Sick Chicken? Please Help.

Seeing as I pay for basically everything around here, Kelly doesn't have much say in these kinds of things! ;-) For me, it was a learning experience as well as an investment in my chicken. That was enough to justify it.

Well that's an awfully fitting point for my household too, since DH is our stay at home daddy. :) I think I'm off to see the wizard... I meant vet.

Lady if it is a respitory virus did she get it from your exsisting birds or did she already have it?
Theres always this to consider in these situations some virus/diseases can be cured but do produce carriers and it's hard if not impossible to tell which chickens are carriers after they become well.
You said the gentleman was cross maybe its because he does have good birds and just maybe there could be a virus at your house. Some virus's have a incubation period of 1 day and you placeing her with your birds i would watch and if they don't become sick then you could have a carrier in your flock.
I have run into this before myself i sell a good many birds and i will not garentee my birds because i have no way of knowing what sort of enviroment they are going to and what they will be exposed to. If you will read my thread you will see the great lenghths i do go to keep my birds healthy.
You can also see my mistake and you see how i'm working to solve it i rarely cure a bird unless i KNOW it can be cured and not leave a carrier. There are some things that can be cured but just as many that can't i recommend the Chicken Health Hand Book by Gail Damerow it's my chicken bible and it covers just about anything a chicken can get.
Good Luck and i hope your news is good.

Hi Harmony and all that are reading...
I went to the vet tonight and they tested her for a number of things. They found her in good health except for high bacteria levels in her stool culture. She did sneeze, sniffle, wheeze, or breath with her beak open once the entire time she was there... dunno what that's all about!

Anyway, so we're moving forward with treating the high levels of bacteria with an antibiotic. Hopefully that will work well.

Harmony,
One question for you: would this be one of those things you feel are curable or something you'd be leery of?

Believe me the thought crossed my mind that the guy had a "what'd you do to my bird" kinda attitude, but when I asked him what he would have done, he said he would have thrown her in with my birds the same night... which I at least had her in a crate for physical protection. He said that colds do happen....

I'll be posting another thread about our coop and asking for opinions on that when its not WAY past my bedtime and now *I'M* getting sick!

Night - Night
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................

I would be leery if you can't identify it (just my opinion ladys)
Virus's Transfer fast and act quick and yes act very favorable to antibiotics but my outlook on this is will she be a carrier. Maybe the man is unaware of a hidden dieaese his birds are carrying or as i wrote there could be one at your home brought in unknowingly by you.
I Purchased a rabbit last year came from a recommended breeder cute fuzzy female i brought her home and put her in a holding pen. I went to her the next morning and she had a runny nose and was sneezing off went my panic button. I immediatly removed her and put her down and sprayed the pen with bleach. But it was too late i trusting and unknowingly spread it within a matter of hours my baby mini rex was seriously sick. First she sneezed then within the next 8 hours went from sneeze to cough to fluid in her lungs and gasping for breath. She died 12 hours after i got the other rabbit and the next day a grown male was sick and died within 8 hours it killed so fast until i didn't even have the chance to decide what is was.
I moved my remaining rabbits to a far away different location and removed all my rabbit equipment and cages to my lower yard and they sat there for 3 months. I didn't lose any other rabbit and i only had 5 adults and the 6 week old baby.
I have 4 rabbits now and thats it for me and it only takes once for you to bring in something and it go through your place like a freight train to make you think before you do something.
Now don't nobody go and get your pantie's in a wad this is me and how i feel and I'm a confessed Germ Aphobic person and i have to be. I want people like everyone here to come get a bird from me and take it home and me hear back how great it's doing. I hear from people all the time about my birds how sweet they are (I pet them) and how much they enjoy them. That tells me I'm doing my job and thats whats important to me that my birds make people happy.

If anyone would like in my chicken health handbook is a list of Diseases that produce carriers i will Post them if you like there are 28 different ones?

Harmony there are a couple of links on the bird link thread that may have it. Can you check? One says "wowowowie..." the other is 2nd to the last link. You would probably know how inclusive these are -I don't...

The wowie one was very good one if you click on the Poultry Diseases.

high levels of bacteria can be comeing from feed or water but not sure if anything else causes it. if u r not useing a water antibiotic get that ACV in the waterer it will help prevent some bacterial infections. if u r useing that don't put it in cuz it will nutrilize the antibiotics. if it was me i use injectable antibiotic tylan 50 a shot ea day for 3-5 days and the avc would be with garlic in the waterers.

when mine tested possative for that they had worms and a few other things so mabe worming them would help, mine also had a foul oder kinda smelled like yeast.

i think she had a problem before the breeder didn't know about and once she moved to another environment now it's showing what was really going on with her. yes there is many diseases that have carriers. the new signs u decribed shows signusitous(sp?) and respitory symptoms comeing on and similarities to a form of IB. IB can have carriers and can be environmentaly induced just from a bird being stressed or moved to a new place or around smoke ect but if u don't see ulcers or mucas or placs in the mouth that is the part confuseing me. what does her face look like? eyes? do u see anything odd looking at her or symptoms? what all did they test for and is it a poultry vet, avian vet or a regular vet testing?

Thanks again for all the thoughts Harmony. I'll let you know how it goes. My girls are still doing well... so the carrier idea has me a bit concerned. If that were the case then I guess it'd have to be just those two... Hopefully the stresses of moving and / or such a quick integration and the exposure to new things (good and bad) just has her bacteria levels high.

