URGENT: How Do I Treat My Sick Hen?

[henroo_101]

About a week and a half ago I took my bantam cochin hen, Lucy (1.5 years old), to the vet for a bulge on her face. It was determined that she had bacteria in her mouth, and was treated with Enrofloxacin for 7 days to help clear it up, which it did. The main concern was everything else we walked away knowing needed treatment, and there was a lot so please bear with me while I detail it all and ask tons of questions. She was also diagnosed with having lice and bumblefoot, which I have been treating. I am attaching pictures of both her feet, I wasn't sure if they looked how they should, if they're healing or still infected.


My main concern now is how a day after the vet visit, she began sneezing. It ended up being a viral respiratory thing going around my tiny flock. I treated one hen with Tylan 50 1/2 cc injected for 6 days (she is no longer sneezing or sounding congested), and my roo is on day 4 of his 1/4 cc. I called the vet to ask if the antibiotics Lucy was on would take care of the respiratory, and she said yes. Our vet is not a poultry or avian specialist, she treats "exotic," and admitted to not knowing much about chickens when we were there, although she did her best and researched to give us the best advice. Lucy finished her antibiotics two days ago, and her respiratory seems to have gotten worse. She now has what looks like a tiny bit of snot on her left nostril, and sounds like she has a tiny bit of fluid in her lungs when she breathes. She isn't wheezing constantly or loudly, but her sneezing hasn't let up. My question is, am I able to give her 1/4 cc of Tylan 50 so soon after finishing antibiotics? If she doesn't have much muscle I could inject into, where else can I safely give her the shot? Or should I wait? How long until the sneezing should stop if the antibiotics she did get took care of it?

She was also diagnosed with coccidia at the vet, and was on Corid for 5 days about 6 days ago, followed by Nutridrench in the water for several days to help recover from the treatment. Is it possible that the Coccidia came back so soon? I have found some weird looking poop in the shed (it serves as their coop, it will be cleaned out and sanitized with Elector when it gets here) that makes me wonder if the first treatment didn't knock out the parasite.

My next concern with the same hen is about her physical state. She seems to have lost weight over the past few weeks. She was dusted with Dust On for lice a little under a week ago, and is chewing at herself again. I know the eggs may have hatched and I should dust again, but I have Elector PSP arriving in two days, so should I dust now and then spray when it comes in, or do I wait to just treat with Elector? She has also been acting less like herself, not as energetic. She's still dust bathing and foraging, seems to be eating and drinking. Her wattle also gets pale sometimes, which I assume is from the lice and will be fixed once I get rid of them. She lays every other day, and is on Purina layena now, but I am planning to switch to all flock with my next bag of food (I plan on mixing the food 50/50 until I run out of Layena). Should I switch her now? Is there anything other than the Nutridrench I could give her, and if so, how would I give it if the Nutridrench is in her water already? What can I give her to put some weight back on her?

Another thing (yes I know this is a lot, my little lady has a lot of problems at the moment that are systematically being taken care of the best way I can), she is the rooster favorite, which means they jump on her a lot. I have found some small open wounds on her back that I was planning to put Vetericyn on, but can I also put Neosporin without pain reliever on at the same time? I also have some Silver Sulfadiazine cream I could use as well, I'm just not sure what will work best or heal the fastest. She'll be coming in the house as soon as I get the crate set up until she seems back to her normal self, and to avoid flystrike with the open wounds.

She is very tame, so I can get pictures of anything if needed, please just ask what if so.

I consider my chickens my pets and am doing all that I can think of or research to help my little flock through our rough patch, any and all advice or answers are appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I'm not an expert, but will try to give some suggestions. For mites, dust her now and treat with Elector PSP later. I found that poultry dust cannot completely get rid of mites, but Elector PSP does. I mix 0.9ml Elector PSP per gallon water and give them a bath. After that, I use the left over to spray their coop and run.

I believe you can give her Tylan 50, but also give her some plain yogurt so she wouldn't have diarrhea. You may want to wait some experts for this.

Neosporin without pain reliever works great. I used it to treat my hen attacked by a fox, it saved her life. Also spray wounded area with blu-kote to stop pecking. Do you consider to let her wear hen apron for protection?

That bumble foot doesn't look recovered. I just soaked my hen's feet in epson salt water everyday for 30min. It takes a month before I could clean all the dead tissues out and her feet finally recovered. I just used a tweezer to take out dead tissues after each soak.

 

[henroo_101]

I'm not an expert, but will try to give some suggestions. For mites, dust her now and treat with Elector PSP later. I found that poultry dust cannot completely get rid of mites, but Elector PSP does. I mix 0.9ml Elector PSP per gallon water and give them a bath. After that, I use the left over to spray their coop and run.

I believe you can give her Tylan 50, but also give her some plain yogurt so she wouldn't have diarrhea. You may want to wait some experts for this.

Neosporin without pain reliever works great. I used it to treat my hen attacked by a fox, it saved her life. Also spray wounded area with blu-kote to stop pecking. Do you consider to let her wear hen apron for protection?

That bumble foot doesn't look recovered. I just soaked my hen's feet in epson salt water everyday for 30min. It takes a month before I could clean all the dead tissues out and her feet finally recovered. I just used a tweezer to take out dead tissues after each soak.

She’s still been getting her epsom salt baths every night, but if I squeeze her feet nothing seems to come out…I did see some stuff around the second night of treatment, but I was worried I was pulling things out I shouldn’t be, like say it was the tissue of her feet. We’ve only been treating for 10 days now, so does she look about right for that amount of time?

I have looked into the saddles for hens, I’ll probably be getting her one soon.

Thank you for replying!

 

[TillyPeeps]

You will have to use a small tweezer to take the tissues out, or it will stop the feet from healing. You will not be able to squeeze it out. If it's still swollen, you haven't cleaned all dead tissues yet. Don't worry, it's easy to tell: if you get the healthy tissues, it will bleed, but dead tissues won't. The dead tissues look brownish and dried out. After you cleaned it out, you will see healthy tissue with pinkish color. The dead tissues in bumble foot are usually very big. I got a corn size one out first and thought that's it, but I was wrong. One of her feet didn't heal. I just keep soak her feet, and eventually a huge piece came out! It's 3 times bigger than the first piece! The next day, I can tell her foot was much less swollen and healed in a few days.

 

[henroo_101]

You will have to use a small tweezer to take the tissues out, or it will stop the feet from healing. You will not be able to squeeze it out. If it's still swollen, you haven't cleaned all dead tissues yet. Don't worry, it's easy to tell: if you get the healthy tissues, it will bleed, but dead tissues won't. The dead tissues look brownish and dried out. After you cleaned it out, you will see healthy tissue with pinkish color. The dead tissues in bumble foot are usually very big. I got a corn size one out first and thought that's it, but I was wrong. One of her feet didn't heal. I just keep soak her feet, and eventually a huge piece came out! It's 3 times bigger than the first piece! The next day, I can tell her foot was much less swollen and healed in a few days.

I’m (attempting to) attaching a picture of the tissue I was talking about, this is from 9 days ago…but it looked white/pink ish? And it bled a lot, which was why I stopped.