably taken care of them, but it won't hurt to do the castor oil treatment to be sure they're all smothered and dead. The castor oil is antibiotic and can help with any bacteria that is living on the scales.

Keep us posted as to her progress. We're all pulling for the two of you to get through this.

 

[casportpony]

How much does she weigh?

 

[MLG1900]

How much does she weigh?

I don't really have a scale I can lay her on but I used my luggage scale and put her in a sling. She is roughly 3 pounds.

 

[MLG1900]

I forgot to check her crop this morning when I was fooling around weighing her. I did feel it last night when she was sleeping and it was a firm round ball. I just got a picture of her poop. She happened to squirt it out in front of me. It is very loud when she goes. And I sifted through it but mainly I think it looks mostly like the undigested food. They are all on the high protein crumbles now and maybe some strands of grass? But it isn't green grass more brown like. A few of the other chickens seem thinner too. And I noticed another one had a loud squirt too. But nothing as bad as her. I ordered the fish mox from Chewy.com. I am hoping it gets delivered today or tomorrow at the latest.