RE: The vet. I was not terribly impressed with them, I'll try to find another place for any future visits. They examined her behind closed doors so I had no idea what they did or didn't look at. It wasn't like taking my dog in there where they plopped him up on an exam table and talked to me about what they were looking at.
Does that rind true for others experiences? they said that is their standard practice for avian and exotics because they are more "temperamental" and can do better without their owners in the room.
That being said I'm not surprised I wasn't given a specific thing identified. I was there for THREE hours and saw a vet for 3 minutes of that time.

Ha! Silkie, we must have crossed paths.

Thanks for the thoughts. I gotta get my kids and myself up and out the door for the day. I'll check in later from work and again when i get home tonight.

I hope all have a nice first official day of Fall!!

silkie,

just realized Icould at least answer the easy questions...

her face looks great.
her eyes are bright and alert, no mucus, no discharge, nothing...
I know they tested for worms and found nothing.

I can research it later tonight, but if you had a moment, what's IB?

Holy crow! 3 hours??? I went to the vet after calling around to find one who would look at a chicken and who had some experience with birds. I got an appointment within half an hour that day. I waited for about 5 minutes. The vet took me into the exam room and spent about 10 minutes talking to me about my birds, where they came from, what types, any symptoms in the flock, how old are they, egg laying rates, coop style or free ranging etc etc. He was getting the "big picture" I think. Then he took a close look at my hen. I helped stabilize her while he looked. He wrapped her in a towel for part of it. He turned her onto her back and did a full belly/underside inspection. He looked inside her mouth, he looked at her vent, asked me about her stools, etc. He felt her crop, he felt her legs, everything. (the only symptom was the crusty nose/eyes and partially shut eye, sort of sunken). He talked to me for several minutes more about what it could be, that he thought it was a sinus infection, that sometimes chicken problems can be hard to diagnose, that I should isolate her, wash hands after handling her, etc etc. He explained that he thought she was an older age of bird based on her appearance in general but hard to tell age. He said that she was in good condition other than the sinus issue - good weight, good crop, nice feathers, no mites, etc. I was in there for a good 20-25 minutes learning, seeing what he did, learning what to look for myself, etc. He sent us on our way with clear instructions on the antibiotic he provided and she is right as rain now. He also told me to watch for signs in my other birds and call right away if more antibiotic needed. This was $47 total for the visit, including the antibiotic.

I say find another vet. I don't know Vancouver, WA (only Vancouver, BC!). If it is not a rural area, I would suggest taking the time to investigate vets a bit more rurally located since they are more likely to have chicken experience (this was my experience when I called around - city vets don't "do" chickens!) There is no way you should have had to wait that long and as far as I am concerned, not letting you in for the exam was ridiculous.

Claire

IB is probably infectious bronchitis.

Did you call area breeders and see who they recommend?

i agree with claire 100%, no vet should ever take an animal back without the owner there and sounds to me like a regular vet or what we call here a city vet. i'd find a new vet for futer visits for poultry.

yes IB is infectious bronchitis but i don't think it's that if she is not showing other signs, usually there is many signs or none at all for some of the types of it, or the eggs r wrinkled and funny looking. if she was a layer and u could see her eggs that would help to narrow things down also sometimes just looking at the eggs can tell ya certain diseases. k, that rules worms out.

antibiotics will help with the symptoms and secondary infections so definately get her on that to keep it from getting worse. if she does have something severe and is a carrier the antibiotics will fight off other stuff while her body is building antibodies to whatever it is she has. what antibiotic did he give u and what is the dose and for how long?

another thing is if the other 2 r not sick then to me that shows the new one is who was exposed to it from something first. another reason i don't think ib is cause within 3 days others should start showing signs immediately and it is highly contagous respitory virus which hits quick. no worries on that one i think it's safe to rule out that at this point. it is very possible it is just a cold or allergies she has too. without any other symtoms or signs and the other girls fine so far that's all i can think of.

For those of you that do not like to talk about poo, pardon me. I'm a mom of 2 young children, a dog, a cat, and now three pullets. Poop seems to be a fairly common topic for indication of health -- at least in our household. On with the question...

I have noticed that Anya has unbelievably LARGE bowel movements. We're talking the size of a large egg at one time. I'm wondering if anyone has run across this with a bird before? Is it possible she's saving it until I let her out of the dog crate for some sort of sanitation reason??? Or is it some sort of thing they do just before laying?

Sorry I warned you... random (and gross) question... it just seems really odd to me.

LL,

If there is no POO in the crate, then yes, she is saving it. Broody hens have very large poo for the same reason. The next thing you consider is her diet, is it balanced, and is she drinking enough water.

Please watch the next time she poos to see if she strains. Also check her fluff for poo sticking to her feathers.

Call and see if someplace can do a fecal float. May as well check for parasites, it is quite inexpensive.

Now, report all this back and one of the lovely chicken heads will be happy to help you. Thank you for taking such good care of your flock.
**********************GOOD CHICKEN HEAD***************************
CF

LL - some of my girls first poo in the morning is huge like that, but not the ones through the rest of the day. Probably also depends on the size of the hen. Do you think it is every poo through the day, or just a couple of them, that are that large?

Thanks CF! I feel so honored to have your presence. She was just recently at the vet and there were no parasites at that time. She is being treated currently for high bacteria levels, though. Which is why she's in a dog crate in the first place.

I'll watch her water intake a bit more closely.

Claire,
It seems to be the first one after being released from the crate. After they she seems to poop freely in a more normal chicken size.

Thank you both!